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David Byrne on Jesus Camp movie –

” …the next step will be learning to fly planes into buildings”

A new documentary that follows a bunch of kids through an evangelical summer camp is creating waves:

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Naturally, the kids being so young, there is no questioning of any kind ? they simply accept what grownups Fischer and the others say ? they get pumped up, agitated, they memorize right wing and Jesus slogans and shout them back obediently. They become part of a support group ? a warm, safe, comfortable feeling for anyone, for any social animal, for you and me. No one strays or gets out of line even the slightest bit. (More on peer pressure later.)

There were some perfect sound bites ? at one point Pastor Fischer instructs the little ones that they should be willing to die for Christ, and the little ones obediently agree. She may even use the word martyr, which has a shocking echo in the Middle East. I can see future suicide bombers for Jesus ? the next step will be learning to fly planes into buildings. Of course, the grownups would say, ?Oh no, we?re not like them? ? but they admit that the principal difference is simply that ?We?re right.?

In another scene a cardboard cutout of George W. Bush, with his trademark smirking smile, is brought out and the children are urged to identify ? many of the little ones come forward and reverently touch his cardboard hands.

I kept saying to myself, ?O.K., these are the Christian version of the Madrassas (those Islamic religious instructional schools in Pakistan and elsewhere, often financed by Saudi oil money)…so both sides are pretty much equally sick, there?s a balance.” (Although it must be said the Madrassas provide some regular education and literacy where no other option is available, they do community work that is non-religious…and they take in aimless troubled youth.)

Read More…

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The documentary’s newly acquired distribution company also created waves with a dumbass publicity stunt at Michael Moore’s film festival – first they pestered Moore to screen it, then when he agreed, they put out a press release condemning its inclusion!

Looks like the filmmakers may have learned a few choice fundie publicity strategies while they were out there doing their research.

Jesus Camp, Religion, Christian fundamentalism, Summer Camps, Movies, David Byrne

Why Billmon is right and Gilliard wrong

Billmon:

The lesson learned from the Democratic reaction to Israel’s war of choice is that the Dems are only likely to oppose war as long as the war in question can be framed as a fight against Iraqi insurgents and/or Shi’a death squads, rather than a fight for Israel. But the Iraq occupation isn’t going to fit neatly into that frame much longer. In fact it’s already slipped out of it. The Dems — always a little slow on the uptake — just haven’t realized it yet. But when the time comes to choose (for Israel, or against war with Iran) I fully expect to see Ned Lamont in the front ranks of the pro-war phalanx, right next to the last great white Democratic anti-war hope, Howard Dean.

People tell me I shouldn’t get hung up on this because, you know, if the Dems get in they’ll make sure the seniors get their Social Security checks a little faster — or they’ll keep the Supreme Court out of the hands of legal madmen or do something about global climate change or save the whales or whatever else it is that’s supposed to make the Democratic Party infinitely preferable to the Republicans.

It’s not that I discount these differences entirely — although they’re easily oversold. But compared to the fate that awaits the republic, and the world, if the United States deliberately starts a war with Iran, those other considerations start to look pretty insignificant. I mean, we’re talking about World War III here, fought by people who want to use tactical nuclear weapons. I’m supposed to put that out of my mind because the Dems might be a little bit more generous about funding the VA budget??? I’m sorry, but that’s fucking nuts.

Gilliard:

If the United States gets froggy about an Iranian war, I can predict to the letter what will happen. A mass Shia uprising in Iraq and a move to take over the Saudi oil fields by Saudi shia.Iran has 130K hostages to work with and there is only one solution for the US. The US can only replay Chosin if they attack Iran, and even as stupid as the Bushies are, there are limits to what we can do, and apparently, for the IDF.

There isn’t going to be a Third World War, but a humiliated Israel and an emboldened Hezbollah. If you want to waste your day worrying about the unlikely, that’s fine. People tried to tell Marshall how to fight WWII. But those things you don’t think matter, they are the difference between life and death for many people.

It’s a lot more comforting to worry about a nuclear war with Iran than some 24 year old with his missing legs, but the reality is that the war mongers will be deflected or lead to a massive defeat and that problem with the VA isn’t going anywhere.

You go to work, have a nice life and can think about such things. But when a vet doesn’t get his disability check, he can starve, or be homeless, today, not in some distant future.

Gilliard thinks that the obvious repercussions of any war with Iran will dissuade the neocons, due to the threat they pose to the US army in Iraq. What he fails to see is that this is an exact repeat of what he and other sensible people were saying before the war on Iraq. Any fool could see that an invasion of Iraq would sooner or later start a bloody insurrection, a meatgrinder that would chew up the army in dribs and drabs, one dead soldier here, three disabled for life there, yet that didn’t stop them, then, so why should it now? For the necons, the army is just a tool tob e used and if it is destroyed doing its job what do they care? They don’t serve, nor do their families or friends. The burden is not theirs.

Furthermore, what is the point of having better disabled veteran care if you continue to support wars which make more veterans? Will veterans receiving their benefit checks on time weight up against having thousands more disabled vets to provide benefits for?

