Powerful Christian Witness Causes Hindu Bomber to Repent

I just read this on Voice of the Martyrs and wanted to share it with others:

KATHMANDU, Nepal, December 30 (CDN) — Disillusioned with Hindu nationalists, the leader of a militant Hindu extremist group told Compass that contact with Christians in prison had led him to repent of bombing a Catholic church here in May 2008.

Ram Prasad Mainali, the 37-year-old chief of the Nepal Defense Army (NDA), was arrested on Sept. 5 for exploding a bomb in the Church of Our Lady of the Assumption, in the Lalitpur area of Kathmandu on May 23. The explosion killed a teenager and a newly-married woman from India’s Bihar state and injured more than a dozen others.

In Kathmandu’s jail in the Nakkhu area, Mainali told Compass he regretted bombing the church.

“I bombed the church so that I could help re-establish Nepal as a Hindu nation,” he said. “There are Catholic nations, there are Protestant nations and there are also Islamic nations, but there is no Hindu nation. But I was wrong. Creating a religious war cannot solve anything, it will only harm people.”

Mainali, who is married and has two small daughters, added that he wanted members of all religions to be friendly with one other.

Asked how the change in him came about, he said he had been attending a prison fellowship since he was transferred to Nakkhu Jail from Central Jail four months ago.

“I have been reading the Bible also, to know what it says,” he said.

Of the 450 prisoners in the Nakkhu Jail, around 150 attend the Nakkhu Gospel Church inside the prison premises.

Mainali said he began reading the Bible after experiencing the graciousness of prison Christians.

“Although I bombed the church, Christians come to meet me everyday,” he said. “No rightwing Hindu has come to meet me even once.”

There is much more at the Compass Direct website.

I bolded that sentence about how experiencing the graciousness of Christians was the key. I have been thinking I post too much negative material on this blog and the negative focus is not spiritually wholesome for me or a good Christian witness. Posting the negative material has been helpful for me in identifying what I am concerned about. But, starting now and for this coming year, I am going to try to shift the focus of this blog a little.

Hat Tip: Voice of the Martyrs

Israel: Forensic institute did harvest body parts from Palestinians in 1990's

Well, they harvested body parts without the families' permission from both Israelis and Palestinians. Actual numbers of bodies from different ethnic groups used is not provided in the AP article, so we can't really know how much this was an abuse of Palestinians or a crime of opportunity .

How disappointing:

1) to find out there was truth to the accusations,

2) that Israel did not put this man in jail, and,

3) that this is coming out now because an anthropology professor at UC Berkeley,Nancy Scheper-Hughes, decided to release the interview she conducted in 2000 with the man who was head of the forensics lab at the time, not Israel government motivated.

The AP story:

Israel has admitted that in the 1990s, its forensic pathologists harvested organs from dead bodies, including Palestinians, without permission of their families.

The issue emerged with publication of an interview with the then-head of Israel's Abu Kabir forensic institute, Dr. Jehuda Hiss. The interview was conducted in 2000 by an American academic, who released it because of a huge controversy last summer over an allegation by a Swedish newspaper that Israel was killing Palestinians in order to harvest their organs. Israel hotly denied the charge.

Parts of the interview were broadcast on Israel's Channel 2 TV over the weekend. In it, Hiss said, "We started to harvest corneas ... Whatever was done was highly informal. No permission was asked from the family."

The Channel 2 report said that in the 1990s, forensic specialists at Abu Kabir harvested skin, corneas, heart valves and bones from the bodies of Israeli soldiers, Israeli citizens, Palestinians and foreign workers, often without permission from relatives.

In a response to the TV report, the Israeli military confirmed that the practice took place. "This activity ended a decade ago and does not happen any longer," the military said in a statement quoted by Channel 2.

In the interview, Hiss described how his doctors would mask the removal of corneas from bodies. "We'd glue the eyelid shut," he said. "We wouldn't take corneas from families we knew would open the eyelids."

Many of the details in the interview first came to light in 2004, when Hiss was dismissed as head of the forensic institute because of irregularities over use of organs there. Israel's attorney general dropped criminal charges against him, and Hiss still works as chief pathologist at the institute. He had no comment on the TV report.

Hiss became director of the institute in 1988. He said in the interview that the practice of harvesting organs without permission began in the "early 1990s." However, he also said that military surgeons removed a thin layer of skin from bodies as early as 1987 to treat burn victims. Hiss said he believed that was done with family consent. The harvesting ended in 2000, he said.

