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Post by jdredd on Jan 7, 2015 17:10:18 GMT -5
So now, with the latest violence in France, the Religious War boosters have been given another shot in the arm. I mean, killing cartoonists? The only thing lower than that is killing cute little puppy dogs. But this washed-up leftist geezer is still not buying the War on Terror, I'm going to my grave ranting about class war. Not that it matters, because what is important is what the Millennials believe. And if they buy the "Pay no attention what is happening to American workers, worry about what is happening in the Middle East" Fox News propaganda, so be it. I just wonder how much a young person piling on student loan debt so they don't end up at the bottom of the economic pyramid can care about Islamist fanaticism in Europe.
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Post by jdredd on Jan 9, 2015 11:26:24 GMT -5
www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/jan/8/wes-pruden-us-standing-tall-to-islam/"The radical Muslims who are making war on the world are confident they can win, destroy religious and ethical beliefs and cultures different from their own, and impose a worldwide caliphate. Who can blame them? They believe in something — evil, ugly and malignant though it is. The West often acts like nobody believes anything. The jihadists cheerfully die in the name of their crusade to eradicate decency and democracy, taking as many innocents as they can with them. They’re fighting a foe determined to protect ignorance of what moves those killers driven by their perverted “faith.” "The proper message to the Islamic world from American presidents, whether Democratic or Republican, is that “your religion may be a religion of peace, but we trust and verify.” If high-rch Episcopalians are caught blowing up hospitals and blue-haired Lutheran ladies from Minnesota, Baptists from Alabama, and Methodists from Ohio are caught burning schools in the name of their faith, they’ll have to prove theirs is a religion of peace, too. Civilization is based on faith, but faith without works is dead. Presidents should say that, too." Not too surprising that the Moonie religious fanatics are all on board for the War on Islam.
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Post by jdredd on Jan 10, 2015 14:13:00 GMT -5
www.nationalreview.com/article/396098/islamophobia-myth-brendan-oneill"Islamophobia is a myth. Sure, some folks in Europe and elsewhere no doubt dislike Muslims, just as other losers hate the Irish or blacks or women. But the idea that there is a climate of Islamophobia, a culture of hot-headed, violent-minded hatred for Muslims that could be awoken and unleashed by the next terror attack, is an invention. Islamophobia is a code word for mainstream European elites’ fear of their own populations, of their native hordes, whom they imagine to be unenlightened, prejudiced, easily led by the tabloid media, and given to outbursts of spite and violence. The thing that keeps the Islamophobia panic alive is not actual violence against Muslims but the right-on politicos’ ill-founded yet deeply held view of ordinary Europeans, especially those of a working-class variety, as racist and stupid. This is the terrible irony of the Islamophobia panic: The fearers of anti-Muslim violence claim to be challenging prejudice but actually they reveal their own prejudices, their distrust of and disdain for those who come from the other side of the tracks, read different newspapers, hold different beliefs, live different lives. They accuse stupid white communities of viewing Muslims as an indistinguishable mob who threaten the fabric of European society, which is exactly what they think of stupid white communities." This guy may have put his finger on something. So WHY aren't Mosques being firebombed by working class anti-Islam bigots? Could it be because they don't exist? Or perhaps be because working class folks are too busy trying to make ends meet in this dog-eat-dog economic system?
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Post by jdredd on Jan 17, 2015 13:43:03 GMT -5
www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/jan/17/bill-maher-liberal-bullying-on-islam-debate-makes-/Following the recent terrorist attack at French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, Mr. Maher came out against conservatives like Bill Donohue who called he says called him an “anti-catholic bigot so many times it’s now my ringtone,” but said he was far more troubled by liberals who cannot tolerate speech that challenges their ideas. Mr. Maher then referred to groups that petition to have conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh taken off the airwaves. “Yeah liberals hate bullying all right, but they’re not opposed to using it,” Mr. Maher said in a video posted by Mediaite. “When they casually throw out words like bigot and racist it does cow people into avoiding this debate, and if you’re doing that, you don’t get to wear the ‘Je suis Charlie’ button, the button you should wear says ‘Je suis part of the problem.’” Sorting "liberals" from "conservatives" is becoming a real can of worms with the rise of the rise of "independents" and libertarianism, and the decline of the left. What is Maher? What are all the "liberals" who support the War on Islam? I don't know. Plus in Europe you have the rise of the Euro-fascists vs the Islamo-fascists. Kind of makes you miss the Communists, doesn't it? Maybe not.