Read more about:
Democratic party,
Steve Gilliard,
Billmon

Capitalism Gone Wild

Thanks to commenter Geos at Steve Gilliard for pointing to this excellent and well-worth reading expose of Girls Gone Wild proprietor Joe Francis, from the LA Times:

‘Baby, Give Me a Kiss’

The man behind the ‘Girls Gone Wild’ soft-porn empire lets Claire Hoffman into his world, for better or worse

By Claire Hoffman, Times Staff Writer

August 6, 2006

Joe Francis, the founder of the “Girls Gone Wild” empire, is humiliating me. He has my face pressed against the hood of a car, my arms twisted hard behind my back. He’s pushing himself against me, shouting: “This is what they did to me in Panama City!”

It’s after 3 a.m. and we’re in a parking lot on the outskirts of Chicago. Electronic music is buzzing from the nightclub across the street, mixing easily with the laughter of the guys who are watching this, this me-pinned-and-helpless thing.

Francis isn’t laughing.

He has turned on me, and I don’t know why. He’s going on and on about Panama City Beach, the spring break spot in northern Florida where Bay County sheriff’s deputies arrested him three years ago on charges of racketeering, drug trafficking and promoting the sexual performance of a child. As he yells, I wonder if this is a flashback, or if he’s punishing me for being the only blond in sight who’s not wearing a thong. This much is certain: He’s got at least 80 pounds on me and I’m thinking he’s about to break my left arm. My eyes start to stream tears.

This is not what I anticipated when I signed up for a tour of Joe Francis’ world. I’ve been with him nonstop since early afternoon, listening as he teases employees, flying on his private jet, eating fast food and watching young women hurl themselves against his 6-foot-2-inch frame, declaring, “We want to go wild!”

Read the rest

It’s a fascinating read, and exposes the underbelly of the nightclub and video industry, but I have massive issues about any employer allowing and even encouraging an employee to put herself in such sexual danger for a story. It was foolhardy of the reporter carry on after being assaulted, and particularly to have dropped the charges against her attacker.

That said, I’m glad to see this parasitic slimeball being exposed to the light of day.

Sex Industry, Feminism, Video, Crime

No. Mrs Beckett, It’s Because You’re Crap

Beckett hits back at ‘sexist’ attack on her softly, softly diplomacy

Gaby Hinsliff, political editor

Sunday August 6, 2006
The Observer

Margaret Beckett last night rounded on ‘spiteful’ criticism of her performance as Foreign Secretary, suggesting she had been patronised because she was a woman.

The cabinet veteran also disclosed that she employs her husband as an unpaid adviser, following sniping over everything from his reported habit of ‘hanging around’ her office to her failure to visit Middle East troublespots. And in her first detailed response yesterday to the criticism, she pointedly told The Observer that her predecessor Jack Straw – who broke ranks by criticising Israel’s military tactics – faced an even worse drubbing when he started. More here…

Accusations of sexism, in this instance, are the last refuge of the incompetent.

Beckett (and don’t forget the ‘Mrs’, heaven forbid anyone might accuse of her of being unmarried) was put in the post precisely becuuse she has no foreign affairs expertise other than a few EU negotiations and no military knowledge either and so would be easily biddable to Blair and Bush – especially important as their insane Middle East policy goes against the FO’s own advice. Beckett’s never been able to stand up to Tony Blair. That leaves him with complete personal control over foreign diplomacy. And what a great sucess that’s been.

Can you imagine Condoleza Rice popping off to tour Yellowstone in a Winnebago for two weeks in the middle of a war?

Our Foreign Secretary swanned off to France yesterday in a bloody caravan, like a suburban housewife in a pinny. But not many suburban csravanners have Special Branch officers following on behind in peformance cars. France seems appropriate – Marie Antoinette liked to play at being a little person and that’s exactly what Beckett’s doing with her caravan holiday. Otherwise, she’s been the biggest user of taxpayer-funded air travel in the Cabinet, using planes and helicopters even for trivial trips. Humble she ain’t when the cameras aren’t looking.

If there’s any sexism against her – as opposed to justified criticism of her ineffectuality – Beckett is the one inviting it when she perpetuates the ‘little woman doing a Big Man’s Job’ stereotype, by parading her marriage and domestic life and pretending working class humility in public every chance she gets.

That says to the world that she’s a little woman who can’t do anything without her husband’s say-so. A neat metaphor for the US/UK special relationship – as above, so below, so to speak.

Feminism, UK Politics, War On Lebanon UK Parliament, UK Foreign Policy

The End-Times Delusion

This is a comment I made over at Digby but I’m posting it here too, because it’s something I’ve been wondering about. What will happen when the christian fundies realise they’ve been fooled and that everything they’ve been taught is a crock of shit?

I can’t help wondering what will happen after (if there is an after) the Middle East is turned into a lake of glass and millions are dead – and then the fundies’ eagerly-anticipated Rapture fails to happen.

Imagine their chagrin when they’re not transported bodily up to heaven and have to stay down here and confront the mess they’ve made.

No promised eternity of wingnut bliss for them. There’ll be a lot of pissed off, flyover-country people when they realise this and they’ll be wanting answers from their leaders.

And many of them are armed.

Of course all this is predicated on us all still being here when Bushco is finished with the world.

End-Times, Rapture, Apocalypse, Middle East War