Originally Posted By DyGDisney I can't believe, well maybe I can, that Liz Trotta makes this statement on the air. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjYpkvcmog0" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...pkvcmog0</a>
Originally Posted By gottaluvdavillains OMG - she said knock them both off - Osama and Obama!! WOW - I can't believe they let that on the air!
Originally Posted By cmpaley :-O That's my sincere reaction. The second involves the Secret Service and a jail cell.
Originally Posted By SuperDry Speaking of the Secret Service, since Obama is under their protection, I wonder if this will be investigated? Certainly, people have been investigated for saying far less direct things about protectees in the past. In addition, I think that "creepy" is a very good word for this. One has to wonder if the Osama/Obama mistake was a Freudian slip, or something planned. In either case, the way she quite naturally said "or both if we could" is very disturbing. It's disturbing if it was planned as a clever comment, and it's disturbing if that was her natural spontaneous reaction to a slip-up.
Originally Posted By X-san One of the major accomplishments of the terrorists on 9/11 was to trigger a resurgence in our nations' shameful and prolonged history of blatant prejudice. Suddenly all those racist pigs who'd been chocking back their black, jew, hispanic, asian et al hateful commentary for decades could finally return to what they do best on a race-wide scale; spew hatred loudly and proudly. During those dark decades for racists, such haters had to content themselves with gay bashing and fat jokes. They were becoming as irrelevant as the old phonograph records most of them grew up listening to. In just one day, an entire race returned to "fair game" status, and this is an excellent illustration of that phenomenon at work.
Originally Posted By dshyates Mr. X-san, I don't believe it was 9/11, even though I do believe it accelerated the problem. Whenever there is a Republican administration the rascists, religious zealots, and right-wing nut cases feel emboldened and ramp up their antics. By the time the last repub admin. left office they were bombing and shooting our own citizens. I believe if America was a Christian Theocracy we would be very similar to the middle east. And the first theocratic civil war would be Fundies vs mormon.
Originally Posted By X-san dsh, fair enough. I would call 9/11 the significant "flash point" however, where racism finally reared it's ugly head back in America "in full". At least, that's the way I saw it.
Originally Posted By dshyates Oh, no argument from me. Violence against Hindus in America went up 800% after 9/11. "American Patriots" doin' their part in fightin' the "terrorists". WhoooHoooo!!!! Americas #1. Whoooohooooo!!!!
Originally Posted By dshyates Nothing. That whats sad. Joe Redneck doesn't know the dif between them. If they wear a turban they must be Al...........Al Qaeda.
Originally Posted By DyGDisney We had Sikh Indians living next door to us at the time of the attacks. They were the nicest people you could meet, and they made yummy food! They were so afraid after the attacks because they wore turbans that they had signs on their house and cars that said something like Sikh love America, and they had American flags on them also. My old great-uncle came over one day and saw them, and made a comment such as, "How are the rag-heads next door treating you." I was so very angry at his comment, I tried to set him straight. But I'm sure I didn't change his opinion.
Originally Posted By SuperDry Wasn't there a Sikh service station owner near Phoenix that was shot and killed in the days after 9/11 by some "patriot" that thought he was getting revenge?
Originally Posted By SuperDry <<< I believe if America was a Christian Theocracy we would be very similar to the middle east. >>> Last month, I had the opportunity to visit the Middle East for the first time, specifically Dubai (which many call Middle East "light"). It was a fascinating experience in many different ways. I saw people with all sorts of belief systems all intermingling. Unlike places like Saudi Arabia or Iran, Dubai places practically no requirements on non-Muslims in terms of dress or conduct. Anyway, one of the major prohibitions of Islam is against the consumption of alcohol (from what I remember reading briefly, the Koran only prohibits becoming intoxicated, not consumption per se, but this has been interpreted over the centuries as a complete ban on consumption). But in Dubai, there is no problem as a foreigner getting access to alcohol. All the hotels have bars in the lobby, and the hotel restaurants serve beer and wine. My hotel room had a fully-stocked minibar and a couple of bottles of wine on the table available for purchase. If you live there as a non-Muslim, you can get a special alcohol license from the police that consists of a smart card that allows you to buy limited quantities at a liquor store - this is how they prevent Muslims from getting a hold of it. In short, they seemed to go out of their way to accommodate those with different beliefs about alcohol, even while maintaining that in their belief system, it's strictly prohibited. Then, I come back home to Texas. Here, there are lots of restrictive laws about alcohol. For example, I can't buy even beer and wine before noon on Sunday, because I'm supposed to be in church during that time. This rule applies to everyone, including those that don't go to church on Sunday mornings. And, many counties in Texas remain "dry" to this day. As far as I can tell, most of the restrictions written into Texas law are driven by fundamental Christians (they certainly are the ones that speak out the loudest whenever there are proposals to change these laws), and the laws apply to *everyone* in Texas, not just those that believe the way they do. Anyway, back to what I quoted above, I think there is some measure of truth to what you say. There are quite a few people in the US that seem very comfortable having religious beliefs written into law and enforced against everyone, as long as they come from their particular beliefs. Maybe we would be like Saudi Arabia and Iran in this regard (but not on particular practices of course). Yet, there are areas of the Middle East that are far more accommodating of other beliefs than the American theocrats would be, while still remaining true to their own.
Originally Posted By mele Still, people have to prove that they aren't Muslim to get a license to be allowed to buy alcohol? I'm not sure if that's any better than not being able to buy liquor on Sunday morning. At least you can wait a few hours and buy it w/o declaring that you aren't a Christian. That seems kind of I wonder how many Americans would declare no religion if they had to in order to buy alcohol?
Originally Posted By SuperDry <<< At least you can wait a few hours and buy it w/o declaring that you aren't a Christian. >>> But in dry areas of Texas, you can't ever buy it, regardless of your religion, even though the laws are driven by religious beliefs.
