Did you know that Europe has wingnuts too? They do! In Dutch a wingnut is “een vleugelnoot” (actually I think that means something completely different, but stay with me, people). And the exciting thing is that their heads are just as far up their asses as those of American wingnuts! This comforts me in a strange way.
In a charmingly insane editorial at the Brussels Journal, Flemish vleugelnoot Paul Belien sighs over the rotten state of Europe. The trouble began with the Enlightenment, he says, when Europe began rejecting its glorious religious heritage (persecution/war/intolerance) in exchange for a deadly secularism of reason and knowledge.
Mr. Vleugelnoot envies the “conservative resources” of America, which is still rooted in that wonderful Christian tradition he misses so much (persecution/war/intolerance). “Every so often I travel to the U.S. to recharge my batteries, and I am not the only European Conservative to do so,” he says. “From time to time one needs to breathe the air of freedom before submerging again in the stifling atmosphere of Europe.”
I’m not making this up.
What’s really eating Mr. Vleugelnoodle is that he’s jealous as hell of Muslims. It totally pisses him off that most modern Europeans aren’t into that whole suicide bomber, die-for-the-virgins-in-paradise thing:
In Europe a secularized post-Christian culture is facing a Muslim one. The secularized culture is hedonist and values only its present life, because it does not believe in an afterlife. This is why it will surrender when threatened with death because life is the only thing it has to lose. This is why it will accept submission without fighting for its freedom….
Europe’s predicament, I repeat, is entirely self-inflicted. Not Islam is to blame. Secularism is.
Excuse me for a moment while I lean my head out the window and scream in the general direction of Belgium:
“NO, YOU STUPID ASSWIPE!”
See, the Brussels Journal (of which Mr. Veugelstreudel is the editor in chief) is very big into the whole clash of civilizations trip — sensible Europe versus primitive Muslim immigrants. They backed the Danish cartoons all the way as a defense of free speech in the face of intolerant Muslim extremism.
But as this editorial makes clear, European vleugelnoots are no better than American wingnuts at realizing that what makes Western civilization relatively tolerant and worth defending is the very thing they so hate: its secularism. Secularism is why we even have free speech to defend. But Mr. Vooglebooble wishes the Enlightenment had never happened. He thinks the clash of civilizations would go much better if we could turn the clock back to the 17th century and have Christian holy warriors go toe-to-toe with Muslim holy warriors.
And there we get down to it: It’s not really about values for these vleugelnoots at all. It’s not about “tolerance.” It’s about us versus them. Deep down they have absolutely no fucking problem with blowing yourself and everybody else up for God. They just want it to be for their God. They would be happy as hell if all European Christians suddenly started behaving like the most deluded, inflamed Muslim extremists. American wingnuts are exactly the same. Well, hell — at the rate we’re going, maybe they’ll get their wish.
P.S. I have a deep personal affection for both the Flemish and the Dutch, so don’t nobody get their boobledoodles in a wad. I can curse in Flemish, too, so watch out.
Posted by Violet under Wingnut Watch, Cartoons on February 24, 2006, 4:34 am EST
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Or as Noam Chomsky said more gracefully: “If we don’t believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don’t believe in it at all.”
Holocaust-denier David Irving is a bad historian and a bad man. He writes dreadful books and gives hateful speeches. His opinions are inane, his research is tendentious, his claims are specious. He should be ridiculed and ostracized.
He should not be thrown in jail.
Free speech is quite the issue these days, what with Muslims rioting over cartoon depictions of Mohammed. Many of the Muslims who have posted to this blog — some of whom subscribe to the same International Jewish Conspiracy theory that animates Irving — have wondered aloud why free speech covers offensive cartoons of Mohammed but not denials of the Holocaust. The answer is that it should cover both. Speech is speech, and in a free society it must be unfettered.
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Technorati Tags: cartoons
Posted by Violet under Politics, Cartoons on February 22, 2006, 1:37 am EST
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I’m hesitant to say anything more about the cartoon mess, but the new violence in Pakistan intrigues me. What’s unmistakable about these Pakistani riots is that they’re directed at a number of particularly American targets — McDonald’s, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Pizza Hut — in addition to other Western businesses. Obviously none of these corporations had anything even remotely to do with the publication of those Danish cartoons. (Though I suppose it’s possible that the International Jewish Conspiracy™ is behind both McDonald’s and Jyllands-Posten, sort of the way Gulf+Western used to own everything from cigars to Star Trek.)
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Posted by Violet under Godbags, Cartoons on February 15, 2006, 1:51 am EST
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The cartoon controversy has demonstrated one thing clearly, if we needed any reminders: there is a vast ocean of ignorance on both sides of the divide.
