Apathy Sketchpad

Fairly recently I read this article on the Daily Kos, about a Powerpoint presentation being shown to the US Air Force. It’s pushing religion, obviously — it’s written by the chaplain. I still really have no idea what chaplains are for. I think our university has one and I have no idea what, if anything, he does. But the fact that a chaplain wrote a presentation pushing religion is not remarkable or necessarily bad. What is wrong with this one is that it’s pushing religion — in fact, it’s pushing creationism — as a way of fighting suicide. (Because, you know, nobody religious has ever killed themselves and if you think they have then you must have been watching the lying News or something.)

That’s just not on. Apart from the fact that creationism is anti-science enough without trying to trump psychology as well as biology, geology and astrophysics, this kind of thing is displacing real therapy that can actually prevent these deaths. But the hell with that — why bother preventing deaths if they can be used to promote an ideology?

An obvious question that may have entered your brain by now is “what on Earth does creationism have to do with suicide prevention?” and the answer is of course “nothing”, so a better question is “what does Chaplain Biscotti think creationism has to do with suicide prevention?”. Well. Apparently he has identified a Problem:

• In the last two years, completed suicides have escalated throughout the Air Force
• …
• The Air Force did not use spirituality as part of their suicide prevention briefing until 2005

It seems that he read that and thought that the solution was to add more spirituality. I cannot fathom how even the most religiously retarded mind could reach that conclusion from that evidence. So what’s his solution?

Dr. Rick Warren’s book, The Purpose Driven Life,  provides a powerful model for Suicide Prevention, developing leaders, and making troops combat ready and effective.

No, it provides a pack of bullshit. (I haven’t read it, but I can easily surmise it’s a load of rubbish from the fact that Rick Warren wrote it.) After that are a series of laughably inept slides that are reproduced in the Kos article so I won’t bother here. Suffice to say that atheism (specifically, humanism) is equated with selfishness and then The Dreaded Communism, to the point where Darwin is inexplicably listed as one of the leaders of the USSR. It also uses the story of Pat Tillman, an atheist (as far as we know) who was killed by friendly fire in Afghanistan, to push the idea of faith in general, including faith in oneself. That’s probably basically good advice, were it not displacing real therapy and attached to the rest of this pro-Christianity propaganda.

Chaplain Biscotti is not the Crackpot of the Month. That honour falls to those in secular roles above him, who allow and promote this, who push religion both as a way of reducing suicide and in general. I’m starting with Rod Bishop who seems to have compiled the presentation that contained Biscotti’s slides. Beyond that it seems to be so systemic as to make naming names as pointless as it is impossible.

Luckily the Military Religious Freedom Foundation is suing the US Military over this. How that lawsuit will go is unclear. I have no idea what the rules are on such things, not that that has anything to do with the result of any lawsuit with religion anywhere near it.

[BPSDB]

Answers to ‘Why Did You Vote For Bush?’:

You may not like our president but you’d better thank God he’s in office. My world - your world -is much safer because President Bush understands the need to seek out and punish those who have and would continue to harm us. … Just remember that you sleep in safety tonight because Americans, led by our president, are willing to die for your safety.
Gary Williams, Granbury, Texas

Only because the UK doesn’t have any oil.

Bush has turned the recession into a growing economy… That’s worth my vote any day.
Joe Brassard, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

How’s that working out for you?

I voted for Bush because he is an honourable man who makes decisions based on principles, not polls and a man who can be taken at his word. Unfortunately, this seems to be a rarity among politicians.
Cathy Jones, Bayonet Point, Florida

He panders to his conservative base rather than doing what the public want.

President Bush may be polarizing in his international policies, but at least I can be certain that he will not allow terrorist actions to go unpunished…
Hayley, Dallas, Texas, USA

…whether they did it or not.

I voted for Bush to usher in the complete and utter destruction of the United States. Sometimes, you just have to tear it all down and start over again. No one will destroy America faster than Bush. Go Bush!
Tim, Los Angeles, CA, USA

Fair enough.

Your average European needs to watch the movie “Open Range” to better understand their American cousins. We all must defend Western Civilization before it is subsumed by the barbarians. The Europeans are going to (not) breed themselves out of existence and only the US will be left to carry on the civilization that has come to us all from the Greeks, through the Romans and brought into the modern age by the Europeans.
Mark Salas, Boswell, OK

You voted for Bush because you’re a crazy person. Okay.

He makes me feel safe.
Danielle, Illinois, USA

Well, he would. ‘Danielle’ is not a very Islamic-sounding name.

Bush is against abortion and that is all that matters to me. That is the only issue I consider and there are a lot of Americans who feel the same way. Some people say it is ignorant to disregard the other issues, and maybe it is, but that is how I feel.
Bertha, Upstate NY

As long as we’re clear.

