My thoughts are bouncing all over the place today, so I will put them all here rather than a bunch of posts in O/T.

First, Today is Anzac Day, a very important holiday in Australia and New Zealand, commemorating the “birth” of both nations at the terrible Battle of Gallipoli in 1915-1916.

World War I was the first war that involved the two fledgling nations, both of which had been semi-independent for only about 10 years. The Brits still called the shots during war, however, and sent wave after wave of Aussie and Kiwi soldiers into the Turkish guns. Thousands were slaughtered. The assault failed. It was a pointless battle in a pointless war, but out it came a lot of pride in two counties, who decided “never again.” Never again would they allow themselves to be machine gun fodder for the British.

This is a very young Mel Gibson (before he got *too* weird) starring in a very good Australian film about Gallipoli:

This is the New Zealand National Anthem. Notice how the first stanza is often sung in Maori

Secondly, there was a long discussion on PPOV yesterday about intolerence toward faith. I saw a shocking exchange yesterday on another Web site (no, not HP, an actual liberal Web site). The names of the posters aren’t important, so I won’t post that. I didn’t want to post this on Easter Sunday because I thought it might be too upsetting:

XXXXXXX
Happy Easter

XXXXXXX
“Fuck you fundamentalist, go peddle your Christian delusional bullshit somewhere else!”

XXXXXXX
If i offended you then i apologize, I was just being nice.

XXXXXXX
No, your delusional ass wasn’t trying to be “nice” to me or anyone else, just look at the fucking history of just about anywhere missionaries have went in order to “save” primitives from there “ungodly “lifestyle, in reality, you are trying to promote, and being a spokesman for, the greatest bullshit story ever created, religion, Woods you -for just once in your miserable fucking life- stop perpetuating antiquated bullshit? The reality world of the 21st century, is sick of it, would you please begin to appraise the concept, that we can all get along without God, and actually love care and love one another, without the completely artificially created concept of “God”?”

Now, I have NO idea if there was history between these two posters, but I looked at the one poster’s history, and he seemed benign enough to me. It appeared that it was no more than one poster taking a ridiculous amount of offense to what seemed like a harmless sentiment of “Happy Easter.”

It really upset me, for a couple of reasons. For one, if you’re a non-believer, what is so hard to simply ignore the post. It’s not like the guy was being preachy. He simply posted, “Happy Easter.” Why is that so offensive? I looked at his response, and I couldn’t help but feel he’s every bit as close-minded as someone like Fred Phelps or Terry Jones.

The second thing is it’s this kind of ginned up nonsense on the Internet where right-wing Fundamentalists get their talking points that “all liberals hate Christians” “All liberals are anti-God.” You see that crap posted A LOT over on “that site.” When so-called liberals react like this to a simple, “Happy Easter” it accomplishes nothing but to give fodder to that talking point.

Thirdly, you have probably seen me post about all the snow here.

In case any of you were thinking I was exaggerating, this is the hotel we are going to in September. This photo was taken three or four days ago:

April 21

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ADONAI
Member

Australia, India, South America, United States.

England does have a knack for uniting entire groups of people in opposition to them.

Obviously they’re uniters. Not dividers.

Caru
Member

Gallipoli is one of the many reasons why I’m not Churchill’s biggest fan.

zampano
Member
zampano

Yes — but Kitchener bungled just as much as Churchill in the Dardanelles and didn’t lose his job over it

Caru
Member

Don’t get me started on Kitchener either.

zampano
Member
zampano

Oh well — he was blown up off some remote Scottish island shortly afterwards anyway… so I guess that was the end of that. You country needs WHO?

whatsthatsound
Member

All you atheists can go caroling with this song on Atheist Eve (which comes right after Godless Friday)

Mightywoof
Member

I’m shamed to say I’ve never heard the NZ National Anthem HH – it’s lovely and absolutely brilliant that it’s also sung in Maori!! You probably know that Canada has a French version and an English version and I so wish we were enlightened enough to sing one anthem in both official languages (I think we also need a third language to represent the original peoples)

What everybody else said about the ignoramus and his rant on a simple Happy Easter 🙄

I saw Gallipoli when it first came out – great movie! As was Breaker Morant.

whatsthatsound
Member

I make a motion that there should be an official Atheist Day.

Seriously! Think how cool it would be. Atheists could have a special day, and could wish each other “Happy Atheist Day!”

Meanwhile, believers with a bug up their butt (like the above non-believer most definitely has) could get all upset at them whenever they wished that to each other. They could tell the atheists who write it that they’re going to hell, just go Medieval on the poor slobs.

It would all even out that way.

zampano
Member
zampano

I’m with you on that!

whatsthatsound
Member

it’s all about giving people a way to pass the time! 🙂

zampano
Member
zampano

tee hee — oh, well then I’ll just have to wish you Happy Atheists’ Day as soon as I find a spare moment to get around to it…

PocketWatch
Member

wts – I could be called an atheist or an agnostic, or maybe a pantheist or something, but the sad truth is, all the organized religions have it all over folks that have no religion….

