Taboo You: How Islamic Pakistan is the Christian Right Wing's Dream for America

by Nomad

When it comes to the reproductive rights of women, the ultra-conservative Christian Far Right in the US and the Islamic theocratic republic of Pakistan have a lot more in common than they are willing to admit.

In an ideal world, every baby born should be a wanted child, not stigmatized for being born from a mother out of wedlock and not a burden to parents too poor to feed their family.

Yet, in this day and age, it is still not an unattainable goal for most of humanity. Although we already have all of the resources we need, such as cheap, easy to use contraceptives, and the means for their distribution , we as a species continue to over-populate the planet.
To understand the reasons, we need to take a closer look at Pakistan.

Pakistan: The Land of Taboos

Pakistan is one nation where the population growth rate is high; it is in fact higher than average growth rate of all other South Asian countries. With over 180 million people, Pakistan is the sixth most populous country in the world, .  

But why should a country be so crowded and so poverty-stricken and yet unable to do anything about it? For that you need to look at the majority-Muslim Pakistan's ultra-conservative social policies. Especially when it comes to attitudes to sexuality and women's rights.   

The Starkville Enclave: How a Mississippi Town is Defying Failed GOP Policy

by Nomad

When it comes to searching for good news, Mississippi is probably the last place anybody would think to look. Mississippi has been called- for so many reasons- America's Third World.
However, even in failed state, there are pockets of positive news. You just have to know where to look.

The Showcase of Conservative Policy in Action

Nobody will argue with one thing about Mississippi. The Magnolia State is probably the most conservative state in the country. For decades now it is and has been almost totally under the near absolute control of Republican, from the governor to the chamber of the state legislatures. It is the closet thing America has to a one-party system.

And like a lot of one-party nations, the results are appalling. 

Mississippi should have been a conservative showcase.,, if Republican policy actually worked It should have been the one place where conservatives could have held as a model of success  in order to exalt their brand. 

Yet, of  all of the states, Mississippi is a testament to the failure of conservative policy. 

Need evidence?

In general, the South has long been crippled by the sort of poverty that is handed down from generation to generation. Nine of the top 10 poorest states are found in the South. Some have tried to make the case that the South has never recovered from the Civil War. 

That's possible, but then that was an awfully long ago. Europe was rebuilt in less than a generation, Japan and Russia were both devastated following a war but quickly managed to rise from the ashes. Besides, as every  narrow minded conservative would tell you, you shouldn't constantly blame the past for the present lack of initiative, right? Whose fault is it if you haven't become a success? Right? (Wasn't it conservative Michele Bachmann who said that all cultures were not equal? She wasn't talking about the Southern culture. of course.) 

But, even by the South's own low standards, the situation in Mississippi is a cryin' shame.

Economically of all states, Mississippi  comes in dead last in terms of per capita income. The primary reasons are pretty basic, a lack of  secure employment, decent wages, and healthcare.  

Poorest Area of the Poorest State

The Mississippi Delta region is the poorest area of the poorest state and it is the kind of poverty that should have compassionate legislators working overtime. Unfortunately not so in Mississippi.

Christopher Masingill, joint head of the Delta Regional Authority, a development agency. puts it this way: “You can’t out-poor the Delta." Masingill points out that the people of the Mississippi Delta have a lower life expectancy than in Tanzania; other areas do not yet have proper sanitation. 
And like a Third World, the people of the region have given up hope and many are concentrating their efforts not in building but leaving. 

Since 1940, the region’s population has fallen by almost half. Ask any Third Worlder why they risk (and often losing) their lives coming to Europe or America. It will be the same as answer from those leaving the Delta. It's hopeless to keep trying where there is no opportunity. The system has been built to keep people down.

New Rules on Textbooks: The Age of Reason Approved by Texas Board of Education

by Nomad

A recent decision by the Texas Board of Education will attempt to roll back the effect of religious and political groups' influence over public school textbooks. 
Despite this good news, the question remains whether the experts which the board will consult for accuracy can actually be trusted. 

Here's another sign that what was once blood red can just as easily become sky blue. AP is reporting news that civil libertarians will see as a victory of science and established facts over religious dogma and the influence of politics.

