Category: Atrocities

Biblical Atrocities: Lot’s Sheltering of the Angels

On By Norbert HauptIn Atrocities, Religion1 Comment

Here is an interesting segment from Genesis:

GENESIS 19

The two angels came to Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gate of Sodom. When Lot saw them, he rose to meet them and bowed himself with his face to the earth and said, “My lords, please turn aside to your servant’s house and spend the night and wash your feet. Then you may rise up early and go on your way.” They said, “No; we will spend the night in the town square.” But he pressed them strongly; so they turned aside to him and entered his house. And he made them a feast and baked unleavened bread, and they ate. But before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, both young and old, all the people to the last man, surrounded the house. And they called to Lot, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us, that we may know them.”

— Crossway Bibles (2011-02-09). The Holy Bible, English Standard Version (with Cross-References) (Kindle Locations 1918-1938). Good News Publishers. Kindle Edition.

“Know them” in the bible means having sex. This is one of the passages where the term “sodomy” comes from. Of course, the raping of men, and particularly the systematic and institutional rape of young boys permeated humanity’s history, reaching from biblical times (see Genesis above), to ancient Egypt, where rich men kept harems of boys for their physical pleasure, into the Middle East of Marco Polo’s age (1200 AD) – and undoubtedly into modern times.

So Lot seems to have been a good guy by sheltering the angels from the men of Sodom who wanted to gang rape them. So far, so good.

But then Genesis continues:

Lot went out to the men at the entrance, shut the door after him, and said, “I beg you, my brothers, do not act so wickedly. Behold, I have two daughters who have not known any man. Let me bring them out to you, and do to them as you please. Only do nothing to these men, for they have come under the shelter of my roof.”

–Crossway Bibles (2011-02-09). The Holy Bible, English Standard Version (with Cross-References) (Kindle Locations 1939-1943). Good News Publishers. Kindle Edition.

So let’s get this straight: When the men of Sodom were about to break down Lot’s door, he held them off by telling them that he had two virgin daughters, and they were welcome to gang rape them instead. The daughters were worth less than the two guests under his roof.

The story meanders on, and eventually God destroys Sodom and Gomorrah by killing everyone.

 

Punishment by ISIS and Saudi Arabia

On By Norbert HauptIn Atrocities, Political, Religion1 Comment

A few days ago I objected to our government leaders fawning over King Abdullah after his death. I said that the King was a tyrant. Today I found this chart, that outlines crimes and their punishments. I must admit that I cannot find the source, and I could not firmly corroborate accuracy. I don’t read Arabic. If a reader wants to correct anything in this chart, please let me know. As it stands, it seems obvious that ISIS simply copied its commandments and their respective punishments from Saudi Arabia.

We hate ISIS  for what it does to its people and those it subjugates, but Saudi Arabia is our friend?

ISIS vs. Saudi Arabia
Click for source i.imgur.com

 

 

 

The Moronic Statements of Pope Francis

On By Norbert HauptIn Atrocities, Religion1 Comment

Pope Francis has done some good since his reign, but last week he stepped into a pile of shit, and it will be hard to get the papal slippers clean again. When asked about the attack that killed 12 people at the offices of Charlie Hebdo – targeted because it had printed depictions of the prophet Muhammad – he said:

One cannot provoke, one cannot insult other people’s faith, one cannot make fun of faith. There is a limit. Every religion has its dignity … in freedom of expression there are limits. If my good friend Dr. Gasparri says a curse word against my mother, he can expect a punch. It’s normal. It’s normal. You cannot provoke. You cannot insult the faith of others. You cannot make fun of the faith of others.

This is from the head of the religion that burned people at the stake for heresy. Note: Heresy is SPEAKING about something that the church does not agree with.

