What Fools these Mortals Be

I am not one for watching MSNBC. It's not because I disagree with their politics (which I do), but because of their attitudes. Rare is it that they show any respect for a view point other than their own. I talked about strawmen in my previous post, and how most people set them up as targets. Well, MSNBC sets them up as targets, and then burns them.

Interestingly enough, I used the verb burn, and it pertains to what I have seen.

Keith Olberman has made some comments about the Ground Zero Mosque. Comments that he has the right to say, but that he really, really should have thought about before he said them.

Watch at your own risk.



Keith starts out quoting a famous speech by a Nazi Death Camp survivor, who talked about how he didn't complain when the Nazis took various different people; communists, unionists, Jews, and then had no one to complain when he was taken. Then Keith turns around and says he isn't comparing the protests against the GZM (which according to him isn't a "Ground Zero Mosque") to the Holocaust. "Not yet, anyways."

Really Keith? Really? You're not doing that in the slightest?

He then continues on in the clip about how it isn't a Mosque, as a Mosque is only for Muslims to pray in, and this will have a culinary school and basketball court, and those who are decrying it as a terrorist training camp are being foolish and fearing terrorist chefs and terrorist point guards. Apparently, Keith has never paid attention to an outbreak of food poisoning from a restaurant. Chefs are strategic choice, if one thinks about it, but I digress. It isn't for training terrorists, there aren't any, and it isn't an insult to the victims' families.

Funny, those families looked pretty insulted to me.

Keith then goes on to talk about how a Mosque down in Jacksonville, FL, was bombed. No one was hurt, the bomber unidentified. You didn't hear about it on the news. Which is funny, because I thought I had heard about it on the news, but maybe I read it on the Web. Which, as we all know, isn't "The News."

Keith's point, that he spells out literally? Muslims have more to fear from Americans, and have suffered more at the hands of Americans since 9/11, than non-Muslims have suffered from Muslims. That's right, they aren't the terrorists. You are.

Again, REALLY? I guess that little Christmas day thing that fizzled out was, you know, a practical joke. Maybe Ft. Hood was, you know, a comedy routine? Funny.

And then he attacks those who say Cordoba House is a reference to the Muslim conquest of Spain. He brings up Newt Gingrich's quote, then proceeds to talk about how all the Muslims did was set up "Multicultural, nondenominational learning centers" but were constantly under attack from "Christian Armies" and internal civil wars. Well, Keith, let me stop you there with my history degree. You got the history wrong. Sorry. But Islam wasn't all Multicultural. Not at all, they were actually pretty hostile to Christians and Jews. Those Civil Wars were when other Muslims thought the current Invading Muslims Weren't Being Strict Enough About Islam! That's right, fundamentalists(and it is a historically proven fact that they were fundamentalists) were invaded and replaced by other more extreme Fundamentalists, for not be fundamental enough. And those Evil Christians who dared strike against the Utopian Muslim Multicultural society, well, starting off they were just defending themselves, and then trying to push invaders off their lands. A feat that wasn't accomplished until right about 1942, if I remember correctly.

That's right kids, the thing you didn't learn in your history books. Ferdinand and Isabella were the King and Queen of two different Iberian countries that joined together in marriage so they would be strong enough to push Muslim Invaders out of their lands, then they sent Columbus out on a fool's dream of finding India. Why? Because they needed the money such trade would bring, and because it would remove the Muslim Middle Men that were making such trade with the Far East so expensive and dangerous.

He lashes against Newt's proclaiming the GZM a mark of Islamic Triumph, by saying that every Church, Synagogue, and Mosque is a mark of Triumphalism over the Native Americans whose culture and religion was destroyed by "Us." As for compromise on the part of Park 51, well they changed the name to that from Cordoba House, which, according to Keith, is more than enough. (Funny, struck me as more like they got caught and had to think fast.) And apparently the fact that two Churches are there is enough to counterbalance the fact that the Mosque is very close buy. The view will be blocked. But somehow I think the "Call to Prayer" will still be heard.

