Category: Religion
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Jews’ Refusal To Convert Is Antisemitism’s Root Cause
If you pore over history and histories searching for the root cause of antisemitism, you won’t find it. That’s a curious thing considering the answer’s so obvious. From their first entrance on the world stage, Jews have been outsiders to whatever cultures they lived beside. Take the Romans. They considered the Hebrews “outsiders”. What, from…
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Where The Hell Does Antisemitism Come From Anyway?
Antisemitism has been called “history’s oldest hatred”. That’d be quite an honor if it wasn’t so deadly and (worse) so wrong-headed. From the moment Jews first appeared in the historical record, they set themselves apart from the other tribes with whom they lived. Antisemitism predates Christianity and Islam. The Greek and Roman worlds both viewed…
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Republicans And Magical Thinking
Kellyanne Conway – Donald Trump’s staff Crypt Keeper lookalike – famously said that Trump World preferred “alternative facts” to actual facts. That was a remarkable statement when Kellyanne made it. We still hadn’t gotten used to the idea of Trumpanistas always saying the quiet stuff out loud. But, that’s what Kellyanne did: she articulated a…
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Magical Cookies
All religions sell magic of one kind or another. Magic is their stock in trade. It’s religion’s response to questions humans can’t yet answer with hard data. Religion (and the religious) despise uncertainty. Wrap it in a mystery though and they love it! Where science will answer “I don’t know”, religion insists it does know…
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Monotheism’s Dirty Little Secret
America today is what happens when religion runs amok. It isn’t good policy – or even democracy – motivating dumbasses like Florida’s Ron DeSantis and North Dakota’s Doug Burgum. Both signed legislation cutting off abortions after six weeks in their states – effectively making abortions illegal. Both, like all pro-lifers, love humans when they’re in…
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Ooga-Booga v Knowledge: America’s Simple Choice
When U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk of Abilene, Texas took mifepristone off America’s pharmacy shelves, he perfectly encapsulated America’s abortion argument and our choices. On the one side sits knowledge, surrounded by receipts. On the other sits ooga-booga. Ooga-booga doesn’t have receipts. They don’t know even know what receipts are (or how to spell “receipts”).…
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Splitters
Some people simply can’t get along with other people – especially people who aren’t like them. Rather than bend in order to accommodate the greater good – democracy is all about compromise – these toads head for the exit. They’re done. They’re splitters and they’re gonna take their damned ball and go find a new…
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Dear Mike Pence: Shut The Flaming Hell Up
Mike Pence thinks he lives in God’s grace. To a degree, he’s right. He’s living in something’s grace because we all still think of him as something other than a traitor! Make no mistake: Mike Pence is every bit the traitor Donald Trump is. And Donald Trump is, first and foremost a traitor. But then,…
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If Books Scare You, Actual Ideas Must Be Nightmares
Ever notice how it’s never progressives banning books? True fact: being progressive means book banning is anathema to you. Instead, progressives ban hate speech because hate speech undermines a diverse, democratic society. It is a literal assault upon others. Conservatives by contrast ban books because they hate what’s inside them – ideas and ways of…