Horror, Again

This time on the French Riviera, where a cowardly, insignificant, worthless little POS has blighted hundreds of lives and sent himself straight to hell.  I'm not the only one who thinks so, as the Guardian reports:

The Nice attacks have been condemned, by religious and political leaders across the Muslim and Arab world on Arabic-language and English social media.

Egypt’s Grand Mufti lambasted “saboteurs who follow Satan (who will) be damned in this life & in the hereafter.”

Similar sentiments were expressed by the popular Saudi cleric, Sheikh Salman al-Auda, who said the killer would be cursed by “god, his angels and all human beings.” His remarks came after many comments on social media attacked Muslims.

Egypt’s Al-Azhar university, Sunni Islam’s leading centre of learning, said that the “vile terrorist attack” contradicted Islam and called for “uniting efforts to defeat terrorism and rid the world of its evil.”

Tunisia said that the attacker, who police said held joint French-Tunisian citizenship, had committed an act of “extreme cowardice” and expressed solidarity with France against the “scourge of terrorism”.

Saudi Arabia and its Gulf neighbours issued a joint statement saying that they “strongly” condemned the “terrorist” act in Nice. “The Gulf Cooperation Council states stand in solidarity with the French republic following this cowardly criminal incident whose perpetrators have been stripped of all moral and human values,” the bloc’s secretary general, Abdullatif al-Zayani, said.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi condemned “in the strongest terms the vile terrorist attack”, his office said.

Arab League chief Ahmed Abul Gheit denounced the “craven terrorist attack”, according to his spokesman.

Live coverage from France 24 in English:

At the Intersection of Hate and Murder

I am still trying to take in what happened in Orlando, but although I've read numerous accounts of the massacre, I still feel strangely numb - I think it's just too big and too horrible to comprehend.  And too much of the same old hate, hate, hate we have all endured for a lifetime, a nightmare fear now brought to a terrible reality.

But I offer a couple things to my readers today, for consideration. First, I am irritated with the media-manufactured controversy on whether it was terrorism or a hate crime, or whether it was directed at gays or at Americans, and yada yada yada. Of course it was ALL those things at the same time, and more. I couldn't find an image to convey what I mean, so I made up this simple graphic of what seem to me to be the four main causes of this crime:

It's important, very important I think, to see ALL these factors as valid causes of this tragedy; human beings are complex, and people rarely do anything just for one simple reason.

If you don't believe me, just ask yourself why you ate what you ate for breakfast this morning, or for dinner last night - whatever you put in your mouth, was it because you were on a diet, or falling off one, because the cupboard was bare or overflowing, because you were sick or well, tired or inspired, or because you ate alone at home or out with friends, or, or, or - what?

And perhaps a few more causes could be added to my graphic; for example, I just read this brief but highly significant report in the Orlando Sentinel:

Gunman Omar Mateen visited gay nightclub a dozen times before shooting, witness says

Was he casing the joint, or was he locked in a closet of self-loathing and trying to break out?

And I am quite touched by this interview with the murderer's father - despite my anger and grief, I see a man struggling to come to terms with his own enormous pain and loss, and not yet quite understanding the part he played, at second hand as a parent, in this massacre:

Father of Orlando Mass Murderer Apologizes, Clarifies

(Video not embeddable by me)


The Orlando victims have been remembered around the nation and the world: in New York, the Empire State Building spire went dark in mourning, while the World Trade Center spire was lit in rainbow colors last night:

Embed from Getty Images

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In Sydney, Australia, the harbor bridge was lit in rainbow colors too:

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Crowds gathered at the Eiffel Tower in Paris:

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One man held a sign saying, "We are a 'certain idea of the world,' never targeted 'by chance'" - a riff on a famous quote by Charles de Gaulle:

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The Eiffel Tower was lit in the colors of the rainbow:

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While an illuminated balloon bore the colors of Old Glory:

Amsterdam also remembered at the Royal Palace:

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Crowds gathered in Seoul:

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And on a beach in India:

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And in London, a vigil was held in Soho:

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Will it ever end?  A chilling report from the Guardian: 1,000 mass shootings in 1,260 days.