The Texas Board of Education imposed tighter rules Friday on the citizen review panels that scrutinize proposed textbooks, potentially softening fights over evolution, religion's role in U.S. history and other ideological matters that have long seeped into what students learn in school.

How The Minority Used its Majority
This issue has been brewing for awhile. One reason for this is that Texas is the nation's largest state with more more than 5 million public school students. Also, it is because many of the textbooks printed there are accepted in other states as well. Thus all it takes is for a few activists with a religious or political agenda to have a vast influence over what is being taught to our children.

The 15-member education board approves textbooks for school districts to use, but objections raised by reviewers can influence its decisions. The volunteer review panels are often dominated by social conservatives who want more skepticism about evolution included in science textbooks, arguing that a higher power helped create the universe.

The article pointed out that social conservatives used their majority on the board to affect these changes to the textbook selection process. 

The board also had long been controlled by social conservatives before election defeats weakened their voting bloc in recent years — but not before its culture war clashes drew national headlines. 

It was clear that certain issues were on the hit list.

Those members pushed for de-emphasizing climate change in science classes, and requiring social studies students to learn about the Christian values of America's founding fathers and evaluate whether the United Nations undermined U.S. sovereignty.

In an effort to reverse the influence of narrow interest groups, the new rules mandated that teachers or professors be given priority for serving on the textbook review panels for subjects in their areas of expertise. Furthermore, the rules enable the board to appoint outside experts to check objections raised by review panels and ensure they are based on fact, not ideology.

"It won't eliminate politics, but it will make it where it's a more informed process," said Thomas Ratliff, a Republican board member who pushed for the changes, which he said "force us to find qualified people, leave them alone, and let them do their jobs."

The new rules were unanimously approved.

Aurora Reflections: Why Nothing will Change

by Nomad

In the aftermath of the Aurora shooting, it's time to be perfectly frank here.

In a country that worships violence, that literally trains its children to hunt down and kill humans in computer games, that, allows a purposefully-misinterpreted constitutional right to make dangerous weapons easy to obtain, it seems pretty hypocritical to pretend to be surprised when these acts of mass murder occur. We all shudder because that's what we are expected to do.

It's All an Act

Let's face it, for the most part, it's all an act anyway because Americans are not going to do anything about any of the underlying causes for this murderous madness.

• Americans are not going demand decisive action from their leaders. 

• Americans are not going to change any laws about gun ownership. 

• There is not going to be any renewed attention at establishing some workable system of identifying and treating the deranged and the dangerous. 

In fact, instead of searching for solutions to the murder-rampage problem, quite the opposite will continue to happen.

After a couple of days the shock of it will wear off and a couple of months later, the whole scenario will replay itself somewhere else. If not in Colorado, then Nevada or Florida or Georgia. A swimming pool, an opera house, a concert, any place where people come together.

Until each and every one of us loses a friend, a co-worker or a loved one in a senseless mass murder like this, it will go on.

The same breaking news reports, the grisly details, the interviews with shaken survivors and the sad tales of victims whose lives were cut short for no reason at all. There will be the same sad speeches by politicians, the flowers on sidewalks under young girls' photographs.
But in the end, nothing will change.

Why not, you ask? Just look at the immediate response to the latest event.

Senseless Crazy

Instead of seeking and demanding real solutions to this problem, we have people like Republican congressmen from Texas Louie "terror babies" Gohmert who- even before investigations began, was on a radio show, issuing his own idiotic remarks about the mass murder.

"You know what really gets me, a Christian, is to see the ongoing attacks on Judeo-Christian beliefs, and then some senseless crazy act of a derelict takes place...Some of us happen to believe that when our founders talked about guarding our virtue of freedom, that was important...People say...where was God in all of this? We've threatened high school graduation participations if they use God's name, they're going to be jailed... I mean that kind of stuff. Where was God? What have we done with God? We don't want him around."

Thirteen people are murdered in cold blood, more than 35 people are injured and, according to Gohmert, the cause is not enough faith in God? 

