A Bible in Every Home
The Klansmen up north now want to make sure every home has a bible in it, at least in their jurisdiction. Re-christianization? You’d think there were menorahs in every public place and synagogues a-go-go, or perhaps the piercing cry of a muezzin penetrating the whine of the baby Jesus on Christmas day. Just what are these people fighting for, and against? They already live in a society that protects their religion on a silver platter, with a separate clause in the Constitution just for them. Now they want to throw out all the immigrants (non-Christians, or just “non-whites?”) and enrich the bookshelves of those allowed to stay with a book they probably haven’t even read themselves.
I agree that every person should read the bible at least once. Only then can they grasp the madness that drives such crusades as this.
It’s Going to Be a Very White Christmas
Northern mythologies
Some people are saying it’s a bit early to start worrying about Christmas. In the US, ’tis the season to be merry as soon as the Thanksgiving turkey exits the small intestine (or is it the large one?). In Italy, people begin bustling on December 9, the day after they celebrate the Immaculate Conception (“immaculate”, that is, since Dec. 8, 1854 when that rogue Pius IX said so). What was it before, I wonder? Just another normal, sex-begotten conception methinks. You can only undo that with dogma.
But that’s not the point of this post. I’m not even baptized, so none of this theological hemming and hawing means much to me anyway. Besides, anyone who reads this blog is aware that virgin births, transsubstantiated wafers, celestial voyages of the dead and stigmata are not “my kink” (as they say in the world of sex-blogging). Though I admit I find them fascinating and relevant to understanding the passions and prejudices of my fellow citizens and – in some cases – family members.
“White Christmas”, in fact, is the name given to an anti-immigrant movement in Northern Italy. Yes, it’s those Ku Kluxers again, the Northern League, who are behind this. The “white” in White Christmas – as I hope you guessed – doesn’t refer to snow or the snowy purity of the baby Jesus on his (sic) birthday, but rather to the milky complexion of the militant Christians that inhabit certain regions of the chilly Lombard north. And they don’t like immigrants at their eggnog parties, either.
So they are taking to the streets this Christmas season in pure holiday spirit: by sending the cops around to immigrants’ homes to make sure their papers are in order. If not, they are to be thrown out (yes, on Christmas, if that wasn’t yet clear). One might imagine that such a violation of Christian “DNA” might get these rogues excommunicated, but one would be wrong. Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, president of the Italian Episcopal Conference, reportedly gave them but a little slap on the wrist.
Yet another marriage between church and state, as this crusading has been approved – and is being copied in other townships – by the local government. No cross, no crown?
Is this really the way to deal with immigration in a country with no real assimilation program for immigrants? Not even the all-encompassing, all-accepting, all-loving representatives of God on earth are raising their powerful finger in protest? I mean, we’re not talking about Muslims or Jews, or even atheists (boy, I’d hate to have to rely on them to get me out of a jam), but fellow Christians. Is this really the best the Vatican can do to spread its message of universal love and the transcendent power of suffering?
Here’s another tempting thought: immigrants without papers don’t vote, now – do they?
Have a Merry, Christless Christmas!
All those grinches who love Christmas (I’m not necessarily one of them) but can’t stand all the religious mishaguss about angels and babies with magical powers will be glad to know that there is a book out there for you: The Atheist’s Guide to Christmas. If, for whatever reason, you want to add a little biblical spice to your festivities, I recommend Willis Barnstone’s fresh-off-the-presses Restored New Testament.
Me, I’m going to spend Christmas Eve at the movies watching the Sistine Chapel get atomized in a resurrection of gigantic Mayan zombie power. Just in time!
Another Obama Meme: The “Roswell Declaration”
There is another Obama meme making the rounds, this time about a supposed “UFO speech” that was supposed to take place on Nov. 17 (alternately 27 – there’s still time!). I keep running into people “in the know,” invariably people who believe that there is a “Roswell secret” to be revealed. Certainly, these are people who also think 2012 will bring great changes (disasters? universal wisdom?) and that the Turin Shroud is not a medieval hoax. Anyway, so far it’s a case of sci-fi fantasy gone conspiracy theory (ain’t it always?). No creditable news source has yet commented on this meme, and I’m acknowledging it only because it’s been thrust at me three times already this month. Get the flavor:
But the most unusual reaction came from a caller who left a message on Mr. Thomas’ voice mail on October 13th. In a deep and mysterious voice, the caller said, “We are not alone. On November 17th (sic), President Obama will acknowledge about the aliens.”
“He put a big pause in-between the two sentences.” Mr. Thomas said. “I don’t know if it is just the way he talks or he was doing it for dramatic effect.”
The caller left no name, phone number, e-mail address, or even bothered to say whether he was affiliated with any UFO-related organization.
I could’ve guessed that last part.
A Reply to Howard M. Kaminsky
Here is a letter I wrote to the Times Literary Supplement which they declined to publish. Maybe Mr. Kaminsky will stumble upon it while googling himself to see if anyone ever bothered replying to his nonsensical posturing. Kaminsky’s letter, published in the TLS, is here. An assessment of Kevin MacDonald’s work can be read here.
