April 28th, 2008 by Manila Ryce
Thank Jah there are still black leaders like Reverend Jeremiah Wright who have the courage to speak loud and truthfully. On the internet, I’ve already had the unfortunate opportunity to see Tucker Carlson, probably the most detached white person on the planet, denounce Wright as a bigot. Irony anyone?
Video of the entire speech available below the fold.
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April 16th, 2008 by Manila Ryce
Legendary intellectual Cornel West joins Al Jazeera to bring a bit of substance to the usually hollow discussion of American politics. Dr. West touches on a variety of subjects from race, philosophy’s role in critiquing power, the truth behind Reverend Wright’s controversial words, free-market fundamentalism, authoritarianism, American hypocrisy, and hip-hop. Sit back, absorb, and share your thoughts.
April 11th, 2008 by Manila Ryce
James Yee, Former US Muslim chaplain for Guantanamo Bay detention camp, describes the hostility towards Muslims at the facility, and the trumped up charges brought against him for raising concerns about human rights abuses.
Yee also reveals that children as young as 12-years-old are being held at the camp. Imagine these juveniles are US citizens who were actually charged with a crime and given a fair trial. It’d be outrageous to try and sentence them as adults, let alone hold them with adult prisoners in a detention facility where torture and solitary confinement are standard procedure.
April 10th, 2008 by Manila Ryce
Chris Hedges hits the nail right on the head in this interview with Thom Hartmann while promoting his new book, “I Don’t Believe in Atheists”. In Hedge’s previous book, “American Fascists”, he railed against the new breed of Fundamentalist Christians monopolizing the poor of America. Now Hedges explains why learning about people like Jerry Falwell prepared him for the equally dim mindset of Fundamentalist Atheists like Christopher Hitchens.
Christopher Hitchens is a narcissistic pro-war bigot whose God is his own ego. He attempts to deny human nature by externalizing evil as a byproduct of religious philosophies. Hitchens drives such a hypocritical wedge of superiority between his philosophy and those of theists that he ends up arguing for the infallibility of his own group.
It is important to recognize that history’s worst persons were just as human as you and I. Failing to accept the commonalities of human kind has allowed freedom-loving Americans to stand behind a fascist government and Israelis to defend Nazi-style tactics against Palestinians. Likewise, it’s the same mental dichotomy of “me versus everyone else” which prevents Hitchens from realizing the similarities between him and the religious fanatics he condemns.
Hitchens’ fascist quest to forcibly bring Muslims into “reason” is identical in all respects to the most radical fundamentalist preachers who call for a new Christian crusade in the Holy Land. The most striking difference, however, is that Hitchens is actually taken seriously on shows like Real Time, as if his agenda had more merit than Pat Robertson’s.
Just as Fundamentalist Christianity uses religion to achieve the most un-Christian ends, so too does Fundamentalist Atheism use the spirit of agnosticism to foster intolerance and justify dominance over non-converts. Hitchens’ followers worship the personality of their jingoist god just as much as he worships himself. In my opinion, anyone who confuses Hitchens’ condescending wisecracks for honest intellectual inquiry would do well to read more than just Vanity Fair.
The role of philosophy, religious or otherwise, is to provide assistance in a person’s ongoing quest for truth, not to allow a suspension of rational thought by providing you with a final and absolute answer.
Then again, I could be wrong.
March 25th, 2008 by Manila Ryce
The Real News talks with Professor Dwight Hopkins, who is a member of Trinity United Church of Christ, regarding Obama’s rebuke of Reverend Wright. There have been very few people in either the mainstream media or blogosphere who have defended Reverend Wright’s comments, and frankly it’s because there are few who understand either Christianity or American foreign policy. Not to mention that actually criticizing what Obama says will result in Kool-Aid busting through your wall to waterboard you with delusional goodness. I didn’t think it was possible, but the Obamaniacs have become just as rabid as the Hillary supporters since his big speech on race. Regular readers to the blog know we’ve had more than our share of artificial sweetners here lately.
March 22nd, 2008 by Manila Ryce
Stephen covers the double standard which the media has given a black pastor, by ironically labeling him as an anti-American racist, while giving hateful bigots like Robertson and Falwell a free pass to say much worse. After 9/11, Reverend Wright correctly recognized that we were experiencing blowback from the terrorism our government had previously committed in the Middle East. Robertson and Falwell however, placed the blame on American citizens (specifically Feminists, Pagans, the ACLU, and anyone who’s ever watched Will & Grace).
Where is the media outrage regarding McCain’s embrace of these “agents of intolerance”? With such an apparent racial double standard and his good name tarnished for speaking the truth, I wonder if Geraldine Ferraro also thinks Reverend Wright is as lucky to be black as Barack Obama is.
March 19th, 2008 by Manila Ryce
There is a sense of righteous indignation in China that Tibetans should be grateful for all the government has done to make them more “civilized”. Cultural genocide has been occurring in Tibet for quite awhile, even before the Chinese government started bringing Han into the region. Now Tibetans are a minority in their own land, and all decisions are made by Chinese representatives. The Chinese even consider themselves to have “liberated” Tibetans from the Dalai Lama’s regime. It’s odd how ridiculous the jingoist logic behind imperialism sounds when it’s another country who’s doing the raping.
“If things become out of control then my only option is to completely resign,” Dalai Lama, Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader, said in Dharamsala in northern India.
Today, China’s Premier Wen Jiabao accused the Dalai Lama of orchestrating riots in which dozens may have died and said his followers were trying to “incite sabotage” of Beijing’s August Olympic Games.
The Dalai Lama, who fled into exile in India in 1959, denied Chinese accusations he was inciting the rioting.
“Investigate throughly, so if you want to start investigating from here you are most welcome,” he said.
“Check our various offices …They can examine my pulse, my urine, my stool, everything.”
The Nobel peace laureate says he wants autonomy for Tibet within China but not outright independence.
March 18th, 2008 by Manila Ryce
Barack is charismatic and delivers one hell of a speech, so I’m always pulling for him not to disappoint me. The problem is that he always does. After some inspiring language regarding equality, unity, and other American ideals that we all wish truly existed in more than just a speech, Barack just had to throw this line in there to denounce his pastor and embrace AIPAC at about the 8 minute mark:
“Instead, they expressed a profoundly distorted view of this country – a view that sees white racism as endemic, and that elevates what is wrong with America above all that we know is right with America; a view that sees the conflicts in the Middle East as rooted primarily in the actions of stalwart allies like Israel, instead of emanating from the perverse and hateful ideologies of radical Islam.”
Dammit Barack. If you don’t understand that military and economic oppression fuels radicalism by now then you not only haven’t been paying attention to Iraq over the past 5 years, but you also haven’t understood what’s been going on for over more than four decades in Palestine. Seriously, I think you lifted that line out of one of Traitor Joe’s speeches. If your goal is simply to convince Americans of what they already believe (that our shit doesn’t stink), rather than to get us to recognize the terrorist actions we commit every single day, then you’re more a mouthpiece than an orator. Eloquence aside, this is why your former pastor deserves more respect than you. Lincoln you are not.
I didn’t watch the rest of this video after that remark, but I’m sure there are more pandering lines which fucked up what could have been something truthful and real.
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