If he had been president in the 90’s UBL [Usama bin Laden?] would not have gotten away with everything he has done. He will be caught by President Bush, that most American believe, even if the liberal media doesn’t want to report what Americans really feel. President Bush is Great!
Rebecca Saunders, Houston Texas

Certainly bin Laden never managed any major terrorist attacks durng Bush’s presidency. Unless us Democrats are forgetting something, as Hayley seems to think.

I voted for Bush because I am a Bible-thumping right-wing gun lunatic who hates gays, isn’t that right? That’s not actually true, but it doesn’t matter what the reality is, because that’s how the European media will depict it. According to them, if I don’t agree with pacifism and appeasement, I must be an inbred redneck idiot. So I suppose that’s why I voted for Bush: I am an idiot.
Gonzalo Rodriguez, London, UK

As long as we’re clear.

I voted for George Bush (to the disapproving consternation of my European cousins) because an election is a choice, and the two candidates offered two different approaches to leadership.

I think they wanted more than “because there was an election”.

Ever since an attempt was made in the 1770s to tax our favourite breakfast beverage, Americans have never liked being told what we should do, or how we should do it.

From what I have read, I expect the majority of the European populace, most of whom I assume were born post-war, not to approve of the American people’s decision. For insight, however, I suggest that holidays or other visits to the US not be limited to Boston, New York and Los Angeles.
Arthur Xanthos, New York City, USA

Anyone?

Because he doesn’t believe that our foreign policy needs a global test. Europe needs to get on board with us or get left behind!
Ben Rice, Chambersburg, Pennsylvania

Do you know what foreign policy is?

Staunch supporter of economic freedom for all Americans and freedom for all nations 
Miek Kondracki, American in Poland

Except Iraq. And Afghanistan. And parts of Cuba.

And America.

I voted for George because: 
1. He is intelligent. He graduated from Harvard Business School. They don’t give out free passes there. 

Yeah…

2. He has character. I grew up in backwoods Texas where bank loans were granted upon a handshake. Your word was your bond.
Warren, Salisbury, NC, USA

How’s that working out for you?

I voted for Bush because I will not have Bruce Springsteen, Gerhard Schroeder, Osama Bin Laden and Michael Moore telling me who to vote for.
Peter Sosniak, New York

Except for bin Laden.

The US was founded on Judeo-Christian values and a majority of Americans still hold close to these. Some may want to deny this, some may be deceived by what they see on the television, and some actually may not know this. This is hard to comprehend for a lot Europeans who have discarded these values and embraced secularism.
Michael, Texas

You voted Bush because you don’t understand the way your country works. Makes sense.

Jesus Christ, the American flag, the Ten Commandments, Life, Liberty and the pursuit of happiness are as sacred as the Bill of Rights.

So, not sacred, then.

Only President Bush and the Republicans have consistently stood up for these ideals.
David Belland, USA

Liberty? Really?

And Bush has shown the heart to bring democracy to two of the worst places on earth - Afghanistan and Iraq.
John, Boston, Mass, USA

Heart, maybe. Competence would have been a useful ally.

Bush is our president, we elected him, we care about religion, and Europe better get used to it because we’re not about to let you vote!
John, Stockholm, Sweden

Hang on, didn’t John from Boston just say… oh, forget it.

I voted for Mr Bush because he stands for the values as defined by the word of God.
Mike McF, Frisco, Texas, USA

Such as slavery.

I hope his second term will bring peace and democracy to the troubled regions of the world and domestically bring greater prosperity not only to America but also to the Third world.
Ben, New York

That would have been nice.

To the rest of the world, whose comments have been nothing but disparaging: You simply do not understand Americans! You never have, and I doubt that you will ever fully understand our thought process…
Leah, Richmond, VA

I expect so.

I voted for President Bush, because what others saw as stubbornness and arrogance… I saw as strength and perseverance.
Laura, USA

As long as we’re clear.

I voted for Bush because I could not stand the elitist media and the pundits telling me that he was a fool. I was tired of people like Michael Moore trying to influence my decision by making movies that had only one purpose - tear down the president. I disagree with many of his policies and would not have voted for him except for the fact that I am sick and tired of these people telling me that I am not smart enough to figure out for myself what is right and what is wrong. The Republicans should thank Moore and give him a prominent table at the inauguration!
Michael C, NY, USA

It just got on my nerves so much that people who only get a sliver of heavily bias coverage about America could hold such closed-minded opinions about our elections. Maybe four more years will give you a chance to open your minds to new ideas and consider that there are Americans who have a right to believe differently than you.
Andrew, Washington, DC

So you won’t be voting for a black liberal in four years, then?