Attack on Canadian Parliament

Map of Ottawa shootings from the Globe and Mail.

Shortly before 10 a.m. Eastern time this morning in Ottawa, a gunman with a rifle shot a soldier standing guard at the National War Memorial, then raced the short distance to the Center Block of the Canadian Parliament, where he gained entry and a gun battle ensued within the halls of Parliament, as seen in the video above. Security forces from the police and RCMP are blocking streets and responding to various points in the vicinity.

Reports are that more than one shooter is active, and government offices as well as downtown Ottawa buildings are on lockdown. Prime Minister Stephen Harper as well as opposition leaders are reported to be safe and out of danger. Police are also investigating reported shootings at the Rideau Centre shopping mall near Parliament Hill.

On Monday, a radicalized Canadian convert to Islam ran down two Canadian soldiers in St.-Jean-sur-Richelieu, 30 miles southeast of Montreal, killing one of them.

The CBC has live coverage of events on Parliament Hill here.

The Globe and Mail has ongoing coverage here.

CTV also has live coverage here.


Update, 4:20 p.m.: Canadian news organizations are now reporting that the soldier killed in this morning's cowardly attack at the War Memorial was 24-year-old Cpl. Nathan Cirillo from Hamilton, Ontario, who when off duty worked with an animal rescue outfit.

R. I. P.

The Pope and the Atheists

Pope Francis, in a homily he gave today in Rome (found via Andrew Sullivan):

"The Lord created us in His image and likeness, and we are the image of the Lord, and He does good and all of us have this commandment at heart: do good and do not do evil. All of us. ‘But, Father, this is not Catholic! He cannot do good.’ Yes, he can. He must. Not can: must! Because he has this commandment within him. Instead, this ‘closing off’ that imagines that those outside, everyone, cannot do good is a wall that leads to war and also to what some people throughout history have conceived of: killing in the name of God. That we can kill in the name of God. And that, simply, is blasphemy. To say that you can kill in the name of God is blasphemy.”

“Instead,” the Pope continued, “the Lord has created us in His image and likeness, and has given us this commandment in the depths of our heart: do good and do not do evil”:

"The Lord has redeemed all of us, all of us, with the Blood of Christ: all of us, not just Catholics. Everyone! ‘Father, the atheists?’ Even the atheists. Everyone! And this Blood makes us children of God of the first class! We are created children in the likeness of God and the Blood of Christ has redeemed us all! And we all have a duty to do good. And this commandment for everyone to do good, I think, is a beautiful path towards peace. If we, each doing our own part, if we do good to others, if we meet there, doing good, and we go slowly, gently, little by little, we will make that culture of encounter: we need that so much. We must meet one another doing good. ‘But I don’t believe, Father, I am an atheist!’ But do good: we will meet one another there.”

This does sound like a different kind of Pope.


A further thought: Turning from the contemplation of these high and lovely thoughts to the utterly barbarous and demonic beheading of a British soldier in the streets of London in broad daylight, your Head Trucker finds no room in his heart to countenance any further shilly-shallying with the violent and the malign among us. This sickening act, like that of the bombing in Boston last month, is beyond all decency, a crime against humanity, and it must be stopped now - by whatever means necessary.

The crazies and the fanatics must not be allowed to roam freely among us and kill us at their whim; the Constitution is not a suicide pact.

.

How We Remember 9/11 Now

via NBC News Photoblog

Your Head Trucker is glad to be back online after a loss of internet connection that began on Saturday; but sad to learn of the grievous attack in Libya that killed our ambassador, and the asshole film that provoked it. As one commentator has put it, this was a case of "some Christian fringe extremists provoking Muslim fringe extremists," and I have no respect for either kind, and neither variety deserves to be dignified with the name of religion - which is supposed to make men more just and more merciful, not less.

