Works for me.

I was trying to stress that concerning the recent Muslim violence — all differences aside, we as a civil society must hang together or we’ll surely hang separately.

I could’ve sworn that I did.

“When will the world as a whole put its foot down and take action to stop it?”

That starts with us, and we seem to be in agreement, although not for the same reasons. You are adressing me as if I am the left. I’m not. I said that I am distancing myself from them. Don’t mistake me for them, because, like you, I’m an individual.

Again, those were reprehensible hate crimes that were condemned by a majority of Christian conservatives.

“Hate is a volatile emotion, and can very quickly turn into violence.”

Which is presently being displayed by Islamic radicals — which was the point of my post.

When will the world denounce THOSE hate crimes?

We are quick to present examples of moral equivalency by playing the “well, the Religious Right is worse than the radical Muslims” card whenever there is a report of Muslim violence carried out in the name of their god — and we just sit around and condone it by saying “well, the Christian Fundies are just as bad”?

Hate is hate. Violence is violence. A hate crime is a hate crime. You cannot denounce one hateful, violent act without denouncing them all.

Just as we quickly stand up to those who wrongly commit violence and hatred in the name of Christ and say that their acts will not be tolerated, we MUST also stand up NOW to those who are PRESENTLY committing violence and hatred in the name of Allah and say that their acts will not be tolerated.

There is no left and right on this subject; only right and wrong. Neutrality is not an option.

The violence and hatred being carried out by radical Muslims as a means to an end is flat-out wrong. When will the world as a whole put its foot down and take action to stop it?

That’s the reason I’ve distanced myself from the left as of late. I’ve distanced myself from both the left and the right.

As for the religious right, I’m waiting for them to start doing bigger stuff than bombing abortion clinics and dragging gay people behind trucks. Hate is a volatile emotion, and can very quickly turn into violence.

Again, the reason I’ve distanced myself from the extreme left. Violence and hatred do nothing but inflame people.

Your machine probably hates my blog. The current template has been bench-tested on all popular browsers for compatibility, including Firefox (which is my personal browser of choice). Check to see if you’re running the latest version and double-check your plugins.

But getting back on topic, I have a problem with equating the “Religious Right” with the Taliban. Yes, I find a lot of the quotes cited from the link in question to be revolting; however it’s just talk until followers of Pat Robertson actually resort to flying commercial jets into buildings to force the heathens into submission.
Most fundamentalists in America work within the system to bring the change they want to see (not that I approve of everything they want to achieve). Islamic fundamentalists slash, burn, oppress, and kill to get their message across.

When religious extremists in America say revolting things and back it up with heinous acts, there is outrage from the religious community to denounce and condemn those words and acts.

When Muslim extremists say revolting things and back it up with heinous acts, there is little or no outrage from the Muslim world.

In summary, I’m staunchly opposed to religious theocracy — Christian, Islamic, Athiest, or otherwise. I don’t like a lot of the words being verbalized by extremists of any stripe. Words do not bring cause for fear until they are backed up with sticks and stones — which is what we’re seeing from the Islamists. They’re not satisfied with one country or region; they want the whole world under their submission.

P.S.: The “American Taliban” paintbrush can easily be applied to the left as well.

BTW, your blog crashes firefox, at least on my machine. Thought you’d find that information useful.