http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-03-02/pakistan-s-minorities-minister-bhatti-is-killed-in-gun-attack-in-islamabad.html

Something I wrote in the car on the way to work on hearing the news:

If your god is what you say he is
Why do you need a blasphemy law?
If he wants belief the way it is
Why do you need a blasphemy law?

And if what you belive is true
Whatever he wants to, he can do
So why the hell's it up to you?
Why do you need a blasphemy law?


The only reason I can see
For why you need a blasphemy law
Is your own insecurity
That's why you need a blasphemy law

The way you kill just goes to show
In your own heart of hearts, you know
There's really no-one's there, and so
That's why you need a blasphemy law

Good one Philbo

If your god is what you say he is
Why do you need a blasphemy law?


I'll dig up this old saw from a few years ago:

http://img94.imageshack.us/img94/6/democracyql1.jpg

For the record, recent developments in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Iran, and damn near everywhere else in the Middle East have made it pretty damn clear they can handle democracy, they just need a chance to give it a try.

To give democracy a try, however, they have to get their hands on it.  They can't get it the old-fashioned way (namely, us spending a trillion dollars to liberate the s*poop*t out of them :), they need to get their democracy the old-fashioned (albeit painful) way:  by earning it.  It'll be their win, and maybe they'll treasure it all the more, because they took it for themselves.

We tried getting $2/gallon gas our way.  5+ years and a trillion bucks after the start of what was supposed to be a 1-year war after which we could turn the taps back on, we're still paying over $3/gallon at the pump.  

If doing it their way means I have to pay $4/gallon for a few months, so be it.


no-one's there


I'm gonna pretend I didn't read that line, because if I had, I'd have to write a parody of Nine Inch Nails' Heresy that'd get my head lopped off in Denmark.  

But Pakistan's already a democracy, and they're the one with a blasphemy law that calls for the death penalty for insulting Islam or Mohammed.. and enough fanatics to murder any politician who suggests this might not be a good idea.

IMHO, a blasphemy law is proof that any omnipotent deity simply can't be as omnipotent as the religion thinks.

For the record, recent developments in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Iran, and damn near everywhere else in the Middle East have made it pretty damn clear they can handle democracy, they just need a chance to give it a try.


Would you have said the same thing about Iran's revolution in 1979? ???

None of these countries have seen democracy yet.  Let's hope that they overcome their long-staid histories and this time democracy actually takes hold.

Would you have said the same thing about Iran's revolution in 1979? ???


Yeah.  Sometimes revolutions get hijacked.  Can't win 'em all.  

(Ditto our decision to support "people just fighting for the right to worship their God" in Afghanistan during the Russian invasion of the 80s.  How were we to know it would have turned out better if we'd just let the commies wipe 'em out?)


None of these countries have seen democracy yet.  Let's hope that they overcome their long-staid histories and this time democracy actually takes hold.


You and me both.  I'm a little more optimistic this time around - there's an entire generation of under-30s who want nothing to do with religious fundamentalism, if for no other reason than that they've seen what happened in Iran.

And speaking of Iran, this came from the last go-round, and wasn't shopped.

http://i781.photobucket.com/albums/yy95/tcjon/the-finger-459x664.jpg

She may be in hiding, may have given up, or may be dead.  But she was not, and is not, alone.