He then goes on to rant about the Iraq invasion and how it is a Muslim nation and all we sacrificed to "free" Muslims, but then we dare stand against the building of a "Community Center." I will not go in to his rants against "Xenophobia" and how we are turning against American values to enforce it.

He then goes on to compare it to the Holocaust again.

I find myself at a loss for words. Sure, it is the same tripe used often by those people declare to be on "The Left." Americans are the bad guys, protesting this is racist, we are the real terrorists, the real murders, the real evil. Somehow, ignoring the cries of victims families is okay, even laudable, in the name of tolerance. But I see little toleration here. Keith doesn't seem to be tolerating people who feel this "Cultural Center" is a bad idea. He says he feels for their pain, but then why does he turn around and treat them like they are the forefront of a movement that will lead to Death Camps, Holocausts, and ethnic cleansing? To be honest, Muslims are the ones who are performing those actions today, not Americans. Most people aren't even saying this Center can't be built, or that it is illegal to do so. All they are saying is that it should be built elsewhere, not two blocks away where 13 stories dedicated to "enlightening" New York about Islam, being headed by a man who it seems is fairly radical and is getting the backing of even more radical Muslims, where no doubt radical ideas, or even basic, fundamental ideas of what Islam means will be taught.

Ideas like the fact that non-believers are the descendants of pigs and monkeys. That Christians and Jews are second class people. That Pagans and Heathens should be converted or killed. That women are evil, and responsible for the suffering of men and must be treated worse than animals.

But it we who protest that are the monsters, the racists, the evil fiends. Muslims just want to be our friends. They want peace. They want hugs and not to be oppressed by Evil Whitey. Funny, considering Islam is one of the biggest religions in the world, as well as the least tolerant, not just in the barbaric past, but in the Enlightened Modern Era.

I would encourage Keith to take a second, maybe even a third look at what he is talking about. Because this time, just maybe, the fears of those he is demeaning, might actually be based on reality.

Keith started by quoting a man who wished he had spoken up before the Nazis came for him. So I close with much the same. I will speak up. Before they come for the peoples of America, before they come for the Jews, the Christians, the Atheists, and the Pagans, I will speak up.

These are my words. Let all Gods and Men hear them, and grow bold in heart and deed.

Welcome to the Second Class

The News jumps today, it seems. I honestly thought that the BP thing was going to be the biggest thing today and that it would suffice as my post until something interesting came along, probably in a couple of days or next week. In fact, I wouldn't have been surprised if it was the last post of the month, a record breaking 9 posts in a single month. But it seems the Gods and Wyrd have other plans.

I'm a person who advocates freedom and equality, based on my ancestral beliefs and the traditions of Western Europe and the Scandinavian/Germanic/Celtic/Greek/Roman peoples of that land. Indeed, I'm almost close to an anarchist in that sense, as I despise anything that gets in the way of freedom. As is the way of Asatru, I look beyond the color of a man's skin and look to the deeds of his hands and words of his mouth.

Sadly, it looks like the Government is working to suppress freedom based on race. Not against black people, the historical target of racial supression (ignoring of course, the Irish, Italians, Scandinavians, Poles, Germans, Scottish, Greeks, and numerous other light skinned ethnics that were, you know, suppressed and racially discriminated against). Nope, the Obama Admin has struck a blow in the name of justice! He and his followers have raised a mighty hand! Down with Whitey!

But Mr. Alchemist, surely you jest! Obama promised us a post-racial world! An age of peace and prosperity! You white racist bastard!

Well, as the old joke goes, don't call me Shirley. Thanks to Fox busting out an interview with former DOJ attorney Adams, we learn that the Obama DOJ is not willing to finish cases it has already won. The issue of the New Black Panther Party's intimidation of voters during the last presidential election has be tossed out. And, if Adams is to be believed (and I see no reason at this point why he shouldn't be) the Admin has set forth that no other such cases shall be brought forth. In other words, Black can now freely intimidate whites in politics and get away with it.

