Provoking Dally Jnr to thump his father made a man out of him, doncha know?

What a surprise. One doy you might ( cough ! ) just join us in the 21st Century.

Mintball wrote:You don't have to read much deeper than what is specifically said in these three stories to see similarities in core attitudes: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politic ... -says.html http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/0 ... 18718.html http://business-standard.com/india/news ... ts/466758/ There's a common thread - religious intolerance. All religions preach intolerance, all religions deny that they preach intolerance, all religions seek to control their followers by means of intolerance in order to extract cash from them, if they had to register as a business in the normal way they'd have BBC's Watchdog down on them like a ton of bricks.

Mintball wrote:You don't have to read much deeper than what is specifically said in these three stories to see similarities in core attitudes: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politic ... -says.html http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/0 ... 18718.html http://business-standard.com/india/news ... ts/466758/ There's a common thread - religious intolerance. All religions preach intolerance, all religions deny that they preach intolerance, all religions seek to control their followers by means of intolerance in order to extract cash from them, if they had to register as a business in the normal way they'd have BBC's Watchdog down on them like a ton of bricks.

On of the things that strikes me is that people get understandably concerned/worried about Islamic fundamentalism, but there are plenty of others around who are little different.

I have little doubt that, were they to have such an opportunity, the Tea Party nutters like Limbaugh and many others would, for instance, act very little different to the Taliban or the Saudis.

You have to ask yourself, for instance, why contraception as a part of health insurance is even an issue in the US election campaign. Yet it is. Because Republicans – desperately trying to appeal to the religious fundamentalist part of the US electorate that is as organised electorally as it incapable of being swayed by facts – raised it. What does that attitude toward contraception tell you? Something similar to the message sent by Sarah Palin when she signed a local law ensuring that any woman alleging that she had been raped would have to pay for their own forensic tests, perhaps?

Here, we're seeing court cases about the 'conscience' of particular religious people who want to be discriminated in favour of by allowing them to be excused from (the latest specific case) even being near women going for an abortion. What happened in the days before all these court cases? Nobody had any consciousnesses – or the employers always automatically ensured that the slightest religious whim was catered to?

Everytime I hear from the Limbaughs of the world, I think of Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale.

I formed my opinion on religion 29 years ago when I got married, we went to see our local vicar who was just a young man, mild mannered, very pleasant, we had a nice long chat in his vicarage and booked the date of our wedding and he suggested that we might like to pop along to a Sunday service where he'd "read the bans" whatever the hell that means.

So we did, and the man we saw in the pulpit was a complete raving lunatic, thumping the desk top, shouting and bawling out the congregation, telling them they were all evil people who could only reach salvation if they followed him - absolute top drawer f'kin idiotic fundamentalist behaviour.

Unfortunately all the old people in his congregation (and they were all knocking on a bit) loved it, thought he was marvellous, and presumably took some masochistic delight in being yelled at every Sunday morning.

We still got married, I just think he was a complete fruitcake thats all.

Apart from your mention of "the bans", I half wondered then if you were describing my father.

Why?

because (i suspect ) like me, answer 2 best fits the reply i would like to give to the question asked.

I particularly liked Limbaugh's reference to sex as 'recreation', rather than as a basic human function. Presumably he thinks eating is merely 'leisure', and going for a poo is nothing more than 'relaxation'. Actually, that last one might be true.

Possibly so, but all bigots have slightly different reasons for their bigotry. Some are religious maniacs, some were brought up by thick, intolerant parents, and some might be repressed homosexuals whose denial causes them to behave in this way. Which is it for you?