“The problem is that the way Bush has
done it in the last eight years is to take out a credit card from the Bank of
China in the name of our children, driving up our national debt from $5
trillion from the first 42 presidents. No. 43 added $4 trillion by his
lonesome. So we now have over $9 trillion of debt that we are going to have to
pay back. $30,000 for every man, woman, and child. That’s irresponsible, that’s unpatriotic.”
- Democratic Presidential nominee, Barack Obama, 3 July 2008
If I were the devil … If I were the Prince of Darkness, I’d want to
engulf the whole world in darkness. And I’d have a third of it’s real
estate, and four-fifths of its population, but I wouldn’t be happy until
I had seized the ripest apple on the tree — Thee. So I’d set about
however necessary to take over the United States. I’d subvert the
churches first — I’d begin with a campaign of whispers. With the wisdom
of a serpent, I would whisper to you as I whispered to Eve: ‘Do as you
please.’
To the young, I would whisper that ‘The Bible is a myth.’ I would
convince them that man created God instead of the other way around. I
would confide that what’s bad is good, and what’s good is ‘square.’ And
the old, I would teach to pray, after me, ‘Our Father, which art in
Washington…’
“And then I’d get organized. I’d educate authors in how to make lurid
literature exciting, so that anything else would appear dull and
uninteresting. I’d threaten TV with dirtier movies and vice versa. I’d
pedal narcotics to whom I could. I’d sell alcohol to ladies and
gentlemen of distinction. I’d tranquilize the rest with pills."
"If I were the devil I’d soon have families that war with themselves,
churches at war with themselves, and nations at war with themselves;
until each in its turn was consumed. And with promises of higher ratings
I’d have mesmerizing media fanning the flames. If I were the devil I
would encourage schools to refine young intellects, but neglect to
discipline emotions — just let those run wild, until before you knew it,
you’d have to have drug sniffing dogs and metal detectors at every
schoolhouse door.
“Within a decade I’d have prisons overflowing, I’d have judges
promoting pornography — soon I could evict God from the courthouse, then
from the schoolhouse, and then from the houses of Congress. And in His
own churches I would substitute psychology for religion, and deify
science. I would lure priests and pastors into misusing boys and girls,
and church money. If I were the devil I’d make the symbols of Easter an
egg and the symbol of Christmas a bottle.
“If I were the devil I’d take from those, and who have, and give to
those wanted until I had killed the incentive of the ambitious. And what
do you bet? I could get whole states to promote gambling as thee way to
get rich? I would caution against extremes and hard work, in
Patriotism, in moral conduct. I would convince the young that marriage
is old-fashioned, that swinging is more fun, that what you see on the TV
is the way to be. And thus I could undress you in public, and I could
lure you into bed with diseases for which there is no cure. In other
words, if I were the devil I’d just keep right on doing on what he’s
doing."
Paul Harvey, good day.
IF I WANTED AMERICA TO FAIL....
If I wanted America to fail …
To follow, not lead; to suffer, not prosper; to despair, not dream.
I would start with energy.
I’d cut off America’s supply of cheap, abundant energy. I
couldn’t take it by force. So, I’d make
Americans feel guilty for using
the energy that heats their homes, fuels their cars, runs their
businesses, and powers their economy.
I’d make cheap energy expensive, so that expensive energy would seem cheap.
I would empower unelected bureaucrats to all-but-outlaw
America’s most abundant sources of energy. And after banning its use in
America, I’d make it illegal for American companies to ship it
overseas.
If I wanted America to fail …
I’d use our schools to teach one generation of Americans that
our factories and our cars will cause a new Ice Age, and I’d muster a
straight face so I could teach the next generation that they’re causing
Global Warming.
And when it’s cold out, I’d call it Climate Change instead.
I’d imply that America’s cities and factories could run on wind
power and wishes. I’d teach children how to ignore the hypocrisy of
condemning logging, mining and farming — while having roofs over their
heads, heat in their homes and food on their tables. I would never
teach children that the free market is the only force in human history
to uplift the poor, establish the middle class and create lasting
prosperity.
