Another member of the corporate old white boys' club flaunts his privilege.

Kay Fils is a venal and meretricious stenographer: an eager and willing corporate MSM lackey, servicing the interests of the 1% wealthy. 

DAMMIT JANET! has been massively critical of JK's turgid scribbling for over a decade.

 

I do understand why Kay chooses financial fealty. Though I am also a member of a maligned tribe, which in my case is the impoverished working class, my choices and my political allegiances are different. I don't own a splendid investment portfolio that allows me to hobnob with ruling class chuds like Ken Whyte and to acquire the veneer of privilege that Jon enjoys. This entitles him, he believes, to regurgitate the corporate doctrine with opinionated authority. It suits his intellectual laziness and inherent dishonesty -- no need to rebut any of the actual facts that JK abhors.

"But while it’s sad that such a scene would unfold in a country that many Canadians once looked up to as a democratic beacon, the idea that it has any relevance to Canadian political culture — or that it signals some sort of inveterate malignancy among “white people,” as the Star would have us believe — is nonsense. [..] If right-wing populism really were going to metastasize northward in a meaningful way, it would have happened by now. But it hasn’t."

Kay Fils and his ideological soulmate the egregious Mark Steyn service the needs of their MSM overlords by negating all valid criticism of systemic white privilege and its manifestations. One might view their dumbed-down, disingenuous whataboutism as _Fascism for Dummies_.

Steyn and Kay are the new Ettore Ovazza. To paraphrase Mark's pithy remark on violence, in the context of how he defends and justifies the Capitol Riots: "Must be convenient to have a [corporate] code that obliges all your pathologies."

Religious Influence + Weaponry = Terrorism?

In the comments after this post on "honour" killings, brebis noire says among other things that one "can read much of the Old Testament as a recipe for mass genocide."

Islamophobes like Mark Steyn and Kathy Shaidle are prone to screeching and shrieking variations of 'moozlim extremism' whenever it suits their respective political (rightwing neocon) and personal (revenue-generating) agendas.

It seems though that using a work of literature declared "holy" by a particular religious institution or corporation as template for plotting acts of vengeance, fury and violence is nothing new. Religious texts can be exploited as the ideological justification for crusaders' rampage against those labeled pagans, heathens or infidels or blamed as the source for inciting terrorism.

It would be a challenge to identify how - and if - reading the Bible was a determinant factor in the reasoning, as it were, for Howard Barton Unruh's well-planned killing spree on September 6 1949.

Unruh killed five men, five women as well as three young children in New Jersey's Camden area.

An honourably discharged World War II combat veteran and pharmacy student, he had kept a journal of his intended victims for up to a year before the shootings. Those he killed were either intentionally targeted, or were merely unlucky enough to have been in his way.

An expert marksman, Unruh executed his massacre plot in the blue-collar neighbourhood with calm precision. Those he gunned down included a cobbler, a barber, some neighbours who had complained about him playing loud music, and a three-year-old boy peeking out of a window.

A tailor on Unruh's death-list had left his shop on an errand, so he shot the man's bride of six weeks instead, ignoring her pleas for her life.

Unruh - who had been sharing an apartment with his mother at the time of the massacre - told police he was convinced his neighbours were plotting against him. ...

He was described as a recluse who liked to read the Bible and had a passion for guns.

Once more, inspired by Steyn's pithy observation: "Must be convenient to have a [biblical] code that obliges all your pathologies."

Fabricated ... huh?

Has the US rightwing conservative media, including FoxNews which is basically infaux-tainment, finally jumped the shark? Or perhaps it actually happened when I wasn't paying attention. Or perhaps this little brouhaha is a variation of Poe's Law?

Rush Limbaugh is attempting to purchase a NFL franchise. In response to this, CNN and others have publicized a great number of racists quotes attributed to Limbaugh. Mark Steyn claims that these are all fabrications and challenges those who are repeating this information to provide documentation that Limbaugh actually uttered pronouncements such as:

Limbaugh called illegal immigrants an "invasive species." Referring to an April 1, 2005, federal court ruling that prohibited shipping boats from dumping of ballast water containing "invasive species," including some types of mollusks, into U.S. waters, Limbaugh described illegal immigrants as an "invasive species" that U.S. courts willingly permit to enter the country.

Limbaugh repeatedly calls Native Americans "Injuns." Media Matters for America documented at least four separate instances of Limbaugh using this slur on his program.

More, much more from Media Matters.

In response to this documentation, Steyn sneers:

"So where are these racist soundbites? Where's the audio? Where's the transcript? Name the year."

Poe's Law at work. It would be testerically funny, if it were parody.

These are the faces of "honour" killings.

Anti-feminist rightwing religious zealots like "Debra Moore" are using the language of feminist activism to vent their xenophobic spleen.

