Fausta's Blog

American and Latin American Politics, Society, and Culture

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France: Charlie Hebdo firebombed

Charlie Hebdo, the Paris satirical paper that in 2006 was the only in the country to publish the Mohammed cartoons, was firebombed last night, since they wouldn’t submit:
Satirical Magazine Is Firebombed in Paris

The office of a French satirical magazine here was badly damaged by a firebomb early on Wednesday, the publisher said, after it published a spoof issue “guest edited” by the Prophet Muhammad to salute the victory of an Islamist party in Tunisian elections. The publication also said hackers had disrupted its Web site.

The magazine, Charlie Hebdo, had announced a special issue for publication Wednesday, renamed “Charia Hebdo,” a play on the word in French for Shariah law.

Here you see it,

Gateway Pundit reports,

Meanwhile, a play that [has] Jesus covered in crap is also playing in Paris.
No firebombs were reported.

¡No Pasarán! has more.

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Just don’t say Jesus

Five Letter Word Unwelcome in the NC House of Representatives, and it’s not only there:

– A California school district is adding The Bible as a literature elective for high school seniors. Perhaps to assuage the main-lining of Islam via “diversity” pushed onto all students, everywhere.
– The debate stirred about whether those he has bashed relentlessly should pray for an avowed atheist who has publicly revealed his battle with cancer.
– Pulpits used to spew hate instead of healing.
– UI professor of Catholic studies loses his job over explaining some tenets of the Catholic faith to students in his class on (wait for it)… Catholicism.

And the beat goes on…

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The Green Religion

Via Ed Driscoll, Is Environmentalism a Religion?

Novelist Michael Crichton said that environmentalism had all the trappings of a religion: “Eden, the fall of man, the loss of grace, the coming doomsday.” Atwood is filling it out with saints and hymns.

Actually, Al Gore had already beat her to it:

Environmentalism is a religion, and Al Gore is its Prophet:

Al’s Gore’s much-anticipated sequel to An Inconvenent Truth is published today, with an admission that facts alone will not persuade Americans to act on global warming and that appealing to their spiritual side is the way forward.

nat_post_al_gore

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Obama snubs the Lama; Taiwan sweats

dalai_1479354c

Craven appeasement:

Barack Obama cancels meeting with Dalai Lama ‘to keep China happy’
President Barack Obama has refused to meet the Dalai Lama in Washington this week in a move to curry favour with the Chinese.
In a now-characteristic lack of spine move,

The decision came after China stepped up a campaign urging nations to shun the Tibetan spiritual leader.

Two things, though:
1. karma’s a bitch
2. appeasement never works.

In the meantime, if I were in Taiwan, this would make me worry, big time.

Roundup of reactions and news at The Anchoress.

UPDATE
One question, what exactly does President Obama gain from breaking with18 years of precedent and refusing to meet with the Dalai Lama? Have we received anything in return?

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Let’s get de-baptized!

Having attended Catholic school for 11 years means that for the rest of your life you come across a heck of a lot of Catholics who have lapsed or even renounced their faith. However, I have yet to meet one who’s gone for the ceremony:
Atheists choose ‘de-baptism’ to renounce childhood faith

In a type of mock ceremony that’s now been performed in at least four states, a robed “priest” used a hairdryer marked “reason” in an apparent bid to blow away the waters of baptism once and for all. Several dozen participants then fed on a “de-sacrament” (crackers with peanut butter) and received certificates assuring they had “freely renounced a previous mistake, and accepted Reason over Superstition.”

For Gray, the lighthearted spirit of last summer’s Atheist Coming Out Party and De-Baptism Bash in suburban Westerville, Ohio, served a higher purpose than merely spoofing a Christian rite.

Just as having her divorce ceremony, if she would. She’s probably even left instructions in her will to have herself exhumed in the event – God forbid! – she’s buried in sanctified ground.

Bureaucrats play a part in debaptizing, too:

“It’s a bit of satire. People will play the fool by waving their arms in the air and saying, ‘I got de-baptized!’ But the paperwork is still legit.”

After all, what would a ceremony mean without accompanying paperwork?

Anyone dumb enough for this will make a ripe market for enterprising caterers, clothes designers and the such. Imagine the Martha Stewart Book of Debaptizing. If you really want that much attention that you go through the debaptizing, might as well get a gown and all the trimmings. Hairdryer charm bracelets as debaptizing party favors, anyone?

Thank God there are still some mature atheists out there:

Not all American non-believers have warmed to de-baptism rituals. Secularist Phil Zuckerman, a Pitzer College sociologist who studies apostates, said he would never take part in such an event because it “feels intrinsically negative” and “immature.”

———————————

I just arrived in Chicago so posting will be light. Here are a few links from friends:
Overheard At Night In The Oval Office

Obama: Mandate Health Coverage Just Like Car Insurance

“Put Your Laws All Over My Body”

Genesis, Evolution the Sistine Chapel

Why did Obama meet with the CBO?

Racialist outrage and embarrassment in Cambridge!

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News from the Twilight Zone: Saudis to lead UN forum on religious tolerance

Strains credulity, but it’s the UN:
Saudi Arabia to Lead U.N. Faith Forum

Saudi Arabia, the oil-rich Islamic kingdom that forbids the public practice of other religious faiths, will preside Wednesday over a two-day U.N. conference on religious tolerance that will draw more than a dozen world leaders, including President Bush, Israeli President Shimon Peres and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

The event is part of a personal initiative by Saudi King Abdullah to promote an interfaith dialogue among the world’s major religions.

