12/9/05 Quotes and notes...
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"That is a big controversy this year about calling Christmas trees, holiday trees and trying to take religion out of the holidays. I was watching one of these cable news shows about this and they had on an atheist who said they were against "organized” religion. And while they were talking, they had on the screen the name of the atheist organization. So they were against organized religion but organized atheism is apparently ok." Jay Leno, during his 12/7 monologue on The Tonight Show on NBC.
... Good point, Jay. Aethism is a religion - its adherents just reject God. Secular humanism is also a religion. And the mainstream media doesn't seem to have much of a problem helping other religions espouse their views. It's Christianity they have a problem with.
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...Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad calls for Israel to be moved to Europe. People aren't noticing that this seems to be a softening of his stance (tongue in cheek), since last month he issued a call to "wipe Israel off the map."
...This is an issue that has its origins in Biblical times dating back to Abraham. And it is not going to be permanently solved by an agreement, no matter how nice that would be. When one side starts from the position that the other side has no right to exist, where do you go? No amount of appeasement will satisfy what is really bothering them. That should be obvious by now.
...Have you noticed that Mr. Ahmadinejad's comments last month seemed to get less coverage in the mainstream media than Pat Robertson's suggestion to take out Mr. Chavez of Venezuela? I wish Mr. Robertson would keep opinions such as those to himself rather than share them with the world. But at the same time, I don't see why his opinion should be headline news anyway. And I certainly don't see why the voiced opinion of a televangelist who has no ability to follow through on his suggestion should garner more media attention than the call by a president of a sovereign nation that is working on a nuclear program to wipe another nation off the face of the earth. Does that make any sense?
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...Wow. I guess that's enough coffee for today, huh?
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