Beady Eye for the Murdering Guy
So, it seems to be a good day for out-there pronouncements by bloodthirsty authoritarian men. For horrible glimpses into the nasty fetid power-ravenous controlfreak minds of tyrannical shits.
Osama’s pious little wet-dream is not much of a surprise, of course. No surprise at all really. But still worth a passing kick.
Osama bin Laden wants the United States to convert to Islam, ditch its constitution, abolish banks, jail homosexuals and sign the Kyoto climate change treaty…Alcohol and gambling would be barred and there would be an end to women’s photos in newspapers or advertising. Any woman serving “passengers, visitors and strangers”, presumably anyone from air stewardesses to waitresses, would also be out of a job.
From air stewardesses to waitresses isn’t all that far – presumably that would also include doctors, nurses, dentists, teachers, many lawyers, checkout clerks, bus drivers – quite a range of jobs.
In the book the terrorist responsible for the deaths of 3,000 civilians in September 2001 says that killing the innocent is wrong.
Of course he does. Nothing easier – you just define the people you want to kill as ‘not innocent’ and the job is done. No problem, no cognitive dissonance. ‘If I hate them, they must be wicked, because I am good, so I wouldn’t hate them unless they were not good, so if they are wicked naturally they are not innocent, and besides I am good, so my killing them must be right, because I am good, so it can’t be not good, therefore, logically, they must be wicked. If they are chosen by (good) me to be killed, then necessarily they must be wicked, or otherwise I (good as I am) would not have chosen them.’ Airtight, you see.
And clearly so Pinochet thinks – with a pretty, devout, humble, spiritual thought.
Augusto Pinochet, the former Chilean dictator, has declared that God will pardon him for human rights abuses committed during his 17-year rule, according to newly released court documents. Asked by Chilean judge Victor Montiglio about the killing of 3,000 Chilean civilians during the military government, Mr Pinochet, 89, said: “I suffer for these losses, but God does the deeds; he will pardon me if I exceeded in some, which I don’t think.”
Heads I win tails you lose, you see. God does the deeds, so it’s none of me, but I suffer for these losses (note how compassionate I am, how sensitive, how good), but it’s that God fella wot done them, blame him. Anyhow he’ll pardon me if I went just a teeny tiny bit overboard in some – not all, mind you! No indeed, not all! Only some. He’ll pardon me if I went just a little bit mad with the fun – even though he’s the one who does the deeds. You see what I mean?
His logic isn’t quite as strong as Osama’s, but it has that touch of compassion that makes it so moving.
Everything that I did, all that I carried out, all the problems I had, I dedicate to God, all this I dedicate to Chile because this permitted that the country was not communist and arose as it is today.
Ah well – you see. Who can blame him now, after a generous gesture like that? Everything he did, he dedicates it to God. How very, very sweet. That would be the God that murders tens of thousands of people in Kashmir to give a message to Musharraf, I take it, and the God who kills hundreds of people in New Orleans and Mississippi to – what was it? Give the US a message about Darwin, was it? Or was it lesbians? Disobedient women? Something like that.
Okay, good. Great. I can do that too. I’ll dedicate some stuff to God. Here you go, God. Every single person killed or horribly injured by terrorists this year; every single person killed or horribly injured by terrorists throughout history (that’s a highish number, I should think); every person killed or horribly injured in every war; every person who dies in pain; every animal that dies in pain; every person and animal who suffers pain while alive –
Gosh, that seems to be a rather long list. God is frantically signalling that he can’t write that fast, and isn’t altogether sure he wants the dedication anyway.
He’s a funny guy though, isn’t he. Can’t stand poofters, but is terrifically fond of mass murdering thugs and tyrants. How odd. Me, I prefer queers.
I know this is a well-thumbed quote, but it can’t be said too often;
Then old Nobodaddy aloft
Farted and belched and coughed,
And said, “I love hanging and drawing and quartering
Every bit as well as war and slaughtering.”
My favourite in poor religious excuses is the Liberian (or was it Sierra Leonean) warlord who was told by Satan in a telephone conversation that he and his troops should burn down villages and chop up the inhabitants. He tended to go before his troops in his birthday suit, which earned him the nickname “General Butt Naked”. As his luck began to turn at some point, he received – you guessed it! – a telephone call from God telling him he’d better stop. He’s now a respected preacher in a local Pentecostalist Church.