Complaints against the institute, where autopsies of dead bodies are performed, at the time of Hiss' dismissal came from relatives of Israeli soldiers and civilians as well as Palestinians. The bodies belonged to people who died from various causes, including diseases, accidents and Israeli-Palestinian violence, but there has been no evidence to back up the claim in the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet that Israeli soldiers killed Palestinians for their organs. Angry Israeli officials called the report "anti-Semitic."

The academic, Nancy Scheper-Hughes, a professor of anthropology at the University of California-Berkeley, said she decided to make the interview public in the wake of the Aftonbladet controversy, which raised diplomatic tensions between Israel and Sweden and prompted Sweden's foreign minister to call off a visit to the Jewish state.

Scheper-Hughes said that while Palestinians were "by a long shot" not the only ones affected by the practice in the 1990s, she felt the interview must be made public now because "the symbolism, you know, of taking skin of the population considered to be the enemy, (is) something, just in terms of its symbolic weight, that has to be reconsidered."

While insisting that all organ harvesting was done with permission, Israel's Health Ministry told Channel 2, "The guidelines at that time were not clear." It added, "For the last 10 years, Abu Kabir has been working according to ethics and Jewish law."

USA: 1 in 110 children diagnosed on autism spectrum

A new CDC study of American eight year olds in 2006 found that about 1% had been diagnosed on the Autism spectrum (ranging from full autism to Asberger's disease). The prevalence in boys is 4 to 5 times the prevalence in girls. In Missouri, almost 2% of eight year old boys have been diagnosed on the autism specturm.

TIME magazine's article reporting on the study distinguishes between increases due to increased awareness and diagnoses versus increases due to an underlying increase in the condition.

Previous studies looking at a narrower population of youngsters have suggested that as much as 40% of the rise in autism cases might be explained by broader diagnostic definitions and by heightened awareness of the condition. But that still leaves 60% of the increase unaccounted for. "Most scientists believe there is something more than just awareness and a broadening definition that is responsible for the rise," says Dr. Gary Goldstein, president of the Kennedy Krieger Institute in Baltimore. "We are seeing some fraction of the increase that is probably due to more cases of autism."

TIME goes on to provide to specify some of the possible causes, focussing on the mother:

Since autism is generally diagnosed before age two, most scientists believe the factors that contribute to ASD occur during pregnancy, or in the months immediately following birth. A pregnant mother's advanced age might be one such influence, along with certain behavioral and environmental exposures she or her newborn baby may experience — any combination of which could be interacting with their particular genetic makeup to promote ASD. Isolating the most causative culprits will be a challenge, say autism experts. "There is so much stuff out there, whether it is diet or infection," says Goldstein. "We could make a list but it's got thousands of things on it."

The Wall Street Street Journal cites Catherine Rice, the CDC scientist who is the study's lead author, on the possible environmental factors leading to the increase:

Dr. Rice also said she couldn't rule out an actual increase in the number of autistic children. Research is under way into possible environmental factors, including vaccinations, household products and diet, as well as genetics, for potential causes, she said.

The Wall Street Journal also cites a source for the possibility that the age of the fathers may be a factor :

Philip Levy, president of YAI Network, a New York-based nonprofit that serves people with disabilities, including autism disorders, said the report confirmed that autism is "a continuing national health crisis." He added that some societal factors were helping to increase the risk of diagnosis. "With fathers in particular, there's a stronger correlation that has been made between older fathers and autistic children," Mr. Levy said.

12 year old raped at SF East Bay middle school

The San Francisco Chronicle is reporting that a 12 year old girl was raped in the stairwell of Portola Middle School in El Cerrito last Thursday. Classes were in session. The accused boy is 14. There was a witness who went to get authorities.

A new article this morning in the Chronicle by Jill Tucker has a paragraph with some facts on the number of violent incidents and discipline measures taken at Portola Middle School. We learn that last Spring, some students a Portola attacked a music teacher, pelting her with rocks and knocking her to the ground.

Last school year, Portola reported 381 suspensions and two expulsions, including 76 incidents of violence or force - most notably the rock-throwing incident involving several students who attacked a music teacher, hitting her and knocking her to the ground after she refused them entry to a classroom. Yet overall, the school had a lower suspension/expulsion rate than most of the district's other middle schools, according to state Department of Education records.