Also worth your time is this article by the New Yorker's Amy Davidson: How We Remember 9/11 Now. Just go read it; I have nothing to add to what she says.

This Week in Religion

God moves in a mysterious way, His wonders to perform - so the old hymn goes.  Trouble is, with all that mystery jazzing up the works, He doesn't seem to be getting the message across to everybody these days . . . maybe it's just a bad connection?  Hello, this is God, can you hear me now?

A couple of examples to show you what I mean about mixed messages.  The Church of Sweden, which was the state church in that country until 2000, has decided to allow gays and lesbians to marry, beginning November 1.  This follows the Swedish parliament's vote to allow same sex marriages in that country earlier this year. 

The Archbishop of Sweden, Anders Wejryd, says, "For my part, the right decision was taken, but I can empathise with the many who believe this has gone too fast."

But now conservative Lutherans in other parts of the world are upset. And the Church of England is upset with its sister church too - both maintain the Apostolic Succession, an important point to some folks.   And even though Sweden is a very liberal country by U.S. standards, some Swedes are foaming at the mouth:  in the comments section of the Swedish news site The Local, one guy wrote, "Come on guys, buy your tickets, we're moving away and never coming back to this damned atheist-ridden elk pen!"

Sigh.  You can't please everybody, not even in Sweden.

And on the other side of the world, a totally opposite response - still in the name of God.  Here is what the Most Reverend Anthony Sablan Apuron, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Agana, had to say in response to Bill 185, a proposal by the Legislature of Guam - a United States territory - to authorize domestic partnerships for same-sex couples.

Pastoral letter:  Marriage is holy because it puts sexual love at the service of life; homosexual acts are incapable of doing that. . . .  Laws in favor of homosexual unions are contrary to right reason because they confer legal guarantees, analogous to those granted to marriage, to unions between persons of the same sex. . . . There are absolutely no grounds for considering homosexual unions to be in any way similar or even remotely analogous to God's plan for marriage and family. . . . For lawmakers to vote in favor of a law so harmful to the common good is gravely immoral.

And lest anyone think the Archbishop is just mouthing off, he is careful to note that he is stating the official teaching of his worldwide outfit:

The Pastoral Letter is a faithful reflection of the universal magisterium of the Catholic Church.  It is taken almost verbatim from the declaration of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith regarding proposals to give legal status to homosexual unions.

But wait, it gets worse.  Domestic partnerships will, of course, destroy Western Civilization.  (God knows I am working night and day on that in my neighborhood . . . are you doing your part?)  But the Archbishop actually praises Islamic fundamentalists, not only for killing gays, but also for fighting against the immoral United States!  You don't believe an American prelate would say something like that?  Well here it is in black and white from the official Archdiocesan statement, "On the high stakes of Bill 185" (emphasis mine; click to enlarge):

Mmmm, so.  The Archbishop of Sweden says, Y'all come on in, you're as good as anybody, glad to have you in our church.

While the Archbishop of Agana says, Y'all get the hell away from here, you filthy pigs, how dare you think you're as good as the rest of us . . . I wish you were dead.

Now friends - which one is really upholding the deepest values of Western Civilization?

More importantly from a religious viewpoint - which one is closer to the spirit of the Prince of Peace?

Tweet Populi

(click here to view)

Clay Bennett Chattanooga Times Free Press Jun 19, 2009 EditorialCartoonists.com

It's important to understand that even though the millions protesting the fraudulent Iranian election wear Western clothes (most of them, not all) and watch satellite TV and have armloads of technology, they aren't Americans, and they don't want to be just like us in every way. Their most-used slogans and chants are religious ones; their religion imbues their thinking and their daily life in a way that would seem way overblown to most of us, living in a Western society that started becoming secularized more than 300 years ago.