"Women are being brutally murdered throughout the world in the name of Islam, and the mainstream media is totally silent. Someone needs to stand up for these women who are being executed by those whom they should be able to trust the most: their family members, through a crime known as an “honor killing”. And it is not unique to the Middle East; it is taking place in the West, including the United States.Where are the feminists? MIA once again. If there ever was an instance when feminists should speak up, this is clearly the case. But, it is not politically correct to insult Islam. The result is more and more women will die because no one is willing to confront this abominable practice."

From here. Moore is a self-styled fundamentalist christian crusader. She could be describing garden-variety 'domestic' femicide (except for the strident islamophobia), a form of violence against women and children that is tolerated in many cultures and countries. Until feminists in the 1970's started diligently and systematically dedicating themselves to the establishment of shelters and to reforming criminal laws, "family" violence was largely viewed as a private matter in North America. Even when women and children died. Even now, Antonia Zerbisias writes here:

Toronto author Brian Vallee points out in his 2007 book The War on Women, nobody counts the dead, nobody connects the dots, nobody calls out the problem. "Compare the raw numbers," he writes of the period 2000-06. "In the same seven-year period when 4,588 U.S. soldiers and police officers were killed by hostiles or by accident, more than 8,000 women – nearly twice as many – were shot, stabbed, strangled, or beaten to death by the intimate males in their lives. In Canada, compared to the 101 Canadian soldiers and police officers killed, more than 500 women – nearly five times as many – met the same fate."

These are horrific numbers; where is the rightwing christian fundamentalist outrage?

Dennis Gruending thoughtfully yet rigorously dissects a type of news reporting that’s little more than floridly opinionated and pretentious tabloid coverage. Respected for his well-researched and eminently knowledgeable writing on spiritual and political matters, Gruending observes:

The unfortunate truth is that men have used the power of religion for millennia to force women into submission. Some fathers of the Christian church, including Pope St. Gregory, Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, said women should be ashamed of themselves for merely being women, that they were slow, unstable, naïve and useful only for “animal sex and motherhood.”

Some will argue that Christian churches don’t hold those views today. I would respond that while most Christians do not view women as inferior, a fundamentalist minority continues to do so.

Has it finally occurred to you who the murdered/missing women in the photographs are? Those are the confirmed and presumed victims of Robert 'Willy' Pickton's religious mission. Those are "honour" killings, as defined by the terms of his christian upbringing. The defense argued that Pickton suffered from diminished intellectual capacity yet in his letters to a pen-pal, he clearly lays out the inspiration, the reasons behind his campaign to eliminate evil, as he understands the Bible to tell him so.

Two letters The Sun obtained ... may provide the public with the first real insight into what motivated the mass murderer. ... “I know I was brought into this world to be hear today to change this world of there evil ways. They even want to dis-re-guard the ten command-ments from the time that Moses in his day brought in power which still is in existence today,” wrote Pickton ...The letter was written Feb. 26, 2006, at the beginning of Pickton's voir dire, to California resident Thomas Loudamy who has a hobby of corresponding with prisoners and collecting their return letters. The second letter, written Aug. 22, 2006, is also replete with biblical references and Pickton provided his own interpretation of Ephesians 5:5. “You can be sure that no immoral, impure or greedy person will in-herit the kingdom of God .... Don't be fooled by whose who try to excuse these sins, for the terrible anger of God comes upon all those who disobey him,” Pickton wrote.

The Sun looked up Ephesians 5:5 in The Jerusalem Bible and found a chilling interpretation, given the fact Pickton has been convicted of killing sex-trade workers: “For you can be quite certain that nobody who actually indulges in fornication or impurity or promiscuity — which is worshiping a false god — can inherit anything of the kingdom of God.” ... In the religious portions, Pickton refers to himself as a “condemned man of no wrong doing” just like his “father.” Pickton also referred to Acts 14:22, which he interpreted as: “In each city they helped Christians to be strong and true to the faith. They told them that we must suffer many hard things to get into the holy nation of God.”

Altering a quote from Mark Steyn, plucking at one of the islamophobic chords in his MASSIVE repertoire: "Must be convenient to have a [biblical] code that obliges all your pathologies."

The photo montage came from Montréal Simon's blog, here.

For all Fundamentalist Religious Zealots, Fear + Fury = Hate

Many blog posts written here deal with the hate generated by fundamentalist religious zealots. Much of it is directed towards women, but hate fuelled by religious bigotry has many other targets.

Sabini Amidi has been providing news items to the Jerusalem Post on the political situation in Iran, reporting from Tehran. Her latest piece has generated a lot of emotional responses, most directed towards the current regime, some at Moslems and, some attacking her for reporting what she does.

In a shocking and unprecedented interview [...] a serving member of the paramilitary Basiji militia has told this reporter of his role in suppressing opposition street protests in recent weeks.