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Post by jdredd on Jan 19, 2015 0:49:19 GMT -5
Looks like two events going on pretty much illustrate which idea is prevailing, class war or religious war: While conservatives, and liberals without deep ideological roots (such as Bill Maher), are pouring gasoline on the flames of religious war in the name of "Free Speech", in another hemisphere FARC and the Colombia government are negotiating an end to the 40 year class war in Colombia. Class war is so passe. Instead we are going back to the 8th Century. Too bad this religious war might eventually be fought with nukes instead of swords. Good thing I should be long gone before that happens. (Sorry, Millennials, but I doubt you will ever wake up from your consumer zombieism until it's too late)
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Post by jdredd on Feb 13, 2015 22:15:14 GMT -5
www.washingtonpost.com/national/gov-rauner-strikes-first-blow-against-public-sector-unions/2015/02/09/139740be-b0c4-11e4-bf39-5560f3918d4b_story.html"CHICAGO — A fight is brewing over Gov. Bruce Rauner’s decision to end a requirement that Illinois state workers pay union dues even if they don’t want to join a union. Labor leaders said Tuesday they’re looking into legal options to challenge a federal lawsuit the Republican governor filed against more than two dozen public-employee unions. The lawsuit, filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Chicago, seeks to have “fair share” dues declared unconstitutional. Rauner also issued an executive order Monday directing that the dues withheld from paychecks of about 6,500 employees be placed in an escrow account rather than forwarded to unions. The money will be held in the account until the court case is decided, and returned to workers if the courts rule in Rauner’s favor." So while Republicons hype the fight against ISIS to distract American workers, at home they are sticking it to Unions. I wonder if they view Unions and ISIS as birds of a feather? They might hate Unions worse for all I know.
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Post by jdredd on Feb 28, 2015 22:42:16 GMT -5
www.bbc.com/news/blogs-echochambers-31665819"When it was time for the man increasingly being seen as a frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination to answer a handful of questions from a moderator. What would he do to defeat Islamic State? His answer would become the top-line story from his appearance before the grass-roots activists at the conference in Washington, DC. "I want a commander in chief who will do everything in their power to ensure that the threat from radical Islamic terrorists does not wash up on American soil," he said. "If I can take on 100,000 protesters, I can do the same across the world." You could practically hear the hundred-plus national political reporters gathered at the back auditorium hall pouncing on their keyboards. Mr Walker was blasted for drawing an analogy between peaceful US protestors with Islamic militants - leaving the governor's communication team scrambling to do damage control." Ha-ha! Maybe I was on to something with my previous post after all! Unions, ISIS, what's the difference to righties?
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Post by jdredd on Mar 1, 2015 18:38:58 GMT -5
I've noticed how on the right wing media there have been numerous accounts of the great battles of Christianity vs Islam (Poitiers, Lepanto, etc.) lately. Are they trying to prepare the general public for a new Crusade? Of course, nothing warms the heart of a conservative more than a good old-fashioned religious war.
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Post by jdredd on Mar 2, 2015 14:05:36 GMT -5
america.aljazeera.com/articles/2015/3/2/homeless-bill-rights.html"A California state lawmaker has introduced the "Right to Rest Act," a measure aimed at ending criminalization of the homeless — bringing to four the number of states considering similar proposals — rights advocates said Monday. "It's time to address poverty, mental health and the plight of the homeless head-on as a social issue and not a criminal issue," State Sen. Carol Liu, D-LA Cañada Flintridge, said in the release. "Citing homeless people for resting in a public space can lead to their rejection for jobs, education loans and housing, further denying them a pathway out of poverty." Liu introduced Right to Rest Act, SB 608, in the state Senate on Friday. Similar bills, widely referred to as a “Homeless Bill of Rights,” have been introduced by state legislators in Colorado, Oregon and Hawaii." Meanwhile,, in the Class War, enlightened states are fighting back against the persecution of the underclass.
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Post by jdredd on May 26, 2015 17:17:59 GMT -5
Oh, I get it now! The Powers That Be are engaging in Class War at home against organized labor and the underclass, and fighting a religious war overseas as distraction. And the Middle Class is buying it all from their little houses in the 'burbs.
