Happy July the Fourth

What July the 4th and America should mean:

>

And what it’s come to mean:

Why I Hate Capitalism

And yes, it truly exists.

Subscribe to Prose Before Hos via email or via RSS feed.

Pat Robertsons Greatest Hits

How this guy remains a pillar of the supposed ‘Moral Majority’ is beyond me, so I present to you the finest moments of Pat Robertson:

“You know, I don’t know about this doctrine of assassination, but if he thinks we’re trying to assassinate him, I think that we really ought to go ahead and do it. It’s a whole lot cheaper than starting a war … and I don’t think any oil shipments will stop.” – Pat on The 700 Club on his idea of foreign policy re: Venezuela’s president

“We have a court that has essentially stuck its finger in God’s eye and said we’re going to legislate you out of the schools. We’re going to take your commandments from off the courthouse steps in various states. We’re not going to let little children read the commandments of God. We’re not going to let the Bible be read, no prayer in our schools. We have insulted God at the highest levels of our government. And then we say, “Why does this happen?” Well, why it’s happening is that God Almighty is lifting his protection from us.”- Explaining on his 700 Club cable TV program why the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, had occurred two days earlier

“There is no such thing as separation of church and state in the Constitution. It is a lie of the Left and we are not going to take it anymore.” –Pat Robertson, address to his American Center for Law and Justice, November, 1993.

“The Constitution of the United States, for instance, is a marvelous document for self-government by Christian people. But the minute you turn the document into the hands of non-Christian and atheistic people they can use it to destroy the very foundation of our society.” – The 700 Club, Dec. 30, 1981

“How can there be peace when drunkards, drug dealers, communists, atheists, New Age, worshipers of Satan, secular humanists, oppressive dictators, greedy moneychangers, revolutionary assassins, adulterers, and homosexuals are on top?” – The New World Order, (1991) p.227

“It is interesting, that termites don’t build things, and the great builders of our nation almost to a man have been Christians, because Christians have the desire to build something. He is motivated by love of man and God, so he builds. The people who have come into [our] institutions [today] are primarily termites. They are into destroying institutions that have been built by Christians, whether it is universities, governments, our own traditions, that we have…. The termites are in charge now, and that is not the way it ought to be, and the time has arrived for a godly fumigation.” – New York Magazine, August 18, 1986

“If the widespread practice of homosexuality will bring about the destruction of your nation, if it will bring about terrorist bombs, if it’ll bring about earthquakes, tornadoes and possibly a meteor, it isn’t necessarily something we ought to open our arms to.” – Pat Robertson, The 700 Club television program, August 6, 1998, on the occasion of the Orlando, Florida, Gay Pride Festival

“You say you’re supposed to be nice to the Episcopalians and the Presbyterians and the Methodists and this, that, and the other thing. Nonsense, I don’t have to be nice to the spirit of the Antichrist. I can love the people who hold false opinions but I don’t have to be nice to them.” –The 700 Club, January 14, 1991

“Individual Christians are the only ones really—and Jewish people, those who trust God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob–are the only ones that are qualified to have the reign, because hopefully, they will be governed by God and submit to Him.” –Defending his stance that only Christians and Jews are fit to hold public office, The 700 Club, January 11, 1985

“If anybody understood what Hindus really believe, there would be no doubt that they have no business administering government policies in a country that favors freedom and equality.” –The New World Order, page 219

“You don’t dare say America or Christianity is a better way of living. When I said during my presidential bid that I would only bring Christians and Jews into the government, I hit a firestorm. ‘What do you mean?’ the media challenged me. ‘You’re not going to bring atheists into the government? How dare you maintain that those who believe the Judeo-Christian values are better qualified to govern America than Hindus and Muslims?’ My simple answer is, ‘Yes, they are.’” – The New World Order, 1991

“There will never be world peace until God’s house and God’s people are given their rightful place of leadership at the top of the world. How can there be peace when drunkards, drug dealers, communists, atheists, New Age worshipers of Satan, secular humanists, oppressive dictators, greedy money changers, revolutionary assassins, adulterers, and homosexuals are on top?” –The New World Order, p.227

“[The] feminist agenda is not about equal rights for women. It is about a socialist, anti-family political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians.” – Fundraising letter from Pat Robertson that was an in-kind contribution to the Iowa Committee to Stop ERA, as reported in The Washington Post, August 23, 1993

“Many of those people involved with Adolph Hitler were Satanists, many of them were homosexuals–the two things seem to go together.” – “The 700 Club,” 1/21/93, ADL report on Religious Right, page 131

