Ignorance & spam promoting idiocy (rant/long).

[TheYak]

The following is an e-mail I received (my ex-in-law : was nice enough to chain-letter me with this).  I am not the author and it does not contain my opinion.
"DON'T BUY IT [referring to new US Postage Stamp]
Phil: How ironic is this??!!  They don't even believe in Christ and they're getting their own Christmas stamp, but don't dream of posting the ten commandments on federal property?  

USPS New Stamp


This one is impossible to believe.  Scroll down for the text.
If there is only one thing you forward today.....let it be this!

REMEMBER the MUSLIM bombing of PanAm
Flight 103!

REMEMBER the MUSLIM bombing of the World
Trade Center in 1993!

REMEMBER the MUSLIM bombing of the Marine
barracks in Lebanon!

REMEMBER the MUSLIM bombing of the military
barracks in Saudi Arabia!

REMEMBER the MUSLIM bombing of the American
Embassies in Africa!

REMEMBER the MUSLIM bombing of the USS COLE!

REMEMBER the MUSLIM attack on the Twin Towers on 9/11/2001!

REMEMBER all the AMERICAN lives that were
lost in those vicious MUSLIM attacks!

Now the United States Postal Service REMEMBERS and HONORS the
EID MUSLIM holiday season with a commemorative first class
holiday postage stamp.

REMEMBER to adamantly and vocally BOYCOTT this stamp
when purchasing your stamps at the post office.    
To use this stamp would be a slap in the face to all those
AMERICANS who died at the hands of those whom this stamp honors.

REMEMBER to pass this along to every patriotic AMERICAN you know.  "  

Oh, yeah.  Crap like this makes me really proud to be American.  Thankfully, not all of the populous is this ignorant.  
The following points are me ranting about the stupidity of this mass e-mail:
1) Irony?  No, it's not, sorry.
2) Don't believe in Christ? Nope, wrong again.  Most muslim sects believe in Christ and many even believe he was a great prophet and the forerunner to Muhammad.  
3) Getting their own Christmas stamp? A) It's for the holiday "Eid" you bloody fool, not Christmas B) There have been Christmas stamps for decades, many of which actually have to do with the birth of Christ.  I have received countless letters that have Christian emblems, statements, etc. on them.  It's not like they're honoring a Muslim holiday and not yours.  Hell, there have been Chanukah stamps for some time.
4) Remember what now?  Damning all Muslims for things done by certain sects would be like damning all of Christianity for the Crusades, Witch-Hunts & Inquisition.   Let every person (or at least every group under the same paster/priest) be responsible for their own actions.

Sorry for the long post, just thought some of you might be interested.  For those who might misinterpret my words (usually by not reading the whole damned post) - I am not saying anything anti-Christian or Anti-semitic by the above.  What I am saying is that this person is giving a bad name to Muslims, Christians, Americans & Patriotic Americans and encouraging the spread of idiocy.  If I could trace the e-mail back (which I will try) and find the he lives in the area, I'm going to corner him and bitch at him a bit.  

I have three reasons for posting 1) to correct a bit of ignorance 2) to get your guys' take on this and 3) to see about feedback I can send back to the author.  

Later.. if the thread bores anyone, just let it sink into oblivion.

[shbaz]

I feel dumber for reading that email, thanks.

[TheYak]

Sorry   But that's kind of my point.  Most people here know better but I'd be amazed if a very high number of Americans didn't go for this shite.  Hell, My ex-in-law (Great phrase) forwarded it to me as a "positive" thing.

[juncmodule]

If I'm not mistaken the US postal service is no longer technically a government institution. It is protected by certain federal laws just the same, but, isn't it a commercial institution now?

How ironic is this??!! They don't even believe in Christ and they're getting their own Christmas stamp, but don't dream of posting the ten commandments on federal property?

I assume that is in reference to putting that ten commandments statue or something on a state capitol or court or something...

ehh...

Many people fail to see anit-Arab sentiments as racism I think. The US government has pushed this modern "crusade" for spreading democracy and doesn't give a crap about the results. Muslims have very little to do with anything in that list of "remember" crap. Fucking wingnut crazy poofter fucks were responsible for those things. That they did it in the name of Islam doesn't mean dick.

So yeah, I agree with you Yak. Our country has become a very sad thing I believe. More so since 9/11.

Look around at the American flags. Decaying, ripping, and falling off of cars, windows...fading away like the fad that was post 9/11 patriotism.

later,
-junc

[scotch]

It's sad that stuff like this can be seen in fairly mainstream circles in the US :/  Even with all the issues over muslim asylum seekers and tensions between communities here (Britain) in some areas, something like that could only be seen in some racist fringe party's propaganda... and even then they might try to sound less racist so they can get a bigger audience.
I think the majority of Americans can see through it though, I hope so.

