The Plurality Of The News

Two rather revealing news reports when juxtaposed.

From BBC News:

Gunmen have launched simultaneous raids on two mosques of the minority Ahmadi Islamic sect in Lahore, killing more than 80 people, Pakistani police say. . . .

Mr Hassan said the worshippers were "easy targets" for militant Sunni groups who consider the Ahmadis to be infidels.

And the Toronto Star:

The spiritual leader of the Ismaili Muslims came to town Friday to break ground on a remarkable project that will include a museum of Islamic art and an Ismaili Centre, both set in an exquisite seven-hectare park. . . .

The intention, the Aga Khan noted, is to illustrate the “plurality of Islam,” something about which North Americans could always stand to be reminded. As he also said, he hopes the museum will address the “clash of ignorances” so characteristic of our time.

Perhaps Muslims could stand to be reminded about the "plurality of Islam?"

Maybe our equivalent of the Aga Khan (Rupert Murdoch?) can build a museum demonstrating the plurality of Anglo-Saxon secularism in Lahore.

Who Remembers The Cathars?

Whether left or right, when it comes to ideology, idiots rule. Here's a bit of conservative idiocy on display.

Dennis Prager in The National Review:

But there were never any Christian Auschwitzes — systematic genocides of every man, woman, and child of a particular race or religion. Nor were there Christian Gulags — the shipping of millions of innocents to conditions so horrific that prolonged suffering leading to death was the almost inevitable end.

The New York Times:

Eight hundred years ago, these castles in Languedoc, a region of vineyards and olive groves that stretches from the Mediterranean to the Pyrenees in the southwest corner of France, were hideouts of the Cathars, a zealous religious sect that denounced many basic tenets of the Catholic Church. Pope Innocent III was alarmed by the Cathars’ growing popularity, so in 1208 he declared a crusade to eradicate them.

Waves of cross-bearing warriors from northern France and Germany obeyed the holy call, laying siege to Cathar strongholds, slaughtering the heretics and pillaging their lands with a savagery that was startling even by the standards of the Middle Ages. In Béziers, at the northern edge of resistance, over 15,000 men, women and children — the entire population of the town as well as hordes of hapless refugees — were butchered. (The crusader monk Armond Amaury famously told his troops, when asked whom to spare, “Kill them all, God will know his own.”)

And from a conservative list of the The Fifty WORST Books of the Century:

Elaine Pagels, The Gnostic Gospels (1979)
Bored with the real Gospels and real Christianity, professors of religion were thrilled to find out how important-not to mention feminist and pre-Socratic-these fragments were.

The "real" Gospels and "real" Christianity according to who? Paul? Constantine? Pope Innocent III? As far as I can see, the Cathars went out like true Christians: nailed to the cross by a mob of bloodthirsty hypocrites.

The Republic Of Kush

From some column:

How do you name a nation? The southern part of Sudan is set to become the world’s newest country when people there vote on independence in a referendum scheduled for January. But while many of the institutions needed for a country are being put in place, there is no agreement as to what the new nation will be called.


New Sudan, South Sudan and Southern Sudan have all been mentioned. But there is a danger in associating themselves with the original Sudan, a country whose international brand has been ruined by Omar al-Bashir, the president indicted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes in Darfur.

My suggestions (because you asked): Nubia or Kush.

Inside The Termite Mound

Big cities are strange places. A babble of languages. A moving picture show of unattainable flesh. A liberating anonymity that like all liberations, ends in disappointment. The Jews didn't crucify Christ, the city did, just like it fed Socrates hemlock. Nowadays we ignore our local eccentrics. To be hip in the city is to be cutting-edge, but never to fall off that edge. Lead the charge but always glance backward to see if you're being followed.

I dream of throwing money-lenders out of temples and splashing sheep's blood on advert models. Live here if you must but be in and not of, move among but don't belong.

The Gospel Of Lemmy

AFTERLIFE:
You're a financial wizard, a top tycoon,
A sweet lounge lizard, with a silver spoon,
You know you never had it, quite so good,
'Cos you didn't know, that you even could,
But the time has come to pay,
Turns out to have been a play,
Whatever happened to your life?
Stone Dead Forever

DEMONOLOGY:
I spit in the eye of Satan
And I will spit in thine
The devils that surround thee
Liveth only in thine eye

DIVINE WISDOM:
"Let's be honest, I don't give a fuck about Ethiopia, you don't give a fuck about Ethiopia. If Ethiopians stopped giving a fuck there wouldn't be so many fucking starving kids would there? Send them some fucking contraceptives."

DOCTRINE:
I got rock n' roll, to save me from the cold
And if that's all there is, it ain't so bad

EROS:
If you squeeze my lizard
I'll put my snake on you

HOLY WAR:
I march before a martyred world, an army for the fight
I speak of great heroic days, of victory and might
I hold a banner drenched in blood, I urge you to be brave
I lead you to your destiny, I lead you to your grave
Your bones will build my palaces, your eyes will stud my crown
For I am Mars, the god of war, and I will cut you down

LORD'S PRAYER:
We shoot power to your heart, a mighty thunderbolt
We charge all batteries, we save your soul
We don't know when we're licked,
But we turn lead into gold
We know alchemy, we bring you rock and roll
We are the ones you love, or we're the ones you hate
We are the first and we just still might be the last
We are Motorhead - born to kick your ass

OMNIPRESENCE:
Lemmy walked into a Ramones video and Beavis says to Butt-Head, "Whoa! Butt-Head, look! It's Lemmy! It's Lemmy! What's he doing there?!" Butt-Head responded, "He's Lemmy, dumbass. He can walk into any video he wants."

THEODICY:
"I think all things are alive. If they're not, how do they fuck you over so much?"

WHORE OF BABYLON:
Lemmy often referred to the song "The Chase is Better Than the Catch" as "The Face is Better Than the Snatch."

ZEN:
You know I'm born to lose
And gambling's for fools
But that's the way I like it baby
I don't wanna live forever

And don't forget the joker