“A Supreme Court ruling is not the Law of the United States. The law of the United Sates is the Constitution, treaties made in accordance with the Constitution, and laws duly enacted by the Congress and signed by the president. And any of those things I would uphold totally with all of my strength, whether I agreed with them or not…. I am bound by the laws of the United States and all 50 states … [but] I am not bound by any case or any court to which I myself am not a party…. I don’t think the Congress of the United States is subservient to the courts…. They can ignore a Supreme Court ruling if they so choose.” – Pat Robertson, speaking to a group of Washington Post writers, as reported in the Washington Post, June 27, 1986

“Many observers say that AIDS is the hammer and gun of the homosexual movement, an effective vehicle to propel the homosexual agenda throughout every phase of our society.” – Pat Robertson

“I think “one man, one vote,” just unrestricted democracy, would not be wise. There needs to be some kind of protection for the minority which the white people represent now, a minority, and they need and have a right to demand a protection of their rights.” – Pat Robertson, The 700 Club television program, March 18, 1992, suggesting that South African white people’s votes ought to count more than other votes because they are in the minority

“Just like what Nazi Germany did to the Jews, so liberal America is now doing to the evangelical Christians. It’s no different. It is the same thing. It is happening all over again. It is the Democratic Congress, the liberal-based media and the homosexuals who want to destroy the Christians. Wholesale abuse and discrimination and the worst bigotry directed toward any group in America today. More terrible than anything suffered by any minority in history.”

Thank you Pandagon and 1 – 2 other sources.

The Sarah Jessica Parker Effect

My newest addition to Urban Dictionary:

The Sarah Jessica Parker Effect – When an obviously unattractive or disfigured celebrity is heralded by quotidian females as the pinnacle of beauty much to the bemusement of heterosexual males.

Jim: Man, I just had a terrible blind date set up by your girlfriend. She claimed that she was hot, but when I sat down, all I saw was an anorexic harpy with a botched nose job.

Johnny: You’re a victim of the Sarah Jessica Parker effect.

Hamas and Fatah: They Are Both Losers

I added my thoughts to a thread at Tiny Revolution on recent foreign realist op-eds in the WaPo and NYtimes:

As someone who works on this issue full time, I’ll throw in my two cents. There is a certain irony in the fact that the new foreign ‘realism’ play of the day is about disengaging from the Abbas-centric, West Bank only plan the West is undergoing, while the typical Palestinian & Arab voice are distinctly against both groups. And I’m not speaking in uncertain terms of our view of political disconnect (apathy and laying around stoned, shooting the breeze about political hegemony continued by certain social groups), but serious anger at both Fatah and Hamas. At Fatah for being a bunch of worthless old fucks who turning a Palestine-first movement into a kleptocracy, and Hamas for hijacking Palestinian nationalism and turning into a serious derka-derka jihad idiocracy. That latter view was shared by the cosmopolitan Jerusalemites in the 90’s and has spread to most middle-class Palestinians and Arabs since. Common man resentment has also really surfaced against Hamas for making things worse (if possible) in the Palestinian territories by turning some vendetta killings into a geographical political coup. If you don’t believe me, there are oodles of articles and videos for your viewing pleasure of recent mass protests in Gaza City and Ramallah against the unity government. My favorite video coincidentally to come out of all of this was a Gaza resident chasing an automatic-rifle touting Hamas militant down a street with his shoe.

And on cue, the Jerusalem Fund released an information briefing this morning entitled Palestinians Say Hamas and Fateh Equally Responsible for the Infighting:

Overview: Fifty-nine percent of Palestinians surveyed in a 21 June 2007 poll blame Fateh and Hamas for last weeks intra-Palestinian fighting and 71 percent said they consider both groups to be the “loser.” The survey, conducted by the Ramallah-based Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PSR), found that while 75 percent want early presidential and parliamentary elections, 40 percent said they would not participate if the race was between Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Ismail Haniyeh. Abbas would slightly edge out Hanyieh with 49 percent of the vote compared to Hanyieh’s 42 percent. The numbers change dramatically if imprisoned Fateh leader Marwan Barghouthi replaced Abbas in the race. The percentage of voter nonparticipation decreases to 31 percent and 59 percent of West Bank respondents said they would vote for Barghouthi compared to 35 percent for Haniyeh. In Gaza, 55 percent of respondents said Barghouthi was their choice compared to 41 percent who said they prefer Haniyeh. The 1270 randomly selected respondents from the West Bank and Gaza Strip were interviewed between 14 and 20 June 2007. The margin of error is 3 percent.