This is from the head of the religion that imprisoned Galileo for the rest of his life because he found that the earth circles around the sun and wrote a book about it. The church didn’t like his speech and called it heresy in 1633:

       The sentence of the Inquisition was delivered on 22 June. It was in three essential parts:

  • Galileo was found “vehemently suspect of heresy”, namely of having held the opinions that the Sun lies motionless at the centre of the universe, that the Earth is not at its centre and moves, and that one may hold and defend an opinion as probable after it has been declared contrary to Holy Scripture. He was required to “abjure, curse and detest” those opinions.
  • He was sentenced to formal imprisonment at the pleasure of the Inquisition. On the following day this was commuted to house arrest, which he remained under for the rest of his life.
  • His offending Dialogue was banned; and in an action not announced at the trial, publication of any of his works was forbidden, including any he might write in the future.

— Wikipedia

This is from the head of the religion that allowed systemic child-abuse for decades, all around the world.

The pope is really saying that offenders should expect a punch, not that it’s okay to punch. But that’s not how it will be interpreted. The offended will feel empowered by the pope: Ah, it’s okay for me to punch back because somebody said a curse word against my mother, or my prophet, or my god.

Based on what the pope just said, won’t the father of a child abused by clergy not therefore feel entitled to blow away the offending priest with a shotgun?

What is the bigger crime?

  • Molesting a child?
  • Or publishing a cartoon about the pope molesting a child?

According to what I am reading about the pope, he seems to think the second is a bigger crime.

I am sure he didn’t mean to do this, or I sure hope so, but his words here will be used by Muslims to justify hurting and killing people that speak out against their religion. He words will be used by Christians who are looking for justification for violence against others that speak out against them, be that from the homosexual community, the scientific community or from people supporting the right of women to have abortions.

Free speech can NEVER be limited – because if it is, it’s no longer free speech. That’s the whole point of it. Unfortunately, most humans around the world don’t have that right. We do have it in America, and in many European Countries, and in Australia, but we are in the minority. We have to protect this right, and it’s our duty to spread it to the rest of the world. With free speech, abominations like ISIS could not exist – at least usually not very long. Remember – Hitler stopped free speech, and lasted only 12 years.

Just when it looked like there might be a Catholic Spring, Pope Francis just blew it big time.

Jürgen Todenhöfer on ISIS

On By Norbert HauptIn Atrocities, WarLeave a comment

The ideology of ISIS requires that every human converts to Islam or dies. It’s that simple. These guys believe this, it gives them purpose, satisfaction and success. So they can come into Mosul with 400 people and beat out 30,000 Iraqi soldiers.

Movie Review: The Good Lie

On By Norbert HauptIn Atrocities, Movies, Two and a Half StarsLeave a comment

The Good Lie

The 1983 civil war in Sudan orphaned thousands of children. They went on walks across deserts and savannahs, to find refuge barefoot, with no support, no adults, and seemingly no valid goals, for hundreds of miles, only to be turned away at their destinations.

The Good Lie follows a group of boys and girls, and later men and women, as they eventually found shelter in a refugee camp. Fifteen years later a humanitarian effort brought 3,600 of the lost children, now young adults, to America.

How do you transplant a person with that background to St. Louis, Missouri so they could find jobs and start new lives?

Culture shock always makes good subjects for movies. The Good Lie is a feel-good movie about culture shock in the most extreme possible. It’s a movie I watched for the story. When the credits rolled, I felt grateful for my own comparatively simple and straightforward life.

Rating - Two and a Half Stars

Movie Review: Remembrance – Die Verlorene Zeit – Zagubiony Czas

On By Norbert HauptIn Atrocities, Four Stars, Movies, War3 Comments

Remembrance is a German movie of 2011 with three titles in three languages

Remembrance – the English title, is probably the least descriptive.

Die Verlorene Zeit – the German title, means “lost time.”

Zagubiony Czas – the Polish title, also means “lost time.”

This movie is about World War II, the Nazi concentration camps in Poland, what the war did to Poland and its people. It is also about undying love, and the moral obligations to life.