If several students attacked the music teacher, there should be more than two expulsions for the year. This indicates an unwillingness to exercise appropriate discipline by the school's authorities. (Where is a Safe Schools Czar when we need one?)

Portola Middle School is in a neighborhood of homes that cost around half a million. Here is a Zillow of the neighborhood.

Across the street from Portola is the Middle School of Prospect Sierra School, a private K-8.

Tuition for 2009-2010

Elementary School (K-4): $18,975
Middle School (5-8): $20,950

So, the family pays $500,000 for a home. And for an additional $21,000 a year, they can keep their children separated from the worst elements at their age level.

California does Copenhagen

California has "hundreds, if not thousands" of politicians, "academic superstars, green-tech gurus, environmentalists and college students" at the climate conference in Copenhagen this week according to this article by Margot Roosevelt in the Los Angeles Times. And in this photograph accompanying the article, we can see not all are in fancy limousines. Some are walking the talk. Or biking the talk, anyway, whatever.


Daniel Sperling, a U.C. Davis professor, bicycles in Copenhagen with his California Air Resources Board colleague Anthony Eggert. (BreAnda Northcutt / For The Times.)

What are they there for?

None of the Californians are involved in the actual negotiations, which are led by diplomats behind closed doors. "Interacting with a delegate is about as likely as a comet colliding with a planet," said Margaret Bruce, director of the Center for Climate Action, a California-based nonprofit.

But that's not the idea. At hundreds of side panels, conferences, receptions and exhibits, everyone who is anyone in the world of carbon control gets a chance to rub shoulders with other players.

"This is Disneyland for policy wonks," said Gary Gero, president of the Los Angeles-based Climate Action Reserve, a nonprofit that designs protocols for greenhouse gas offsets.

Rioting outside home of UC Berkeley chancellor

On Friday night at 11:15 pm around 70 people, several carrying torches, attacked UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert Birgeneau's house while he and his wife were sleeping. They smashed planters, windows and lights and hurled their torches at the house. Birgenau's wife called the police, and when they arrived, most of the crowd dispersed, but some attacked the police.

The San Francisco Chronicle reports that eight people were arrested on suspicion of rioting, threatening an education official, attempted burglary, attempted arson of an occupied building, vandalism and assault with a deadly weapon on a police officer: Zachary Bowin, 21, and Angela Miller, 20, identified as UC Berkeley students and Julia Litmancleper, 20, of San Francisco; John Friesen, 25, of Fullerton (Orange County); Donnell Allen, 41, of San Francisco; David Morse, 41, of Oakland; Laura Thatcher, 21, of Rolling Hills Estates (Los Angeles County); and James Carwil, 31, of Brooklyn, N.Y..

The Sacramento Bee article identifies another two of the eight as UC Davis undergraduate art students:

Julia Litman-Cleper of San Francisco and Laura Thatcher of Rolling Hills Estates, listed among those arrested, were identified Sunday as undergraduate students in Davis.

and

In Davis, a programmer at the campus public service radio station KDVS FM 90.3 said Litman-Cleper serves as that station's production director.

So the four youngest are UC students. I wonder who the older men will turn out to be.

Spain: "Nonviolent" Islamic Salafism and Vigilante Sharia Law

I've added a new label for my blogs posts, Salafism. At the end of the post on the growing number of women wearing headscarves in Egypt, we came to understand that the Salafist goal was Sharia Law.

I didn't post the story of the woman in Spain who had been kidnapped and sentenced to death by a Sharia court for adultery, because I thought it was just a one off horrible peculiar story. But this analysis by Paola Del Vecchio for ANSAmed links the case to others in the region and attributes the behavior to Salafists. So, we may be looking at a trend:

SPAIN: CATALONIA, ISLAMIC MORAL BRIGADES IMPOSE SHARIA LAW**
(
MADRID, DECEMBER 8 - The reported capturing of a Muslim women in Reus (Tarragona) and the issuing of a stoning sentence for adultery by religious fanatics are a gauge of a phenomenon that has already appeared in Holland and France, and which is now taking root in Catalonia: the creation of Islamic "moral brigades" by fundamentalists, who claim the role of judges and police officers imposing a strict observance of Sharia, or Islamic law.

The theatre of the incursions of these Islamic "moral patrols" are the rural towns where the mosques are controlled by Salafists, a fundamentalist sect of Islam, with a substantial presence in the province of Tarragona. These groups are heavily inspired by the Koran and the rigid regulations applied in countries such as Saudi Arabia and Nigeria.

