Doing god’s will by murdering other people

There has been some ghastly religious violence going on in Nigeria.

A Muslim group known as Boko Haram has committed massacres of Christians, sometimes with bombings and at other times with automatic weapons, in order to drive them out of the Muslim-dominated north of the country to the Christian-dominated south. One attack on a Catholic church on Christmas day killed 37 people. An explosives attack on a Muslim school is suspected of being a retaliation.

Boko Haram is one of those groups that takes their religious texts seriously.

Its followers are said to be influenced by the Koranic phrase which says: “Anyone who is not governed by what Allah has revealed is among the transgressors”.

Boko Haram promotes a version of Islam which makes it “haram”, or forbidden, for Muslims to take part in any political or social activity associated with Western society.

This includes voting in elections, wearing shirts and trousers or receiving a secular education.

I am sure that these murderous thugs fervently believe that they are good people doing god’s will, as can be seen by the group’s official name which is Jama’atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda’awati wal-Jihad, which means “People Committed to the Propagation of the Prophet’s Teachings and Jihad”.

Stephen Colbert says that he is the true religious conservative

Stephen Colbert says that evangelical leaders who met recently to decide on one conservative candidate to endorse made a mistake in picking Rick Santorum as their standard bearer. They should have endorsed him instead because, among other things, he is much more homophobic than Santorum.

Chris Hedges sues Barack Obama over the legality of the NDAA

Chris Hedges sues Barack Obama over legality of the NDAA

I wrote before that one of the consequences of the National Defense Authorization Act that was passed quickly and with little or no debate during the Christmas holiday season was the gutting of the 1878 Posse Comitatus Act that sought to prevent the use of the military in law enforcement activities within the country.

Now Chris Hedges, former foreign correspondent for the New York Times, has challenged in court the legality of the Authorization for Use of Military Force as embedded in the latest version of the NDAA. Hedges explains why he took that action, drawing upon [Read more…]

Still not coordinating!

I think that what Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart are doing is one of the most brilliant pieces of political satire, directly exposing the sham that is the current campaign financing restrictions and the highly porous wall between campaigns and Super PACs.

Here is the latest Colbert ad running in South Carolina.

The Republican debate crowds run amuck again

In an earlier post, I noted that in the first three of the interminable series of Republican debates, the main story was the response by the crowds, cheering wildly at the most extreme policies while booing anything that seemed tempered and reasonable and humane. One suspected that the crowds in subsequent debates were told to tone it down to prevent the impression being given that Republican voters were nuts.

But in Monday’s Republican debate, the crowds seem to have slipped their leash and were back in full baying frenzy. The Daily Show captured the moments.

We’re number one?

Dave Barry, columnist for the Miami Herald, is one of the funniest writers and for years he got a lot of mileage out of documenting the things that the people of Florida and Miami did that convinced him that it was the craziest state in the nation. He is fortunate to have retired from his weekly column because recent events suggest that my state of Ohio may well take that particular crown.

Consider the following recent stories that have garnered national attention for our state.

  • The owner of over 50 dangerous exotic animals abruptly released them, resulting in 48 of them (including 18 Bengal tigers, 17 lions, and eight bears) having to be killed.
  • We had an Amish sect led by a renegade bishop go on a rampage, cutting the beards of fellow Amish who had for whatever reason displeased him. He was improbably named Sam Mullett.
  • We then had the so-called ‘Craigslist killer‘, a 52-year old who claimed to be a chaplain in a church, who is charged, along with a 16-year old associate, with luring people to a remote area with the promise of a job to oversee some land and then hunting them down and killing them.
  • Then there was the case of an 8-year child who was taken away from his mother by the child protective services and put in foster care because they feared that the child was dangerously obese and the mother was not doing anything about it.
  • We have people putting forward a bill in the state legislature that would ban abortions as soon as a fetal heartbeat is detected, which could occur as early as six weeks into a pregnancy. This attempt has caused a deep split in the anti-abortion movement.
  • We had the owner of an apartment complex put a sign up that said the swimming pool could be used by white people only.

I am not claiming that Ohio has definitely become the craziest state in the nation. But we may at last have a shot at a national championship that has long been denied us in the sports arena.

Stephen Colbert asks people to vote for Herman Cain

Since the South Carolina primary ballot was locked some months ago, Stephen Colbert cannot get on it and Herman Cain can’t get off it, although the latter has dropped out of the race. So Colbert is urging everyone in the state to vote for Cain as a proxy to show their support for his own candidacy.

And here is the ad that is being run in South Carolina right now by the The Definitely Not Coordinating With Stephen Colbert Super PAC, also known as the America for a Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow Super PAC.

Cain has actually agreed to join Colbert for a rally on Friday in South Carolina.