Instead, I’d demonize prosperity itself, so that they will not miss what they will never have.
If I wanted America to fail …
I would create countless new regulations and seldom cancel old
ones. They would be so complicated that only bureaucrats, lawyers and
lobbyists could understand them. That way small businesses with big
ideas wouldn’t stand a chance – and I would never have to worry about
another Thomas Edison, Henry Ford or Steve Jobs.
I would ridicule as “Flat Earthers” those who urge us to lower
energy costs by increasing supply. And when the evangelists of
commonsense try to remind people about the law of supply and demand, I’d
enlist a sympathetic media to drown them out.
If I wanted America to fail …
I would empower unaccountable bureaucracies seated in a distant
capitol to bully Americans out of their dreams and their property
rights. I’d send federal agents to raid guitar factories for using the
wrong kind of wood; I’d force homeowners to tear down the homes they
built on their own land.
I’d make it almost impossible for farmers to farm, miners to mine, loggers to log, and builders to build.
And because I don’t believe in free markets, I’d invent false
ones. I’d devise fictitious products—like carbon credits—and trade them
in imaginary markets. I’d convince people that this would create jobs
and be good for the economy.
If I wanted America to fail …
For every concern, I’d invent a crisis; and for every crisis,
I’d invent the cause; Like shutting down entire industries and killing
tens of thousands of jobs in the name of saving spotted owls. And when
everyone learned the stunning irony that the owls were victims of their
larger cousins—and not people—it would already be decades too late.
If I wanted America to fail …
I’d make it easier to stop commerce than start it – easier to
kill jobs than create them – more fashionable to resent success than to
seek it.
When industries seek to create jobs, I’d file lawsuits to stop them. And then I’d make taxpayers pay for my lawyers.
If I wanted America to fail …
I would transform the environmental agenda from a document of
conservation to an economic suicide pact. I would concede entire
industries to our economic rivals by imposing regulations that cost
trillions. I would celebrate those who preach environmental austerity
in public while indulging a lavish lifestyle in private.
I’d convince Americans that Europe has it right, and America has it wrong.
If I wanted America to fail …
I would prey on the goodness and decency of ordinary Americans.
I would only need to convince them … that all of this is for the greater good.
If I wanted America to fail, I suppose I wouldn’t change a thing.
This is our land. A land of peace and of plenty. A land of harmony and
hope. This is our land. Oceania. These are our people. The workers, the
strivers, the builders. These are our people. The builders of our world,
struggling, fighting, bleeding, dying. On the streets of our cities and
on the far-flung battlefields. Fighting against the mutilation of our
hopes and dreams. Who are they?
Be good my people and you shall be rewarded. See something. Say something.
Monthly increases in luxury rations will be as follows:
6 ounces of chocolate over last months 8.
10 Viceroy cigarettes over the previous standard of 250 that might-or-might not be delivered.
Personally,
I would like to ask Congressman Ron Paul a question, but I should warn
him to answer carefully or I might turn him into a Purim cookie.:
"Other
than the conspiracy where radical, Muslim terrorists are out to
destroy America, is there any conspiracy theory to which you do not
subscribe? Any? Just one?"
So let's see what we have: There are Gaza "concentration camps." Israel "created"
Hamas. The Bilderbergers, the Tri-Lateral Commission and the New World
Order'ers. The "New Totalitarian Money" scheme. The
Kennedy-Khrushchev Chatty Cathy virtual Koffee Klatch. The "Before There Was
Rodney 'Can't We All Get Along' King, There Was Adolf 'America Is Our
Friend Even Though We Declared War On Her' Hitler" wormhole that I don't even
think the American Neo-Nazis believe and they have endorsed Paul
Pot. We have the Kennedy assassination "cover-up" and 9/11 Trutherism.
“The people that want big fences and guns, sure, we could secure the border ... Every time you think about the fence, think about the fences being used against us, keeping us in.”