Confirming investigators' worries are several disturbing episodes reported by police. Specifically, on November 14, nine alleged Islamic extremists were arrested, accused of having captured and sentenced a Northern African woman to death after convicting her of adultery. The investigation, still in the preliminary phases, is classified. However, according to reports in the media, the woman was captured and held for three days in an abandoned factory, and then in the home of the group's spiritual leader in Reus, where she was tried before an "Islamic tribunal" made up of seven people, who found her guilty of infidelity and sentenced her to death by stoning. The woman, who was pregnant, managed to escape and call the Catalonian police, the Mossos d'Esquadra, for help, and she is currently under their protection. In the meanwhile, the operation against the fundamentalist cell is ongoing.

Investigators have warned that the phenomenon of these "brigades", which could increase, has not only been found in Tarragona, but also in the provinces of Girona and Segarra, where mosques are controlled by Salafites. Many of the victims do not dare report their persecution, and intimidation continues for them. Investigators have confirmed beatings and segregation by their parents or spouses of women who do not wear veils, and the case of a Moroccan teenager who was beaten because he played football with other non-Muslim children.

It is also important to note that Salafists have been understood to be apolitical and nonviolent. The AP article by Sarah al Deeb on Egyptian women wearing headscarves stated:

Salafi groups are nonpolitical and shun the violent teachings that drove Egypt's Islamic insurgency in the 1990s.

But Wikipedia has this entry about Salafi Jihadis. Notice that this entry actually classifies Al Queda as a Salafi group.

Hat Tip: Women Against Shariah

London: Honor Crimes Up 40% Due to Rising Fundamentalism

London's Mail Online has an article on the large increase in honor crimes and a source from the Iranian and Kurdish Women's Rights Organisation attributing the problem to the increase in fundamentalism. There has been a 40% figure ncrease comparing 2007-8 to 2008-9. But the increase has continued and the last six months of 2009 (through October) shows a 100% increase!

Police have seen 'honour' crime surge by 40 per cent due to rising fundamentalism, new figures show.
Honour-based violence, including crimes like murder, rape and kidnap has rocketed in London during the past year.
Reported instances of intimidation and attempts at forced marriage have also increased by 60 per cent.
A report into the scale of the problem by Scotland Yard found there were 161 honour-based incidents recorded in 2007-8, of which 93 were criminal offences.
But in 2008/9 the number of incidents had risen to 256, with 132 being criminal offences.
The latest figures indicate that the trend is continuing, with 211 incidents reported in the last six months until October, of which 129 were offences - more than double the number in the same period last year.

And the local women's group has seen a 400% increase:

Police define honour crimes as offences motivated by a desire to protect the honour of a family or community.
Diana Nammi, of the Iranian and Kurdish Women's Rights Organisation, said the group is now dealing with four times more complaints relating to honour than two years ago.
She said: 'More women are coming forward. They are becoming more aware of their rights in the UK, that there is help available and they feel confident enough to report matters to the police.
'But I also think cases and violence are increasing.
'One reason is the rise in fundamentalism. The problem is increasing in communities around the UK.
'We are seeing a rise not only in honour killings, but also in female genital mutilation and polygamy.'
She added: 'The rise in Sharia courts is another indication of more fundamental beliefs.
'There must be more support from the Government to organisations who are working to combat this problem.'
The Metropolitan Police also records incidents where no offences has been committed, such as complaints by women that they are under pressure to enter into forced marriages.

There are really three reasons for the increase in the police statistics: the rise in fundamentalism, more women coming forward and a new awareness within the police:

Earlier this year, police were issued with new guidance telling them to assume honour crimes have been committed in more circumstances.
Senior officers anticipated that the move would drive up figures as in many cases only limited information is available or a potential victim refuses to help police.
Detective Chief Inspector Gerry Campbell, of the Metropolitan Police, said: 'The description of this type of crime is misplaced. There is no honour in these crimes.'
Mr Campbell said the Met had improved its intelligence systems to better identify such crimes.
He said: 'Ten years ago our knowledge was almost absent but we have worked hard and our knowledge has improved substantially.'

Read it all here.

