Race Still Divides This Nation

"Deflaw them all then compare what is left!!!"

So Ms. Khan, I see you are disappointed in Rev. Wright and his brand of Christianity. You should be equally disappointed in your own brand of religion i.e. Islam and actually in all brands of all religions:

A synposis of the flaws, errors, and stench in contemporary religions for those eyes that have not seen:

1. Abraham founder/father of three major religions was either the embellishment of the lives of three different men or a mythical character as was Moses, the "Tablet-Man" who talked to burning bushes and made much magic in Egypt.

1.5 million Conservative Jews and their rabbis have relegated Abraham to the myth pile along with most if not all the OT.
simpletoremember.com/vitals/ConservativeTorah.htm originally from the NY Times.

2. Jesus was an illiterate Jewish peasant/carpenter/simple preacher man who suffered from hallucinations and who has been characterized anywhere from the Messiah from Nazareth to a mythical character from mythical Nazareth to a mamzer from Nazareth (Professor Bruce Chilton, in his book Rabbi Jesus). Analyses of Jesus’ life by many contemporary NT scholars (e.g. Professors Crossan, Borg and Fredriksen, On Faith panelists) via the NT and related documents have concluded that only about 30% of Jesus' sayings and ways noted in the NT were authentic. The rest being embellishments (e.g. miracles)/hallucinations made/had by the NT authors to impress various Christian, Jewish and Pagan sects.

The 30% of the NT that is "authentic Jesus" like everything in life was borrowed/plagiarized and/or improved from those who came before. In Jesus' case, it was the ways and sayings of the Babylonians, Greeks, Persians, Egyptians, Hittites, Canaanites, OT, John the Baptizer and possibly the ways and sayings of traveling Greek Cynics. earlychristianwritings.com/theories.html

For added "pizzazz", Catholic/Christian theologians divided god the singularity into three persons and invented atonement as an added guilt trip for the "pew people" to go along with this trinity of overseers. By doing so, they made god the padre into god the "filicider".

3. Luther, Calvin, Smith, Henry VIII, Wesley et al, founders of Christian-based religions, also suffered from the belief in/hallucinations of "pretty wingie thingie" visits and "prophecies" for profits analogous to the myths of Catholicism (resurrections, apparitions, ascensions and immaculate conceptions).

4. Mohammed was an illiterate, womanizing, lust and greed-driven, warmongering, hallucinating Arab terrorist, who also had embellishing/hallucinating/ plagiarizing scribal biographers who not only added "angels" and flying chariots to the koran but also a militaristic agenda to support the plundering and looting of the lands of non-believers.

This agenda continues as shown by the assassination of Bhutto, the conduct of the seven Muslim doctors in the UK, the 9/11 terrorists, the 24/7 Sunni suicide/roadside/market/mosque bombers, the 24/7 Shiite suicide/roadside/market/ mosque bombers, the Islamic bombers of the trains in the UK and Spain, the Bali crazies, the Kenya crazies, the Pakistani “koranics”, the Palestine suicide bombers/rocketeers, the Lebanese nutcases, the Taliban nut jobs, and the Filipino “koranics”.

And who funds this muck and stench of terror? The warmongering, Islamic, Shiite terror and torture theocracy of Iran aka the Third Axis of Evil and also the Sunni "Wannabees" of Saudi Arabia.
5. Hinduism (from an online Hindu site) -

"Hinduism cannot be described as an organized religion. It is not founded by any individual. Hinduism is God centered and therefore one can call Hinduism as founded by God, because the answer to the question ‘Who is behind the eternal principles and who makes them work?’ will have to be ‘Cosmic power, Divine power, God’."

The caste/laborer system and cow worship are problems when saying a fair and rational God founded Hinduism."

6. Buddhism- "Buddhism began in India about 500 years before the birth of Christ. The people living at that time had become disillusioned with certain beliefs of Hinduism including the caste system, which had grown extremely complex. The number of outcasts (those who did not belong to any particular caste) was continuing to grow."
"However, in Buddhism, like so many other religions, fanciful stories arose concerning events in the life of the founder, Siddhartha Gautama (fifth century B.C.):"

Archaeological discoveries have proved, beyond a doubt, his historical character, but apart from the legends we know very little about the circumstances of his life. e.g. Buddha by one legend was supposedly talking when he came out of his mother's womb.

Bottom line: There are many good ways of living but be aware of the hallucinations, embellishments, lies and myths surrounding the founders and foundations of said rules of life.

**What is this,an elementary school playground ?**
No,political playground for elder men.

Paganplace:

"Obama's connection to this man is long and deep."

I can add to what you said that as there is "born again" and "conversion" there must be the opposite. I believe Obama has done that. He excommunicated Jeremiah from his religion which is one tiny step short of excommunicating religion in general.

As religion has served conservative, (conservative-ha) candidates it has done an equal disservice to Obama. Religion shouldn't look for a lot of encouragement from him -- unless he's brain dead and we hope we know better than that.

I would throw Muslims and any other religion onto that fire. If elected he inherits Iraq, Afghanistan and continued terror from Islam. Obama is getting his "baptism of fire" already.

Think of it this way. No Republican administration has ever won a war. All successful wars have been CIC'd by liberal Democrats except the Civil War and we'll probably lose it if the religious get their way as it is still ongoing.

