Don't get me wrong, I support it. But those who think that the other religions are as pure as the driven snow on the issue of freedom of speech are deluding themselves.
Remember when America's Little Fascist Mayor tried to evict the Brooklyn Museum because it displayed an Afrocentric painting of the Virgin May? Giuliani called those who supported the museum "first amendment kooks," which showed just how dedicated he was to the ideals of liberty and freedom. The Republicans in the House passed a non-binding resolution calling for funding to the museum to be cut, clear testimony to the GOP's dedication to freedom of expression.[1]
That was not the only incident, of course. There were death threats when the photograph "Piss Christ" was exhibited. Even the movie "Dogma" sparked a few death threats. There probably were some over "the Life of Brian", but I don't have the time to look into that.
[1]Some old fogy defaced the painting because he was offended by it.
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Ooh yes, The Life of Brian was barred from the entire *nation* of Ireland, clearly by people who had never seen the movie (which has only two scenes featuring Jesus, one at birth and one as he preaches the Sermon on the Mount, neither of which is blasphemous in any way). But I guess a movie about how ideologies are created and distorted by their followers just hits home too closely with skirt-wearin' boy chasers...
Tom Tomorrow has also received death threats for his all-mighty superhero, God-Man, who makes occasional appearances in his comic strip. He even jokes about it in his recent strip "How to Draw God-Man", where grenades and prepared defensive positions are part of the process.
And of course the entire "Banned Books Week" that the American Library Association holds every year is generally filled with books that irate *Christians* try to get banned. So yeah, radical Islamists decidedly have no monopoly on being censorious asswipes...
After I wrote the post, I read a little more on The Life of Brian. It seems that the Norwegians banned it, so the distribution company had ads for the movie in Sweden that said "so funny that it's been banned in Norway."
And then there is the long and repeated cries for censorship by Bill Whazisnose of the "Everybody is Persecuting the Poor Catholic Church, No Shit League".
I believe it is a matter of maturity as a Nation (as the pot called the kettle black).
Seriously - we are relatively young as a going concern of a nation. 200 years is just a drop in the bucket compared to some European countries who have neither the puritan (cover the breast) fetish or the lies disguised as populism bull shit permeating their media. They got over that 1000's of years ago.
(This is a generalisation and subject to pockets of bullshit being found just to prove me wrong)
"Life of Brian" is good but if you really want to piss off the Clergy... play "Monty Python's The Meaning of Life" - particulary the "Every sperm is sacred" segment.
Again, seriously, how do we continue to let these intellectually incompetent, emotionally immature congress/senate critters determine our laws and direction as a country? It boggles my little mind...
Are there other tools beside guns that we can use? I asked the 'baggers and they said writing your congressman does not work.
For once... I think I agree with them.
GDM, every single one of those Congresscritters is there because the majority of people who bothered to vote in his district voted for him. He wasn't installed there by a vile dictator intent upon destroying America, or by a sadistic madman stroking a white Persian while cackling about his evil plans. He was voted into office by We The People, in all our glorious majesty, and We The People re-elect these cretins every 2 to 6 years to continue doing, well, whatevah, like, y'know?
H.L. Mencken once noted that democracy is the notion that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it, good and hard. Indeed. Indeed.
- Badtux the Cynical Penguin
No - they were installed by Corporate Interests funding specially crafted information to support their positions and candidate. Wow Tux - Anyway... use that magnificent brain of yours for something besides fatalistic eventualism (yah - I made that up). But anyway, I should have answered my own question but I thought it was obvious. The reason those "folk" keep getting elected is because of an electoral system that is based on capitalism, (money for ads and influence) and not on competence or the will/benefit of the people. At least it seems that way to me and if you look at the historical record of the last 25-30 years that stands true.
As long as we allow money to influence politics (yes, I am Captain obvious) this will be true.
So, what is a plugged-in penguin to do? Well... first you have to unplug. -g
As far as I can tell, a TV ad has never voted in any election.
The American public keeps voting for the people who have the glossiest ads that tell them the lies they want to hear. But the ads themselves don't vote. Yes, money allows the corporate candidates to have the glossiest ads that tell the most lies. But if nobody voted for them, the corporate candidates would have to go home. Yet people keep voting for them. You can't blame capitalism for that -- money doesn't go into polling places and bubble in votes. It's We The People who keep pulling the lever for the corporate candidate.
You might call the American public brainwashed, but that sort of demagoguery has been around since at least the time of Hyperbolus and Nicias and people keep falling for it even when it leads to disasters like the Sicilian Expedition that ended Athens as a military power. Call it fatalist, or call it realist, whatever, but it seems that a large proportion of the population of a democracy would rather believe glossy lies over harsh truths, and thus elections devolve into who can tell the best lies in the most convincing manner possible, and capitalism -- or money -- comes into that only in that money allows telling your lies in a more convincing manner.
I don't know the solution, so I guess you can call me fatalistic -- we have 2500 years of experience that shows that democracy is always prone to this sort of thing, where glossy lies win and harsh truths lose. But I do know that blaming things that *don't* vote for the behavior of those people who *do* vote is silly. The moment money starts walking into voting booths and pulling the levers for the corporate candidates, *then* you can say that We The People didn't elect these boobs to Congress. Until then...
- Badtux the Cynical Penguin
Well put Tux - but, as long as Fox News is the "most trusted news in America" - I'd say the MSM field is tilted well to the right. I live in surburbia. I hear the lies every weekend. They have no choice. It is their truth. Until that changes - the media will control the message and the media is owned by corporate conservatives, reported by millionaires - and all most people know now is what they watch on TV. You know this to be true, but still think they have free will. I think not so much...
Well, that's what apes do -- follow an alpha male. The fact that these particular apes are mostly hairless and have delusions of grandeur (especially those delusions of free will) doesn't change the fact that we're talking about jacked-up monkeys, not about rational intelligences. Modern technology makes it easier for the alpha male to gather in his followers, but Alcibiades didn't need Fox News to convince the Athenian public that invading Sicily was a good idea...
- Badtux the Hairless Penguin
OK - This guy was the TYPICAL Lieberman type of the 300th century:
"During the course of the Peloponnesian War, Alcibiades changed his political allegiance on several occasions. In his native Athens in the early 410s BC, he advocated an aggressive foreign policy, and was a prominent proponent of the Sicilian Expedition, but fled to Sparta after his political enemies brought charges of sacrilege against him. In Sparta, he served as a strategic adviser, proposing or supervising several major campaigns against Athens. In Sparta too, however, Alcibiades soon made powerful enemies and was forced to defect to Persia. There he served as an adviser to the satrap Tissaphernes until his Athenian political allies brought about his recall. He then served as an Athenian General (Strategos) for several years, but his enemies eventually succeeded in exiling him a second time."
Roger Ailesisith was his propaganda director..:-)
So - AGAIN - control the message, control the opinion of majority of the population. And - if your allegory does not match the prevailing conventional wisdom - change your position and flood the wound with cash.. lots of cash.
Believe it Tux - this crap is not happening out of the ether - there is cause and effect and Money is the grease that allows the corporate (populist?) message to roll.
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