3 posts tagged “christian”

Today I want to say a few things about the world's three great religions - Christianity, Warmalarmism, and Muslamism which I mention in that order because while I don't respect the tenets of any of them, Christians only try to advance their beliefs by being annoying, while Warmalarmists want to tax and control people, and Muslamists will just kill you if you don't like what they're selling.

Also, compared to the other two, Christianity is rarely in the news, and I'm sure you agree that when it comes to religion, no news is good news?!?

Plus, when there is news, Christians are usually only a little wacky, WAs are insane, and Mussies are, more often than not, downright scary (for lack of a scarier term).

Although Pope Benedict, better known as "Eggs," did recently say that combating warming was a "moral imperative," which, of course, raises the question, Don't you have other matters of faith to deal with, pops? Like... the news of six nuns who have been excommunicated (thrown out, not separated from their heads) from the Catholic Church because they refused to give up their membership in a Canadian group - The Community of the Lady of All Nations, aka, the Army of Mary, whose founder claims to be possessed by the Virgin Mary herself.

And who can blame the nuns, since the Catholic doctrine behind all the Church's teachings is: "Better safe than sorry?"

The nuns aren't Canadian though. In fact, nuns are to Canada about like gays are to Iran. No, our ex-nuns are from the Good Shepherd Monastery of Our Lady of Charity and Refuge in... Hot Springs, Ark. - Ark the herald angels sang, eh?

And get this, the six aren't moving out of their convent since they won it, which makes one wonder what will be the Church's equivalent of the Waco siege?

82-year-old ex-nun, Sister Mary Theresa Dionne, one of the nuns excommunicated, said:
 
"We are at peace and we know that for us we are doing the right thing. We pray that the church will open their (sic) eyes before it is too late."

Remember, better safe than sorry.

A spokesman for the Army of Mary, Father Eric Roy, said Mary impersonator Marie Paule Giguere has not claimed to be the reincarnation of the Virgin Mary. He said the 86-year-old Quebec woman "receives graces" and that "The Virgin Mary took possession of her soul. I would rather say it that way."

Turning to the Warmalarmists, a bunch of Canadian scientists (if that's not a contradiction in terms) took a trip up north (and I'm talkin' damn north, as compared to what Americans think of as "north") and were stunned... STUNNED, by the amount of melting they saw. No mention was made of whether the trip was paid for out of the hundred million or so dollars the Canadian government gave the group or whether it's a separate chargeable expense.

And Quebec has imposed the first "carbon tax," to, as the news dispatch put it, "fund the province's plans to reduce emissions."

Why I'll bet, if you're a Warmalarmist, you happier than a polar bear in the Arctic used to be before all the melting, am I right?

Well, there's another article which you most likely missed because it didn't make Reuters or the AP until today. It's about sugar cane cutters (SCCs) in Brazil. That report talks about the backbreaking work, low pay, and the large uptick in serious cane related diseases the Brazilian laborers have to contend with.

But if ethanol saves the life of one polar bear, it's all worth it, and those Canadian scientists have asked the bears to document any perceived improvements in their living conditions that result from the Quebec tax. Quebecers will no doubt do the same, and my bet is that the bears respond first.

And finally, we turn to news from the Wonderful World of Islam. Manny and the Mullahs over in Iran have labeled the CIA a "terrorist organization," which proves how little they know about America or they would have given that label to the IRS.

Meanwhile, a New York Congressman says there are too many mosques in America which may be an all-time understatement since one mosque could easily be considered too many, and two an epidemic.

Which reminds me, a new TV series premiered last night which features a Muslim exchange student from Pakistan, and while the American family expressed initial consternation, it's amazing how funny and down-to-Earth regular Muslims are. No doubt future episodes will also show how much wiser he is than the average American.

Finally, there's the story of the Malaysian Muslim astronaut which is so amazing that it demands it's own space, ha ha... but trust me, this one is a blast.

In addressing the comments of (most certainly) Australia's greatest thinker, I decided that in the interest of time and my level of interest, it would be best if I simply went with my initial reaction.

So with that, I present, The Great Soggy!

"Nice coming from someone who's entire repetoire (sic) is comprised of unfounded Muslim bashing."

And right off we encounter deflection, speculation, and the assumption of facts not in evidence and the denial of other facts that are. Why does something tell me there's a Muslim connection in SOG's background.

"Comments such as yours, which was effectively "Everywhere that there are Muslims there is war and corruption" only serve to fan the rather pointless flames."

Incorrect characterization, I said "trouble," and trouble means trouble.... And it's right here in River City.

And every flame I've ever seen has a point.

"don't just target Muslims. Go for everyone"

Unnecessary and... um... it fans rather pointless flames.

