Difficult Truth #2

No one is obliged to respect your religion.

This one hit me when I was reading about the Miss America contestant from California, who replied to the openly gay blogger Perez Hilton when he asked her about her opinion on gay marriage, that "In my family, in my *country*, I think marriage should be between a man and a woman." Emphasis mine. Firstly, I was ashamed of Hilton. He knew that there was a "right" answer to this question, and it was downright MEAN of him to give the contestant the choice between lying and shaming herself on TV. A director of the Miss California pagaent STUPIDLY replied that she didn't think religion had any part in a pagaent. Lady, you're doing your cause no favours. The christian right looooves to wallow in self-pity about how the world is aligned against them (even though they're a majority in the US). You just gave them some bait and they're going to bite.
My first thought was: "I have no respect for Christianity." My second thought was that that does not make any sense at all. Christianity is a concept. A philosophy. It's hard to have no respect for something as nebulous as a philosophy. I can't well say "I've got no respect for Marxism", afterall, there have been some communist movements around the world that have had good points. Marx had some ideas that I respect. I can, however say that I do not respect Chairman Mao's interpretation of Marxism.
And that's key. Religion is a concept of pairs: the idea and you. It's stupid to say "I don't respect any of the pairs", because it's likely there's one in the bucket that you'll agree with, and you will be wronging them and discounting their valuable ideas. This is one reason why the UN resolution against blasphemy is dangerous and dumb. (Link to fox news. Apparently their hate for the UN and Muslims in the UN trumps their love of Christian fundamentalism.)
I respect the Christianity of my friend James. For him, homosexuality is evil, and so is masturbation...but he respects and will listen to other people's opinions. His Jesus gave the time of day to people with whom he did not agree on moral issues. His Jesus led by example instead of condemnation.
I respect the Christianity of my boyfriend. For him, Jesus was a good, patient and inspiring teacher who has caused him to examine his own actions and to empathize with the actions of others. He genuinely wants to make the world a better place, and Christianity helps him to focus on this.
I do not respect the Christianity of my ex-landlady. Her Jesus was a narcissistic hillbilly who during his own lifetime and that of his parasitic followers has devoted himself to the extortion and blackmail of the human race. This is the Jesus of the NOM ads and the prop 8 movement, too.
Back to the beauty pagaent, though, I'd like to add a corrolary to this difficult truth.

You have the right to say pretty much anything that won't endanger others. This does not mean that anybody else has the obligation to respect your opinion.
Just because you CAN say something doesn't mean you SHOULD, and this is a lesson that both Hilton and Miss California need to learn. Miss California should have dodged the question or pointed out that her lifestyle choices aren't nessesarily right for other people. Hilton should have bit his tongue. Either way, this news story would have been non-existant.
Every time I hear someone whine about being persecuted for not being "politically correct", they're trying to cover their asses for saying something that betrays a lack of respect for their fellow humans, also known as LACK OF TACT. In fact, I can't think of a single instance of "persecution for lack of political correctness" in which this is NOT the case. The political correctness police are about as real as leprechauns, fairies, and the gay agenda.
So yeah. You have a right to be tactless. You also have the right to pick your nose while talking to me and in either case, I have the right to call you disgusting. Disagreement is NOT persecution.
Amen

The King and You

Perhaps you have read the recent news story about the Australian man who has gotten sentenced to prison for publishing a book FOUR YEARS AGO which sold less than ten copies and was then recalled. Apparently, in his book "Verisimilitude: Is the Truth the Truth", author Harry Nicolaides said some rather nasty things about the current king and crown prince of Thailand.
In Thailand, it's illegal to say anything not nice about the royal family, whether or not it is true or is valid criticism. Insulting the King carries a sentence of up to 15 years in prison.
Mr. Nicolaides was on his way home to Melbourne, when he was arrested at the airport. One thinks that this could be a political statement--if you're going to arrest a man for slander, why wait three years? Three years, sadly, is what Nicolaides will be spending in a Thai oubliette--the prosecution decided to go "easy" on him because he plead guilty.
Anyway, what struck me the most about the articles I read, and I read about five, was that none of them would say what exactly it was that Nicolaides said that was so insulting to the king! The above article insinuates that it was something bad concerning the love life of the crown prince. The reason for this lack of full coverage comes out in the frank Christian Science Monitor article.
What? International reporters are too chicken-shit to do their job because they're afraid that they'd be thrown in jail or barred from reporting in Thailand? Ok, I guess that this is one thing that Blogs are good for.
So, since I am not ever planning to go to Thailand*, I did do a little internet research as per the CSM's suggestion, and here is what Nicolaides wrote that has gotten the pants of Thailand's government in such a twist.

“From King Rama to the Crown Prince, the nobility was renowned for their romantic entanglements and intrigues. The Crown Prince had many wives “major and minor “with a coterie of concubines for entertainment. One of his recent wives was exiled with her entire family, including a son they conceived together, for an undisclosed indiscretion. He subsequently remarried with another woman and fathered another child. It was rumoured that if the prince fell in love with one of his minor wives and she betrayed him, she and her family would disappear with their name, familial lineage and all vestiges of their existence expunged forever.”

Oh, come on! Like this is something that everyone on the planet who has seen "The King and I" didn't already know.
The censorship is even extending into the blogosphere, with this site removing the copy of the book that it posted because of fear of retributions towards Mr. Nicolaides. However, if you request a copy of the book, they'll send you one. I encourage you to do so!
This is bullying by the Thai government on people who are NOT Thai citizens. That a person who is not a Thai citizen could be coerced into censorship for fear of retributions upon an innocent person is twisted and wrong. The royal family of Thailand has shown themselves to be petty tyrants paying lip service to justice--the 81 year old king himself has expressed displeasure with this law but has not made any action to change it!
If I had a curse to wish upon the royal family of Thailand, it's that they be the subject of the next stupid 4chan internet Meme, but until then, I encourage everyone to find their Thai embassy and send them a letter, email or call of protest. You can also do a video response to one of the many Free Nicolaides clips on Youtube.
I encourage people to blog about this and to get the word out. The more people know about this heinous affront to liberty, the better.
Since GOD himself apparently can't punish people for criticizing him, the King of Thailand should get no better.

*From what I have heard, you can't walk through the airport in Bangkok without getting offers for hookers, drugs, and the latest scam directed at people who can't speak the local language. It seems like a totally tiresome place to visit where the harassment outweighs any pleasure one might get from getting to know the local culture. Thailand has real issues to work out while their court system is busy apparently wanking and prosecuting imaginary offenses like this one. Until they get their act together, I have no intention of visiting.