Based on the true story of Jerzy Bielecki and Cyla Cybulska, the German drama is directed by Anna Justice. It tells the story of Hannah Silberstein, German-Jewish woman from Berlin held in a concentration camp in Poland, who falls in love with a captured Polish resistance member named Tomasz Limanowski.

Remembrance1Tomasz orchestrates a daring escape for the two of them, and thus effectively saves her life – and his. But being free does not mean being safe. Poland is war-torn, and there is no safe place to hide. Quickly the couple is separated again, and eventually both come to believe the other to be dead.

In 1976, thirty years later, Hannah is married to an intellectual in New York City. They have a college aged daughter. By pure chance, she sees a television interview of Tomasz in Poland – he seems very alive indeed. Her old quest to find the love of her life is rekindled, and it brings turmoil over her family.

Germans know how to make movies that seem realistic. In Hollywood movies Germans would speak English with German accents. Here in Die Verlorene Zeit, we are treated to German when the Germans speak in the concentration camp, Polish when the Poles speak, and English, for the scenes that take place in New York. There are English subtitles for the Polish and German dialog. This approach to the language not only makes the scenes realistic, but it also puts the viewer into the middle of the action. What would it be like to be a Polish prisoner, donning a German uniform, pretending to be a German, but only knowing a few words, when your life – literally – depends on it? How does a German woman hide in Poland when she does not speak the language?

As is done by so many World War II movies, the terrible plight and suffering the Nazis put millions of Germans, Poles and Russians through boggles the mind. How could they inflict so much injustice on so many people for so long? How could they destroy so many lives – destroy by killing, then destroy by separating families, and lovers?

But then, if it hadn’t been for the war they caused, my own father, a young boy from Silesia, now Poland, would never have had to flee the east when the Russians invaded, and he would never have met my mother in Bavaria, and I would not exist, and I would not be writing this review.

The injustice of war, the crime of atrocities, comes to vivid life in Remembrance. It reminds us of the depth of the human spirit, and the seeming inevitability of fate.

Rating - Four Stars

Torture and the Frat Boys in Congress

On By Norbert HauptIn Atrocities, PoliticalLeave a comment

I respect Senator McCain’s view on torture and his outspoken and candid approach about it.

The book The Faith of My Fathers is John McCain’s biography. I read and reviewed that book over six years ago during McCain’s run for the presidency. In it he describes in detail and at length the suffering he has endured under torture as a prisoner of war in Vietnam. Here is a brief post I wrote about a visit of McCain back to Vietnam.

John McCain has more authority and standing, by far, than any of his colleagues in the U.S. Senate when it comes to rendering judgment about our nation’s endeavors into torture.

Yet there are his fellow-Republican frat boys who are expressing outrage over the report’s release.

Florida Senator Marco Rubio said the Democrats who run the intelligence committee were exposing the CIA’s shocking treatment of detainees purely for “partisan joy.” What a ridiculous comment. This is America. We deserve to know the truth. “Truth” is defined as what really happened, whether it is convenient, pretty or outrageous. Deal with it, Senator Rubio. I want to know and have a right to know what my government is doing in my name, with my money.

Texas Senator Ted Cruz said the “partisan report will endanger lives, drive away our allies – who have never been needed more than now – and undermine the ability of our intelligence officers and soldiers to protect our national security.” Too bad, Senator Cruz. If our nation had stood up for its own values and behaved like we all hypocritically pretend it should, we would not have created this problem for ourselves in the first place. Most of this mess we are in we have created for ourselves in over 50 years of meddling with people we don’t care about and we don’t understand, mostly because we wanted their oil. This is what happens when you stir a hornets nest. And now you’re vilifying a report about something we did. We did it alright. Deal with it, Senator Cruz.

Kentucky Senator Rand Paul said he had “mixed feelings” and was concerned that the “gruesomeness of the details may well inflame people.” Well, if we hadn’t done the gruesome things you’re talking about, we would not be in this situation. But we did.

Marco Rubio never served in the military.

Ted Cruz was valedictorian in high school and has had a brilliant academic career, including Harvard University. He never served in the military.