Hard to believe as this is, I never dealt with racism growing up. Perhaps my life was sheltered, but my first experience with Racism was in a Civil Rights History class and it didn't come from the white kids. It came from the black ones, who would treat me as if it was my fault for all the suffering blacks had endured. I was willing to question everything, both on the white and black sides, to see the reasons behind everyone's actions. I am an alchemist, it is my nature, but I got a lot of hate for questioning if whites had a point, or at least a justification, and daring to question the actions of any black person in that time. When we watched a video of a KKK member giving a speech, and I remarked that while I didn't agree with him, he did come across as rational and having some skill at speaking (in addition to being respectably dressed) I half expected several large black girls to jump at me and attempt bodily harm. Before that class I never had a racist thought, after, I have sometimes begun to wonder. Yet I still believe that people should be equal.

So, who are these New Black Panther Party people? Well, thanks to an article I found a few videos: One from National Geographic and the other from Beck before he was on Fox where he talks about Black Nationalism and Black Liberation Theology. At one point in the Beck video, the man he's interviewing (a leading member of the NBPP) talks about Black people needing/wanting to reclaim themselves from white supremacy in ideology and religion and throw off the White Jesus and responds to calls by believers of BLT calling for God to kill the white people. I can sympathize with this man in his wish to throw of "White God" but I must correct him. "God" and "Jesus" aren't white. Not even close. They Are JEWISH! Jesus was a Jew! You wanna throw of a "white" God, talk about Thor, Odin, Tyr, Zues, or any of the other European Gods. Oh, wait, they didn't oppress you, they were oppressed by a JEWISH GOD. I can feel for the desire to throw off a God forced upon you by another people, as that is what me and every other Asatruar is trying to do every day. But Don't go hating White for it. You want black gods, look to Africa. The NBPP, according to research, wants reparations for slavery (ignoring that most whites never owned slaves, even in the South) as well as they're own area to build a Black Nation. Kinda reminds me of the Aztec re-constructionists McNallen has talked about that wanna take over territory and slaughter all the White Europeans in that area (guess you gotta get sacrifices from somewhere).

The case, one of the most clear cut intimidation cases seen by people on both the left and right, was dropped all because of Race. There is no other explanation. "You are about to be ruled by the black man, cracker!" is a direct quote form one of the NBPP members who was keeping people from voting. the NBPP is listed as a radical hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, a group which has repeatedly declared Asatru to be an ideology of hate and has repeatedly listed other groups that are for keeping legal immigration and deporting illegals as hate groups. If a racist group run by blacks says that a black groups is racist...then that group (the NBPP) must be pretty racist.

Growing up, I thought America was a great place. A place of equality of opportunity, where every man or woman was free to follow their own path and destiny. Where it didn't matter the color of your skin. But as I grow older, I have come to find that the dream that was is no longer. Obama and company belong to an ideology that hates people based on race and actions taken long before I was born. The world seems filled with people who wish to slaughter each other based on religion and race and ideology. For all our progress, we are more backwards when it comes to the simplest things. Each day I see the truest fulfillment of the Monotheistic religion of Christianity, even as Islam rises in the East. Obama slaps old allies in the face and bows before people who would be our masters. How long before we are made slaves of freemen? How long before all the gifts of our European forefathers are lost? We believed in equality, we did our best to bring it forth for all peoples, and how have we been thanked? Judge that for yourselves.

I'm not a racist. I don't want to be a racist. I would like nothing better than for peoples to live in harmony, to have a simple life, to do as I please, and know that my kin are safe and our ways are respected. However, I'm sensing a lot of respect out there and I don't like where things are going.

A Need for Heroes

I think, in this day and age, we are in need of heroes. While this has been true of every age, it has because especially relevant to ours because of one simple fact.

We have no heroes.

Athletes, the main stay of cultural icons at the turn of the 1900’s and the following decades used to provide us with ‘heroes.' Yet this is no longer the case, thanks in large part to the near continuous series of steroid, sex, or crime scandals that taint that profession.

Astronauts no longer are our heroes, and with President Obama finding better things to spend money on, he has all but killed the American space program and killed NASA.

