This week I read about a woman who’s been kicked out of church for not paying her tithes. Now I know what most of you are thinking – that’s pretty mean and un-Christian.
Well, you’re wrong. First African Baptist Church (FABC) of Bainbridge’s Pastor Derrick Mike is perfectly within bounds for turfing Josephine King of Georgia out on her 92-year old ass. Once one buys into the whole religious belief thing, one should sure as hell* expect to pay. Nothing’s free (except the coffee apparently), for anyone of any age.
In the video embedded in this article, you will notice that the FABC is one big-assed Church. It must surely cost a pretty penny to keep that monster suspended like belief afloat. Church management are reasonable to expect payment. It’s all business after all.
* If you’re wondering how an atheist can speak of the surety of hell, wonder no more. Hell does exist – in vast parts of Africa, the Middle East and other parts of the world, being ruled by either religious zealots or dictatorial psychopaths, or being torn apart by either or both.
Daddy didn’t give affection, no!
And the boy was something that mommy wouldn’t wear
King Jeremy The Wicked
Ruled his world
I love cars. Which is why I love Top Gear.
But I soon discovered that Top Gear is not all about cars. Oh no, it’s about Jeremy Clarkson. It’s not a one-man show, but his sidekicks Richard Hammond and James May, proficient though they are in their own right, are like the cars they feature, little more than beautiful (and did I say accomplished?) props.
Top Gear is almost all about Jeremy. Funny, irritating, laughing, teasing, politically incorrect, offensive, shameless, devilish Jeremy. There was a time the only reason I bothered to watch the telly, apart from sport off course, was because of Top Gear.
And now he’s in trouble again.
This time, suspended for allegedly throwing a punch at a BBC producer. The reason does not matter. Producers after all are supposed to serve gods actors food on time… and take a punch or two for the greater good.
There’s a litany of indiscretions that’s got him into trouble before, but the BBC knowing what a treasure he is, sensibly did not let those mundane distractions keep him off the box. But now it appears to be different. Two whole shows have been postponed. That’s pretty darned alarming.
So he’s alluded to truck drivers being murderers of prostitutes, and called former Prime Minister Gordon Brown a “one-eyed Scottish idiot.” So fucking what? I despise truck drivers who’s only mission in life seems to be to cause traffic chaos, and everyone knows Gordon Brown is an idiot. Surely we don’t need to be convinced.
But it’s also alleged that Clarkson has offended various race groups, nationalities and religious denominations around the world, including Mexicans, Argentinians, Asians, Muslims and Indians. Boo fucking hoo! People are just too darn sensitive.
Hey, I’m Indian (South African), and I was not at all offended by Clarkson’s remark about Indians being unsanitary. India is on my bucket list of places NEVER to visit, up there with Saudi Arabia (practically all of the Middle East actually), North Korea, Pakistan, Malaysia and 98% of Africa. No, not even when I’m dead and my atoms return to star-dust.
The guy’s a gifted comedian for fuck’s sake. The world needs more of them really badly.
Yes, there’s a much more selfish reason why Jeremy just has to come back. The Top Gear Live Show is scheduled to return to Johannesburg, South Africa in a couple of months, and I DO NOT want to miss that. It just won’t be the same. It would be Stuck In Gear.
Last month I published a post concerning the ridiculous assertion by a Saudi cleric that driving vehicles causes harm to women’s ovaries and pelvis. Women drivers are frowned upon in Saudi Arabia and although there’s no actual law forbidding them from driving, licences are not issued to them.
This weekend, there were reports of at least 14 women from Jeddah, Mecca and the Eastern Province being arrested for participating in a defiance campaign. It’s likely that they’ll be fined, or some could even lose their jobs.
Saudi Arabia features prominently on this BBC News World report, as a country with the least equality between men and women. The map below actually fingers most of the Middle East and large parts of North Africa as the worse places a woman could find herself. And I’m going to refrain from pointing out the correlation between degree of religiosity in these countries and the disdain for women’s rights… Oh crap! I just did!
On a lighter but welcome note, there are still good men in Saudi Arabia, as this YouTube video which has gone viral points out. Comedian Hisham Fageeh and some friends did a send-up of Bob Marley’s No Women, No Cry to illustrate just how absurd this driving ban is.
One can only hope these pathetic clerics relent and allow women to drive soon, among other human rights they’re currently denied.