[TheYak]

There are several breeds of American.  One of them is the Patridiot.  The Patridiot supports his government, no matter what (They're the types who'll argue that the Vietnam war was a good thing).  They also will blindly side with whichever opinion is given the most support in the media.  After all, if everyone else thinks so, how can it be wrong?  Sadly, I could think of at least a dozen people I know (here in the US) that would boycott or protest these stamps at the say-so of the imbecilic author.  

On the subject of the "Flag-fad" I posted a message some time ago.  My neighbors across the street have a 6-foot x 4-foot inflatable, internally lit American flag.  

Agreed, the prejudice (especially recently) against Islam is only one step removed from racism.  It is not a hatred based upon something someone is but something they choose to do.  Unfortunately, quite a bit of anti-semitic feelings get bandied about as well (For those that don't know, Anti-semitism doesn't only refer to the Jewish).  Does anyone mind if I quote them? I've found the author's address and wouldn't mind some nice quote to back up my blathering nonsense.  

[Darth Mandarb]

I've gotten this e-mail before.

I've also gotten one about a little girl who is sick with cancer.  Oddly enough, I got another one with the same picture of the little girl, and this time she'd been kidnapped!!  And if I just send out this e-mail to everybody in my address book we'll find her!!

It's pathetic how the [scumbag] spammers take advantage of people like that.  It just goes back to my thread about Spam.  It's frickin' pathetic and should be illegal.

I hate the fact that Islam gets a bad name.  99.99% of Islam preaches peace, not Jihad.  It's these damn terrorist scumbags that cause the problem.  It's the hitch hiker syndrome ... 1 outta 1000 hitch hikers means you harm, but because of that 1 asshole, nobody picks up hitch hikers.

The popular term "racial profiling" pisses me off though.  The TV show "The Shield" had a line where an Arabic guy was getting harrassed by his neighbor and he said, "She's picking on me 'cause I'm Arabic!" and the cop said, "No, she's doing that because 12 guys that look like your twin brother crashed planes into 3 buildings"

There are VERY few people in America who could say, "Well given his accent and verbal inflection I'd say he's Kurdish from Norther Iraq"  Just as there are very few people in the Middle East who could say, "Well given his accent and verbal inflection I'd say he's from the southern US ... most likely Georgia"  

My point?  Most Americans can't tell 1 middle eastern accent/person apart from another and the terrorist groups have members from ALL across the mid-east.  There's NO way to know for sure who is 'the bad guy' and because of that, whether people like it or not, there's going to be 'profiling' going on.

It's unfortunate.

])]v[

[remixor]

Geez, what an absurd email.  Hooray for being totally moronic.

The popular term "racial profiling" pisses me off though.  The TV show "The Shield" had a line where an Arabic guy was getting harrassed by his neighbor and he said, "She's picking on me 'cause I'm Arabic!" and the cop said, "No, she's doing that because 12 guys that look like your twin brother crashed planes into 3 buildings"

I've never seen that show, so I'm not sure about the context.  Was the cop being made out to look like the good guy, or was he an asshole cop?  If it's the former case, then that's really disgusting.

[TheYak]

On another note, just browsed SomethingAwful's Weekend Web.  

Some people are under the impression that the so-called Information Age would make people better educated and more intelligent.  Apparently, it merely allows more stupid people to be heard.  I found it amusing and depressing all at once.

[Nacho]

4) Remember what now?  Damning all Muslims for things done by certain sects would be like damning all of Christianity for the Crusades, Witch-Hunts & Inquisition.   Let every person (or at least every group under the same paster/priest) be responsible for their own actions.

Buff! the muslims´ prosecution was 600 years ago. In that time, Europe was the "Taliban Regime", Arabia was the cradle of a nice culture. Nowaday it´s changed... Havn´t they evolutioned in all that time?

Now, let´s remember that in the last 3 years integrist attacks have killed more than 5,000 people in the world.

But I think that not all the muslims are integrists, but I POO in that "Iman Sons of a bitch" who tell the poor ignorants to put explosive belts in their bodies to kill people in the name of God. The best way to reach heaven, ha!

Fuck them!

Definitely, I am with the good muslim people of peace.

I hate the integrists. Burn in hell.

If I had the chance to choose, I´d buy another stamp.

[Matt Brown]

What really concerns me here is how quickly the popular image of the muslims have changed in American. 30 years ago, nobody would have a problem. But because of the tragic actions of some radicals, they are persicuted by many in America.