No holidays! No Christmas, Easter, Good Friday, St. Patrick’s Day, Kwanza (is that religious?), and so on. I don’t know the Jewish or Muslim ones, so forgive me, but the principle is the same…

No days off, no forgiveness at work for having to observe this or that, not even Sundays off! And, having to cover at work for all those other people that take time off for religious reasons.

I say atheists and non-believers are de facto discriminated against for this reason and need to organize and file suit immediately!

I would have fun watching Pat Robertson’s head ‘splode right out of the TV machine!

whatsthatsound
Member

Your last sentence is one more reason why we need Atheist Day NOW!

zampano
Member
zampano

I’ll vote for you.

Buddy McCue
Member

Good grief!

No way a simple “Happy Easter” deserves that response. I’ve never observed Easter myself, but I can’t imagine gong off on somebody like that. Incredible.

KillgoreTrout
Member

Wow, such a visceral response. It reminds me of a homophobe taking such great and mean lengths to degrade and insult gay people. Doth this person protest too much? His almost violent reaction to a simple conveyance such as Happy Easter is psychotic. This person acts as though Christianity is out to get him. How sad.

zampano
Member
zampano

Yes, remarkably visceral. I can only imagine that these two posters do indeed have some “past history” of which we know nothing — perhaps on an entirely different site. Otherwise it makes no sense. Most people are happy to exchange these kinds of greetings at the appropriate times, even if they have a different faith, or none at all.

jkkFL
Guest

KT, isn’t that the tone of the nation right now?
The animosity and hatred is palpable.
I just can’t accept that this is merely political.. there is something else at work here.

Buddy McCue
Member

jkkFL – What do you suppose that might be?

A cultural polarization perhaps?

Khirad
Member

I saw an article in this weekend’s paper about Anzac Day and how Turkey’s tourism actually gets a boon off of the annual pilgrimage. I thought that was nice, but really, I was just surprised it was that time again. Have you really been with us over a year now?

To the rant, chill out dude, it was just a felicitation.

This goes out to the Australian 16th Battalion

foxisms
Guest

I think it’s fairly safe to say that intolerance breeds intolerance.

escribacat
Member

Haruko, It’s interesting and unfortunate that intolerance is not just the purview of rightwingers.

zampano
Member
zampano

No, sadly, it isn’t. But labelling people as “left” and “right” in such matters is not always helpful. While we concentrate on the very obvious danger of the fundamentalist right, we ignore at our peril the strong evangelizing / prosletizing movement that professes to be “liberal” or “left”, and yet does just as much harm in the world (“reaching the unreached”) as any right-wing fundie movement. A recent newsletter from one such supposedly “liberal” Christian organization (YWAM — look them up if you haven’t heard of them) for instance, even described the Japan crisis as an “opportunity”:

http://www.ywam.org/News-Stories/news/Opportunity-amid-the-Crisis-in-Japan

Kalima
Admin

I’ve lived in Japan for over 30 years and would have to say that they would be out of luck. The Japanese have survived for centuries without an organized religion, their beliefs are grounded in tradition and culture.They are very tolerant of other religions, but there is very little curiosity to join.

Sorry, where are my manners, a warm welcome to The Planet.

zampano
Member
zampano

Well, that’s a relief. Not for want of trying though. Without a hint of irony (nor any apparent awareness of the incredibly rich aesthetic and artistic tradition of Japanese culture), YWAM Tokyo proclaims:
“We believe that God wants to release a generation of Japanese who know the deep affection that Jesus has for them… We believe that worship, prayer and the arts need to be joined to communicate God’s heart to those who have lost a sense of beauty in their lives.”
http://www.ywamtokyo.org/

Kalima
Admin

Well they are certainly trying, but I hope that they are not holding their breath, Japanese believe in a God-Kami sama, just not every day, week or month. They visit shrines once a year at New Year, again tradition, when they want to pray for an easy birth, great results in exams, and so on. The other religious ceremonies are births, marriages, laying new foundations for a new house or building, and of course death and funerals. I’m afraid the finding of our Christian God would not be as easy as this group might think, the Japanese are just fine as they are.

I”m Roman Catholic, and the very last thing I thought about when I married my Japanese husband in London was to make him one too.

I wonder how long they would last over here, the Japanese have a habit of being very polite, they often say yes when they really mean no, it could be quite frustrating.

On this note I will wish you a good day and a good night from over here.

zampano
Member
zampano

Thank you for the welcome — just testing the waters here. 🙂

PocketWatch
Member

zampano –

Welcome. The waters are warm, deep, and have a few currents that need navigating, but it’s well worth the effort.

zampano
Member
zampano

Thanks, waving — not drowning :_)

kesmarn
Admin

HH, I loved the earnest “tough guy” faces on the team during the singing of the New Zealand national anthem…which is really quite cool!

On all that snow: I’m going to officially quit complaining about all the rain we’ve gotten lately. I’ll take the rain. Please!

