Quote du Jour: Obama in Turkey

Obama: "I've said before that one of the great strengths of the United States is, although as I mentioned we have a very large Christian population, we do not consider ourselves a Christian nation or a Jewish nation or a Muslim nation. We consider ourselves a nation of citizens who are bound by ideals and a set of values."

Yes, these comments may be controversial to some here at home who, while dropping the term "founding fathers" quite a lot, appear not to have read them very thoroughly. If they had, they might realize that our nation is based as much on secular classical principles of justice, equality and democracy (principles inherent in early community-based Judeo- and Hellenistic Christianity, but not in Christianity as it was later conceived as a state religion) as it is on Abrahamic or Judeo-Christian values.

Except for the unfortunate concession on Armenia implied by his phrasing, the conciliatory Ankara speech is another very encouraging example of the new tone Obama is setting.

Things that just aren't cool, in any culture...

... in my opinion. And I consider myself pretty darn tolerant.

Frying dolphins that have been inhumanely slaughtered. And frying dolphins, in general.

Countries having more than one set of laws. It seems like a slippery slope to me.

And I would say that even if sharia law didn't consider the testimony of two women equivalent to that of one man in a rape case.

Well, this explains a bit: Regent Law & the Justice Department

Thanks to The Daily Show for catching this story that fell through the cracks (well, actually the Boston Globe caught it, first ;) but I was surprised to learn just how many graduates of the not exactly competitive fourth-tier Regent University School of Law, formerly known as CBN University School of Law (after Pat Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network) have worked at the Bush Justice Department -- more than 150, including the notorious Ms. Monica Goodling. (Why is it always a Monica?)
I find this very disturbing somehow.

Complicated Woman

Ayaan Hirsi Ali was a guest, Thursday night, on The Colbert Report, which, prior to my working in the news media industry, was one of my primary sources of news (and now I realize how hilariously misinformed I was) but it's still one of my primary sources of entertainment.
I was impressed with how self-possessed and poised Ali remained (it's hard to be poised seated opposite Stephen Colbert playing Bill O'Reilly) while discussing her controversial views on Islam and religion in general.
What wasn't discussed in the interview, and which I was surprised to read later, was that Ali, a feminist and atheist, works at the American Enterprise Institute. It's easy enough to understand why she would have taken the job when it was offered, given that she was under threat of death from Muslims in the Netherlands after her collaboration with Theo Van Gogh, who was assassinated -- and also suddenly unwelcome in the country itself (where she had been a member of the Dutch parliament) for fabricating her reasons for seeking asylum there as a young girl fleeing an arranged marriage.
It's a fascinating story, which Ali recounts in her new book, Infidel.
But with this knowledge in mind, I thought it was interesting that SC asked her whether Christian fundamentalists should use the "fire with fire" approach in combating the violent element of Muslim fundamentalism (the new buzzword is "Islamo-fascism.")
This is the perfect question to have asked because it isolates what separates Ali's views from some of her neocon colleagues. But maybe not all of them, as I might automatically assume. Maybe it is possible to be a feminist and atheist at the American Enterprise Institute. As my significant other pointed out, at least it provides a little diversity over there. And at least it's genuine diversity, i.e. diversity of worldview versus merely the skin-deep tokenism so beloved of the neocons.

I Don't Heart Huckabee, and other Highlights from CPAC

The thing is, Mike Huckabee used to be my favorite Republican contender (ever since John McCain's Bush-calls-this-a-troop-surge?-I'll-show him-a-troop-surge push.) But this statement is scary as hell:

Here's what I don't understand. For those who say we shouldn't amend the Constitution, they seem to be more than willing to amend the Holy Bible, the Koran, as well the Talmud. I'm not sure why we would take a sacred Biblical text and amend it and not be willing to amend the Constitution to be consistent with the very texts upon which that Constitution was based.

Unsurprisingly, this guy, Sen. James M. Inhofe, R-OK, who gave an anti-Al Gore (I'll call it "An All-Too Convenient Fancy") PowerPoint presentation at the conference, isn't running for president:

Why are politicians so afraid to tell the truth about man-made global warming?

It's because the families are subjected to every conceivable insult and attack. I have been called -- my kids are all aware of this -- "dumb," "crazy man," "science-abuser," "Holocaust denier," "villain of the month," "hate-filled," "warmonger," "Neanderthal," "Genghis Khan," and "Attila the Hun."

(LAUGHTER)

And I could just tell you that I wear some of those titles proudly, considering where they're coming from.

P.S. It's hard to read conservative activists sometimes, but I would say that Rudy Giuliani at least came close to stealing the show. If he can keep up that momentum, he may have a shot, despite his much-discussed liabilities. If I agreed with more than 20 percent of what he was saying, I would have been sold myself. He has a way of inspiring confidence.

Here's where I part ways with Michael Weinstein...

I wouldn't give a single drop of blood to protect anyone's right to believe such a thing. But then I'm a pacifist. I'm fairly sure I'm grateful for those who would.

But of course, his main point is taken. There is scary stuff happening at the Pentagon, religious freedom-wise. I wish I had a reference link, but the Web is strangely silent on the matter Weinstein discussed in a news conference today.

"If they want to believe that Anne Frank, as I've been told by numerous people in the Air Force, is burning eternally in hell, that that little 13-year-old girl who walked into a hermetically sealed gas chamber when the Zyklon-B gas came out and turned her little 13-year-old body into a purple and blue polka-dotted corpse -- if they want to believe she's burning in hell, I would give my last drop of blood to support that view completely. That's their constitutional right..."

-- Michael Weinstein, president of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation

Generation Last?

So these kids believe, in a fairly political take on Christianity...

(I mean, I can empathize; I grew up believing I would leave this earth before age 30, and this even before aspiring toward poetry as a career choice.)
But with kids on the other side of the world believing just as fervently in their own vision of reality, and each side casting each other as the bad guys, what kind of future are we looking at?

Interesting, too, how evangelicals who don't happen to be depicted in this film, "Jesus Camp" are getting just as freaked out as the rest of us (or myself, at least) about how wacky these people look on film.