He has also detailed aspects of his earlier service in the force, including his enforced participation in the rape of young Iranian girls prior to their execution. ...

In the Islamic Republic it is illegal to execute a young woman, regardless of her crime, if she is a virgin, he explained. Therefore a "wedding" ceremony is conducted the night before the execution: The young girl is forced to have sexual intercourse with a prison guard - essentially raped by her "husband."

"I regret that, even though the marriages were legal," he said. Why the regret, if the marriages were "legal?"

"Because," he went on, "I could tell that the girls were more afraid of their 'wedding' night than of the execution that awaited them in the morning. And they would always fight back, so we would have to put sleeping pills in their food. By morning the girls would have an empty expression; it seemed like they were ready or wanted to die. "I remember hearing them cry and scream after [the rape] was over," he said. "I will never forget how this one girl clawed at her own face and neck with her finger nails afterwards. She had deep scratches all over her."

Such depraved physical and psychological violence against women in prison, is not limited to those who have been jailed for their political or religious beliefs. In the state of Arizona in the US, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio is facing charges that his treatment of female prisoners is cruel and illegal.

The ACLU filed a motion in Maricopa Superior Court last week to stop the sheriff from requiring inmates who ask for abortions to pay up front for transportation costs to the procedure. “He can't ask people to pre-pay to receive these medical services,” ACLU Executive Director Alessandra Solar Meetze said. ... According to court documents, an inmate known as “Sarah Poe” requested an abortion.

A “Lieutenant informed her she would have to prepay for transportation costs," the documents said. Poe was charged $500 before obtaining a ride to a doctor’s office where an abortion was performed.

Meetze said the prepayment requirement violates a woman’s constitutional right to have timely access to an abortion. “The sheriff has an obligation to follow the law. He cannot pick and choose which laws to follow based on his political agenda,” she said.

The sheriff, who is pro-life, said his prepayment requirement has nothing to do with his personal feelings. ... The sheriff said women who cannot pay the transportation charge up front will still be driven to the procedure. ... However, the sheriff does not charge any other inmates for transportation. Sheriff’s deputies drive inmates to other medical appointments, hospital visits with ailing family members and to funerals for free. ...

The motion to stop the sheriff from requiring payment for transportation for inmates seeking abortions is the latest chapter in a five year long court battle. The ACLU first filed suit against the sheriff in 2004 for requiring women to get a court order for an abortion. The courts found the sheriff’s policy was unconstitutional.

Sheriff Arpaio's supporters and followers of his nativist ideology, in particular those who call themselves the Minutemen advocate taking violent, murderous action against Mexicans who attempt to establish illicit residence in the US. Some have been arrested and are awaiting trial for their criminal actions.

But since these are US citizens breaking laws, under the guise of an ideology based on christian fundamentalist rightwing bigotry, their actions are presumably acceptable to New Republic National Review online pundit Mark Steyn, who commented on the recent report from Iran in the Jerusalem Post: "Must be convenient to have a legal code that obliges all your pathologies."

That comment goes a long way in explaining why rabid rightwing, fundamentalist religious Republicans are writhing in the throes of fury and hatred, seemingly unable to establish the legislation that would enable them to carry out their gynophobic and xenophobic campaigns with impunity.

Pay Equity for Blob Blogging Wingnut.

When LuLu posted about Suzie ALL-CAPS latest dumbassitude, who knew that the comments would foment a ground swell of agitation, demanding that SHE (also known as Blob Blogging Wingnut) receive the same monetary compensation as HER rightwingnutter male homologues. As sooey says:

"Gee, Mark Steyn and David Warren get paid big bucks to say the same stupid shit. Suzanne should go after some pay equity."

There is of course a teeny problem with the notion of demanding justice for Blob Blogging Wingnut since she is so virulently anti-feminist. We wouldn't want to be forcing the principle of fairness with regards to blogging production, against HER will, would we? After all, does SHE try to force HER ideological beliefs on other women? Thus we at DAMMIT JANET! want to be MASSIVELY democratic about the process of agitating for equal pay for work of equal value for Blob Blogging Wingnut.

So we've started a poll in the sidebar. If you feel that SHE deserves to be paid the same remuneration as HER male equivalents who are blogging the same inane, inept, vapid, vacuous and obfuscating crap - vote yes to question #1. If you feel that HER male equivalents should be paid the same stipend as Blob Blogging Wingnut, which is a BIG FAT nothing - vote yes to question #2.

My suggestion is that you hurry though, in posting your answer. Stevie and his RepubliCons are planning to abolish pay equity, as directed by the membership of the ReformaTory Party at their Winnipeg convention in November 2008. You may recall it was one of the points that Flaherty presented in his budget forecast that precipated a major political crisis and a stand-off between the Progressive Coalition and the forces of evil Cons.