Dialogue, but from different tables:

The Saudi leader agreed for the first time to dine in the same room with the Israeli president at a private, pre-conference banquet Tuesday hosted by U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. But Ban hinted that the two leaders — whose governments do not have diplomatic relations — were not seated at the same table.

Seeing the moral equivalence glass half full instead of totally empty, Ban Ki-moon finds that encouraging:

“Normally, in the past, they have not been sitting in the same place like this. That is very important and encouraging,” Ban said.

Another enabler: Catholic priest and General Assembly President Miguel d’Escoto, whose blind spot extends well beyond the walls of the UN building,

“Humanity is in moral bankruptcy, and we are in need of being bailed out,” d’Escoto said. Asked whether Saudi Arabia had the moral standing to preside over the event, d’Escoto said: “I never conceived the United Nations as an organization of saints. We are in the world a community of sinners . . . and we should accept warmly any brother who wants to join forces to resolve” the most pressing problems.

At least a Saudi national, who may have a lot to lose, condemned Saudi Arabia

“Saudi Arabia is not qualified to be a leader in this dialogue at the United Nations,” said Ali Al-Ahmed, a Saudi national who serves as director of the Washington-based Institute for Gulf Affairs. “It is the world headquarters of religious oppression and xenophobia.”

Amen to that.

UPDATE
Further Saudi news, via Dan,
Beware this Saudi deal to help bail out Britain. It comes with a devastating IOU. Go read every word.

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Sing a song of cultism:

UPDATED
Please scroll down

Anthony‘s officially weirded out…and so am I:

NOTE: The first video was pulled but now is back here:

Follow-up post.

Pay attention to the messianic cult lyrics:

“We’re gonna to spread happiness.
We’re gonna to spread freedom.
Obama’s gonna change it,
Obama’s gonna lead us.
We’re gonna change it
and we arrange it:
We’re gonna change the world.”

The drumbeat, and the drummers are marking the beat. In the background, the campaign logo with the rays of sunshine added, to remind you of this poster:

If this is not a hymn to the dear leader I don’t know what is.

UPDATE, Wednesday, 1 October:
Dymphna asks in the comments,

The background — the venue — is most intriguing. Is this a library in a private school?

What’s your guess, Fausta? Someone said an NBC exec is responsible. Do you think it’s his kids’ school. The music that continues long after the video is over is every bit as interesting as the main event.

Ed found the website Sing for Change, which makes it sound as if it was just something that came out of the blue even when they acknoledge that “several musicians…three High Definition cameras (Panasonic HVX250’s), and an AVID editing facility…a RED camera set up on a SteadiCam”, a professional-quality banner and 22 children were involved. And let’s not forget a fully set up website and all those pie-in-the-sky-blue t-shirts, too.

Scoop this.org also found out about music teacher Kathy Sawada,, who supposedly had the brainstorm

She teaches at the Colburn School of Performing Arts, an elite academy in Los Angeles, CA.

The Anchoress has lots more in her roundup.

NBC denies that the Jeff Zucker mentioned at the Sing for Change post is their Jeff Zucher.

Must be a different one, then, if they say so. Would NBC lie?

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Tancredo presents the Jihad Prevention Act in Congress

Tancredo Proposes Anti-Sharia Measure in Wake of U.K. Certification of Islamic Courts

Amid disturbing revelations that the verdicts of Islamic Sharia courts are now legally binding in civil cases in the United Kingdom, U.S. Representative Tom Tancredo (R-Littleton) moved quickly today to introduce legislation designed to protect the United States from a similar fate.

According to recent news reports, a new network of Sharia courts in a half-dozen major cities in the U.K. have been empowered under British law to adjudicate a wide variety of legal cases ranging from divorces and financial disputes to those involving domestic violence.

“This is a case where truth is truly stranger than fiction,” said Tancredo. “Today the British people are learning a hard lesson about the consequences of massive, unrestricted immigration.”

Sharia law, favored by Muslim extremists around the world, often calls for brutal punishment – such as the stoning of women who are accused of adultery or have children out of wedlock, cutting off the hands of petty thieves and lashings for the casual consumption of alcohol. Under Sharia law, a woman is often required to provide numerous witnesses to prove rape allegations against an assailant – a near impossible task.

The proposed bill would make the advocacy of Sharia a deportable offense:

Tancredo’s bill, dubbed the “Jihad Prevention Act,” would bar the entry of foreign nationals who advocate Sharia law. In addition, the legislation would make the advocacy of Sharia law by radical Muslims already in the United States a deportable offense.

According to The Telegraph, Five Sharia courts have been operating in Britain for more than a year:

Five sharia courts have been set up in London, Birmingham, Bradford and Manchester and Nuneaton, Warwickshire. The government has quietly sanctioned that their rulings are enforceable with the full power of the judicial system, through the county courts or High Court. Previously, the rulings were not binding and depended on voluntary compliance among Muslims.

Their decisions are considered “legally binding” (h/t HuffPo) because

under the 1996 Arbitration Act the court’s decisions can then be enforced by the county courts or the High Court.

It’ll be interesting to see who votes how in Congress to Tancredo’s bill.

New Word:

Islamofauxia (pronounced like islamophobia with no “B”) – The lies, staged video, PhotoShopped pictures, calumnies, rage triggers, exaggerations and assorted frauds that Islamists concoct and the eager propagation of same by the Mainstream Media.

(h/t GoV, Yaacov)
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