Then, there's the "Amero," a new currency that would replace the US and Canadian dollars along with the Mexican peso, the TransTexas Corridor, the creation of a single country out of Mexico, the United States and Canada (the first two might happen, but Canada isn't stupid enough to join us in that insanity), and his obsession with Rick Perry, which has resulted in the weird situation of the extremely left website, Talking Points Memo, defending the Governor of Texas, whose hallelujah-and-pass-the-ammunuition-type of politics don't usually go over very well with the left on any level.
With regard to foreign policy, Paul Pot tells us that Al-Qaeda doesn't exist and the war on terror is
a "phony" war. Iran isn't interested in a nuclear weapons despite what
Ahmadinejad has said, what the IAEA has said, what the EU has said, what the Saudis have said, what NATO has said, what its own scientists have said, etc.
All of them are wrong. The Iranian-plot to kill the Saudi ambassador on American soil was an Obama "propaganda stunt." It is ALL a neo-con plot. Dontcha know? And, everything is the fault of the JOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOS!
Don't believe me? One of Ron Paul's books, assuming that he actually wrote it since one shouldn't jump to any conclusions because his "not my newsletters" were written in the first person and bore his name too, is named "Liberty Defined," which was published in 2011. He writes in the introduction:
"America’s
history and political ethos are all about liberty. The
Declaration of Independence declares that life, liberty, and the
pursuit of happiness are unalienable rights, but notice how both life
and the pursuit of happiness also depend on liberty as a fundamental
bedrock of our country. We use the word almost as a cliche. But do we
know what it means? Can we recognize it when we see it? More
importantly, can we recognize the opposite of liberty when it is sold to
us as a form of freedom? ... Sometimes it seems like we are living in a
dystopian novel like 1984 or
Brave New World, complete with ever less economic freedom. Some will
say that this is hyperbole; others will understand exactly what I’m
talking about,” he writes. “What is at stake is the American dream
itself, which in turn is wrapped up with our standard of living. ...
Above all, the theme is liberty. The goal is liberty. The results of
liberty are all the things we love, none of which can be finally
provided by government. We must have the opportunity to provide them for
ourselves, as individuals, as families, as a society, and as a
country. Off we go: A to Z."
So, accepting Paul Pot's invitation, off through the alphabetised Table of Contents we shall go:
Abortion
Assassination
Austrian Economics
Bipartisanship
Business Cycle
Campaign Finance Reform
Capital Punishment
CIA
Civil Disobedience
Conscription
Demagogues
Democracy
Discrimination
Education
Empire
Envy
Evolution versus Creation
Executive Power
Foreign Aid
Four Freedoms
Global Warming
Gun Control
Hate Crimes
Immigration
Insurance
Keynesianism
Lobbying
Marriage
Medical Care
Monetary Policy
Moral Hazard
Morality in Government
Noble Lies
Patriotism
Political Correctness
Prohibition
Public Land
Racism
Religion and Liberty
Security
Slavery
States’ Rights
Statistics
Surveillance
Taxes
Terrorism
Torture
Trade Policies
Unions
Zionism
Notice anything? What's there and what is missing? Insurance ... then Keynesianism. Unions ... then Zionism. Yep! I bet that lightbulb went off quickly!
Call me crazy, but I don't remember seeing footage of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv erupting in celebration on 09.11.01. Other
than the illusory "5 Mossad agents dancing outside of the WTC seconds
after the initial impact of American Airlines Flight 11 into the North
Tower" that 9/11 Troofers always speak about when they aren't talking
about nano-thermite, where are the pictures of the streets parties with
dancing Jews celebrating 09.11.01? I can produce numerous photos like the one above, but, strangely, none of Jews celebrating that horrendous day.
Again, does the photograph prove that all Muslims are bad and we should "go get 'em"? ABSOLUTELY NOT! What it does mean is that we do face a problem with Islamism, as we have seen in the decade since and have been reminded sharply by the Arab Spring turning into the Islamist Winter; thus, to write a book and single out Zionism while not even mentioning Islamism is a window into Congressman Paul's soul. In his mind, Islamism is NOT a problem, but Zionism and/or Judaism are.
