A Cult Capital Of The World Discovers Slavery Going On (Continues Attacking Anyone Who Sees And Mentions It)

“You like ignorant agony more than anything else,…

...Everyone but yourself can free your mind, and we all choose not to.

..ROAR!”

- NotquiteunBuckley, a TMR heckler, not altogether "up" on how racism is being dealt with, toe-to-toe, here

So - "everyone" could stop this, but they "all choose not to" - as they'd rather watch me struggle alone with it? Well, along with that being nothing new, it certainly explains why I always have so much material to work with:

     “Last week,...the FBI accused [a] couple of enslaving an Indonesian woman who is in her early 20s. For four years, reads the indictment, they created "a climate of fear and intimidation through rape and other means." The slave woman cooked, cleaned, took care of the children, and performed other tasks for little or no pay, fearing that if she did not obey, "she would suffer serious harm."

The two Saudis face charges of forced labor, aggravated sexual abuse, document servitude, and harboring an alien. If found guilty, they could spend the rest of their lives in prison. The government also wants to seize the couple's Al-Basheer bank account to pay their former slave $92,700 in back wages.

It's shocking, especially for a graduate student and owner of a religious bookstore - but not particularly rare.”

No, as the American experience with slavery continues to prove, religion can be THE prime ingredient for cruelty,...

 

Cults: They Can Get Away With Almost Anything

...And there's not a damned thing anyone's doing to stop them.

He's Not Sure About God (He Knows He's A Dad)

This just goes to show us how stupid, and disgracefully evil, the whole situation surrounding religious beliefs can get:

The courts have taken away a father's visitation rights with his children because he's not sure if God exists.

Talk about a nightmare. For the record, God doesn't exist, so to do anything to anyone because of a belief one way or another is beyond madness. It's a crime. It has to be. Making American citizens live with such nonsense as this, and torturing us for life because of it, surely is a crime.

TMR doesn't think much of agnosticism, but we want to be clear on our position regarding this gentleman's plight:

This. Is. Wrong.

Outlaws

Here's an obvious question about living in San Francisco - supposedly "America's most liberal city":

"Does this town have to outlaw everything?"

Why yes, yes it does. San Francisco, of course, is known as "The Paris of the West", and, of course, it was in "liberal" Paris that Jews were outlawed during WWII. But, like San Franciscans, the French don't talk about that side of themselves, preferring to be portrayed as heroic defenders of all that's right and good in the world.

Speaking of heroic defenders of all that's right and good in the world, remember when I wrote "Viva La France: A Vicious Nation Of Idiots", about the celebrations France was having for rogue trader Jerome Kerviel? He was then being called "the Che Guevara of France" because he lost 5 billion euros "to make a mockery of the greedy fat-cats who control the all powerful markets". Well, after he gets out of prison, he better try to become one of those greedy fat cats - and quick - because he, alone, now has to pay back 6.7 billion. Is that striking a blow against capitalism or what?

So crank up the celebrations for Jerome Kerviel - again - but this time, the French had better label them as San Franciscans do one of their favorite occasions:

The rent party.

Blues, Browns, Blacks, Man - It Sure Is Getting Colorful, Something Awful, Around Here!!!

Not too long ago, my friend, Ann Althouse, took the "enlightened" position of the Na'vi regarding broadcasts of California's Prop. 8 Trial, demanding and saying of those who opposed such a thing:

"What wussies! Transparency!"

I took a dissenting position - not because I hate gays or gay marriage, or openness in public affairs, but because of the ridiculous reaction gays have had to losing in the recent past - which I thought was ugly and don't want to see again.

Now today, according to The San Francisco Chronicle, Oakland, California's supporters of gay marriage are still acting ugly, specifically trying to intimidate people who can't (or won't) fight back - before it was an elderly Mormon woman, and now, in this case, it's a 96 year-old Mormon man. So, based on this, I've got a question for Ann and other gay marriage supporters (the answer should be obvious here):

Who's really the "wussies" - those who pick on gays or gays who pick on old people? - and is "transparency" really the answer when bullies are ruling the roost?

And then, of course, there's always the real $100,000 "wuss" question that's been hanging around for some time now:

Gay marriage advocates are pretty big folks when it comes to women and 96 year-old religious men, but when are gay marriage advocates going to march through black and hispanic neighborhoods, demanding they vote as they're told?

Yea, yea, as Elton said: "I guess that's why they call it 'The Blues',..."

Whatever You're Driving Has A High Book Value

"We ask plenty of questions of any evangelical Christian candidate: what do his beliefs about the nature of God, the nature of the cosmos, and the meaning of man’s life mean for his potential tenure in office? But for whatever reason, these questions are looked at as unnecessarily piercing and prejudiced when asked of a member of a minority faith."

-- Alex Knepper, opening the door a little bit wider - to a serious dialogue about just what-in-the-hell's going on here - in the Frum Forum.

Throwing The Shrimps On The Barbie

"False imprisonment, coerced abortions and embezzlement of church funds, of physical violence and intimidation, blackmail and the widespread and deliberate abuse of information."

-- Nick Xenophon, a senator in Australia, detailing crimes former Scientologists allege the cult has committed there - while using taxpayer dollars - and giving new meaning to the phrase "down under", at the Australian Broadcasting Company.

The Ol' Proclamation Of Divine Will Wins Again

Do Unto Others,...

"Mel got up on his stage - the altar - and went off. He tried to intimidate the parishioners by staring at everyone with his angry eyes. Mel even threatened to shut down the church if people kept gossiping about him. The bottom line is that if Mel hadn’t cheated on his wife and gotten his Russian girlfriend [Oksana Grigorieva] pregnant, there wouldn’t be much to gossip about – he created this mess, and now he’s trying to control it."

-- A Holy Family Chapel parishioner, describing Mr. Holier-Than-Thou, Mel Gibson, and his recent rant over church-goers discussing the fall-out of his adultery, in The Daily Mail.

Ball Of Confusion

"If you give in to intimidation, you will not get less intimidation, you will get more intimidation."

-- Flemming Rose, the editor of Jyllands-Posten - the Danish newspaper that ran the notorious "Muhammad" cartoons - to the San Francisco Chronicle's Debra J. Saunders