Dear Editor,
In the TLS of October 28, 2009 you printed a letter by Howard M. Kaminsky taking Bernard Wasserstein to task for his comments about Hannah Arendt. Kaminsky wrote:
As for his charges relating to Arendt’s use of Nazi authors and her inadequate love of the Jewish people, I admit, Jew that I am, to believing that some Nazi authors had important things to say not unrelated to their Nazism, above all the viciously anti-Semitic but incomparably brilliant Carl Schmitt (whom Arendt used even more than she says), and I also believe that Jews have created gentile hostility by demanding equal rights but refusing to surrender their ethnic integrity. Books have been written about this by a number of authors who are not overtly anti-Semitic – e.g. Kevin MacDonald and Albert Lindemann – and Arendt’s analysis of Jewish “responsibility” for anti-Semitism can hardly be dismissed as due to her “perverse world-view”, let alone her “combination of ira et studio [sic]”.
One reads Mr. Kaminsky’s words with a mixture of revulsion and wonder. What does it mean to suggest that Nazi authors may have had something to say about Jews which was “not unrelated to their Nazism”? Shall we begin considering “viciously anti-Semitic” views of Jews as tantamount to “not overtly anti-Semitic” views, such as those of Kevin MacDonald? What does one have to say these days to be called an anti-Semite – that Jews are pernicious to “gentile” society, that they are running the world through a secret cabal, or simply that they should be sent to the ovens? It appears that anything short of the desire for extermination is not “really” anti-Semitic in Kaminsky’s eyes.
As far as Jews having “created gentile hostility by demanding equal rights” (and still remaining Jews), would such a remark be acceptable if applied to any other minority? I’m sure many people think homosexuals and women have contributed in much the same way to homophobia and misogyny, but such views would certainly be condemned. It is the bigot who is responsible for bigotry, not the victim. Are Jews really “uppity” for desiring equality?
For the record, neither the “Holocaust industry” nor the “Israel lobby” has prevented Mr. Kaminsky (or Mr. MacDonald, for that matter) from speaking his mind.
Best,
Marc Alan Di Martino
Rome, Italy
Guided by Reason
“Humanism is a progressive philosophy of life that, without supernaturalism, affirms our ability and responsibility to lead ethical lives of personal fulfillment that aspire to the greater good of humanity.
The lifestance of Humanism—guided by reason, inspired by compassion, and informed by experience—encourages us to live life well and fully. It evolved through the ages and continues to develop through the efforts of thoughtful people who recognize that values and ideals, however carefully wrought, are subject to change as our knowledge and understandings advance.
This document is part of an ongoing effort to manifest in clear and positive terms the conceptual boundaries of Humanism, not what we must believe but a consensus of what we do believe.”
La Russa Found in Translation
Here’s the La Russa clip translated into English. The translators opted for “They can die” and not “They can go to hell”. Either way, I think you get the point. If you don’t want a crucifix in every public room in this country, you can kiss La Russa’s big Catholic ass.
“Take Down Our Crucifix and We’ll Cut Off Your Arms”
I just finished reading Susan Jacoby’s The Age of American Unreason (read it!), which took me two weeks in the subway going back and forth from work. I first encountered Jacoby when I read her book Freethinkers (read this too!), and have come to enjoy her logic-driven brand of cultural skepticism.
In Italy there is a culture war underway. It is not a debate over evolution vs. creationism. Somehow, despite the numbers (quoted in Dawkins’ latest book) that 32% of Italians believe that humans and dinosaurs coexisted on this planet – in Turkey it’s 42%, in Sweden 9% (2005 stats) – there is no debate over evolution. There is a debate over crucifixes.
Now the Catholics are on the counter-offensive. Slogans like “take down our crucifixes and we’ll cut off your arms” abound, crosses affixed to the doors of UAAR and Radical Party offices, and even a mayor (a self-declared non-believer) who will fine 150 Euro to any teacher who doesn’t have a crucifix on the wall of his or her classroom. He’s even taken pains to put up crucifixes in public places where they had been absent. Another upped the fine to 500 Euro.
Last year P.Z. Meyers earned himself death-threats along with Christian “compassion” while blogging his way to fame over a communion wafer scandal. The scandal culminated in a photograph (you can see it here) of a desecrated communion wafer – or “cracker” as Meyers insists on calling it – along with coffee grounds, a banana peel, a copy of the Koran and – just to show he’s a fair-minded bloke – a copy of The God Delusion. When I jokingly asserted we should burn a crucifix or two in public (they burn flags here) along with a mezuzah and a statue of the Buddha I was greeted with frowns. Of course, burning or desecrating these objects is only meant to accentuate their existence as objects. Isn’t the prohibition against idolatry widely interpreted to mean, “Don’t bow down before objects?” And yet here we have a cultural civil war underway for the sake of a piece of wood and plastic nailed up above a blackboard.
As ever, it’s not about the wood or the plastic. It’s about tradition, an “ancient” tradition going back some eighty years to Mussonlini’s fascist government. Mussolini was greeted at the time by Pope Pius XI as “the man Providence has led us to.” The Lateran Treaty was signed, as well as a concordat with Hitler’s Germany. Hitler, for the record, has never been excommunicated by the Catholic church.
A big hep, hep, hep! for tradition.
Atheist Bus Campaign in New York City
NYC Atheists bus campaign