This got me thinking

What if, one day, some wacko mormon or some wacko Brazilian-American blows up a building? starting sniping people? I'm fucked!

A backlash like this can hit any minority group.

[makri]

I'm surprised how people seem to be unable to talk about 9/11 or terrorism in general without using the word "muslim". And how the same people don't see any connection between actions and religion if the religion of a criminal is christianity or judaism.

[shbaz]

Yeah! Our real problem is white middle class christian men, like that timothy fellow who bombed our once awesome federal building in OKC.  We've gotta get those bastards out of here.

[Oliver]

but how? :o

[Darth Mandarb]

Remixor - She wasn't an asshole, but they weren't really making her the good guy either.

The point I took from it was what I commented on later in that post about how most people can't differentiate middle easterners.  The Arab man was yelling that the neighbor should be tolerant and the cop was basically saying, "so should you!"

Racial Profiling happens everywhere ... it just seems like America gets the most shit for it.  Like we're not allowed or something.  When I was in Belize a few months back I got swarmed by the locals 'cause they figured "white american ... must have money!!!"  one fellow even told me that!!  Same thing happened when we were in the Bahamas 2 months ago.  It's acceptable in those places though ... just not in America were we have to be PC all the time.

[DGMacphee]

The Shield probably isn't the best example of racial profiling -- I mean, it's a cop show about corrupt cops, so obviosuly there's a certain mentality there that's dramatised.

[Nacho]

It´s usual to say by occidental good purpose people that radical muslims are a minority, and some day some crazy Cristian could do the same. Let´s examine the sentence... Are cristians doing that? No, we´re 3,000 milions and no one of us uses the name of God for killing... Our believs are not so strong, which for me implies that (and I hope that this won´t bring another religious discussion) that we´re not so ignorant as they are.

While in Occident a group of "fanatics" are considered "fools" (David Coresh), In some of the muslims countries the same groups are looked with sympathy (Jihad, Al Qaeda, Al Aksa Martirs...)

Groups like that are growing and they are being created even in moderate muslim countries (Yes, the turk group who killed more than 70 people last month eas a branch of Al-Qaeda, but composed of Turks)... You can blame that situation to whatever, but I don´t see mass affiliations to terrorist groups in non-muslims countries...

We must blame the muslims priests who are demanding young muslim people to kill for God. Let´s remember that 1/4 of the young palestinians want to be a suicide bomber.

I agree with Yaksplit, blaming a whole community, like the stamp boycott stuff for a group of radicals is stupid, but killing a group or 30-40 Jewish for reaching Heaven is so much stupid than that.

People has allways the chance to choose. We decide how to life, to respect each others ot not, to believe in God, we choose how to live and die. And most of the muslims choose to die killing people, in the inmense ignorance of believing that that is good.

What I mean is that the stamp boycott is a minor show of angry compared with what they are doing to us.

[makri]

Are cristians doing that? No, we´re 3,000 milions and no one of us uses the name of God for killing...

If Bush's crusade against muslims in Iraq wasn't killing in the name of Christian God then nothing is.

[Darth Mandarb]

The Shield probably isn't the best example of racial profiling -- I mean, it's a cop show about corrupt cops, so obviosuly there's a certain mentality there that's dramatised.

True dat.

Although the cop that said it wasn't one of the corrupt cops (at least at that point in the series).  I haven't really watched the show since then though, so she might be corrupted by now!!

])]v[

[Nacho]

Are cristians doing that? No, we´re 3,000 milions and no one of us uses the name of God for killing...

If Bush's crusade against muslims in Iraq wasn't killing in the name of Christian God then nothing is.

No, it has nothing to do with religion, it has to see with a culture, the muslim one, who was inmensely happy when two towers with 3,000 people inside collapsed.

Anyway, the Occidental society wars not happy with the war, whereas the muslims are happy of the wars and they applause the terrorists and the fighters. They make cellebrations when the terrorist strikes succed, we make manifestations against war...

Ergo, the Occidental society is better than the Oriental? Well, the fact that you write a post complaining about the war, discussing with me if the war on Irak was a war related with Religion or not is an evidence that Occidental and Oriental cultures are different.

In many Muslim countries, such a discussion about the government actions would finish with a quick trial and a shot in the head of the person who complains (examples, Nigeria, Argelia, Iran, Malaysia...)

I don´t think that the muslim people is worst than us, but I think that their governments are worst.

I can assume that your previous post means that you agree with me.

Edit: And, ah! Bush won´t probably be re-elected, whereas in most of the muslims countries the rules is the king, with a fake democracy, another advantadge of our society in front of them.