“Judeo-Christian” Values

Would somebody please explain to me
How wishing a merry Christmas-day
Is an act which could be said to be
"Judeo" in any form, any way.
"Judeo-Christian" values? Pah!
Is perfunctory lip-service, even, paid
To the Talmud or the Tanakh?
Do you recognize Tzedakah? No! Such aid
To the poor is decried as RED COMMEENISM!
Your value system on greed's lathe is turned.
Judeo-anything, it certainly isn't,
And even poor Jesus is hard to discern.
Your "values," if as such they may be described,
Are nothing but hate, they're reactionary.
Your churches are nought but places to hide
From a world you ne'er saw from your mammy's knee.
A fig-leaf of inclusion, that "Judeo" prefix
Can't hide your obstinate Protestantism.
You hardly let Catholics into the mix!
Call it what you like, but Judeo it isn't.
—Daz

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Cynique, Moi?

To the tune of Give Me Forty Acres…

For the love of tax-free earnings
On the pulpit I will pound.
I'll tell you who to hate and then
I'll send the plate around.
I will vilify the commeenists,
I'll curse the gays with hives.
I can work up quite an anger
If it earns me tax-free tithes.

I need a brand new Cadillac,
My daughter wants a yacht,
So I'll pick another scapegoat
And throw 'em in the pot.
I'll aim God's wrath at feminists
And at the godless fool;
At the needy and the greedy
'cause my mansion needs a pool.

—Daz

PS: And I note that Padre Steve is just as angry as I am, about those who preach hate yet call it love. Though possibly not as cynical as I. Ho-hum.

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Rampant Hypocrisy

I keep running into atheists…

Who are absolutely, one hundred percent in favour of abortion when discussing the edicts of various religious sects, yet cheer for a president who has pledged to appoint pro-life judges to the supreme court and who, on his first day in office, reinstated the Mexico City policy, a policy which, says Wikipedia, "blocks US federal funding for non-governmental organisations that provide abortion counselling or referrals, advocate to decriminalise abortion or expand abortion services."

Who are oh, so quick to comment on the morals of clergy and other religious figures who commit sex-crimes, yet cheer for a president who, amongst many, many other misogynistic statements and actions, openly boasted of having sexually assaulted multiple women.

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Petition: Stop Imminent Deportation Of Gay Asylum Seeker (Jimmy Kyesswa) To Uganda

From change.org:

The UK government are about to deport Jimmy Kyesswa, a gay Ugandan man, back to his death.

A flight was booked for 5.25pm on Monday, 5 December 2016. An attempt was made to take him to the airport. Whilst on the road the guards received a number of telephone calls. There was some confusion and he was returned to Harmondsworth Immigration Removal Centre.

Another attempt to deport him could happen at any moment.

Jimmy was detained on 5 September 2016 when he went to sign at Dallas Court Immigration Reporting Centre, Manchester; even though he has an appointment previously given to him by the Home Office to bring further submissions for his case to Liverpool on 9 September. He had no time to exercise his right. He was then immediately detained and taken to Morton Hall Immigration Removal Centre in Lincolnshire. His solicitor made further representations, which were rejected by the Home Office.

Despite Jimmy being in a subsisting same sex relationship with his boyfriend, Cyrille, the Home Office has refused to accept that he is a gay man. Jimmy came to the UK in January 2005 after suffering mistreatment in Uganda based on his sexuality.

Jimmy had hot water poured on him after being discovered with a man. The situation in Uganda is well known where gay people face persecution on a daily basis, such as mob violence, imprisonment and even death.

Jimmy is also involved with a number of LGBT organisations and has a high profile on the internet including Facebook. He has attended several LGBT events around the UK to campaign for LGBT rights and for the rights of gay people in Uganda.

If deported, Jimmy would lose his relationship with his boyfriend, his community in Manchester and would have to try to avoid persecution by living in hiding. We fear that he would be discovered and killed by homophobic mobs.

We are asking that supporters sign the petition to stop the deportation and release him from detention. Please spread the word to as many friends and family as urgent action is required.

Please consider signing this petition.
—Daz

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The War On Christmas: The Postage Stamp Campaign

Well it's an even-numbered year, which means only one thing. The Post Office's Christmas stamps are on a secular theme, and a thousand and one blithering idiots with too much time on their hands and persecution complexes bigger than a very big mountain of very big things, will be whining and moaning that the Post Office, for some vague reason probably connected to Militant Secularism™, are trying to ban Christianity. Because that's what post offices do. Obviously.

This post began life as an attempt to put that straight by listing the basic theme of every set of Christmas stamps since 1966, when the tradition began. And that would have been as boring as hell. But along the way, it kind of grew into a collection of digressions loosely held together by a list of stamps. We have Joyce Grenfell in there, and a short discussion of the slang pertaining to British coinage, and many other brief but, I hope, interesting and amusing snippets of trivia, reminiscence and opinion.

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Jacob Bronowski: Knowledge Or Certainty

From Jacob Bronowski's excellent nineteen seventy-three television series, The Ascent Of Man, episode eleven: Knowledge Or Certainty. Still, to my mind, one of the most simple yet articulate and moving discussions of the dangers of dogma, of claims to certainty—both religious and secular—ever broadcast.
—Daz

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Blasphemy

It's Blasphemy Day. A fact which I'd forgotted.

"What the Hell," some of you might be thinking, "is Blasphemy Day?"

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The Wisdom Of The Ancients

This thing you do was then a crime
So we must ban it from our land.
Uncountenanced in olden times
It surely springs from a Satanic hand.

Nothing novel, nothing new!
Progress? Folly! How can you
On ancient thoughts seek to improve?
You should be to Hell-fires thrown
For questioning what's set in stone,
For daring to erode those chiselled grooves.

On ancient writ our laws are based ;
We'll abide with nothing that is new.
Their prejudice should rule our taste;
As once was done, so we should ever do.

—Daz

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Stephen Green Wants Out Of The EU. Because… Mythology

In which Stephen "Birdshit" Green adds Conspiracy Theorist Extraordiaire to his already impressive list of Fundamentalist Noodlepate qualifications…

To all of which, I can only clap in admiration before uttering the words, "What the hell?"
—Daz

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A Letter From My MP

Some time back, the British Humanist Association and the Fair Admissions Campaign produced a report, since acknowledged by the Department for Education to be true, showing that a huge majority of religiously selective schools in England are breaking the law in their selection process.

The full report [pdf] is worth reading, but the BHA thoughtfully hit the high spots:

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