The Anti-Christ is Here (Thank God!)

Wow. I didn't know I was rooting for the antichrist. I mean, as a Jew with a sharp tongue, I certainly _hope_ I'm rooting for the other guy. Just not that one. Whatever he stands for. Our people have no connection to 'The Rapture,' a construct of 19th century umm, passionate people. I disingenuously paused, because, again, as a Jew, the whole thing is hooey to me. We didn't have a 1st coming, so the second one makes no sense. We have no hell, only the absence of being part of God. There's no purgatory. No wacky 'what SHALL we do with all these unbelievers.' No fire, no brimstone. [Full disclosure: while Christianity is fully Thanotic (death- and afterlife-focused), Judaism does refer to this life as the 'prosdor' (literally: the hallway) and the next life as the room. But we Jews get do-overs in the form of reincarnation, and a chance for our souls to make right what we failed in previous lives.]

The Obama = Nicholae Carpathia idea is hideous. It's hateful, paranoid, and smacks of all the things for which the KKK was and is reviled. The Nazis used fear of the Jew, the unknown, the other to kill my family. And the hateful, prejudiced, zealots aligned with the McCain campaign are using the exact same tactics now, in 2008.

Debate is great. McCain certainly presents a different set of options to Obama. I welcome discussions of substance, of the priorities, strategies and even tactics of the two candidates in solving our upcoming problems. But bringing religion into this is a wedge designed to scare the Evangelical, the dim-witted, or those that bought the last lie: that Obama is actually a Muslim. Not that that is wrong in any way! (I'd love to see a Muslim President! He'd be just as fair as Kennedy was, as a Catholic, in a majority Protestant country.)

Perversions and Perverts

The perversions of Amerikans frustrates me. Today there was a story on CNN (see link) referring to a "swinger" group that coerced children into having sex.

Rampant sexuality scares people; definitions are definitely in order!

• Swinging is between consenting adults. Pedophilia is adults on children.
• Swinging involves consenting adults. Children, by definition, cannot consent.
• Swinging is between singles and couples. Pedophilia is sexual assault on a child.

Please, don't anyone think I approve of swinging personally. IMHO, marriage is between consenting adults, for the purpose of entering into a long-term relationship with a loved one. Or several. And "swinging" is for fornication with (sometimes randomly selected) people with whom there isn't such a relationship. Morally, ethically (and, if there are kids involved, as a parent) I object.

But swinging is not pedophilia. And trying to mix the two together perverts, a very basic level, grownup decisions, however misguided, with violent sexual assault on children.

The case is before the courts is about the rape, pedophilia and illegal acts committed by the Mineola Swinger's Club, which clearly consists not of consenting adults, but sick child rapists. But the media, not making the distinction between 'swingers' and 'pedophiles,' commits a grave sin of omission. It's the media's sacred responsibility to tell the truth, even if it's not socially or conventionally convenient. Swingers, open marriages, gays, lesbians, polyamous couples and others all exist in the real world. We might not all agree or believe in their legitimacy, but it's a cruel punishment to besmirth a societally unpopular label with the grotesque tar of rape.

Shame, shame, shame!