The news is just dumb. Every day it seems some unimaginably bizarre event pops up that reminds me why I’ve reformed my former media junkie ways and have all but tuned out. It’s like background noise to me now, it all sounds the same and just makes me sleepy. Stupefied maybe is a better word.
The head of the FBI willingly leaked intelligence? You don’t say. College students rioting over scary opinions? Yawn. Mass hysteria over withdrawing from a poorly designed and pointless climate accord? Yeah, whatever. My immune system response to the ridiculous just doesn’t allow me to get worked up over these things any more. I still care mind you, but not enough to devour the 24/7 news cycle for the latest piece of information.
Every once in awhile though something will happen that my brain just can’t process and causes me to say HUH? in a very loud and irritated way. This is what occurred over the weekend when I heard that people were counter protesting the anti sharia law demonstrations that took place recently around the country. So these counter protestors are anti-anti-Sharia law then, meaning they are pro Sharia law? Like I said, HUH?
Sharia is Islamic law, which people often confuse for a religion but it is not. It is a political system, the legal framework that governs both the public and private lives of citizens that live in countries ruled by Islam. Women there are deemed second class citizens and have very little freedom to live their own lives. Their affairs are managed by their husbands who are allowed to beat them for perceived disobedience and they can be stoned to death for having sex outside of marriage, or just by being accused of it.
There is no religious or sexual freedom in those countries either under Sharia, as those who renounce Islam face capital punishment as do gays and lesbians. Do all Muslims abide by these tenants? No, it is open to interpretation and many in the West follow just the personal and religious practices as “the way” or “the path to water” and disregard the more extreme beliefs.
Sharia as practiced under Islamist rule however is completely incompatible with our Western values of freedom and democracy, which is what the anti-Sharia protests were about and I see nothing wrong with them.
I see plenty wrong though with people protesting against those calling out an archaic and totalitarian system that subjugates women and girls and murders unbelievers, gays and lesbians. The silent response to all this from our country’s Professional Shrieking Class has been deafening and has baffled me to no end, but I’ve learned not to underestimate the levels of hypocrisy some will go to lest a political position be compromised
HUH? is too weak a word for such nonsense, but my outrage vocabulary has run a bit dry at the moment from too much use.
Freedom Through Empowerment 
I’m right there with you Tricia!!!!!
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Thought you might be Julie!
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😑
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Whenever you occasionally listen to the news media, play this game: If you were interviewing the person, what question or follow-up would YOU ask them?
If I were interviewing an anti-anti-Sharia law advocate (that’s a non-Muslim) I’d ask them, “What are the top five principles of Sharia law that you like?”
Putting the question to them that way would have two intentions: 1) They can’t answer it with a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’ because it’s an essay question; and 2) They can’t just give their one sound bite answer because it forces them to think at least a little deeper. The purpose would be to get them to admit to the world and even to themselves that they HAVEN’T thought about it.
– Jeff
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Ooh, I like that Jeff, very good!
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Variations of that question would be great for any issue. Might give pause to those who jump on bandwagons knowing absolutely nothing about the driver.
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So true Julie and a great conversation starter for those interested in actually pondering what they believe to be true. For those that don’t, who needs a driver when heading over the cliff is the goal.
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Excellent comment, Jeff!
Jesus often used this approach with people—especially people who tried to trip Him up. I’ve been trying this with greater frequency on my children in particular not to be cruel, but to force them to introspect. I love that you brought this up!
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I call it paraesthesia (also known as tingling or NUMBNESS.) The ongoing unrelenting reporting of biased stories by network news media have lost almost as much credibility as our congressional branch of government. Our country is heading down a very dangerous path. No one is willing to talk and discuss controversial topics where acceptable compromises are reached. Instead we shout at each other hoping to POUND our beliefs into each other’s heads.
If this reality isn’t understood soon, our country will weaken affecting the whole world in the process.
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We really are headed in to no man’s land Jonathan. The sad thing is I think a lot of people do understand this reality and just don’t care as long as their side wins. Very sad.
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Ah yes,outrage fatigue! My brain can only process so much of teh stoopid at one time. I keep asking people to stop messing with my head, but so far no luck. In the name of all human decency, it would be quite lovely if some of these people would decide to embrace logic once in a while.
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Embrace logic? Now why would anyone want to do something like that? Teh stoopid indeed…;)
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The funny thing is that Democrat Liberals think they are logical and you — we — are not.
Why won’t they embrace “logic”. Two reasons, i think:
1. They were taught the wrongly.
To some extent, all of us have much to unlearn. Democrat Liberals just have more.
2. Secularists seem to have an affinity for the Democratic Party. Liberal Christians too. Relatively few remain in the Democratic Party who believe the Bible is the Word of God. Relatively few remain in the Democratic Party who believe they cannot with a good conscience cherry-pick the Bible, keep the parts they want and ignore the parts they do not want.
My point is that Democrat Liberals start with flaw assumptions. Almost all people try to be logical, but if we begin with flawed assumptions, if we arrive at correct conclusions we do so by accident, not by logic.
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Well said Tom.
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What these critics of the protest don’t understand (or don’t want to) is that the country’s culture will be taken over piecemeal. See item number 10 of my 14 immutable laws: https://politicalprisms.wordpress.com/my-immutable-laws-of-politics/
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Oh so true Al! That’s a great post of yours by the way, I enjoyed it when I first read it and even more now.
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Thanks, Tricia. Feel free to share it with whoever you care to.
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Thinking further about your point 10,”the loss of individual rights is incremental”….To you and I and other liberty minded folks this is a huge deal and a lens we filter issues through. Most on the left do not seem to care at all though about this or are completely blind to how their favored policies inhibit personal freedom. I just don’t get it, do you?
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I will never understand the left, particularly as regards their acceptance of Islamists culture and Sharia law in this country without any effort on their part to adapt to our culture and laws. Imagine if we moved to an Muslim country and said we want to lived by the laws of the U.S. Constitution. We would be beheaded.
For all the work the so-called progressives have done on women’s equality and LCBT rights, they are about to piss it down the drain without so much as a whimper. I (and probably you) will not see the full ramifications of their foolishness, but I fear for our grandchildren and their children when they finally wake up to what they have allowed to happen. The founding fathers knew that the greatest threat to our system of government was from within. Obama was a nightmarish manifestation of that fear. I sometimes get physically sick when I think about disdainfully the left screws with our Constitution.
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Amen to that Al. Maybe now with the left’s newfound love for federalism we can convince them to appreciate it when THEIR guy is in office too. I doubt it though.
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Well done!!
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Thank you!
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Have you ever wondered why the so called “moderate Muslims” do not stand up in protest of the radicals? I think it’s because they value their lives. I still maintain that a moderate is just one breath away from becoming a radical.
The pendulum is starting to swing the other way although very very slowly. We are starting to see the “average person” getting fed up with the left and their tantrums and are starting to make their voices known. It will take awhile but it’s coming and then we can enjoy the news again.
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I think to a degree you are right about moderate Muslims and I dare say there are large amounts of them that don’t want the Islamist version of Sharia in this country. The problem is that the small numbers that do is enough to cause serious damage because 50% of the country refuses to open their eyes to the danger.
Yup, pendulum is swinging for sure. It’s going to be an interesting 4 years!
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Outrage vocab. run dry eh?
Can I suggest a 3 second listen to Maddow, Steppinoverous, Blitzer, Toobin……….
…on second thought, why use up some good words on irrelevance? lol
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Oh please don’t make me do that CS, that’s just too much! 😉
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