Rand Paul has an M.D. degree. He never served in the military.

Overall, there are only 18 senators who have any military service in their background.

And then there is Dick Cheney. Even though he was Secretary of Defense, he never served in the military. He said he “never served” because of deferments to finish a college career that lasted six years rather than four, which he attributed to subpar academic performance and the fact that he had to work to pay for his education. Dick Cheney had asked for and received five deferments, four because he was a student and one for being a new father.

I’ll take Senator McCain’s opinion about torture over that of any other senator, especially that of the frat boys and their cronies.

U.S. Signed United Nations Against Torture Convention in 1984

On By Norbert HauptIn Atrocities, HistoryLeave a comment

In 1984, the U.S., along with most nations in the world, signed and ratified the convention against torture.

Article 1.1 defines torture:

Any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person, information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing him or a third person, or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind, when such pain or suffering is inflicted by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity. It does not include pain or suffering arising only from, inherent in or incidental to lawful sanctions.

— Convention Against Torture, Article 1.1

Check out this Wikipedia Article for background information.

 

5000 Dead in Central African Republic

On By Norbert HauptIn Atrocities, Political, ReligionLeave a comment

Central African Republic
by Krista Larson : AP [click for picture credit]
Since January, the AP found that at least 5,186 people were killed in fighting between Muslims and Christians, based on a count of bodies and numbers gathered from survivors, priests, imams and aid workers in more than 50 of the hardest-hit communities in this African country.

Did you see Sean Hannity or Rachel Maddow talk about this on prime time TV in the United States?

Could you point out the Central African Republic on a map?

This is a country of 240,000 square miles. For comparison, California is 164,000 square miles. So Central African Republic is a little smaller than California and Arizona combined, or for my European readers, it’s a bit larger than Germany and the United Kingdom together. Yet, very few of us know where that country even is. It must be in Central Africa, duh.

Map of CAR

Christians and Muslims are slaughtering each other. Nobody seems to care. There is a token United Nations force there trying to stem the violence.

The United States media has given it very little attention. When Muslims slaughter Christians in Iraq, we somehow learn about it, but if it’s in Africa, don’t bother us. To give credit, however, I must add that the U.S. just now sent 20 people there to help open up the embassy again.

Of course, the Muslims in Africa are not terrorists plotting to blow up buildings in the United States, presumably, so they don’t rate.

Here is another example of why religion is poisonous to human life. These people, in their own vast country in the heart of Africa, with natural resources of diamonds, uranium, timber, gold, oil and hydropower, somehow choose to spend their energy on wars based on religious beliefs. As if those mattered.

The country should be spending its energies on attracting western capital to build up its resources, it needs leadership to run businesses harvesting those resources, it should invest in education for its children, build a workable infrastructure and join the international community, so the people of the world can point out their country on a map.

But their imams, priests and religious whatnots don’t seem to have that sense.

Why doesn’t Dick Cheney clamor for us to send “boots on the ground” to the Central African Republic? What’s the double standard here?

I am certainly not suggesting we do that, to get involved in a military conflict in a country that we don’t know, based on religions that we don’t understand, based on passions that we don’t care about.

So, why then, do we send American young men and women into Syria and Iraq?

 

 

 

 

The Continuing Insanity of Guantánamo

On By Norbert HauptIn Atrocities, PoliticalLeave a comment

activists-gather-in-front-of-the-white-house-on-april-11-to-demand-the-closing-of-guantanamo-bay
[click for picture credit]
There are 149 prisoners still at Guantánamo. The youngest is 30, the oldest is 65. Over twenty of them have medical conditions that need monitoring and attention, just like any aging population would.

The military has tried to build up its medical capability at Guantánamo, with mixed results. Several years ago, when a detainee needed a stent placed in a coronary artery, the military spent $1 million on a mobile cardiac catheterization lab. The prisoner ended up refusing the procedure, and the unused equipment, packed up but stored outdoors, has since decayed, officials said.