Still, what they are protesting is a patently outrageous fraud, and a government that claims to be the expression of God's will on earth, but has betrayed the clear will of the voters. They want democracy, freedom, and human rights, all within the context of their religious views, but still, it's a start, and it's a fascinating standoff between the rulers and the ruled, a historic moment for democracy - government of, for, and by the people.

I'm not an expert on Iran or politics or any of that stuff. But watching the videos and reading the tweets (once again I recommend Andrew Sullivan's ongoing coverage), a few things are real clear and easy to see. It will be interesting to learn how this plays out - an unarmed populace against a dictatorship; seems like the military would have to get involved on the people's side to overthrow the fascist regime, but what do I know.

The Supreme Leader Khamenei's big speech today seems to boil down to this: How could there possibly be any fraud, when the president won by 11 million votes? This is God's will, and I'm God's mouthpiece, so y'all just go home and mind your own business. Think spiritual thoughts and be peaceful and calm, and STFU - or we'll sic the goons on you, you ungrateful pigs.

Oh my. Such a transparent lie, an obvious deception. It sounds just like our fundamentalist Republican pols here in the Bible Belt, laying down the law and "the Bible says," if they could get away with it. Using God to terrify and control the masses has always been such a great way to stay on top, all down through history.

But sometimes people get wise to the fraud. Sometimes they want to have their own say about how things are run, instead of turning it over to priests and kings, by whatever names they are called.

I forget the exact source of this at the moment, but even in the days of the Roman Empire, there was a saying: Vox populi, vox dei.

The voice of the people is the voice of God.

If Anne Frank Had Twitter

Having posted about Anne Frank last week, I found this reader comment at "Twitter 1, Censors 0: Why It's Still Working" sparks some intriguing thoughts:

Wow! Imagine if they'd had twitter at Tienemen square, or in Nazi Germany. Anne Frank could have been read in real time! What a tremendous gift to the people of the world that there is a way to immediately expose the oppressive tactics of their governments! So much for silencing the masses!

Also, I found this cool image of Iran's blogosphere at "How Iran's Internet Works":



Interactive version can be found at the Harvard website.

While there, I poked around and read a little bit on one of the "secularist" women's blogs; and lo and behold, here is a reader comment opposing her questioning of authority - and it sounds so familiar:

Human rights are not recognized by Islam, period. Religious rights are the only rights women or men are entitled to.
Islam requires total submission to One God, including our sense of what is right and wrong to what God declared right and wrong. If you are not willing to accept that then you are not a muslim. It is not gauranteed that you will understand the wisdom behind each and every command and decree of God and this is the test for us in this life according to Islamic doctrines and true devotees. ergo, your letter in that context is irrelevant and meaningless...

The writer is a Muslim, but danged if he wouldn't fit right in here in the Bible Belt; that's the old "the-Bible-said-it-and-I-believe-it" mentality to a tee. Ain't that right, fellas?

Fundamentalism is the same all around the world, I guess: a wonderful tool to control other people with. It's not about God, it's all about power.

P.S. - if you Twitter, set your location and time zone to Iran to help confuse the fascist regime and protect the demonstrators. The head religious honcho in Iran, the Supreme Leader (what a title . . . I'm not making this up) is about to make a major address to the crowds, so probably more interesting developments are about to happen there.

The Twin Threats to Freedom

Andrew Sullivan hits the nail on the head:

9/11 was a call, in my mind, to defend the Enlightenment from the nihilistic forces of murderous theocratic fanaticism. What it demanded was a rediscovery of secularism and freedom in a war against the forces of Islamism and despotism. I still believe that those who instinctively responded to the attacks by blaming America were morally lost. But I equally believe that those who showed they were willing to throw away America’s values in fighting Jihadism were wrong as well. And those who use religious extremism as a tool to get elected in America are pale reflections of the evil of Islamism - not the equivalent, as I have always insisted, but related. Christianism and Islamism are twin pincers against our freedom and against freely chosen, freely witnessed Christian and Muslim faith. Islamism is far more dangerous. But Islamism will never defeat America’s core values. Christianism has already made a dent.