Touching, isn’t it?
Oh, gawd.
And there’s that bastard in Mississippi – some self-appointed preacher, locally called “the Preacher” – who got away with his part in murdering Chaney Goodman and Schwerner because one of the jurors couldn’t bring herself to convict a minister.
Again, so touching.
Who was it that said that (paraphrasing horribly) the wicked do wicked things, the good do good things, but it takes religion to make the good do wicked things?
I’d have wagered Bertrand Russell. But a quick search turned up it was Steven Weinberg.
>Who was it that said that (paraphrasing horribly) the wicked do wicked things, the good do good things, but it takes religion to make the good do wicked things?< Unless we extend the definition of religion (and please don’t) this is refuted by twentieth century history. Plenty of good people in the Soviet Union were prepared to engage in wicked behaviour because they believed the Communist Party had a monopoly on truth, and that history would absolve them. Yes, I know that in many cases coercion (to put it mildly) led to their behaviour, but many people willingly joined in the persecution of “Trotskyists” and “saboteurs” because if the Party said they were guilty of terrible crimes then it must be true. And what about the huge numbers of students and others in China who engaged in activities that destroyed lives during the Cultural Revolution? Were not many of these “good people” caught up in an ideological belief?
“Osama bin Laden wants the United States to convert to Islam, ditch its constitution, abolish banks, jail homosexuals and sign the Kyoto climate change treaty…Alcohol and gambling would be barred and there would be an end to women’s photos in newspapers or advertising”.
Most of this doesn’t surprise me. But sign the Kyoto treaty? Since when did Osama give a f**k about climate change?
I wonder what Osama’s position is on the vexing issue of sugar tariffs? And has he said anything suggesting how he would have voted in the recent California election about Propostion 79?
OB, just to add more fodder to this list of religious lunacies and oppressions, I hope you look at the LA Times truly horrendous story about the dumping of pedophile missionaries among the Eskimos by the Catholic church. (here: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-alaska19nov19,0,6259417,full.story?coll=la-home-headlines)
It is a little different from the usual Catholic pedophile priest story insofar as it is also about racism and the destruction of a fragile culture, as well as the continued death grip on power possessed by organized religion in the states. And it has a Pinochet topping statement by a Jesuit spokesman commenting about a Catholic missionary named Lundowski who raped almost all the children in a remote Eskimo village:
Bishop of Fairbanks Donald Kettler said the church must find a way to help any victims of abuse, but that money is a problem for his cash-strapped missionary diocese.
“Whitney, head of the Jesuits’ Oregon Province, said that “we’re not culpable for the actions of Mr. Lundowski, who was never a Jesuit. We have a moral responsibility in our role as priests to be part of the reconciliation work of Christ.”
Whitney said that reconciliation and healing would come in a relationship with God, and not in a courtroom.
“We’ve remained faithful to the people in the villages,” Whitney said. “We haven’t withdrawn or run away. We want to be companions in their pain and healing. We want to know how we can help.”
These guys are defending not paying for the damage caused by the rapist missionary because — it would bankrupt their missionary fund! And we know how necessary and helpful that has been.
I believe Sir Richard Burton once remarked that, ‘The fact that ‘missionary’ is not synonomous with ‘martyr’ speaks volumes for the tolerance of primitive peoples.’
Damn…thanks for that, Roger.
This ‘reconciliation’ crap – we’ve seen that before with Amish abusers.
“He worked for God, and I was just an Eskimo child.”
Osama wants to jail homosexuals? He’s becoming liberal in his old age. Iran just hangs them.
I wonder if ObL even understands the Kyoto treaty? I think it is just a stick to beat the US and to attract sympathy from environmentalists. I say this because this is part of the “right on” mix of leftist ideas which includes cultural relativism.
If the cultural relativist left has some sympathy for “oppressed muslims” such as ObL then mentioning environmentalism will tick another sympathy box
(I should emphasise that I am pretty “Green” and left myself and find these tactics appalling. The fact that it might work is even more appalling)
Not being a arabic speaker, it was quite a surprise to me find that at least one scholar considers OBL one of the finest prose writers in Arabic.
Given that the Nobel Prize for Lit is always a contentious choice, I wonder about OBL’s chances of making it to the shortlist ,if not outright winning it, one day…