"I chose Aethiesm (sic) (sic) because I realised (sic) that all religions contain much falsity and hypocracy (sic)."

A rather pointless reason to choose atheism, some would say. Me, I just call it absurd in concept, and insane if true.

"I also realised (sic) that they were the major cause of war since their inception."

Another reason to choose atheism? The reasoning seems rather disjointed, but I don't want to accuse Soggy of not trying, I'll just say he's an idiot.

"I have no degrees."

Aren't people with no degrees what they used to call dead?

But seriously folks, it doesn't matter how many degrees a person has, what matters is how well he can reason. And SOG, you have "no degrees" there either.

"Guess what age person you are insulting?"

OK, I'm not good at this, so please allow me a year or two either way, but nine?

And it's curious that he's insulted yet he still expects to play guessing games with me.

"True enlightenment, from a Republican?"

Again assumes facts not in evidence.

'Someone who believes in the War in Iraq, tougher border protection, the death penalty and the protection of "Christian" values. HAHAHAH."

That's what we call an "aside," but it appears to be what passes for sane and rational argument in Australia.

"P.S. You would make an excellent forum troll. Join WoW. Just not Jubei...'

Now this is interesting. Soggy leaves three unsolicited, rambling and incoherent comments, and he thinks I'M the troll?

"I invite you to clean up your countries (sic) act before attacking anyone else."

Even assuming there's anything to "clean up," the comment is rather pointless, and it shows the defendant has low self-esteem. Because he seems to assume I can't do both simultaneously?!?

"I also ask that you persecute (sic) Jews and Christians with your anti-religious tirades."

My comments about Muslims "fan rather pointless flames," but they'd be OK if I was fair and balanced?

Well, unfortunately, I am.

"For Jewish problems one need look no further than the strife in their homeland - the combined Israel-Palestine."

Jewish problems? The Jews have problems all right, none of which are their own doing, but somehow I think that Soggy means the Jews are -causing- problems, don't you?

"For Christian problems look to the American midwest (sic)"

Non-specific and again assumes facts not in evidence. Still, it might be fun... what problems are Midwest Christians causing, do you suppose? Any threats of violence? Any beheadings? Bombings? Wanton slaughter of civilians? Refusing to let people leave the religion, maybe?

"or, to stretch it a tad, the historical context of Christianity; the sweeping bloodbaths that were the crusades (sic), then the witchburnings (sic)"

But why stop at the Crusades? I mean how about the pagan Romans? The Jews in Egypt and Babylonia? And why are we conveniently overlooking Hitler and Stalin, SOG?

"and even recently the murder, brutall (sic) murder, by Christians of black people. Ahh... Americans, so hypocritical."

Aside from being irrelevant and immaterial, Your Honor, we submit that comment as evidence of the defendant's mental impairment.  "Christians... Americans." Yes, one and the same to be sure, but the problem is that even if Soggy's comment was relevant, many Americans, even American Christians, have no ties whatsoever to such events because their ancestors weren't Americans at the time of occurrence. So while some Americans might indeed be hypocrites SOG's generalization is, at best, well, hypocritical.

Furthermore, you take all the murders in the history of America that could remotely be attributed to Christians, and they wouldn't amount to a hill of hummus in Muslimwille...

"one must consider the Christian and Jewsih (sic) laws, especially those in the old testament (sic), which brutally subjucate/d (sic) women and gay people."

Non-specific and irrelevant, although I must admit that my mother was "subjucateid" because she had to wear a hat to church.

"If you like, Christianity is currently only a slightly more commercialist (sic), older brother of Islam."

If I like? Then no, it isn't. Moe is more the older brother of Jim Jones.

"But that is not the point."

Thank God, now we might be getting somewhere...

"I would ask you to cease making sweeping generalisations (sic) about a largely peacefull (sic) religion"

How about a "largely" spit-take here?

"that you so-clearly know nothing about."

To paraphrase Phil Gramm, I have all the knowledge I need, but way more than I want...
 
Myself, I am an aethiest (sic), but I have taken the time to study many religions to see if they were the right ones for me."

I see his dilemma, I, too, don't know which religion is right for an atheist, but I heard good things about Unitarians???

"I urge you to study religions before you attack them in such a grandiose and generalised (sic) way."

And I urge Old SOG to remove his head from the sand... although, to paraphrase Phil Gramm, he can remove his head from the sand, but he can't remove the sand from his head...

But what would possess Soggy, do you suppose, to be so concerned about a religion he'd like to see eradicated? I mean, does he want it both ways - he decries "religious values," but he likes the "largely peaceful" ones?

Then why doesn't he like the rather wholly peaceful ones of better religions? Anyone been exterminated in the name of Judaism lately?