If you were one of those that believes that God takes a special interest in our individual lives, then it would be just as easy to blame God for allowing this thing to happen in the first place. If God really wanted converts, He could have easily divinely jammed the guns. Melted them.
In fact, according to the Christian Post, Holmes was "was heavily involved in his local Presbyterian church." So much for that theory. That kind of logic is, of course, wasted on people like Gohmert. Instead of playing the preacher, Gohmert should be concentrating on his well-paying job as a legislator.

Although it is unclear whether or not Holmes received psychiatric treatment or received a diagnosis of a mental health problem, Dr. E. Fuller Torrey, founder

of the Treatment Advocacy Center in Arlington, Va. told ABC News that

he believes that the increasing numbers of shooting rampages – Jared Loughner's 2011 attack on Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, the shooting at Fort Hood in 2009, the massacre at Virginia Tech in 2007 – are largely the result of decreasing resources and funding for the mentally ill in state budgets throughout the U.S.

Like many states, when faced with an eye-watering shortfall, state legislatures have been forced to cut already-strapped health services to local communities.
For example, last year, the state of Texas, which ranks 50th in the nation in spending on mental health care, proposed $134 million in budget cuts for mental health services. This, according to experts, put in jeopardy many of the estimated 1.5 million people with severe mental disorders.

Mind you, this is the same state whose governor has openly rejected the Affordable Care Act, which would expand government-funded health care.
Besides putting the entire community at risk, according to one study, these budget cuts are not illusionary. The need remains and the costs are simply shifted to another area of need. According to one independent analysis of Texas' 2011 budget:

The proposed reductions to mental health services will undermine the foundation of the public mental health system. The belief that cuts to community mental health services equate to “savings” is deceptive, as the costs of serving people with serious mental illnesses is merely shifted to local communities and to other sectors of the state budget. Already, local communities are struggling to fill the gaps in the public mental health system.

Even before any budget cuts take place, community needs that should be met by the public community‐based mental health system are overflowing to State Hospitals, emergency rooms, and jails. Across the state, police officers are reporting longer waits in emergency rooms for individuals that they have brought in for care, sheriffs and county officials are raising concerns about pressures on jail as they have to absorb more inmates with mental illnesses, and emergency room staff are warning of longer waits for all patients as individuals with mental illness consume more of the emergency room’s resources while waiting for an inpatient bed to become available.

Further cuts will make a difficult situation untenable.

Could increased funding of mental health services have actually prevented the Aurora tragedy? So far that's unproven. However, cutting mental health services and putting dangerous people on the street to fend for themselves is certainly not a solution.

According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, because of state budget cuts, more and more dangerous people are falling through the cracks:

In March, 2011, NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, released State Mental Health Cuts: A National Crisis, a report documenting deep cuts to state spending on services for children and adults living with serious mental illness. These cuts, which occurred between 2009 and 2011, led to significant reductions in both hospital and community services for vulnerable individuals with serious mental illness.

Today, with demand for public mental health services extremely high, especially at a time of severe economic distress, the crisis in mental health care continues. The impacts are felt throughout society as people go without the treatment they need.

Increasingly, emergency rooms, homeless shelters and jails are struggling with the effects of people falling through the cracks due to lack of needed mental health services and supports.

Some states, such as California, Illinois, Nevada and South Carolina, which made devastating cuts to mental health services previously, have made further cuts for fiscal year (FY) 2012, putting tens of thousands of citizens at great risk. States have cut more than $1.6 billion in general funds from their state mental health agency budgets for mental health services since FY2009, a period during which demand for such services increased significantly.

Dr. John Grohol, CEO and founder of Internet's largest and oldest independent mental health and psychology network, Psych Central, also notes that outsourcing to a private sector solution has its own set of problems:

Because of budget cuts and the focus on de-institutionalization — moving even people with severe mental illness out of state hospitals into group homes and other care settings — the state is outsourcing a great deal of their services to private providers. These private companies and organizations set their own rules for safety and care, often with very little external or government oversight;

What, you may ask, is Gohmert's solution? He went on to say:

"It does make me wonder, with all those people in the theater, was there nobody that was carrying a gun that could have stopped this guy more quickly?"