Here's another example of Ron Paul's overwhelming propensity to "pin it on Hymie" any time that he possibly can. It comes from Paul's 1988 book, "Freedom Under Siege":
"The Middle East, in the last forty years, has soaked up billions of
dollars in the name of American security and peace. The more we give
Israel, the more we must give their Arab enemies. The height of this
folly was vividly and tragically dramatized on October 23, 1981, with
the killing of the 241 Marines in Beirut when their barracks were
destroyed by radical Moslems. The terrorists probably were aided by Iran and supplied with explosives sold to them by Israel, originating from the United States and paid for by American taxpayers."
Evidence? Paul Pot doesn't need no stinkin' evidence. His Jew-Dar went off! That's all he needs and, because Paul Pot says it is "probable," the Paulistinians believe it. To riff on an old Christian song, "Paul Pot said it. I believe it. That settles it for me."
If that's not bad enough, we get another example of Paul Pot's anti-Semitism and his questionable judgment in the same book. This was written by Lew Rockwell in the Foreword:
"But
Ron Paul and the Libertarian Party provide honesty and decency; an
America where we are free to work and to achieve; an America at peace
with its citizens and its neighbors; an America of abundance and
compassion; an America of healthy families and decent children; an
America tolerant of peaceful differences; an America true to its origins
in liberty; an America liberated from the Moloch State."
Moloch
is Hebrew for king. It is also a hideously pejorative term going back to the blood libels of the Middle Ages falsely accusing Jews of murdering gentiles in human sacrificial rites. Beginning in the Industrialised Age, Moloch came to represent the worker being slaved to death and sacrificed on the altar of capitalism. Capitalism meant banker and, because so many bankers were Jewish, Capitalist = Jew. Karl Marx made the connection in the mid 19th century. He was not alone. In the 20th century, Allen Ginsburg continued this tradition when he used the word "Moloch"
as a metaphor for capitalism and industrial civilisation -- and many
believe Jewish self-hatred -- in his poem, "Howl." The Left has a history of being anti-Semitic in connection with its rage against capitalism.
"Auschwitz
meant that six million Jews were killed, and thrown on the waste-heap
of Europe, for what they were considered: money-Jews. Finance capital
and the banks, the hard core of the system of imperialism and
capitalism, had turned the hatred of men against money and
exploitation, and against the Jews. . . . Antisemitism is really a
hatred of capitalism."
- Ulrike Meinhof, a left-wing German terrorist of the 1970s
Two
examples of anti-Semitism coming from different directions. One
anti-capitalist, the other pro-capitalist. Both think the Jew is the
problem. Methinks the problem is the pointer of the finger. One
really has to wonder how on Earth Ron Paul would publish a book with
such a blatantly anti-Semitic Foreword and believe that it would go unnoticed...forever. It's not even hidden on page 378.
Now, we keep being told that Paul Pot didn't see the newsletters bearing his name, didn't write the newsletters bearing his name, and didn't read the newsletters bearing his name, but c'mon. You are asking me to suspend disbelief in the same way Barack Obama did when he claimed he didn't hear any "bad stuff" from Jeremiah Wright while he sat in the pews for 20 years. I know this cat's work. If Paul Pot wrote his books, is it too much of a stretch to believe that he wrote this in his newsletter?
"Whether [the 1993 World Trade Center bombing] was a setup by the Israeli
Mossad, as a Jewish friend of mine suspects, or was truly a retaliation
by the Islamic fundamentalists, matters little."
"The times have made it unpopular, in the West, to proclaim openly a hatred of the Jews. This being the case, the anti-Semite must constantly seek new forms and forums for his poison. He does not hate the Jews, he is just anti-Zionist. My friend, when people criticize Zionism, they mean Jews - make no mistake about it."
- Martin Luther King, Jr.
According to James Kirchick, "in a 1990 C-Span appearance, taped between Congressional
stints, Paul was asked by a caller to comment on the “treasonous,
Marxist, alcoholic dictators that pull the strings in our country.”
