Tactful, Charming, and most of all, Christian

Members of Westboro Baptist Church, known for picketing the funeral of US soldiers who died in Iraq — arguing homosexuals are the cause of the war, said Ledger is now in hell, OK! magazine reports.
"Heath Ledger thought it was great fun defying God Almighty and His plain word; to wit; God Hates Fags! & Fag-Enablers!" the church said in a statement. (source)

I trust all conservative Christians out there will follow the lead of this young lady, and rebuke these freaks.

Obviously, logic is not a strong-point for these guys. (Presumably they're not Catholic - Catholic theology at least has some λογος in it, however wacky).

By the same 'reasoning', we might well assert that 9/11 was Allah's punishment for US religious infidelity. Such an assertion would create an outcry.

Funniest Post Ever

Or thereabouts. This oldie, but goodie, can be found here.

Polls in Iraq

I noted on a far-right blog the other day that, when describing the ongoing war in Iraq, the word occupation was continually used with quotation marks. Perhaps the authors of this blog think that Coalition troops are merely holidaying in the Gulf state.

In any case, the opinions of the Iraqis themselves count for far more than those of fundamentalist bloviators, and a good summary of Iraqi opinion polls can be found here.

A sample of the results follows:

A May 2004 poll sponsored by the US-led Coalition Provisional Authority found that roughly 80 percent of Iraqis had "no confidence" in US-led forces to improve security and that most "would feel safer if Coalition forces left immediately."


A year later, in August 2005, a secret poll conducted for the British Defense Ministry found that "less than one per cent [sic] of the population believes coalition forces are responsible for any improvement in security."

January 2006: A poll by the Program on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA) found that around two-thirds of respondents agreed that "'day to day security for ordinary Iraqis' would increase," that "violent attacks would decrease," and that "the amount of interethnic violence will decrease" if the United States withdrew by the summer of 2006.

March 2007: A poll sponsored by US, British, and German news agencies found that "[m]ore than seven in 10 Shiites-and nearly all Sunni Arabs-think the presence of U.S. forces in Iraq is making security worse.

August 2007: A poll sponsored by news agencies in the US, UK, and Germany found that around 70 percent of Iraqis "believe security has deteriorated in the area covered by the US military 'surge' of the past six months" Moreover, 67-70 percent "believe the surge has hampered conditions for political dialogue, reconstruction and economic development."

The result most favourable to the Coalition was a poll that showed 12% of Iraqis 'had at least some confidence in the Multi-National Force to protect their families against threats'.

Oh well. If the Iraqis aren't enjoying US militarist neoconservatism, perhaps they'd prefer US economic neoliberalism. After all, who wouldn't want to be a sub-sub-sub contractor in a war zone.

The Poverty of (rightist) Philosophy

One reason for my lack of recent blogging has simply been the paucity of decent counter-perspectives among the rightist media and blogosphere.

Increasingly, they're looking like a bunch of whackjobs and cranks.



Take this scholar's book, about 'Liberal fascism', invoking some of the more idiotic Godwin's violations around, by linking Hitler with the likes of Dewey and Hillary Clinton. According to the author:



The quintessential Liberal Fascist isn't an SS storm trooper; it is a female grade school teacher with an education degree from Brown or Swarthmore.



No, this isn't a satire of the Fox News network.



What do we have elsewhere, but the usual retarded suspects making yet more 'scientific' arguments about the supposed intellectual inferiority of blacks. As the good folk of Grodscorp ably demonstrate, such cretinism is best met with mockery, and does not deserve anything so dignified as 'debate'.



Over in padded-cell territory, the um, 'Conservative Christians' are wetting their pants in anticipation of the Rapture, which naturally, involves getting Israel to slaughter as many of the towel-heads as is possible:



I would like to affirm that, as a Christian, I believe strongly and passionately in the destiny of the people of Israel and that they are truly a light on a hill that mustn’t be hidden.



A white phosphorous light, distributed by way of a million or so cluster bombs, methinks. And in the same post, 'IT WOULD BE DEADLY DUMB TO GIVE THEM [the Palestinians] A STATE'. My Christian teachers always told me the Church was meant to have a social justice component, but perhaps I learnt about Christianity at the wrong place. Like, not at the local Hillsong chapter in Alabama.



These are only some examples. Smears, obfuscations and diversions are routinely paraded as 'argument' by the rightists. Somebody like Keynes is conflated with Marx, and virtually all academic endeavour of the past hundred years is portrayed as a massive, leftist conspiracy.



The closest thing the rightards have to an 'intellectual', of course, is the execrable Ayn Rand. As far as I can see, Rand's readings of the great philosophers are more inept than the average high school kid's, and her 'philosophy' (ignored by philosophers regardless of political persuasion) is little more than a Reader's Digest style Nietzsche for retards. Like them or not, thinkers such as Trotsky would smash Rand in any debate, even if the guy had downed a bottle of Russia's cheapest vodka.



Lest we forget, recent Conservative leaders (Howard and Bush) have been instinctively and crudely anti-intellectual, both in their public personas, and their policies. For all of Rudd's faults, he at least knows something about something (i.e. can speak a bit of Mandarin; attempts, in writing, to engage with obscure German theologians).