Hat Tip: Jihad Watch

Egypt: Growing number of women wearing niqab

Great work by journalist Sarah El Deeb in her article for the AP on the growing number of women in Egypt wearing niqabs and the Egyptian government's efforts to curtail this. The populace has begun to embrace a conservative form of Islam, Salafism, similar to Saudi Arabia's Wahabism.

In European countries, particularly France, the debate over Islamic dress affects how to integrate Muslim immigrants and balance their rights with the majority population who find the dress an affront to women.

But in Egypt, the dynamic is different. Here, dressing in traditional Muslim garb is at odds with the secular government, which some view as autocratic and corrupt.

The debate underscores the gulf between the more secular elite, which wields economic and political power, and the disenfranchised masses who increasingly find solace in strict Islamic observance.

And women wearing the full body covering, the niqab, is the most visible outward sign.

A decade ago, the niqab was almost never seen in Egypt and it is still a minority fashion. Most women wear a scarf that covers the hair but not the face, often with tight jeans or clinging tops, despite clerics' complaints that formfitting clothes violate the whole point of "Islamic dress."

But today it is normal to see women in niqab, hidden under a veil that covers everything but the eyes, billowing black robes that cloak the body's shape, and often gloves. They are found at universities, teaching in schools, working in government offices and private companies, strolling along the Nile and riding on motorcycles behind their husbands.

The inspiration is Salafism, a movement that models itself on early Islam. Its doctrine is similar to Saudi Arabia's, and many trace its spread to Egyptians returning home from work in the kingdom and to Saudi-backed religious satellite TV stations.

Actually, the Wikipedia article on Salafi traces this more specifically:

Stéphane Lacroix, a postdoctoral fellow and lecturer at Sciences Po in Paris, also affirmed a distinction between the two: "As opposed to Wahhabism, Salafism refers here to all the hybridations that have taken place since the 1960s between the teachings of Muhammad bin ‘Abd al-Wahhab and other Islamic schools of thought. Al-Albani’s discourse can therefore be a form of Salafism, while being critical of Wahhabism."[44]

But despite their beginnings "as two distinct movements", the migration of Muslim Brotherhood members from Egypt to Saudi Arabia and Saudi King Faisal's "embrace of Salafi pan-Islamism resulted in cross-pollination between ibn Abd al-Wahhab’s teachings on tawhid, shirk and bid‘ah and Salafi interpretations of ahadith (the sayings of Muhammad).[45]

Regardless, it should still be pointed out that the terms "Salafi" and Wahhabi are not necessarily synonymous. Wahhabism has been variously described as a subset of Salafism,[6] a derogatory synonym for Salafism,[37] or a formerly separate current of Islamic thought that appropriated "language and symbolism of Salafism" until the two became "practically indistinguishable" in the 1970s.[46]

Comparison with Islamism

Salafism differs from the earlier contemporary Islamic revival movements of the 1970s and 1980s commonly referred to as Islamism, in that (at least many) Salafis reject not only Western ideologies such as Socialism and Capitalism, but also common Western concepts like economics, constitutions, political parties and revolution.

Salafi Muslims often promote not engaging in Western activities like politics, "even by giving them an Islamic slant."[47] Instead, it is thought that Muslims should stick to traditional activities, particularly Dawah. Salafis promote Sharia (Islamic law) rather than an Islamic political program or state.

(Note: My bolding. Also, I left the footnotes in and you can go to the Wikipedia article to follow up on them if you like.)

We can thus understand the niqab as a statement in favor of Shariah Law over secualr governments. And now returning to the AP article, we can understand that as universities and governments agencies seek to curtail the niqab, and many women defend this practice, the real battle is between secular governmental law and Islamic Shariah Law:

"This is not a security battle. It is a cultural, political battle," said Diaa Rashwan, an analyst who monitors such groups. "There is no cohesion within the state on how to tackle it."

For some women, wearing the Islamic garb is an implicit rebellion against the system. Many are outspoken in defending their beliefs, refuting the notion that Muslim women are oppressed and cloistered.

"I tell a girl who wants to wear the niqab that she has to be ready to fight for it," said al-Assal's mother, Iman el-Shewihi, who veiled herself 15 years ago - the first in her family to do so.

The 45-year-old woman, who is working on her doctorate in Islamic law, says that like her daughter, she has paid a price; She has been denied teaching jobs at her university in Tanta, north of Cairo.

Read it all here.

Do minarets look like missiles?

Journalists have included an almost obligatory comment regarding this poster to the effect that it has made minarets look like missiles.



