__



Friday 10 April 2009

Christ al-Qaeda, it's Good Friday!

I just can't help but recommend the following interpretations of the times, one, because I do think it's about time that pirates were defended, and two, because I should be practicing for my gig on Sunday.

Diversion that that first piece was, it led my attention back to municipolity, which in turn reminded me of Berlin, but more on that in a moment. The second article is on London's latest leader.

No analysis from me on those, though, as much as I'd love to bitch and holler about the kidnapping and cannibalization of African fish. The authors of the above linked articles are important, in my opinion, and at any rate are a couple of "my reasonable" sources of journalism. Shit like this even gets buried in the vast web of the Internets on so-called progressive sites like HuffPo.

Today our Lord and Savior (should "Savior" be capitalized, I mean, when using it in the third person?) was rendered to the executioners, and as I scribe, he's likely being led to His Certain Death. You may recall that he, er, He was an instigator; that's all we need. Sure there's unprecedented trials, and outrageous tribulations, but what the hell was He moanin' about? Get a friggin' job, Your Lowlifeness!

So He was ratted out by one of His own, I heard. They say the guy was some kind o' Judas. Haaa! I gotta laugh at that one.

Here, in the oldest city east of Rome and west of the East German border, the chief of police is offering 50,000 righteous new Euro-dinero for any information leading to the capture of those responsible for the torching of Audis and Beamers. So far this year it's been fifty-five not counting last night, I haven't checked the news this morning (some things are apparently pretty easy to keep track of).

These acts of criminalism are attributed to black-hooded hooligans from the Autonomous School of Left Radicalism. I guess they'd be out there on the tip of the wing somewhere. Ahh, yes, Wingism! I love words like pirate and extremist, but there's nothin' beats a good 'ol Name. The Disciples o' Christ! So Chief Glietsch is hoping to get one of those sweatshirt-wearing urban pirates to rat out his comrades.

Do any of these groups carry cards? Of course not! Why, they are primitives. Degenerates. Why else would the People of the Progressive Perch join the RighTeous BreThren in unequivocal condemnation. Funny that names are cast at and cast off, hurled, shunned, and avoided like leprosy, and then when it's convenient, co opted like so many African fish.

If only Somalia had a Jesus to magically multiply their stock. Be fruitful and multiply. Sigh.
____________________

In a year when we are branding Berlin by looking back twenty years to the removal of The Wall (save for a few tourist attractions), the year when the locusts had the net lifted to a landscape just waiting to be fruitful and multiplied all over, the east/west internal struggle continues.

A referendum will take place in Berlin on Sunday, the 26th of April. (All election days are on Sunday in Germany; what do ya think of that?) Anyway, this one is an initiative started by Some Members Who Happen to be Christians. I emphasis this, because I want to make clear that it is not all Christians who support it, and I wouldn't want to brand an entire group in the same way we Brand to Bomb people. Broad strokes.

So out of a group of roughly forty percent of religious confession (read, willing to admit), there exist a paltry few who want to alter the recent, and not so recent past. Before I get to the hows and whys, allow me to tease you a bit further: You didn't misread; over 59 percent of the Berliner population claims no religious affiliation. Hallelujah!

So basically, the referendum "Pro-Reli" has to do with wanting to allow the public school pupilry to opt out of a compulsory ethics class if they take a religion class instead. Just to be clear, these are not courses on religion in general; exclusive curricula are taught respectively by representative teachers of the individual religions themselves. So the classes are not the same. As things stand now, these courses are offered, but optional.

Why now?
Almost three years ago, a standard subject was added to the curriculum of the Berlin public school system: Ethics.

This move was a reaction to a sad and most unfortunate, but "honourable" murder. Not unlike debates heard 'round the world, it was felt that the values of some in the immigrant community were not in line with those of the greater society. So it was thought that these values should be educationally endorsed outside of the isolation of the family; not an un-liberal idea, though a Liberal would say that those being brain-washed would have a better chance if they were taught more than science. Well, they wouldn't put it that way, but that's the sentiment, and I tend to agree, standardization battles aside.

Now, the Pro-Reli Christian block never wanted the course, of course, but this doesn't mean that politics doesn't make strange bedfellows. Still, the best way to differentiate between the for and against on this issue is to note that the anti-ethics folks just may actually believe that a certain someone really really rose from the dead 1976 years ago this coming Sunday. The other Christians only say that's what they believe. Hey, I never said I wasn't prejudiced. Okay, probably some of the referendum's Yessirs just hate everything brown except for their shirts.

The hypoc-rony here is that the ones who were screaming the loudest about others' refusal to integrate are the very same who want to usher through the side door effectively mandatory denominational religion classes for children of the delusional. So Christians will "faithfully" choose Christianity, Jews "judiciously" Judaism, Muslims "miraculously but irrationally" Islam, and so on. Say what you want about Ethics as an official subject of study at the elementary school level, but this ain't no solution.

Berlin being Berlin, however, the only placards to be seen are the ones above, extolling the virtue of keeping religion a choice. A nice quarter-spin, that. It may not tell the whole story, but the Pro-Ethics counter movement sure is clever, if wasteful.
_______________

Oh, by the way: Have you heard that Leon Panetta has officially declared that the Agency He Heads doesn't operate its secret prisons anymore? This makes me actually want to type one of those abrevi-o-cons, but it just wouldn't be honest; I'm not really "laughin' out loud".

Now I need to get back to practicing for my musical resurrection.

Happy Renewal everybody!