More on America’s war on freedom.

September 11 was, of course, an active day in America’s fight against freedom. Following recent Bomb Bag observations on the political right’s drive for a theocracy, Stowe Boyd found some rather more disturbing media abasement and evidence of fuel for the fight against freedom. Go America!

underpaidgenius:

Is This America? - Nicolas Kristof

For a glimpse of how venomous and debased the discourse about Islam has become, consider a blog post in The New Republic this month. Written by Martin Peretz, the magazine’s editor in chief, it asserted: “Frankly, Muslim life is cheap, most notably to Muslims.”

Mr. Peretz added: “I wonder whether I need honor these people and pretend that they are worthy of the privileges of the First Amendment, which I have in my gut the sense that they will abuse.”

Thus a prominent American commentator, in a magazine long associated with tolerance, ponders whether Muslims should be afforded constitutional freedoms. Is it possible to imagine the same kind of casual slur tossed off about blacks or Jews? How do America’s nearly seven million American Muslims feel when their faith is denounced as barbaric?

This is one of those times that test our values, a bit like the shameful interning of Japanese-Americans during World War II, or the disgraceful refusal to accept Jewish refugees from Nazi Europe.

God bless America, and all the ships at sea.

It gets better:

a Newsweek poll finds that 52 percent of Republicans believe that it is “definitely true” or “probably true” that “Barack Obama sympathizes with the goals of Islamic fundamentalists who want to impose Islamic law around the world.” So a majority of Republicans think that our president wants to impose Islamic law worldwide.

Just in case you were losing track of how deranged the GOP is, and the way that its leaders seem to be embracing lies, xenophobia, and hatred as planks in their platform.

We are skidding toward a mob that wants a religious dictatorship — a theocracy — to take over in America. That’s what Glenn Beck’s event at the Lincoln Memorial meant. Not a return to religion in American public life, but the intent of evangelical Christian right-wing loonies to take over all the branches of Government, rewrite the Constitution, and hound the disbelievers out of the country.

This segues nicely into Michael Moore’s recent post on the fight to prevent a Muslim-run community centre from being built somewhat within the vicinity of NYC’s ground zero. As a proponent of freedom, he’s got this to say:

I am opposed to the building of the “mosque” two blocks from Ground Zero.

I want it built on Ground Zero.

Why? Because I believe in an America that protects those who are the victims of hate and prejudice. I believe in an America that says you have the right to worship whatever God you have, wherever you want to worship. And I believe in an America that says to the world that we are a loving and generous people and if a bunch of murderers steal your religion from you and use it as their excuse to kill 3,000 souls, then I want to help you get your religion back. And I want to put it at the spot where it was stolen from you.

For a nation of supposed freedom lovers, you’d think it would be hard to argue that logic. Of course, that’s not the case when you’ve got the people who believe in the “one, true religion” threatening to burn a Quran on September 11 (and thereby giving protestors in Afghanistan a reason to act like complete assholes). Go America!

Thankfully, there are people on the streets of America who actually believe in freedom. Jacob Isom’s “Dude, you have no Quran!” Tshirts coming soon.

Of course, all this is just getting us warmed up for Friday’s Real Time with Bill Maher season premier. You’d think this kind of crazy was all some kind of viral marketing campaign for the show, but no, it’s real folks! Real crazies! Coming for your freedom!

Solution: move to Canada. We’ve got non-bankrupting health care, reasonably stable banking, somewhat offensive but generally quiet conservatives (including those running the country), a better job market, better education (?), cultural freedom, and freedom to marry. We’re not perfect, but man, America, you scare me.

Source: underpaidgenius