"It would make me happy if you attacked all religion (especially the Abrahamics) on the basis of their lack of truth and the way they contradict themselves, however, this current display of ignorance makes you seem insignificant and slightly idiotic."

Confucius say, "Better to be idiotic than dead."

And I'm no Confucius.

But now... Abrahamics? Isn't that a form of aerobics? Or what a magician says?

"I'm sorry for the rant."

Not, however, sorry enough that it overcame his desire to inflict it on us. And yet he still doesn't see the need for religious discipline?!?

"I am not an anti-semite (sic). I am anti-every (sic) religion"

OK, except there's one small problem - being an anti-Semite has nothing to do with religion....

"I wasn't blaming the Jews for the problems in the Middle East, however I was blaming the Israelis..."

Vomit-take

"and the Palestinians for hundreds of thousands of needless deaths."

I submit there's nothing like that many deaths, but if there aren't, then I, too blame the Israelis... because there should have been. (I refer you to my Palestinian Solution offered sometime back)

"However, the main aim of the rant was to point out that every religion creates problems, especially violent ones."

Amazingly, that was the only part of the rant that I got, and coincidentally, the closest SOG came to making sense... while still not.

"Christianity has many problems, from (b)ombing abortion clinics to
the (c)rusades (sic)."

Or as such things are called in Islamistan, "Just another Muslim Monday."

But OK, that's only B and C, what happened to A through Z?

Seriously folks, that's the best Soggy can do. And he equates isolated past events attributable to some few Christians with everyday, present-day occurrences brought to you courtesy of the religion of peace - for example, the 80 or so dead in a mosque bombing yesterday.

Why I bet even Aput would like to behead this guy?

"I agree that my generalisations (sic)... were out of place... (how  about) this specific American, such a hypocrite."

OK, here's the overriding problem. Soggy apparently thinks I'm a Christian. So the question is, if I'm something else like, say, an atheist, am I still a hypocrite?

Which also brings up another overriding problem - Soggy apparently thinks atheism is an enlightened state.

"But then again, perhaps not, considering the polls which show 50%+ of Americans to be "from somewhat to a great extent" living in fear and hatred of Muslims."

Only 50? Man, those wacky liberals never learn. But now I wonder if SOG saw the poll that says 25% of American Muslim youths can justify suicide bombings?

And does he agree that percentage would approach zero if the religion was doing its "peaceful" work??

"I was going to put in something asking you to read the holy texts of many and varied religions, however I am not going to waste my time."

Well, how many more words would it have taken before his time was officially wasted? I mean considering that, with minimal reworking, that sentence could have been put in the form of a request?

"I ask that, instead of attempting to fix the problems that everyone else has, fix your own first."

Interestingly, most Americans would be only too happy to do that, but the world won't leave us alone. "Fix Kuwait," "Fix Bosnia," Fix "Kosovo." "Fix Darfur." See the pattern here? And granted they didn't ask us to fix Afghanistan, but I haven't found anyone who's unhappy with that intervention - except the Taliban, maybe,

Although Aput did try to blame us for not doing the job to his liking...

"I'm not British. I'm Australian."

Then I offer my apologies to the British for the smear.

"I dislike your corruption of the English language."

We are the English language. In fact, I heard a song that says we are the world.

"I realise (sic) that you believe Christianity not to have any "fascism and chaos" inherent within it"

Objection:  assumes facts not in evidence, and defendant is again engaging in rather pointless speculation since neither is Christianity on trial here (except in Soggy's even soggier mind) nor am I a Christian.

"which shows not only your lack of political understanding but also of history."

Political? I thought we were talking about religion?

And history? How about Current Events? maybe they don't get them in Australia?

"Islam can be likened to a semi-evolved Christianity"

By whom? By Soggy?

And I wonder how Muslims would like that characterization? But beyond that, I'm left to wonder further... why such a frantic defense of the indefensible Islam?

"in fact, its (sic) currently going through a period highly simmilar (sic) to the crusades (sic), where the Christians rained down on the Arab holy lands in an attempt to reclaim the sacred sites and purge the "heathen scum".

Huh? The only thing that made sense there was "heathen scum"

For example, how can they be "Arab holy lands" when Christians are attempting "to reclaim the sacred sites?"

And if, in fact, Islam is merely going through a phase, is it impolite to ask them to speed it up a tad?

And one last thing... for a guy who takes pride in his parochial dialect, is it just me or is Soggy awfully careless in his implementation of it?

Proctor: an official charged with various duties, esp. with the maintenance of good order..

Three hundred odd fortnights ago, my neighbor planted a baby Palo Verde ten feet from my driveway.

