REMEMBER WHEN THE IRISH WERE BLACK? (New Old News Feed March 15th, 2010)

Top o' the mornin' to ya'.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day this week! Remember when (about 150 years ago) the Irish were blamed for stealing “our” jobs?

“They alienated themselves from Americans, sometimes forming gangs. They crowded into tiny houses or apartments, suppressing housing prices where they lived.”

Now we just call them Mexicans… Oh but this is different they all rush to say. Is it?

Plus: Israel loves building homes, the spiritual art of drinking snail mucus, the Pope in all his glory, and more!

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QUR’AN 32:22—A meditation on the signs of God, by Baraka B

Lightning in Italy

A short piece by friend of Revelers, Baraka B, on the signs of God in the Qur’an.

Who is more wrong than s/he who is reminded of the signs of God but then turns away from them? We will take vengeance on the sinners.
—Qur’an 32:22

Firstly, what (according to the Qur’an) are the “signs of God?” Lightening and rain (30:24), ships and wind (42:32-33, 35), sky and earth (30:26), sleep (30:23), wine and wholesome food (16:67), diversity of humanity (30:22), love between people (30:21).

What strikes me most about this sura is both the dictate to turn towards the signs of God, which based on the Qur’an itself are the very lifestuffs of existence (weather, love, food and drink, sky, etc.) mixed with the intensity of the punishment for not doing so: vengeance. So what is it about turning towards the rain that makes turning away so reviled?

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ABORIGINES LOVE ICE SKATING: New Old News Feed (January 25, 2010)

Russian dance “tribute” to Aborigines offensive to Aborigines (shocker!)

“They have got the whole thing wrong,” said Stephen Page, artistic director of the respected indigenous group, the Bangarra Dance Company. Page said there were no traditional movements in the routine, the music sounded more like it came from India or Africa than Aboriginal Australia and the body paint looked like “a three-year-old child had drawn it on….”

For doubters, think of it this way: Imagine you are Italian. And then some “black kids” come to your door smothered in grease, wearing giant mustaches, and dressed in pizza costumes saying “Eh… look-a at-a me-a… I’m-a an a Italian-a.” Then imagine all but twenty “real Italians” remain in the world because the rest were killed by State-sponsored genocide. You’d be a little antsy too.

Plus: Uganda doesn’t like living gay people; the mixed messages of war; a 16-year-old girl sets sail around the world; and most American’s dislike Islam (and the Jews)…

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FYAH BUN FYAH BUN: Seeing pain as an insight into our selves, by Baraka B

Yesterday’s piece on menstruation by Abby Roan challenged the pharmaceutical practice of numbing (read: sweeping under the rug) the uncomfortable bits of a woman’s moon cycle. Today we bring you a piece by semio-mystic explorer, Baraka B, who looks at pain as an opportunity to expose the blind spots of the self. —We Revelers

If you are wounded, know that people have been wounded likewise. Those are the days of changing fortunes to which We subject humankind, that God may know those who disbelieve.
—Qur’an 3:140

When disconnected from the sticky web of emotion, pain remains a mind-body response to something discomforting. In conventional terms, pain is considered to be the direct result of something that hurts and is therefore not good. In unconventional terms we know that pain is the result of what is perceived as not good, and it is only after investigation when we can determine if this perception was accurate—useful—or simply a crutch for the ego to balance on.

If I were to place my hand in a bear trap and have someone activate it,

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10 THINGS TO LEAVE BEHIND IN THE LAST DECADE

The first decade of the 2000s was a riot of a time. Suicide bombers, micro-lending, atheists being mentioned in an inaugural speech by the first African-American man to be sworn into office, who’s hung out with Bill Ayers of the Weather Underground, and whose last name is one letter off of that of the most hated Muslim in the entire world! But, as always there are some things we just can’t take with us. Here’s a list of proposed baggage we might consider leaving behind.

Hint: The first one rhymes with “blipster”…

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ISLAM, CHRISTIANITY, AND JUDAISM AT THE END OF THE DECADE

This past decade in the U.S. the Big Three players in religion took a right beating both from within and from without. These mega-institutions (either in numbers or cultural-political weight) couldn’t even agree on what pencils to bring to their secret meetings, and yet each one had their hands in enough havoc to upend the entire planet. In the midst of all the head-butting and playground antics, religious liberals decided that “interfaith dialogue” would be the decade’s rally cry and everyone (who supported Barack or Hillary) jumped on board. And while for many of us, the concept and actions of interfaith dialogue seemed more like a code for “Please help me talk down these baby-eating Muslims,” the mainstream institutions themselves just tried to hold on to what was left of their increasingly unrecognizable kaleidoscopic identities.

Here’s an overly simplistic look back at (read: Roast of) the Tri-Force of Faith in the 2000s:

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