In centuries past it was our soldiers and generals who gave us heroes: Washington, Patton, Jackson, Lee, Grant, and so on. Yet with the current anti-war sentiment that has existed from at least the 1960’s, we can’t draw our heroes from there. Indeed, the average American citizen can’t name the current general of the Iraq/Afghan wars.

Actors and Rock stars fall under the same blanket as Athletes. Sex, Drugs, Crime, so on and so fifth (increased due to inflation) strip them of any heroic status as fast as ink dries on tabloids or someone can log into a web page.

A while back I heard people discussing this issue, I believe on Huckabee and they mentioned the idea that the last presidential election had all been about trying to obtain a hero for the American people: Obama as an African-American Messiah-like figure, McCain the War Hero, Palin the First Republican Vice President, Hilary Clinton as the First Female President.

Yet even that has rung hollow. Obama-the-Messiah (and don’t kid yourself, left and right saw those images and embraced the idea to various degrees) has proven all but incapable of obtaining his goals. Palin has been vilified. McCain is off the radar. Clinton got relegated to a position with no air time.

So where do we turn? Anymore, people turn to comic books and movies. Hence the resurgence in those industries, where a $10 ticket sells like donuts at a cop convention. The revival of movies like Clash of the Titans, grand epics with incredible monsters and larger than life heroes is not just because we finally have the technology to make such things look real.

It is because we are looking for something more.

When society constantly tells us that we are all equal and all the same, that no one is better than anyone else. When no one can stand above everyone else, because they’ll be torn down by the mob as fast as they are raised above it, there is no place for anyone to prove themselves as great.

In education, the common practice of “Leave no child behind” has translated into dragging down those in the front rather than pulling forwards those that lag. The current epidemic of ADD and ADHD that has left waves of medicated zombies in its wake and has destroyed active, excitable kids with the desire to live and explore as much as they can. School days get longer and longer, and people wonder why their kids get fat.

It is because kids can no longer strive to become their idols. They are taught to mock those who stand above, or taught the very things that disgrace their heroes are what they should be doing. Fifty years ago kids wanted to be astronauts, businessmen, politicians, soldiers, or superheroes.

Now though…

I’ve lost track of how many kids I see today dressed up like ganstas. Not the Mafia of the 1920’s, full of power and dressed in press suits, but thugs dressed in rags, acting tough, as if they know what violence is and that makes them superior, as if lots of heavy gold chains and a bunch of girls that are used and abused at will are what makes a man great.

Perhaps my generation is the last to remember what it was like. Heroes fell in our day, but for our early years we had a few, and we could remember the ones our parents had. I know my heroes, the ones who taught me what it was to be a man in place of an absent father and a troubled home life; Corran Horn, Leonidas, Harry Dresden, Wolverine, Magneto, Darth Bane, and many others.

I know what violence is. I looked deep in myself and discover the true nature and power of violence. It isn’t waving around a gun, smacking bitches, dealing drugs, or capping someone for dissing you, especially when you have no idea what disrespect is, much less honor or glory or nobility. Violence is brutal, horrible, elegant, and beautiful all at the same time. Violence is a sword in one’s hand, living on the edge, knowing the next moment is your last and only the Gods and your skill choose if you breathe the next moment or not. It is a painting made with blood and tears and pain and power. It provides meaning to life in a way nothing else can.

I know what power is. It is Nobility, Honor, Glory. It is the ability to choose your fate, to choose the fate of others. Power is what makes the world function.

But there is no one to teach this anymore. No great men and women to stand up and say this is how you should live. This is what it means to be a True Man or a True Woman.

There are many psychological reasons for why this is. I complain about Christianity and its mindset, but I recognize that the teachings of the Christ god are not fully responsible for this downfall, however much it may permeate all aspects of our culture.

It isn’t about what is here, today, that is responsible for why we don’t have heroes. It is about what isn’t. With the current resurgence of Paganism in the West, Western civilization has simultaneously finished rejecting the last tenants of pagan culture that had been buried deep in Western culture. The process of Multiculturalism that has attacked Western Culture so strongly and vilified it, has succeeded in leaving only Eastern Culture in its wake. The religion of the Christ god may be dying, but the basic beliefs are still around, only in casting off the religion, we’ve cast off the bones of the pagan traditions that filled Europe, regarding them as evil or useless.