Rather than roll his eyes, Paul responded:
“...[T]here’s pretty good evidence
that those who are involved in the Trilateral Commission and the Council
on Foreign Relations usually end up in positions of power. And I
believe this is true.”
"Paul then went on to stress the negligible differences between
various “Rockefeller Trilateralists.” The notion that these three
specific groups — the Trilateral Commission, the Council on Foreign
Relations and the Rockefeller family — run the world has been at the
center of far-right (I have one small quibble with Kirchick here. "Far-right" isn't really an apt description. We have to find a new label to describe the axis where Alex-Jones-meets-Medea-Benjamin-meets-Cynthia-McKinney-meets-Michael-Moore. We are really talking about a whole different space continuum here) conspiracy theorizing for a long time … On (Alex) Jones’ show earlier this
month, Paul alleged that the Iranian plot to kill the Saudi ambassador
on United States soil was a “propaganda stunt” perpetrated by the Obama
administration.In light of the newsletters and his current rhetoric, it is no wonder
that Paul has attracted not just prominent racists, but seemingly every
conspiracy theorist in America."
Guess who is over-represented, as a percentage of the American population, in the Trilateral Commission?
The JOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOS!
Guess who is over-represented, as a percentage of the American population, in the Council on Foreign Relations?
The JOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOS!
Guess what they call the non-Jewish members of the "global elite" likeDavid Rockefeller"?
The JOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOS!
I
am thinking about copyrighting a design for a tinfoil hat-shaped slot
machine that shows 3 Ron Pauls instead of
cherries when you hit the "Jackpot!"!
Keep in mind that Paul Pot gave the keynote speech at the John Birch Society's 50th Anniversary Gala, which is completely apropos considering the JBS used to run around the United States screaming that President Eisenhower was a Soviet agent, Chinese troops were massing
on the Mexican border about to invade the United States, and about any number of other
similarly crazy ideas. They even believed that there were codes on the back of road signs that would tell the United Nations' blue-helmeted troops, who can't even run an effective food distribution system in Ethiopia, how
to invade and take over a country with hundreds of millions of heavily-armed citizens. Here is Paul in 1998 speaking to the group telling them that -- FINALLY -- their nightmare is about to come true: The United Nations will take over any day:
"Subscribe to my newsletter and gold so that my stock in goldmines will increase! Do it fast! Do it now! Have your credit card ready! The sky is falling!"
Perhaps, that pastor out in California, who twice predicted the end of the world in 2011, should have spoken to Paul before making predictions.
And,
if all of that isn't enough, he included the nutter extraordinaire,
Cynthia McKinney, a bloody Marxist, in his "open endorsement" for the
Presidency of the United States of America in 2008. I am a libertarian
and I don't know of any libertarian philosophy that supports
Qaddafi-style Socialism. None. How does a libertarian endorse a Marxist? Does belief in nutty conspiracy theories trump liberty and free market principles? In Paul World, evidently, it does.
If
you read sites dedicated to Paul Pot, you will see every kind of
conspiracy theory discussed that you can imagine from the staged moon landing and the
government's alleged destruction of the original Moon (Or was it Mars?
Maybe, we should ask Sheila Jackson-Lee?) landing tapes (How did they get through the Van Allen Radiation Belts?) to the 9/11 truther movement and nanothermite to mind-control through fluoridated water to a "New World Order" plot to depopulate the world population by 90%
after which the remaining proles will slave for the elite, who will
(through medical technology and organ harvesting -- no doubt through
vivisection) turn into some sort of humanoid, computerised lizardmen
(OK, I threw in the lizardmen part), who will live forever -- transhumanism -- snacking on
the babies of the disgusting humans that are worse than the lowest of cockroaches. (If you have 2:19:30, you can watch Alex Jones' entire
opus on this subject, Endgame - Blueprint for Global Enslavement, here).