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Post by jdredd on Jun 13, 2015 4:22:09 GMT -5
america.aljazeera.com/articles/2015/6/12/class-war-comes-to-iceland.html"The dilemmas facing Iceland are, in many ways, similar to those rumbling beneath the surface of American politics. In both cases, a massive economic collapse has resulted in an uneven recovery, and persistent inequality and wage stagnation is leading to mass unrest. The difference is that, for Iceland, class struggle is relatively new. Up until the end of the Cold War, this small, sub-Arctic island was financially and culturally isolated, a “controlled, almost socialist society with strange, old-fashioned customs,” as journalist Roger Boyes puts it in his book about the Icelandic financial crisis, “Meltdown Iceland.” That all changed in the mid-1990s, under the leadership of David Oddsson, of the center-right Independence Party, who was prime minister from 1991 to 2004. Inspired by Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher, Oddsson slashed taxes and privatized Iceland’s biggest banks, freeing the country's financial sector and entrepreneurs to embark on a decade of unprecedented growth and asset accumulation. As prime minister and, later, as head of the Icelandic Central Bank, Oddsson helped turn the country into a global financial player. For a few years, Icelandic banks worth billions of dollars managed cash for internationally recognized brands and a new generation of Icelandic conquerors bought up corporate assets around the world." "As the country’s 21st century economic boom hit its apex, foreign money deluged the Icelandic economy, while the country's citizens took advantage of the easy money to take on billions of dollars in household debt. Inflation started to rise, and the unions once again increased their wage demands in order to keep up. Union leaders from the other Nordic countries warned Gunnarsson that Iceland was headed for disaster. “I said, ‘It’s going well. Everybody’s happy. Everybody’s driving around in a new car and has a new house,'” said Gunnarsson. “And they said, ‘It can’t go on like that. There is something wrong.'"
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Post by jdredd on Sept 19, 2015 2:17:39 GMT -5
In contemplating the immigrant "crisis" in Europe, the question comes up: Is the problem religion or class? Yes, it is Muslims coming in, but they are also poor (if they were rich, they could just fly in). Are they hated more because they are Muslims or more because they are poor? I don't know.
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Post by jdredd on Nov 17, 2015 14:24:48 GMT -5
I guess Class War is definitely losing out to religious war after Paris. All the classes in the West are all "united" against the ISIS foe...for now. Except for me, of course, since I have a phobia about bandwagons. I even jumped off the "Global Warming" bandwagon a while back. So we are all fated to years more of meddling in a religious battle in the Middle East. So be it, but if anyone asks me (and they won't) I think it's a crock.
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Post by jdredd on Mar 11, 2016 2:39:23 GMT -5
www.nationalreview.com/article/432559/silicon-valley-philanthropists-are-successful-capitalists"It is strange, and more than a little perverse, that this part of California is one of the nation’s great hotbeds of progressive anti-capitalism, and that is remains in thrall to the superstition that a society in which markets are allowed to operate freely and capital is permitted (and encouraged!) to find its best use must also be a society that is cruel, callous, indifferent to the poor and the vulnerable, selfish, and vulgar. The good people of the San Francisco area live smack dab in the middle of what must surely be the world’s greatest living example that the truth is exactly the opposite. Class war? That is so five decades ago."
Yes, yes it is, Kevin. But strip away class war, and you have a void that is filled by cultural war (religious fanatics vs secular society) or racial war (Ferguson, Baltimore etc.). And distractions like the fatuous "War on Terror".
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Post by jdredd on Sept 4, 2016 15:06:18 GMT -5
www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/2016/sep/04/san-diego-homeless-crisis-great-weather/"San Diego County’s homeless population is soaring, filling our sidewalks and canyons with human tragedy that’s increasingly hard to ignore. Nobody in power seems to know why, let alone what to do about it. Maybe it’s the fabulous weather. And we’re just too nice to street people. Why endure a Las Vegas summer or Minneapolis winter when there’s plenty of pavement and free meals available year-round in San Diego? I understand the intuitive appeal of both theories, which are popular among local leaders as well as dozens of readers of my recent column on homelessness. For openers, they let us off the hook. If perfect climate is drawing misery to our streets, there are no fundamental social policy failures to fix. Bus tickets, backed by jail terms, would suffice." Too nice to street people? Would cruelty be better? And jail terms for even more cruelty? Nice. Sadly, the homeless are simple casualties of the non-existent Class War IMHO. Rather than spend money on these underclass losers, we are spending billions killing Muslims. How long will we keep it up? It's sad that the only way our bloodthirsty adventures in the Middle East will end is when we go broke.
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