I lost track of the number of Muslims who posted on my blog to explain that Islam absolutely prohibits any depiction of Mohammed. Wrong. Certain strains of Islam have had this prohibition at certain periods in history, but it’s far from universal.
On the other side, I lost track of the number of Christian commenters who argued that the whole controversy just proves how much more tolerant and enlightened Christians are than Muslims. And that the West should demonstrate this by wiping all the Muslims off the face of the earth.
A pox on both your houses.
The problem, as ever, is that an overwhelming number of human beings are dumber than a sack of rocks. A post today in Pharyngula describes how Christian godbag Ken Ham is on a mission to rot the mind of every child he meets. It’s the metaphorical equivalent of opening the kid’s skull, removing the grey matter, and stuffing it full of rags and corn mush.
Of course I’m not going to comment on the fact that arch anti-evolutionist Ken Ham is, ironically enough, one of the most simian-looking people I’ve ever seen.
Posted by Violet under Godbags, Cartoons on February 11, 2006, 7:09 pm EST
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Updated 2/10/06: now with a better illustration of the new dinosaur, courtesy Jyllands-Posten.
Isn’t this a gorgeous animal? Sometimes, when the world is too much with us — late and soon, getting and spending, hating cartoons — it’s a relief to plunge one’s head back into the Happy World of Science. This beautiful creature, as I’m sure you’ve read in the news, is the 160-million-year-old crested dinosaur discovered in northwest China. It’s thought to be an early relative of T. Rex.
It’s a little known fact, but back when Dr. Socks was a young footlet, she considered a career in paleontology. Alas, that career option was dropped along with archaeology when she discovered that she didn’t really want to spend 15 hours a day squatting in the dust under a blazing sun. But thank heavens for those who do!
Back when the dinosaur/bird controversy was raging, I was firmly on the side of the angels and Bob Bakker. I loved the idea of renaming the whole class Dino-Aves. That hasn’t caught on, but at least the Class Aves (birds) is now commonly included in the Super-order Dinosauria. Taxonomy in this area remains contentious and kind of head-splittingly complex.
Of course, Bob Bakker is most famous for his argument that dinosaurs were actually warm-blooded. It took years for that idea to get traction, but consensus has come around to seeing at least the therapods as warm-blooded — especially feather-covered little guys like this new one.
I’m just waiting for some fundamentalist Bible thumper to announce that these fossils were planted by the devil to lead the faithful astray. Then maybe someone will draw a cartoon of the dinosaur with Mohammed’s head on it, and we’ll have nuclear war.
Posted by Violet under Random Pedantry, Various and Sundry, Cartoons on February 10, 2006, 12:39 am EST
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Via Jesus’ General comes word that The Stupidest Woman In the World is urging people to support Denmark by purchasing Watco Danish Furniture Oil. Which, it turns out, is owned by Rust-Oleum and made in Wisconsin.
Posted by Violet under Wingnut Watch, Godbags, Cartoons on February 7, 2006, 9:11 pm EST
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Warning: if you’re offended by visual images of the Prophet, don’t click to read more. Just back away slowly from the blog, and nobody gets hurt.
People have died now because of this mess. Have any of the rioters actually seen the cartoons? I understand that Muslims are offended by any depiction of the Prophet, but the fuel on this particular fire is the perception that these images are especially demeaning. Even in the West, it’s common to condemn the cartoons as “racist” or to say that Jesus is never caricatured in such an offensive way. That’s bull.
I don’t think these cartoons are racist. I also don’t think they’re worse than any number of cartoons lampooning Jesus and Christians. To prove my point – or really just to get this off my chest, since that’s why God made blogs – I’ve decided to analyze the Danish cartoons along with comparable caricatures of Jesus and Christians.
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Posted by Violet under Godbags, Cartoons on February 7, 2006, 2:15 am EST
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Muslims around the world are chanting “Death to Denmark” because a Danish newspaper published satirical cartoons of Mohammed. And in other news from the 16th fucking century, there are exciting career opportunities in Rome with the new Index Librorum Prohibitorum. If you’re a team player and ready for a fast-paced, challenging environment, give ‘em a call today!
Just to square things up, here’s a satirical cartoon of Jesus:
This just in (well, 11 hours ago, but I just now noticed it) — The Vatican has weighed in and denounced the Danish cartoons with the following statement: “The right to freedom of thought and expression . . . cannot entail the right to offend the religious sentiment of believers.” Way to demonstrate your superb grasp of what “freedom of thought and expression” actually means, Vatican!
Good to know that some things haven’t changed in 500 years.
Posted by Violet under Godbags, Cartoons on February 4, 2006, 7:36 pm EST
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