Today, a mighty tree extends twelve feet over that driveway, droops like a willow, and drops blooms like a Rocky Mountain snowstorm.

And those drooping branches have a bonus - thorns!

Plus, they're wispy and hard to see in the dark - like stalactites at Carlsbad. I've had to take the scenic route when wheeling trash to the curb.

Mike's magnificent monument has also kept me from doing maintenance on my two foot tall red yucca. It now extends three centimeters, give or take a millimeter, into his yard. Interestingly, he regards my plant and his PLANT to be equally intrusive. I know because he told me so. He's also the one who refers to his tree a "plant," I guess the way a lion is a cat.

And I'm starting to think of Mike as a plant, if you get my drift.

If a stranger came up my drive and a branch gently raked across his eyeball, it wouldn't be just Mike who got sued. And it could happen: I decided to run the gauntlet one cold garbage eve and as a thorny sprig caressed my face, I swear I heard a voice say, "Mike sends his regards."

But that problem didn't even exist last April when I first approached Mike about the lovely yellow flowers that had become delightful mounds of debris in my driveway... a gazillion six inch high, four foot wide piles by actual count. Anyone parking there overnight would have to dig out in the morning... once he located his vehicle...

Phoenix doesn't have snowblowers.

It was two weeks into debris season, and Mike had shown no inclination to clean up the mess or prune anything. Though he appeared disinterested, he did ask in passing what I thought were the offending branches.

I pointed out just one.

You might wonder how one branch might solve the immediate problem, but you'll thank me shortly when you see what happens as Mike tries to address multiple branches.

There's a four foot tall trunk and three main limbs. Two were no current concern, but the third heads right for my yard and droopers pour off like it's Niagara Falls, though the Falls isn't as hazardous. Visualize yourself with a third arm coming out of your throat. Who needs that?

Mike never pruned much, only what he later described as those "about seven feed above your property." They grew back in abundance, and amazingly, the tree had the audacity to keep expanding.

Now with Christmas approaching, my wife and I figured, how better to spend her vacation than doing Mike's job for him? I figured that if he agreed to perform regular maintenance thereafter, we'd both be better off. Sometimes people have the best of intentions, but circumstances - bad health, family crises, chronic hangnails can keep one from honoring commitments, so why not do a good turn, no questions asked, no explanations required?

You know how no good deed goes unpunished? I learned that even the offer of a good deed can summon punishment.

Mike used it as a starting point in negotiations, eventually giving directions as if to his gardener:

"I think it would be OK to cut off the three of four branches that grow off of the main branch that shoot out directly over your driveway.  Please leave the main branch that continues to grow up towards the sky.  If you wish, you can remove the branch that grows from the branch in front of your branch that crosses over towards your property.  That will help also."

"Huh," you ask? But did you like that "will help" bit?

Mike wasn't concerned about what causes a nuisance, hazard, work, concern or all of the above for me. He basically said he planted a tree and where it would grows he could not be responsible, so the problem was mine (Don't believe me? The complete email exchange is available on request).

I explained to Mike that his approach would not solve anything and would require more frequent attention. Pruning the limb at the trunk would eliminate that.

Nothing doing. Since I wasn't taking directions well, "you have my permission to prune the branches of trees on your side of the property."

Nerve or ignorance, you make the call.

Mike added that he would do some additional pruning "when I have more time." Considering he hadn't had "more time" in nine months and wouldn't be addressing this now had I not inflicted it on him, "when I have more time" was really a euphemism for - NEVER! 

I know I'm exaggerating, Mike will probably continue the maintenance schedule that got us where we are now.
 
And I calculate the tree will completely envelop my house in 2.7 years.

And one day I'll find Mike pruning droopers at my front door, you know, when he has more time.

But to make a long story longer, I gave Mike a deadline - remove all problem branches or face legal remedies. Do you think hanging a banner on the tree that reads, "Hi, I'm Mike Pxxxxxx, honk if you like the nuisance I've created" is a good way to start?

By the way, Mike did have time to put up Christmas lights. Doesn't he realize that if justice prevails, it could be Palo's no longer verde?!?

Unless you think Mike was being conciliatory when he wrote:

"I have far too much activity in my life to be concerned that you are not pleased with a plant."

A twenty foot tall, thirty foot wide - - - plant.

Although that was an hour ago. Its your guess how big it is now. I can tell you that when you stand out there and it's quiet and still, you can actually hear the... um... plant growing - like "The Blob."

Mike did say he'd would consult an arborist about something, again when he has more time, like maybe on Arbor Day?. Anyway, that prompted my wife to ask: "Wasn't the time to consult an arborist when he thought it was a great idea to plant a forty foot tree in a ten foot space?"

Chapter Two preview: Mike apparently misses my directive, but not his mind...