Because as everybody knows, more weapons in public places is the right answer. A crowded cinema with people firing in every direction? Hmm..

As Rachel Maddow writes:

If decency had any place in American politics, this would be an immediate career-ender for the ridiculous congressman from Texas. Some political missteps are simply unforgivable.

More Men Without Mirrors

Another shameless exploiter of this tragedy, Joel B. Pollak, a blogger for the Brietbart.com, wrote that the shooter, identified as James Holmes, "could be" a registered Democrat. He could have been a lot of things, a juggler of bowling pins, a fan of Glee or a professional wrestling enthusiast. Holmes could be a lot of things.
Or maybe not.

Few were surprised by Pollack's excuse for news reporting. Breitbart is known for carrying on the outrageously low journalistic standards of its founder.

Another of his writers, John Nolte, had the nerve to lash out at Piers Morgan for "exploiting the massacre" by questioning gun control laws.

If there's an American tragedy, within hours you can always expect our corrupt media to feast on the corpses of the victims in order to push their left-wing political agenda.

The irony of the statement is probably wasted on fans of that site. They've appeared to have lost all capacity for self-reflection or analysis.

Paul Joseph Watson, a writer for Alex Jones' InfoWars, jumps onto the bandwagon with an article that begins:

Within hours of the tragic ‘Batman’ shooting in Aurora, Colorado, political opportunists have seized upon the incident to push for gun control, with New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg demanding that both Mitt Romney and Barack Obama “stand up and tell us what they’re going to do about” mass shootings.
Exactly as we predicted in our earlier article, leftists have wasted no time in exploiting the actions of a lone lunatic for political grist, with Bloomberg calling on the two presidential candidates to crack down on gun rights.

We knew ghouls like Bloomberg would rush to exploit this tragedy to try and crush the right to self-defense.
And the amazing part is that none of these writers appear to see themselves as exploiters of the massacre.

Rush Limbaugh, always ready to make a public ass of himself during a national tragedy, played a unique role in this Aurora shooting. Days before the event he revealed his own silly conspiracy theory about the Batman film.

RUSH: Have you heard this new movie, the Batman movie, what is it, The Dark Knight Lights Up or whatever the name is. That’s right, Dark Knight Rises. Lights Up, same thing. Do you know the name of the villain in this movie?

Bane. The villain in The Dark Knight Rises is named Bane, B-a-n-e. What is the name of the venture capital firm that Romney ran and around which there’s now this make-believe controversy? Bain. The movie has been in the works for a long time. The release date’s been known, summer 2012 for a long time. Do you think that it is accidental that the name of the really vicious fire breathing four eyed whatever it is villain in this movie is named Bane?

Did his radio diatribe play any part in the event? As much as I would like to pin this tail on that donkey, it certainly doesn't sound much like incitement to me. It just sounds like more of Limbaugh's usual rantings. (There have been much more clear cut examples of incitement to violence by others in the media.Think: Julian Assange during the Wikileaks hoopla.)

As ignorant as his statements were, Rush's culpability seems nonexistent. In any case, making allegations against Rush is probably unhelpful. The Right Wing has already seized upon those unsupported claims and made the most of them. Of course, as more news leaks out, a fuller picture will emerge of the shooter's motives, and his inspirations (other than extreme self-promotion and making a lot of people terrified for their lives).

In the end, the National Rifle Association (NRA) will continue to talk about defending freedom. Congressmen will talk about Christians under attack. The Right will blame the Left for it and the Left will guiltily defend itself.

Once again, Republican candidate Mitt Romney will have to face his arch enemy, Romney of 1994 who in Massachusetts once proudly defended his support of an Assault Weapons Ban and the Brady gun control law. Blessed silence should be the only response but in the campaign season, that's unlikely.

Ultimately, it will be left to Fox News to clean up the Right Wing version- something along the lines of "a lone gunman, that's all, we'll have to live with it."

