Intolerance

I'm going to start off today with a rant, which actually began yesterday:

My mom recently sent me an e-mail telling me to VEHEMENTLY BOYCOTT the supposed new USPS stamp commemorating a Muslim holiday, issued by Pres. Obama. It quite disrespectfully reminds people of all of the MUSLIM terrorist acts against the people of the United States, clearly insinuating that ALL MUSLIMS ARE HORRIBLE, EVIL PEOPLE WHO JUST WANT TO BLOW UP AS MANY AMERICANS AS POSSIBLE.

My mother, typically, got extremely offended that I should insist that any group of religious nut-jubs are both capable and culpable of terrorist, genocidal acts of wanton hatred, including Christians ( and many would say, ESPECIALLY Christians). She promptly accused me of hypocrisy and blatant disrespect. And here's what I have to say to that:

People who BLOW UP other people ARE nut jobs, whether they do it in the name of patriotism, terrorism, or some religion (be it Christianity, Islam, or otherwise). Period.

Since I don't blow anyone up, or advocate the blowing-up of ANYONE, I don't really think that makes me a hypocrite.

Boycotting religious tolerance doesn't make you a better Christian, or a better person. I'm not trying to advocate what those select few terrorists did, or even defend it. THEY WERE CLEARLY EVIL PEOPLE. But that doesn't mean that ALL Muslims are, or that their religion is any more OR less bellicose than Christianity, Catholicism, Atheism, or heavy metal music. In fact, all of the Muslims and ex-Muslims that I know despise those terrorists nearly as much as you do; I'm sure when some whack-o Christian shuts people up in a church and burns it to the ground in the name of "piety", you are ashamed at that example of your chosen religion and beliefs. It is the same, and there is absolutely NO HARM in commemorating a Muslim holiday. Nobody is forcing you to celebrate it, no one is telling you to worship Allah. The have mosques and the Koran for that.

Like I said, if you don't like or want the stamp, don't buy one. No towel-headed Muslim has got a gun to your head.

____________________________________________________________________________________

On a happier note, I have a pretty boy to turn your thoughts away from such unpleasantries :)

This is actor Sean Maher, probably most famous to date for his role as Doctor/Refugee Simon Tamm on Joss Whedon's (post-DVD sales) hit show Firefly and the subsequent movie that came out of it, Serenity.
 
Come on. How cute is he?!

Ok, now we've also got the gay out of the way for today.
On to some recommendations for your entertainment via a friend in my Anthropology program:


This music website's design and style strongly resembles MySpace Music, only without the hideous MySpace part. One can log in, create a customized music profile, and JamBase does the rest. It will tell you when shows come to within a certain radius of your present location, gives you all the skinny on new and upcoming bands selected with your personal music tastes in mind, and all the 411 on festivals, concerts, tickets, venues, albums, releases, and much more. So go check it out! The only downfall is that it is powered by Lala.com, a "free" music player (but only if you create an account with Lala, which requires a credit card. :/ )

She also recommended this movie:


Which I have yet to see, but it's Jim Jarmusch, so it must be solid gold.




Coffee and Cigarettes (2003)
Jim Jarmusch




And last, but not least, is this treasure from PZ @ Pharyngula:






It's an Enteroctopus zealandicus, commonly called a Giant Octopus. This one is just a larva.

Cute!





Yeah, that's all for today.

wildcoyote

No comments:

Post a Comment