Religion and Politics

They say you should never talk about religion or politics if you don't want to start an argument. I certainly wouldn't want to do that. I hope the previous post wasn't too religious to blog about.

Speaking of religion (if not morality)

Perhaps you have been looking for a side income lately? Check this out.

My Sister's Keeper

Not to belabor the subject of religion.

I awoke this morning to a Newser story about the Syrian government escalating its brutality against its protesting citizens.

I condemn that, but this post isn't about government brutality. It is about Muslim thought. Muslim thought in Syria, at least, as portrayed by an ultra-liberal news aggregator. So maybe it's true, maybe it's not true, but it was put out there this morning as news.

The man interviewed (a "protester") says the brutes of the Syrian army have now escalated their brutality to a new high and are now raping women. (Women who don't support the Syrian government, one assumes.) I don't have any way to actually verify this is happening, but since the Washington Post is printing this unverified story, then why not me?

I have seen the news clip lately, over and over again, of Syrian troops beating an old man and kicking him repeatedly while he was on the ground, so it wouldn't take much to make me believe they would "escalate" their behavior from mere beating to death and cutting off of heads all the way up to rape. Of course, that's exactly what Saddam and his henchmen did for the last zillion years and nobody thought that was any of our business, so I am certainly not advocating we make the same mistake here by invading Syria in order to "liberate" their people.

The Muslim man (unidentified, of course) who was the source of this story, explains that the raping of the 4 sisters (also unidentified) was outrageous because it was an insult to the HONOR of the Muslim men in that community.

He goes on to explain that, normally, the villagers would now just kill the women since they were no longer fit for marriage, or, at least, mark them so no man would ever marry them by mistake. But here is the headline of this story:

"Syrian Men: We Will Marry Rape Victims!"

16 men have come forward in the village and agreed to marry the sisters. Now it is down to 4 men, but still it is hard to not admire these wonderful men. No? A tear wells up in Max's little doggie eye.

"The women are the victims of the revolution, and we will protect them," the man said. A bit late for that, I think (to myself, of course, so as not to seem to be attacking the Muslim religion's time-honored traditions.)

And the Syrian government? Do they admit their soldiers did this?

The Man: "At first they said it was sectarianism. Then they said it was criminal gangs. When that didn't work... they are attacking our honor!"

Excuse me while I go out back and throw up. Please don't think my feeling like throwing up has anything to do with commenting on ancient Muslim thought as to the definition of honor.

I'm just saying that if 4 women in my little town got brutally raped by the army or the police, I would be outraged against the army or the police because they raped the women. Not because it was an insult to my own honor because they disrespected ME.

Ok, I know I have been accused of being narrow-minded when it comes to these sort of things, so I've said my piece and now you can let me have it. Be sure you mention that this represents only a small small number of Muslims and that billions are peace-loving, and the modern Muslim men don't think like this.

People, we have got to stop fighting in the name of religion, no matter what the name of that religion is. Don't you see?

Preaching to the choir

There's something not quite kosher right about the boys and girls of the choir this session, and I can't quite put my finger on it. Enlarge the above 2010 class picture and help me out.

No black justices? No, got one of them. Good ol' white boys? Check. Jesuit-taught Sicilians? Check. Wild-eyed liberals? Check.

What then?

Hispanics? Check. Women? Check. Straight Jews? Check. Lesbian Jews? Check. Dead Jews? Check. (Some say Ruthie is still among the living, but we know better. Ever see the original "Psycho" with Anthony Perkins? A dollar to a donut says Ruthie is Norman Bate's mother, stuffed like a bird with sawdust and a wig put on her and sat up straight in a chair. Doesn't matter. We all know how Ruthie will vote.)

Wait. Did you guess? A first in the history of our country: the mindset of the majority religion in the U.S. is not represented on our esteemed Supreme Court anymore. Go ahead, count 'em: 6 catholics and 3 Jews. Protestants? Zilch.

We've come a long way, baby.

Aging ungracefully

Do not go gentle into that good night,

Old age should burn and rage at close of day;

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

—Dylan Thomas

Everybody wants to go to heaven.

Everybody wants to go to heaven.

Everybody wants to go to heaven,

But nobody wants to die.

—The Limeliters

There are two general theories on aging - of why humans get old and die. First is the theory of cumulative damage, and second is the theory of genetic programming; that is, we have an expiration date.

Both of these theories probably presuppose Creationism, or at least presupposes a god (or at least a cosmic puppeteer) who constantly circumvents the "laws" of Evolution: If Darwin were right then surely over millions of years our bodies would have evolved AT LEAST to the point where we had become immune to cellular damage and had evolved, through the simple genetic improvement of "survival of the fittest," RNA capable of replicating itself legibly more than 30-odd times. That is being said tongue-in-cheek. Mostly.

Anyway, all living things would have corrected the genetic defect of dying long ago if Evolution were doing it's job. Certainly over millions of years, right? All it would take is a better system of cell division fer crissake. Not dying would have been job one in "Natural Selection." Yet here we are dead-ending again and again and again with no improvement. Argh.

How did I get so far down this side road. ::backs up::

It's amazing (to me) how much information is out there on the internet about people's theories about (and desire for, I guess) immortality. I read a book a long time ago called "The Outer Space Connection" in which the author expounded on theories to extend life greatly in humans, if not exactly matching the true definition of immortality. That's religion's big attraction too, of course. Wow - that's a whole 'nother book, though.

I have my own opinion about how to make oneself immortal, if one is so inclined, and I don't mean living on through your children. Most of my theories are (as my loyal readers know) pretty hare-brained though, so I won't burden you with it.

How many stories or legends can you think of that you have read about, where the theme is immortality? Not counting science fiction. Ok, counting science fiction. Like the fountain of youth. Or maybe Greek mythology. Wasn't there a Greek goddess of immortality? I guess not, since they were all immoral anyway. Immortal, I mean. Did anyone reading this post name their kid Ponce? Just in case?

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Dear Max:

What the heck was the point of this post?

Dear Mr. Thomas:

I'm not sure anymore. I started out with a mission but I forgot. Brain cells are dying.

Well, Max, don't feel bad. We all muse about our mortality as we drown our disappointments in strong drink.

Speak for yourself, Dyl. What is it with Irish poets that seem to only be able to write in pubs?

I was speaking of GOOD writers, Max.

Oh yeah? Well, take this one with you Mr. Death Rager. ::Max begins to sing to the tune of London Bridge is falling down:: "Dylan Thomas has come and gone, come and gone, come and gone. Dylan Thomas has come and gone - his blood turned to words."

Thank you Mason Williams, wherever you are.

I'm sorry

I'm sorry I already broke my promise about not blogging about religion. This is going to be harder than I thought. I will start over again.