But this looks like the minarets in this photo of the Sultan Ahmed Mosque in Istanbul to me.



And look at the minaret in Zurich.



I think the journalist have got it right that the minarets on the poster look like missiles. But they are misattributing the problem to the design of the poster rather than to the designs of actual minarets.

I think the poster design may be making reference to the Islamization of Hagia Sophia cathedral. And that's a legitimate comment to be made.

SF: proposal for sex tents at Folsom Street Fairs

San Francisco police planned a crack down on the public sex the Folsom Street Fair and the Up Your Alley Street Fair due to complaints filed by citizens and the excellent photo journalism of Zombie, according to an article in the Bay Area Reporter this last April. But after the events, some in the gay community complained about the loss of a venue for public sex and proposed sex tents be provided at future events for those who wish to engage or watch out of the public eye.

In the words of gay activist Michael Petrelis:

I want to reclaim the right to engage in public fellatio, or watch it unimpeded by sex monitors.

I said a tent, that would be clearly marked for oral sex and alcohol-free, should be considered, as a safe space for consenting adults to engage in fellatio on a public street. Of course, some poor suckers, er, lucky volunteers would have to head up a committee to maintain security at the tent, or other structure, if this idea is to become reality, and I'd be the first to kneel down and pray that this happens. Demetri and Bevan will consider the tent idea and it will be revisited at future meetings.

Bevan refers to Bevan Dufty, the city council member for the district that includes the Castro and who intends to run for mayor. The SF Chronicle's Matier and Ross carried an item about this last week, concluding:

Dufty said he wasn't sure if the issue was big enough at this point to recommend any action.

"There are definitely people interested in seeing more public sex," Dufty said, but "right now, I'd just take it under advisement and wait and see what develops."

Spoken like a true candidate.

The good news is that today the San Francisco Chronicle published an editorial against it:

Idea of public sex tents is way out of line

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Public sex tents? Now there's an idea that should have been shot down the second it was announced from the mouth of a member of the "leather community" in response to complaints about public sex at Folsom Street Fair and its smaller sibling fair, Up Your Alley.


Instead, it appears that at least one of our local leaders (Supervisor Bevan Dufty) has agreed to take the matter "under advisement." Since our local leaders are having trouble speaking the obvious, we will: Public sex is not appropriate at Folsom Street Fair or anywhere else. Even in San Francisco.

Public sex isn't just lewd, it's illegal under state law. San Francisco officials and police have historically given the fairs broad leeway to self-police bawdy behavior, but that should have been revoked the moment that citizens complained. Instead, people are giving serious thought to ways to make the streets safe for public sex and unsafe for public decency.

Enough. This is a quality-of-life issue that should have been tackled years ago. Local leaders need to stop clowning around and insist that everyone obey the law.

Why I Parted Ways with the Left

I was inspired by Charles Johnson at LGF"s Why I Parted Ways with the Right
(see here http://littlegreenfootballs.com/article/35243_Why_I_Parted_Ways_With_The_Right)
to revise it slightly to show how it could also be applied to the problems on the left:

1. Support for fascists, both in America, Europe and in the Middle East. (How can anyone side with Hamas?)

2. Support for bigotry and racial hatred, as long as it's against whites. (How can anyone think the New Black Panther Party voter intimidation in Philadelphia was OK?)

3. Support for throwing women back into the Dark Ages, and general religious fanaticism ( How can anyone use cultural relativism to defend practices like female genital mutilation or forcing women to wear burkhas?)

4. Support for anti-science bad craziness (How can anyone continue to defend the bad science coming out of the Climate Change movement?)

5. Support for heterophobic bigotry (When are they going to admit that children do best in their biological two parent family?)

6. Support for anti-government lunacy (How can anyone think Holder's idea for the trial of KSM makes any sense? )

7. Support for conspiracy theories and hate speech (9/11 Truthers, etc.)

8. A left-wing blogosphere that is almost universally dominated by raging hate speech

9. Anti-Christian bigotry that goes far beyond simply criticizing extremists, into dismissal of the beliefs of about half the population of the country.

10. Hatred for Republican politicians that goes far beyond simply criticizing their policies, into racism, hate speech, and bizarre conspiracy theories

And much, much more. The American left wing has gone off the rails, into the bushes, and off the cliff.

I won’t be going over the cliff with them.

I'll try to update this with more links.

Hat Tip to Jihad Watch for drawing my attention to this.