The
bottomline is that Paul Pot has served 12 terms in Congress, he has sponsored 620 pieces of legislation. Only four have made it to the floor of the House of Representatives and JUST ONE OF HIS BILLS HAS BEEN SIGNED INTO LAW: ONE. While I ardently applaud his solitary legislative
achievement as it protected religious liberty and private property
rights, the church that he prevented the government from seizing wasn't
even in Texas, much less his district. It was in New York. I appreciate the fact that he is not going to take a pension from the government. It hardly seems that he has earned it anyway.
He has proven to be an ineffective Congressman and small business owner. He has crackpot theories and crackpot friends. He has been demonstrated to be
either a racist, anti-Semitic homophobe or a man, who has been
"palling around with" racists, anti-Semites and homophobes for decades, along with
profiting handsomely from them, while maintaining four positions on the
authorship of newsletters bearing his name (and signature on occasion)
since 1995:
1.1995: "So, I was always very active in both politics and
my profession. When I came back, I resumed my medical practice, and
I’ve been doing that ever since, but I’ve also stayed active in
education. Long term, I don’t think political action is worth very much
if you don’t have education, and so I’ve continued with my economic
education foundation, Free Foundation, which I started in 1976. So
that’s been very active. Actually, in the last several years, we’ve
been doing some video work, in an educational manner. We did 14
different 30-minute programs on video.
But along with that, I also put out a political type of business
investment newsletter that sort of covered all these areas. And it
covered a lot about what was going on in Washington, and financial
events, and especially some of the monetary events. Since I had been
especially interested in monetary policy, had been on the banking
committee, and still very interested in, in that subject, that this
newsletter dealt with it. This had to do with the value of the dollar,
the pros and cons of the gold standard, and of course the disadvantages
of all the high taxes and spending that our government seems to continue
to do."
2.1996: “Dr. Paul denied suggestions that he was a
racist and said he was not evoking stereotypes when he wrote the columns.
He said they should be read and quoted in their entirety to avoid
misrepresentation.
3.2001: “They were never my words, but I had some
moral responsibility for them ... I actually really wanted to try to explain
that it doesn't come from me directly, but they [campaign aides] said that's
too confusing. 'It appeared in your
letter and your name was on that letter and therefore you have to live with
it.'”
4.2008: BLITZER:
"How did this stuff" (various racist nonsense) get into the
newsletter. "Who wrote it?"
PAUL: "I have no idea. Have you ever heard of
a publisher of a magazine not knowing every single thing ....The editor is
responsible for the daily activity."
CALLER: Dr. Paul, how confident were you at the time that the
newsletters that bore your name were representative of your views on taxes, on
monetary policy, the Second Amendment, the Tenth Amendment, all the things that
you hold dear? How confident were you that the newsletter accurately portrayed
your views on those things?
PAUL: Well, the newsletters were written, you know, a long
time ago. And I wrote a certain portion of them. I would write the economics.
So a lot of what you just mentioned… his would be material that I would turn
in, and it would become part of the letter. But there were many times when I
didn’t edit the whole letter, and things got put in. And I didn’t even really
become aware of the details of that until many years later when somebody else
called and said, you know what was in it? But these were sentences that were
put in, a total of eight or ten sentences, and it was bad stuff. It wasn’t a
reflection of my views at all. So it got in the letter, I thought it was terrible,
it was tragic, you know and I had some responsibility for it, because name went
on the letter. But I was not an editor. I’m like a publisher. And if you think
of publishers of newspapers, once in a while they get pretty junky stuff in
newspapers. And they have to say that this is not the position of that
newspaper, and this is certainly the case. But I actually put a type of a
newsletter out, it was a freedom report, investment, survival report — every
month since 1976. So this is probably ten sentences out of 10,000 pages, for
all I know. I think it’s bad that happened but I disavowed all these views, and
people who know me best, people of my district, have heard these stories for
years and years, and they know they weren’t a reflection of anything I believed
in, and it never hurt me politically. Right now, I think it’s the same case,
too. People are desperate to find something.
CALLER: But Dr. Paul, many of the newsletters are filled with
conspiracies. You had one newsletter from start to finish with fear that the
$50 bill, because it was going to be made pink, and it was gonna have all kinds
of things that can track us down, so we should all be afraid that maybe
tomorrow they’re gonna require us to turn in all of our old money.
