there ain't nothing like the real thing baby

via Avedon, we see harbingers of a really violent conflict of interests developing.

Mike the mad biologist:

If you haven't heard by now, Sarah Palin compared criticism of her to "blood libel", the disgusting medieval falsehood that Jews used Christian blood in religious rituals. While some have chalked this up to paranoia, I don't think that's correct (besides, Palin's paranoia stems from the bursting of her narcissistic bubble). Because there's an increasingly tendency among fundamentalists to view themselves as Jews. Now, this might sound odd, since they seem to have some difficulties with the Judeo part of Judeo-Christian. But they do see themselves as new and improved Jews...

I'm sure paranoia factors into this phenomenon: there is a self-identification with Jews, due to the history of religious oppression. But they also view themselves as 'improved and better' Jews. This is nothing new: since the inception of Christianity, there have been repeated attempts to claim the mantle of 'real Judaism' by Christians. So, at some level, Palin is using the term because she believes it really does apply to her.

Sure, it doesn't make any sense, but that's never stopped the theopolitical right. (Consider creationists who want to teach the origin of biological diversity as depicted in the Bible. Well, even a precursory read of Genesis 1 and 2 yields very different creation stories. So which is it? They just don't get that far; instead, they just double down and demand creationism even more loudly).

I don't think people realize just how radical their religious beliefs are, even in the context of Christianity.

Actually it's pretty remarkable if people have any sense of perspective about their worldviews at all, with the torrent of disinformation they're hosed down with by the main$tream. It's a flow that changes direction sometimes just from day-to-day.

Steve Striffler on Jared Loughner:

...it is amazing that any person in their twenties is able to develop anything resembling a coherent political framework for understanding the world, let alone acquire the tools to decipher between news and entertainment, to critically evaluate the fragments of information flying at them 24 hours a day from their TVs, computers and smart phones. Most do not have these tools by the time they arrive to college, and I long ago stopped expecting them to. But neither do I hold it against them, or dismiss their views simply because they are (from my perspective) muddled, incoherent and frequently go in completely opposite directions. I take them seriously both because it is my job as an educator and because I know a better future depends on equipping them with the ability to piece together a critical framework for understanding the world.

It is a bit ironic that at the same time as many commentators are urging us to listen more closely to our opponents' ideas and resist the urge to demonize them, that we are dismissing Loughner's political views without even so much as a real discussion. What he did is horrible, but the commentary has gone too quickly from "Loughner's actions were politically motivated" to "it had nothing to do with politics." We are now told that because his political views do not fall seamlessly into a neat box labeled "left" or "right" that they were irrelevant for understanding events in Arizona and, by connection, for understanding the current political situation in the United States. We should take Loughner's political views seriously. His mental state may have led him down a particularly destructive path, but his political confusion is by no means unique.

Analytic thinking is something both the Company and its theopolitical operatives want to discourage.

It's not just in the Homeland where dissent is being questioned, either. Take a look at what's going on in the 51^st state:

..just hours after the Knesset approved a motion calling for a parliamentary investigation into the activity of B'Tselem, Yesh Din, Breaking the Silence and other groups, National Union MK Michael Ben-Ari referred to members of the leftist organizations as "traitors who must be persecuted at any cost."

Speaking at an SOS Israel conference in Jerusalem Wednesday evening, Ben-Ari called the leftists "germs" and "enemies of Israel."

The rightist lawmaker went as far as equating the leftist organizations to Hamas and Hezbollah.

In an audio tape obtained by Ynet, Ben-Ari can be heard saying, "Elements that want to destroy the Jewish state are operating within the State of Israel. They are nothing short of traitors. They are persecuting IDF soldiers and want to castrate our resilience.

"I see the people from Peace Now; they each have a private car. Every clerk has the finest equipment. Who funds all of this? The greatest Israel haters are funding this. If we'll have to enact a law in the Knesset to eradicate this dangerous enemy, that is what we'll do. Such a germ can destroy Israeli society. This enemy threatens the state's existence," he added...

Leftist organizations in Israel are well funded by leftist Jews in America- who apparently aren't real Jews now according to the Right in both America and Israel. Leftists, in general are pretty universally regarded as traitors by Right-wingers and their Company handlers. Which sets up a tension people everywhere should be concerned about. When they eliminate all their opposition at home, it's only a matter of time before the new Zionists take out the old Zionists by force... especially once the new ones' financial ba$e decides it wants the petrochemicals the Old Ones could control.