It is my hope that in Paganism we will see heroes arise for heathen people, but I don’t think society at large will have that many more after this. There is a trend in society that others have been talking about, where the elite have been training people to feel that they don’t deserve their rights, that they deserve to be victims because their ancestors did things that are now viewed as wrong. White children don’t respect white culture. In fact, there is a sense that there is no white culture anymore and when something resembling "White Culture" appears it is normally called racist. I once remarked in a civil rights class that it seemed to me the current pinnacle of manliness was the Black Gansta, and though I was roundly shouted down I feel that I was right. As stated before, lots of “Cool” kids now dress Gansta. Even on colleges, I see more guys rocking the Gansta look than anything else.

I want this to change, but not because I'm racist or feel White people are superior, cause we're just like every one else.

I want us to have heroes again. Not just the ones in movies and books, but physical men and women who stand above the masses and proclaim that they are alive, they are great and powerful and noble. I want to see kids of each ethnic heritage be proud of who they are, especially white ones. Writing this, I know that many would call me a racist if they read my words. I want to know when that happened. I want to know when it became wrong to be proud of my white skin and European heritage, even when I do not hate any other races. I don’t declare white supremacy. I think such things are a joke. There is no superior race, but there can be superior individuals, and I want to see them again.

I want to see violence and power reach the level they did centuries ago. When people understood that they weren’t evil, but good. When people knew when to be violent, and when to be peaceful. In news feeds and television I see leaders bow down and submit when they should stand and fight, giving into people who know what violence is for and have no care for my people and our ways, but rather view them as evil and to be destroyed. I am not speaking of just Islam and Socialism, but so many others that I cannot count them.

I want to see Holger le Danske, Charles Martele, Harald Hardrada, Cnut the Great, King Arthur, and so many others come back in spirit and name, to lead us into an age of Nobility and Power.