And, last but not least, on to the anti-religion rant that you had the misfortune to encounter elsewhere, HH (poor you!). I know you may find this hard to believe, coming from me, but this person cracked me up. I mean — really — how comical is it to totally lacerate someone for simply wishing a happy holiday to the readers and then to announce that we don’ need no steenkin’ God to help us to “get along” and “love care and love one another”? 😆 That is hilarious! What warped version of “love” is this person referring to?

That’s like the cartoon of the parent pounding on the little kid and saying with every blow: “This…will…teach…you…not…to…hit…your…brother!!!”

You betcha! Preach that looooove, atheist!

It would take a lot less time to simply post: “Attention, all people of faith. Please vote Republican. Thank you.”

I love and respect atheists who have come to their state of non-belief through thought and study. I’m always interested in their explanations of how they came to hold the beliefs they hold or don’t hold. I don’t think they should feel obliged to keep silent about their beliefs, which are as valid as anyone else’s. I believe in separation of church and state. I don’t believe in prayer in public schools.

I also believe people have a right to post “Happy Kwanzaa,” “Blessed Eid,” or “Happy Chanukah” online without becoming victims of verbal assault and battery.

And it would be awfully nice if folks who wouldn’t dream of using the “n” word, referring to a woman as a c–t, or a gay person as a f-g, who wouldn’t think of insulting Muhammad or using pejorative stereotypes about Jews, would display the same sensitivity toward Jesus (not “jeebus”) and Christians who are trying to help further the progressive cause.

Oh — and the person who posted the screed against Christianity might want to learn the difference between “their” and “there,” how to use a period to end a sentence, the difference between “would you” and “Woods you,” and the fact that there is no such grammatical construction as “have went to.” After all, if he/she wants to lecture people he/she regards as so vastly inferior, it’s very helpful not to write as though English is his/her second language.

Kalima
Admin

😆 kes, you tell em! People who start a sentence with the words “Fuck you” need some anger management therapy. I could see the spittle flying, and was looking for my brolly.

I don’t know how this therapy actually works, but I remember seeing a funny Adam Sandler/Jack Nicholson film about it some years back. 🙂

kesmarn
Admin

Those “Fuck you” posters could do with a little Nicholson therapy, Kalima!:

Kalima
Admin

Oh kes priceless, did you see it too? 😆

kesmarn
Admin

I’ve seen clips, Kalima, but never the whole movie. I’ll have to Netflix it one of these days.

jkkFL
Guest

Yikes! Kalima with her brolly- that’s enough to shut me up!! 🙂

bito
Member

Wood you beleeve there talking when we gone to the store? They don’t even no how to talk good English. 🙂

kesmarn
Admin

It’s like being called “dumb” by Dubya, b’ito. Lacks cred! 😆

jkkFL
Guest

LMAO-Ya think!!!!! 🙂

zampano
Member
zampano

Thank you, Kesmarn… very well said. I have no problems whatsoever with people of “faith”, as long as they, too, are willing to respect the different faith or spirituality or atheism, as the case may be, of others. Nor do I have any problems exchanging holiday greetings with friends, colleagues and neighbours — whether it is Eid or Hannukah or Easter or Divali or Beltane. So the sheer fury of that exchange suggests to me that this may simply be a case of two commenters who have clashed over something in the past. It sounds personal.

jkkFL
Guest

Kes, you rock!
Brilliant post.

kesmarn
Admin

😳

And do I feel silly. I went to hit the “Reply” button and accidentally gave your comment a thumbs up. Vain much? 😆

I mean you totally deserve thumbs up anytime, jkk, but…

Never mind. I’m babbling again…thank you! 😳

Kalima
Admin

I saw the Mel Gibson film many years ago, in fact it was the first time I had seen him, and he was good in it.

To the comments you posted HH, I’m not offended. I feel rather sad for the person who had to spill so much hate just because someone wished them a Happy Easter. I did it here, there was no malice intended, it’s just something I’ve done all my life. For this person then to accuse the person who said it of being a RW Fundie is just so ridiculous to me, they could have been, then again maybe they were not. The spewing of hate and bigotry they continue with in their comment, speaks more to their own personal problems and mental state. I found it more childish than anything else, and grew used to seeing, but never understanding it during my two years on HP. After much initial amazement over the fact that the religious beliefs of anyone could produce such venom against another person you don’t know and will never meet, I just avoided all posts there that dealt with religion. The rabid comments were just too sickening to read, and the lumping of all Christians in with your American Fundies was in my opinion very shallow and of course very ignorant too.

I wonder if this poster has ever joined an Easter Egg hunt when they were a child, or received presents at Christmas and enjoyed them, if so, I find them extremely biased and hypocritical.

The snow, that much snow, in April is quite amazing. I hope it’s gone by the time you get there.

coveark
Member
coveark

Wow, where are you at ??

That was not my comment though.

I had never even heard of Gallipoli until I saw the movie………. It tore my heart out….heartbreaking……..I had no idea about such things at the time………fast as a leopard……….