Current stance, after a few weeks of contemplation. was Re: Why Do They Hate Us?

[Jeff Bone]

Gary Lawrence Murphy wrote:

>     t> Did Jimi Baker or Pat Robbinson ever dispatch folks to blow up
>     t> any embassies?
>
> Exactly my point, and thank you for making it.  _Actions_ are
> indictable. Boasts, attitudes and philosophies that may endorse
> particular actions are not.

Absolutely.  (Odd to find myself agreeing with you, GLM. ;-)  So let's
make something clear:  the kind of institutionalized religious fanaticism
I'm talking about permanently declaring incompatible and alien is *not* a
mere matter of boasts, attitudes, philosophies, broadcasts, etc.  It's
about states that people to soccer fields and executing them for giving a
lift to a stranded woman.  It's about legislating dress codes, banning
free speech, enslaving women, making exercise of other religious choices
punishable by death.  It's about training young boys to hate people
they've never even met to the point that they are eager to sacrifice their
lives just to kill a few of this heinous "enemy."  Those are the extreme
cases, but the point is that *enacting* any one religion above others
through the vehicle of state illegitimizes that state.  Thought crime is a
ludicrous concept.  The notion of "criminalizing" the *enaction* of
certain kinds of thought --- perhaps not so ludicrous.

$0.02,

jb