But making ludicrous claims has been the forte of mankind since time immemorial. And most do so to further their own insidious political, social, economic and religious agendas.
Take this asswipe from Saudi Arabia for instance: Sheikh Saleh bin Saad al-Luhaydan who is styled as a judicial and psychological consultant to the Gulf Psychological Association claims that women who drive cars will cause damage to their ovaries and pelvis.
This misogynistic claim was made in support of a ban on women driving cars, which is now being challenged by Saudi female activists. And it does not require rocket science to figure out that the roots of this absurd ban on women driving originates in archaic religious literature.
Men have for thousands of years hidden behind or perverted cringe-worthy doctrine of a religious or political nature to spew forth vitriolic bile that aims to keep women and mankind in general in check and subservience. This should not, and must not be tolerated any longer.
Heed my words; you abide the words of clergymen, politicians and other ideologues at the risk of your own well-being, not to mention sanity.
“The evil that men do lives after them; The good is oft interred with their bones.” So said Mark Antony in William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar.
Now if the religious texts are to be believed, one can conclude that Abraham the founder of the three major monotheistic religions was responsible for the proliferation of Patriarchy, that evil virus found in the minds of men who are mostly religious or traditional or both.
Off course, Patriarchy could well have evolved in the minds of the progenitors of Abraham, but the religious texts of these religions, if they are to be believed, don’t allude to such. However for the sake of this narrative, let’s stretch credulity as is often required with such tales, and accept Abraham to be the father of Patriarchy, even if the religious texts don’t acknowledge it as an evil mind virus.
Please bear with me for the long-winded introduction to the thing that is bothering my mind – a mind that has hopefully suppressed for eternity, the evil of patriarchy.
The depravity and megalomania of the clergy is well-known all over the world by those whose minds are fortunately not held captive by these despicable scoundrels; but those squatting down in Saudi Arabia right now with their gullible followers are the focus of my ire. You see, the Saudi clerics have convinced the pathetic men of Saudi Arabia that women should not be allowed to drive cars. Off course this is not all that women in Saudi Arabia are forbidden from doing, but this is one of the more ridiculous prohibitions dreamed up by men with seriously sick minds.
Manal Al-Sharif, one such women unfortunate enough to be living among these patriarchal pricks, was recently arrested for the “crime” of driving her own car. Thankfully human-rights groups have exposed the real criminals here – patriarchal men whose minds are stuck in the stone ages. Imagine if these idiots are allowed to continue practising their bigoted religiously inspired norms? How long before they have women arrested for thinking for themselves.
The video below is a tribute to Manal Al-Sharif for defying the ludicrous thinking [if one can call it that] of the men [if one can call them that] of Saudi Arabia.
Fortunately, such behaviour is not common here in South Africa. I live in a small town dominated by Islamic men, but their wives are seemingly allowed to drive cars; very expensive ones too. Depending on your point of view, the clerics here are either very lax or the patriarchal mind virus is not so dominant in this part of the world. Either way, it’s good news for both the women in South Africa, and the future of the human race.
While European and Western leaders dither over taking decisive action in Libya, the death toll at the hands of the madman Gaddafi, rises steadily.
Leaders of the revolt against Gaddafi estimate that he could massacre around half a million people within days, if the West and Europe don’t do something soon.
What’s the matter Obama and company, not enough oil in Libya for you disgraceful lot?
It used to be that the dearly beloved king ruled over his people for many prosperous, happy years. 23 years of stewardship in the fabled kingdoms of old, signified a content nation.
Coming back to reality and the oppression-dom of Africa, 23 years of stewardship only signifies that the ruler despot-in-charge is besotted with his hold on power and/or that the people have become used to the status quo with what could only be described as religious deference.
However, there comes a time when the people will rise up against tyranny, usually when they have nothing or very little left to lose. And usually the people who rise up tend to be motivated by rational necessity , but more often than not guided by some form of ideological cause.
And so, the 23-year reign of Tunisia’s repressive ruler, Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali came to an end this week, when he chose to flee the country, rather than have his head paraded through the streets propped on a stick.
The people eventually grew tired of his repressive regime and living in abject poverty. However, it appears they were guided by a fairly significant extent by the growing appeal of Islamic militancy that is springing up among young people all over the Middle East and North Africa. And therein lies the problem. It creates a gap for the religious fundamentalist clerics to attain a grip on the affairs of state.
It would be sad to see Tunisia replacing political tyranny with a religious one…
Lenny Says 