Hannity will add a few so-called experts (Sarah Palin is always available) to assure us that nothing can be done, that budget cuts have nothing to do with it, that Obama is the person to blame for this, and that guns are good for us. Greta Van Susteren or blond bombshill Megyn Kelly will be on duty to make the nonsense sound perfectly reasonable (if you don't think too deeply about it). Next week, Fox and Friends will interview a survivor who will have their very own 5 minutes of stardom.
Case closed.

Then something else will happen.

______________

Related articles

• A mass murderer played World of Warcraft and you should all feel bad (wow.joystiq.com)
• Rachel Maddow (wnyc.org)
• Rep. Louis Gohmert still trying super hard for Stupidest Member of Congress Award (dailykos.com)
• Gohmert: ENDA Is Part Of Obama's 'War On Religion' (thinkprogress.org)
• Louie Gohmert: We Need Photo IDs to Prove There's Rampant Voter Fraud in Texas (crooksandliars.com)

Mitt Romney, Lies and The Mormon Church 2/3

by Nomad

In Part One, we traced the strange origins of the Mitt Romney's Mormon faith and asked if the entire religion was a hoax perpetrated on 19th century victims. Let’s begin part two with what would seem at first glance to be a question with an obvious answer.

Is lying acceptable to the present-Day Mormon Church?

This is perhaps a more essential question since, no matter how it may have begun, the true value of any religion lies in what it has become and what it teaches its followers. And as far I can tell, no religion officially accepts the practice of lying. (Even Satanists are probably supposed to be truthful to one another, I'd imagine.)

The strongest criticism of the Mormon Church comes, not from other religions, atheists or outsiders, but from ex-Mormons. Former ex-high priest Park Romney, the cousin of the presidential candidate,  has been quite open about this subject. He told BBC,

"There's compelling evidence that the Mormon Church leaders knowingly and willfully misrepresent the historical truth of their origins and of the Church for the purpose of deceiving their members into a state of mind that renders them exploitable."

What that precise evidence was is not mentioned. Outside of the history of the formation of the religion, there are other things that Church leaders would prefer not to reveal.

The Church, Fascism and the Remarks of Bishop Daniel Jenky

by Nomad

In the Footsteps of Hitler 

Sometimes you hear statements by supposed authorities that sound so unbelievable you really have to wonder about their grasp on reality.

Take this recent remark by Bishop Daniel Jenky, who currently serves as Bishop of Peoria, Illinois.

As reported by ThinkProgress last month:

As part of a lengthy historical lecture on past attacks on the Catholic church, Jenky claimed that President Obama is following in the footsteps of Adolf Hitler:

The Church will survive the entrenched corruption and sheer incompetence of our Illinois state government, and even the calculated disdain of the President of the United States, his appointed bureaucrats in HHS, and of the current majority of the federal Senate. . . .

Hitler and Stalin, at their better moments, would just barely tolerate some churches remaining open, but would not tolerate any competition with the state in education, social services, and health care.  In clear violation of our First Amendment rights, Barack Obama – with his radical, pro abortion and extreme secularist agenda, now seems intent on following a similar path.

On the Bishop's remarks, Think Progress article concludes :

The very suggestion that Obama or his actions even vaguely resemble those of the Third Reich is deeply offensive and calls into question whether Bishop Jenky possesses the most basic understanding of the history of Nazi Germany.

The Santorums and the Bully's Defense: Rick and Karen Play the Victim Card

by Nomad

Victimhood and the Messiah-Complex

I saw this interesting video clip at The Raw Story. Here’s the background information to the clip. At  a question-and-answer event in South Carolina for mothers, “Moms Matter 2012″ Rick and Karen Santorum alleged that the gay community has been attempting to vilify her husband by portraying him as a gay-hating religious bigot.

Nothing could be further from the truth, Karen Santorum declared to the friendly audience. She took the microphone to defend her husband who meanwhile wore his best victim expression.

“As Rick’s wife, I have known him and loved him for 23 years,” she said. “I think it’s very sad what the gay activists have done out there. They vilify him. It is so wrong. He loves them. What he has simply said is marriage shouldn’t happen.”

It’s all very confused in Karen Santorum’s mind, it seems. She somehow managed to twist things around a great deal. Very conveniently.