Disinformation is always aimed at the electorate. This time it's the candidate that's getting an education. The electorate is rather busy pumping gas and grocery shopping, a little too busy to be swayed by a jack-leg preacher this time around. Jeremiah Wright only dreams he's Pat Robertson.

" Steve:

"Wright said that the U.S. government created AIDS to kill brown people, and distributes narcotics to destroy minorities."

And Obama repudiated the notion.

It's true that conservatives in government had a major hand in making AIDS such an *epidemic,* cause Reagan refused to take action, instead getting more points from the Religious Right for not treating a 'gay disease' that preachers salivated over as a 'punishment from God for their sins.' And the usual oppositions to safer sex education and the like. Until it started turning up in white hemophiliacs.

While it's a conspiracy theory to believe AIDS was cooked up by the government, since the vectors are known, (it jumped from primates in places where folks butcher and eat a certain amount of 'bush meat') the inaction certainly didn't help race relations.

"Obama's connection to this man is long and deep."

But from it, Obama took away a very different message. What Obama's religion and values mean to him are clearly stated, and Wright does not influence his positions. In fact, Obama repudiates these things, rightly as completely against what he and his campaign and political service have been about.

Frankly, it's a media mess, but that's a big part of why I respect him. He's *not* a robot, and *not* going to cave to extremists when it comes to what the government does with my life.

And he's about *healing* the divisions, not capitalizing on them for the very wealthy.

By contrast, McCain has actually changed a lot of his positions to appeal to the likes of Hagee and that other guy, white Fundamentalist preachers with far scarier things to say.

"All the bland equivocation in the world is not going to fix that, Ms. Khan."

It's not 'equivocating' to evaluate something a bit more nuanced than labels from soundbytes.

It's called *thinking.* Something America could do with a bit more of right about now.

"In the Wright case, for example, no sincere attempt has been made to distill the history, theology, or circumstances behind any of his comments."

With the conspicuous exception, of course, of Senator Obama himself, ...though of course this man of humble beginnings is called an 'elitist' for being smart by a media that's so ratings and profit-hungry that they act helpless against 'the market' when shirking their (pre-Reagan's FCC 'reforms') historical responsibility as journalists to inform our nation.

There's supposed to be a social contract between the media and the American people: they get the airwaves for free, in return, they are supposed to inform us, not pander and manipulate... Why are all elections so darn *close* lately? Cause the people who frame the debates profit by it being close and acrimonious and 'controversial' and polarized.

Obama explains for himself what his relationship was with Wright, and in fact, strongly repudiates the things Wright said that he's being tarred with.

But don't listen to him. He's smart. He must be an 'elitist.'

What is this, an elementary school playground?

McCain never faced a similar level of scrutiny as Obama because that's not the agenda of the Irish Catholic bigots on Faux news and the rest of the RNM (Racist Neocon Media)

Calling a religion (e.g. Islam) evil is a far cry from calling people inferior because of their demographic profile (e.g. African-Americans). Calling Islam a breeding ground of terror based on the poorly-remembered psychotic ramblings of a warlord child rapist may be justified or not, but it isn't akin to making broad generalizations about blacks, whites or southwest Asians.

Wright said that the U.S. government created AIDS to kill brown people, and distributes narcotics to destroy minorities.

Obama's connection to this man is long and deep.

All the bland equivocation in the world is not going to fix that, Ms. Khan.

Giuliani didn't have to distance imself from Roberston because he didn't sit in his pews for 20 years. Or label him his spiritual advisor, etc. They weren't ever close, so no distancing was required.

Soo... your argument is that all religions have their share of crackpot preachers and it's not fair to characterize an entire religion based on a few crackpots. Fair enough.

But in the modern world, drama and blood sell newspapers. News sellers are going to respond. Perceptions of an entire group will be based on a few extremists. That's just a natural law, you can't do anything about it. It's Human nature.

Let's do a thought experiment. Suppose there is a distinctive minority group from a remote province somewhere in a hypothetical country. Suppose further that they spend almost all of their time peacefully going about their business and meditating on the joy of meditation or something. They make lovely handicrafts they sell at the local market and are basically completely outside the mainstream of modern life. They never do anything interesting and the only people who have an opinion about them here in the US are avid readers of National Geographic. Sounds reasonable, right?

Now let us modify our experiment. Suppose they occasionally produce activists who, rather than meditate peacefully, decide to agitate for political change by traveling to the national capital, ripping out their own eyeballs, and then pelting the prime minister's car with them as he passes by. Facinating. Blood, gore, political turmoil - suddenly the international press is interested! The minority is now on the pages of every magazine and the lips of every American. There are no follow-up protests and the issue dies down. But then it happens again every other week or so for 20 years. Do you suppose that the hpothetical minority will now have the image of "the eyeball people"? Yeah, they will.

Will nice, well-meaning people complain about this terrible mischaracterization of this peaceful, handicraft-making and meditating tribe? Probably. After all, it's Human nature to complain about other people acting according to Human nature. I won't hold it against you Daisy. You're probably very nice and mean well.

You're guessing. We'll find out how good a guess that is come next Tuesday -- then on to the next test of what you guess.

It's the economy that will decide the election and the economy is color blind just like those wanting to win the big football game.

Obama is so good Clinton believes he will be a two termer and has to stop him now else she is shut out forever.

Jeremiah the bullfrog is gigged. Better now than November.

Obama and his spiritual advisor, Rev. Wright, have destroyed years of progress on race relations.