I want to see a hero once more

Of Tolerance and Intolerance

Life is filled with many paradoxes today, though I feel that since the last election they have only grown starker. With calls for Universal Healthcare to dealing with Climate Change/Global Warming, we have become more and more polarized. The fact that the current president of the United States is black/African American only increases this, with some people being afraid to say what they wish for fear of being called racist and others eagerly calling those who disagree with the President’s ideas out as racists.
Daily, we are bombarded with the idea that we must accept people, that we must be tolerant. We are told not to hate people because they are black, or Hispanic, or GLBT, and that these people are owed the rights that have been kept from them over the years. Fine by me, the more freedoms we have the better. Over the years I have gone from a person who was freaked out by the idea of Gay people to someone who views it as just another part of the world. As for that ever so lovable topic of Gay marriage, marriage was a social contract long ago, an oath before Gods and Men (this including their female counterparts in both the divine and mortal). If Gay people wish to be married, let them.
Yet, there is a rather shocking element to modern Tolerance: Intolerance. Try protesting Gay marriage or homosexuality and you’ll be called a Homophobe, if not worse, and often face allegations that you are secretly gay and that’s why you’re so hateful to The Cause. Personally, I find the idea rather laughable, mostly because I believe a person is fully capable of hating something without secretly wanting to be it, but more on that another time. I admit to being a little weirded out by Gay men, but I freely admit that is mostly because I’m a rather blunt person and if one hit on me I can’t promise I’d be politically correct. I’ve been informed that this is not something I have to worry about as Gay men don’t hit on obviously straight men. Beyond that I have the attitude of live and let live. Lesbians are cool in my book. Bisexuals I can actually understand. I personally, am straight.
Back to the topic marriage, namely who can and can’t be married. For example, raise the idea of polygamy and see what happens. I once wrote a paper on the subject and in my research discovered that it wasn’t people like the Mormons who are on the frontier of the Polygamous movement, but rather Bisexuals. It makes sense, when you like both sexes, why not have one of each for a life partner/spouse. I actually hold that entered into with the proper mindset and understanding, polygamy is possibly a more stable form of marriage than monogamy. My research, though old now, indicated that this had presented the Gay community with a paradox: Support the widening of marriage to include polygamy, one of the most hated forms of marriage, or stand with the traditionalists and insist that marriage should be between only two individuals. I don’t know if this has been resolved in the years since then, but I haven’t seen anything to indicate that it has.
Probably the most relevant and dangerous subject of this concept though, is Race. Nowhere else are people so polarized, so demanding, so judgmental, as in the area of Racism. Let’s be honest, there is a great deal of power to be had in Racism. Now, I do not hold with Racism, it is a stupid way to judge people and divide them. I prefer measuring a man or woman based on their character, accomplishments, and their strength. This is a rather Pagan way of doing things, but then I am rather Pagan. I am an Ethnicitist, thought that means believing people should take pride in their Ethnic backgrounds, regardless of skin color.
Yet here is where the intolerance lies strongest. If a Black person speaks of White Oppression, that White’ control all the banks, all the corporations, and so on, while calling for a change in power from Whites to another racial group that is being oppressed, no one declares them a racist. This has actually happened in front of me, in a civil rights class. It happened in other classes I’ve have which dealt with racism. We are to be tolerant of all men, but I’ll admit I’ve faced intolerance because of my race. While it is true that there is a majority of Whites in positions of power, one must realize that it is simply an effect of Whites having had access for longer. Give it another hundred years at most, without messing with the system, and you’ll probably see an fairly even ratio of all races. Heck, we have a black president, so Whites can’t have all that much power, or at least be using it to keep the minorities down. Studies have been conducted to show that Whites will soon be a minority in this country. Make of that what you will.
It strikes me as so strange that in an age of tolerance, people can be so intolerant. What makes it stranger for me is that I am a rather intolerant person. I despise weakness, I have no tolerance for people who whine about the oppression of decades or centuries passed. I find things like Hate Crimes and their laws abhorrent. I’m not really a fan of affirmative action. Yet, I ask, before you angrily click away, you permit me to explain.
Every race, ethnicity, creed, or ideology and its followers, has been oppressed. My own people, the Norse, had our culture, our gods, and our holy places destroyed by a group of religious fanatics who wanted to “Save our Souls.” It is only in the recent past that people have been able to reclaim our lost ways. Yet every day, we face people saying ours is a false religious, not worthy of the rights of Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, or Judaism. Sometimes, we are called racist, because a few misguided souls.
I hate racism, because of what it does to people of all colors. The reason I don’t like things like Hate Crime Laws and Affirmative Action, is because it carries on the idea of racism and promotes it. Affirmative Action was meant to give minorities, namely Blacks, a chance to get into places that they had previously been barred from, like universities and businesses. It was noble idea and one that was needed in some ways. Yet over the years it has been used to give people jobs not based on merit, but on skin color. Hate Crimes create special classes of protected citizens, in effect creating racial and sexual elites. Few people complain about this because the “Elite” of today is the inverse of the “Elite” of yester year. I side with those who declare all crimes acts of hate and don’t see why we need to specially declare something a hateful crime.
While the words of the law may not discriminate, their use does. I have yet to hear of a group of black people tried for committing a hate crime against a white person, though I have read of cases where it is clearly deserved. Nor have I heard of a case where GLBT individuals were charged with a hate crime against a Heterosexual person. Our society functions on the idea that all people are equal. This means that everyone is equally capable of hatred as they are of love, malice as well as kindness, regardless of skin or gender. To say otherwise is to indicate that there are people who are racially or sexually superior to others.
The irony or our day is this. We are an Tolerant Nation that practices Intolerance. The irony of myself is that I and a rather Intolerant person, who lives a life of Tolerance. I judge, when the world says I shouldn’t and I don’t judge, when the world says I should. Maybe this makes me a bad person, maybe not. That answer is not for me to decide. However, before you decide for me, know that in judging you may be violating the very principle of tolerance you are taught to live by.