Little wonder, when these are the Tory's mouthpieces, that these same dunces accuse 'teh left' of an enormous conspiracy, and dismiss opponents as being latte-sipping elites. This is precisely the 'politics of envy' that rightists loudly decry, whilst generally being too stupid to appreciate their own subordination to the same dynamic.



Ironically, the 'natural' constituent of anything resembling a 'left' is not the intellectual class, but rather, a class that ca be defined in economic, rather than educational terms. This is the class who put the Labor Government into power in Australia at the 2007 election. Many of them live in the poorer suburbs of Melbourne, Sydney, Hobart and Queensland, and they rejected rightist assaults on their class (qua economic entity) decisively and en masse.



With Conservatives this stupid around the traps, it's hard to imagine that many young people, possessed of intellectual curiosity, and interested in political and social issues, will ever come to designate themselves as 'Conservatives'. Even now, many of the semi-retarded hacks avoid the C-word, preferring to call themselves libertarians, anarcho-capitalists, Whigs, etc.



Revolution in Australia is not precisely around the corner but, nonetheless, these are exciting times.

The Joys of Privatisation

The family of a teenage girl who died after a health insurance company delayed approving her liver transplant has accused the insurer of putting money before their daughter's life. (source)

Maybe that invisible hand isn't so 'efficient' after all.

Xmas Greetings

Posts have been few and far between from me in recent times, though I hope, in the New Year, to provide some posts on Naomi Klein's latest book.

In the meantime, best wishes for the festive season to all who have loitered at this blog.

Imbecile Watch

Oh dear.

Those of you who thought the Cold War was over may not have noticed that some of the footsoldiers are still down in the bunkers, fighting for liberty, justice, and hotdogs.

To that end, I give you idiot of the week, 'La Russophobe'.

There are plenty of reasons why we might be concerned about contemporary Russia, not the least of which is the conduct of the recently re-elected authoritarian, 'oligarchic' Government. There is also the rise of the radical right, and concomitant bigotry directed towards blacks, Jews, gays, and Asians. There is the oppression of Chechnya, and there is also significant poverty.

Any of these things, along with several others, no doubt, would be pretty good grist for the mill for a Russia-watching blogger, with an eye on Putin and politics.

Sadly, La Russophobe goes further. She divides the world into 'Russophobes' (those, like herself, who oppose the Rooskies) and 'Russophiles' (everybody else, particularly Russians themselves). This black-and-whitism should give you a bit of a sense of the sort of George W style of 'logic' this blog contains.

The author explains the raison d'etre of her charming blog:

Don't forget: The main reason La Russophobe hates Russians is because they
are destroying themselves, in particular their innocent children...If Russians
want to shut La Russophobe up, all they have to do is stop failing.

Here the author uses the old Lovejoy rationale - Won't somebody think of the children!
Russia isn't the only country with a few problems at the moment. In fact, given the many conflicts occurring around the world at present, I doubt Russia is the first nation that comes to mind when it comes to people 'failing' their 'innocent children'. I mean, the US, for instance, has over two million people in prison, and this would seem to be a pretty harsh indictment of the ills of its society. But no, our anti-Tartar friend only 'hates' the Rooskies.

She also attempts to debunk several supposed myths about Russia, such as the following:

MYTH: Boris Yeltsin was loved by the ignorant West but hated by
Russians.

REALITY: When Yeltsin told Russians to vote for Putin, they did so
without hesitation.

Actually, Yeltsin was more beloved of the West than the Russians themselves, and is possibly the only person in human history too drunk to get into Ireland. After his corruption and incompetence, Putin's accession is almost understandable.

MYTH: Russia tried capitalism and it failed.

REALITY: Russia has never
been governed by anyone other than a king or a person raised under Communism. It
has certainly never been governed by a capitalist.

I think we need to ask some questions here of our authors' take on 'reality'. Last I heard, Putin and his cronies weren't exactly Marxists, and still less are they hippie commune types.

MYTH: Russia is the land of great literature and science.

REALITY: America,
famous as a land of hillbilly morons, has far more Nobel prizes for science and
literature than Russia.

Actually, both countries have their share of backwoods types. In any case, it's a rare treat to read a blogger with such fine taste in the arts. It's about time those hacks like Tolstoy and Dostoevsky were put in their place, so we can catch another episode of Girls of the Playboy Mansion.

MYTH: Russians are brave, and have shown it struggling against winter
and invaders.

REALITY: Russians are extraordinary cowards, and have shown it in
consistently refusing to oppose their own government. Russians fought foreign
invaders because the were more afraid of their own government than those
invaders, and because of their latent hatred of foreigners. Russians live with
the climate because they have no choice.

Venturing into the land of the truly unhinged, the author now seems to be forgetting those extraordinary cowards like Lenin and the Bolsheviks who, rightly or wrongly, stood up to Tzarist rule, or the millions who perished in WWII.

We shouldn't be surprised that, despite being a good candidate for an emergency psychiatric admission, this blogger is quoted with much approval on the right-wing blogosphere.

It's been a while since we've had such a stellar nominee for Idiot of the Week, and in the case of La Russophobe, the moniker is thoroughly deserved. Come on down and accept your padded cell!