I voted for Bush, so that he can clean up all his mess during his second term. No-one else should be made responsible for all his folly and self-disillusioned war on terror. The only war that the world needs to fight is to eradicate poverty, diseases, genocide, atrocity and many unjust situations in many parts of the world. These are the real terrors that breeds human terrorists. Go to the roots of the cause. Don’t try to be a fool to treat symptoms of these terrors.
Jaime Stuart

He’s not an unruly child, you twat, he’s the President! While you’re teaching him a lesson which he won’t get, other people are being tortured horribly to death. You twat.

He needs to win the heart of the world by fighting this war more broadly and involving every one with a freedom flag. We hail Bush. 
Saurabh K, Santa Cruz, CA

And, by Godwin’s Law, that is the end.

I had this on my Google Reader feed, but I thought it deserved highlighting properly: it’s the Divine Comedy’s song about Guantanamo Bay, with mildly naff video accompaniment. It’s good that people are doing this kind of thing — it’s disturbing how easy it is to forget about something like Guantanamo once it’s been out of the news for a while.

BBC News tells me that US Defense Secretary Robert Gates has said in a statement (how else does one say things?) that it would be impossible to close the thoroughly illegal and indefensible prison at Guantánamo Bay because of

that irreducible 70 or 80 [prisoners] who you cannot let loose but will not be charged and will not be sent home.

…

“The problem is that either their home government won’t accept them or we’re concerned that the home government will let them loose once we return them home.”

…

Yet these 50 to 70 prisoners could not be charged either, he said. This is presumably because there is not enough or no evidence against them.

If there’s no evidence against them, let them go. If their home countries won’t take them, let them go in America — if you didn’t want them in your country, you shouldn’t have dragged them there in handcuffs (see later). If there’s evidence, charge them. That’s how legal systems work in all countries except for fascist dictatorships.

And maybe some of them will go on to commit acts of terrorism after you release them. Well, that’s the risk you take, but the fact is you’re not fighting individuals. You’re not even fighting an organisation. You’re fighting an ideology: extremist Islam. The individuals don’t matter — keep one in prison and another will attack you, and he’ll be angrier. You don’t fight AIDS by killing the HIV-positive.

The aim of extreme Islam is to turn the world into a fundamentalist Islamic theocracy. You don’t respond to that by becoming a fundamentalist Christian dictatorship as the Republicans would seem to. If you don’t respect the fundamental human rights of your prisoners — against whom you can’t even construct a case — then you’re no better than the terrorists: you think you can get away with this stuff because you’re the Goodies and they’re the Baddies but to torture the enemy and imprison them indefinitely without trial is to lose sight of why you’re the Goodies. Western civilisation is better than fundamentalist theocracy purely because it’s democratic and transparent. It’s more important to society that justice is seen to be done than that justice is done. The government must remain answerable to the people, and the Bush administration seems to believe it is above them. It abuses their rights, lies to them, and does so in secret — strictly, of course, Guantánamo Bay is in Cuba, where US laws do not apply. The Bush administration rather pathetically thought that people would be placated by this. The contempt they show for their citizens here is shocking: they think that although the people should have to live according to the law (including people in other countries if they might have some oil handy), the government should be free to get around these laws in whatever way they please. In fact, the government are the people who it is most important that the law applies to — there’s very little else to keep them in check.

If you respond to fundamentalist Islamists with no respect for human rights by becoming fundamentalist Christians with no respect for human rights then the terrorists lose, but so do you and so does everybody else.

You’re just different Baddies.

This is a trailer for a documentary film about Guantanamo Bay. I include it because there’s a clip in it I want to point out. Anybody who saw The Late Edition on BBC4 the other day will have seen the same clip. It’s Donald Rumsfeld defending Guantanamo Bay. It’s pretty well right at the start of the video, and the really interesting bit comes right after the word “convention”.

I say “interesting”. Really “shocking” or “indefensible” or “moronic” would have been a better choice. In any case, there’s really not a lot else that can be added to that. And I can’t imagine any context in which that clip could be placed to make it seem okay, with the possible exception of immediately after an interviewer asking “how might a belligerent thug defend conditions in Guantanamo Bay?”. The conditions in Guantanamo are “consistent with the Geneva convention for the most part“. What an utter cunt.

From Thursday’s Times:

George Bush admitted yesterday for the first time that terror suspects had been held in secret CIA prisons outside US borders, saying that they were now being transferred to Guantanamo Bay.

Oh, well that’s alright, then, isn’t it?

George Bush is a silly. George Bush is a poo. Nyah nyah na-nyah nyah. Can’t get me. HA! HA!

*poke*

*poke*

*poke*

Annoying, isn’t it? Isn’t it? Isn’t it, George, isn’t it?

*poke*

*poke*

*poke*

Aaaaa— ding ding ding ding nyaaaaa, bim bim bim, woooahh!!!

I am above the law.

Yours, Andrew Taylor.

*poke*