PAUL: The paper money now is pink, you know? No, we haven’t
had runaway inflation, but I still fear that.
Well, I guess we know what Ron Paul fears more than Iran getting the bomb. Pink money. Hmmmm.... My Adam Lambert-dar is going off. Are there any gay readers out there that might have struggled with their sexuality and the colour pink? Can you advise us if you think that there are some suppressed, latent tendencies here based on your own experiences?
Vote
for Paul Pot, if you want, but he is not going to get elected and you will help reelect President Obama, and
even if, perchance, donkephants and unicorns flew out of Poodle-Perm
Wasserman-Schultz's ass, Nancy Pelosi could close her eyes to sleep
at night, and he were elected, he still wouldn't be able to do the vast majority of what he wants
because he could probably only count on his caucus of Dennis Kuchinich,
Pete Stark, and Sheila Jackson-Lee on the parts of his agenda dealing with foreign policy and cutting the military.
"Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean there isn't an invisible demon about to eat your face."
I
leave you with a song that I stumbled upon writing this piece. It
tells you everything you need to know about the Cult of Paul. I give
you an ode to Paul Pot's #1 Fan:
"CRAZY LIKE ALEX JONES"
“This is the biggest issue, it’s the only issue. ... What we got out of Bilderberg this year, and the whole transhumanist agenda. ... I can’t enjoy being out with friends on a jetboat. I can’t enjoy a beautiful vista anymore.”
*Hojjatieh
is a group of ultra-orthodox Muslims, who believe that humans can stir
up chaos to encourage the return of the Twelfth Imam, a 6 year-old boy who "was hidden by God " around 874 AD.
In the West, the members of Hojjatieh (and their related groups in other
countries, who subscribe to the same apocalyptic sentiments) are
referred to as "Twelvers" or "12th'ers." They believe that they must
cause apocalyptic death and destruction to hasten his return. The Ayatollah
Khomeini banned the group because they rejected one of the
fundamental precepts of the Iranian Revolution: Vilayat-i Faqih
(Guardianship of the Jurist). In other words, the 12th'ers, in the view
of
Khomeini, were opposed to the very idea of an Islamic republic "because
it would hinder the Twelfth Imam's return on account of it being too
just and
peaceful."
Who
are some of the members in Hojjatieh? Ahmadinejad spoke about his
belief in Twelferism in a speech on 16 November 2005. He is believed to be a member. His spiritual
advisor, Mohammad-Taqi Mesbah-Yazdi, who is an ULTRA-conservative hardliner, whom Iranians refer to as the "crocodile" and the "crazed
one," is considered the leader. According to reports, at least 4 of
Ahmadinejad's 21 cabinet
members are members of Hojjatieh. Ayatollah Messbah Yazdi has sought to
place his proteges in the Assembly
of Experts - the only body in Iran that can constitutionally replace
the supreme leader.
Hojjatieh
is an underground,
Messianic cult. Before some of you jump in and start screaming that,
"It is just like Christianity, especially fundamentalist Christianity!"
No, it is not. While Christianity does have a Messiah and the Book of
Revelations certainly predicts an apocalypse, there is no place in the
Bible where the followers of Christ are ordered or even encouraged to
engage in activities designed to rain down death and destruction on a
mass scale in order to hasten the return of the Messiah. In fact, quite
the opposite is the case. Simply put, the Bible says that only god or
Christ knows the hour of his return and there is nothing that humans can
do to change the timetable. (As an atheist, I encourage any Christians
to correct me in the comments section if I am incorrect, but please
cite the scripture so that we can all read it). It is nearly the
equivalent of Heaven's Gate. You
might be fine with nutters like the Hojjatieh, but I would prefer that their
fingers be far, far, faraway from a nuke button. Does this mean that I
want to invade and occupy Iran? No.
**I
cannot stress this enough: I do not equate Islamism with Islam. I do
not use the terms interchangeably. To me, Islamism represents radical
Islam, jihad, death, destruction, chaos, and man-made apocalypse.
