Fascist Mickey

Some of you may have already read about this one in the right wing press, which is having a field day with the story. It seems that Hamas, a terrorist Palestinian organization based in the Gaza Strip, has seen fit to appropriate the image of Mickey Mouse for propaganda purposes. In the clip provided here, the faux Mickey calls for the destruction of Israel and encourages Palestinian children to help form a worldwide Islamic caliphate. It’s stuff like this that makes this job so much fun. It appears however that the governments of Israel and the U.S. were not as amused with the program as I was, and called for it to immediately be pulled from the airwaves. Even Fatah, the moderate political party in Palestine, asked for the show to be cancelled. At first, Hamas complied, but later began broadcasting the program again. As if we in the West needed yet another example of the degeneracy of radical Islamic culture.

Jesus Wants You To Spank Your Wife

I love the internet. How else would I have ever discovered the wonder and hilarious beauty that I found on the Christian Domestic Discipline (CDD) website? Practitioners of religious domestic discipline are Christian right wingers who believe the bible gives them permission to dominate their wives and enforce their domination through ritualistic spankings. Most of the people who practice this lifestyle maintain that the spankings are designed to enforce the husband’s leadership in the household, and not as a form of sexual stimulation. The CDD website (which is the largest domestic discipline site on the web) does admit that “Though we recognize by its very nature this subject can be erotic, we will keep this website as clean and wholesome as possible. However, we will not seek to deny the erotic nature of some CDD marriages, as we believe it is a natural consequence of following God's plan. After all, He created eroticism to be enjoyed inside a Christian marriage.” Several Christian family sites have published articles attacking the practice, with one noting flatly that “Domestic discipline is BDSM [Bondage & Discipline/Sadism & Masochism].” The author goes on to state that “Domestic discipline is based on misinterpretations of the bible” and “If you are in a domestic discipline marriage please seek counseling so that you can make an informed, rational decision about your marriage relationship.” It’s difficult to make a guess as to how many persons are involved with this lifestyle, but the fact that Christian advice sites feel the need to write about it shows that their numbers must be significant. It’s also worth mentioning that most of the people who practice domestic discipline most likely don’t qualify as political extremists. Yet it still fills me with a perverse joy to know that at least some of the dominionists and reconstructionists out there are engaging in what they see as biblically endorsed kinky sex.

The Neo-Nazis Just Can’t Get a Break

An unflattering caricature of the disgraced Kevin Strom

It’s been a tough couple of weeks for Hitler’s followers here in the U.S. First, Shaun Walker, the former leader of what’s left of William Pierce’s National Alliance (NA), was convicted along with two other white supremacists on civil rights charges. The crimes occurred several years ago in Utah, when the three got into a couple brawls with Hispanic persons in local bars. The federal prosecutors successfully argued that these fights were deliberately planned in order to prevent minority persons from frequenting those establishments. Walker and the other two defendants are facing up to 20 years in federal prison. Upon Walker’s arrest leadership if the NA passed back to Erich Gliebe, the man who formally headed the organization but was pressured to resign in part because of his marriage to a former stripper. Gliebe doesn’t appear to have shed this predilection, as the cover the current issue of the NA’s Resistance Magazine shows:

The NA also saw fit to rip off a leftist punk band by recently releasing a white power music compilation called “California Uber Allies”, its title taken from the Dead Kennedys’ song of the same name. You know the NA is getting desperate when they have steal ideas from a Jewish lefty.

As if this wasn’t enough, Kevin Strom, former NA member and head of the now-defunct neo-Nazi National Vanguard had more charges added to his already devastating indictment for possessing child pornography. He is now charged with coercion and enticement of a minor, possession of child pornography, obstruction of justice, and four counts of receiving child pornography. The charges seem pretty detailed, and are likely to lead to a conviction. Tellingly, the white power bulletin boards have been removing any posts on this topic from their pages.

And as a final sign that this idiocy is not confined to North America, the New Zealand chapter of the white power Hammerskin Nation recently declared that they would not be holding their celebration of Hitler’s birthday at the local headquarters of the Satan’s Slaves motorcycle club. Cause you know, you have to draw a line somewhere.

Get Ready To Be Offended

Writing this blog can have something of a numbing effect. Sure, Fred Phelps still has the ability to shock, but most of these guys are pretty predictable in their statements at this point. A neo-Nazi refers to black children as ‘niglets”. Yawn. Some lefty calls for the murder of random police officers. Heard it before. In a way, I’m glad when people like Donald Wildmon (head of the Christian supremacist American Family Association [AFA]) manage to actually get a rise out of me. It means I still haven’t been completely desensitized to bizarre and repugnant political statements. The offending piece in this case is a short video feature entitled “The Day They Kicked God Out Of The Schools”. It is available for sale (for a “suggested donation” of $5) on the AFA website. The clip (viewable here) places the blame for the recent massacre in Virginia along with other school shootings on several factors including:

1. The banning of official prayers in public schools.

2. Dr. Spock

3. President Clinton.

4. Safe sex education.

5. Child pornography (?).

Of course, this is all complete nonsense. Seung-Hui Cho was suffering from severe mental illness of an unknown nature (although autism has been mentioned as a possibility). At least one of the shooters involved in the Columbine massacre was a sociopath, another form of recognized mental illness. Mental illnesses are sometimes environmentally based, but most often spring from genetic causes. No amount of school-enforced prayer would have likely dissuaded Cho from engaging in his rampage. And I really doubt that presidential adultery, child pornography, condoms, or a lack of parental discipline really had any effect on his state of mind during the shooting. What really pisses me off about this is the fact that Wildmon and others like him are willing to use any tragedy in this country as fodder for their call to turn the U.S. into an officially Christian state.