— Charlie Savage

I am not saying we should just let all these people go. I am not saying that some of them are not terrorists. For instance, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the self-proclaimed mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks, is there. However, it is well-known that there were innocent bystanders rounded up in the frenzy of arrests in 2002, some of them teenagers, who are now over thirty years old, that have been rotting away in Guantanamo.

The U.S. Government is spending $3 million per year per detainee to keep the camp open and operating. It has cost us 4.8 billion since the camp was opened.

We are not getting very good value for our tax money. Obama has been wanting to close the camp since his first campaign. Our dysfunctional Congress has been in the way. With nobody in charge making meaningful decisions, this is continuing.

The country should decide to close the camp, serve the prisoners due process (trials and executions) and let the rest go.

The government needs to stop this insanity it propagates in the name of the American people.

Check out this excellent article Decaying Guantánamo Defies Closing Plans by Charlie Savage for more information.

This is Gaza – Video by Jürgen Todenhöfer

On By Norbert HauptIn Atrocities1 Comment

The American media has effectively indoctrinated us that Hamas are terrorists and therefore Israel is justified in fighting back. When opponents of the war argue that Israel is killing innocent Palestinians, they counter that the Palestinians elected Hamas into power and therefore they are not innocent. They are terrorists.

Hamas are terrorists. Palestinians should overthrow Hamas and start the peaceful nation they proclaim they want. I am aware that I am asking for another civil war in Gaza.

It’s a complex situation, and I tend to agree with the argument from the side I listened to last.

But easy or not, Israel is terrorizing Gaza. Look at this video, for a change not by a slanted American media organization but by a slanted German one. Then look me in the eye and tell me that these children are guilty because they elected Hamas.

Don’t worry, you don’t need to know German. All the pictures are in English.

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10152434676470838&set=vb.12084075837&type=2&theater

Vultures Killed by Poachers

On By Norbert HauptIn Atrocities, Nature1 Comment
Vulture
African Whjte-Backed Vulture

According to an article in The Scotsman, poison attacks kill vultures in mass.

The sight of vultures congregating high above the African bush is a sure sign of a recent kill. But the scavengers are hated by poachers because they alert rangers to their presence. Poachers lace the carcasses of elephants and other game with ­cyanide or pesticides such as temik so the birds die before they can take to the skies again.

Despite ever more conservationist measures all over the world, hundreds of thousands of elephants are slaughtered by poachers every year for their ivory. 65% of all elephant deaths are now attributable to poaching, up from 25% only ten years ago.

Similar statistics apply to poaching of tigers. There are only a few thousand left alive in the world.

We are witnessing a mass extinction of wildlife unlike anything seen in the history of the world right now, with the possible exception of the Chicxulub asteroid hit 65 million years ago.

It is incredible sad to think that humans think nothing of killing off entire species of animals for short term gain. Poachers are African poor people who just want to feed their families. Income inequality strikes in its own strange way in other countries.

One day, not too far in the future, there won’t be any wild elephants, wild tigers, and – what I would not have expected – wild vultures.

No Respect for Cowards

On By Norbert HauptIn AtrocitiesLeave a comment
Security services close to identifying jihadi killer of James Foley
I have no respect for cowards

When I write a post stating my opinion, I do so with my name above it. I cannot accept a “critic” who writes under a pseudonym, with the only exception being that their health and safety is in jeopardy because of the policies of the country they live in.

A person who has usurped the power to take another person’s life on video in front of the whole world to see, a person who parades in front of the people he supposedly wants to liberate and unite under God, should have the courage to do so with his face showing.

This is a coward who hides behind a mask and a bogus religion. He is a bully that can only be powerful because his is propped up by this buddies with guns.

Let him walk into any bar in America with this outfit on and see what would happen!

ISIS is a Product of U.S. Intervention

On By Norbert HauptIn Atrocities, Political, ReligionLeave a comment

We indirectly created ISIS, just like we created the Taliban and the Khmer Rouge in years past.

In this powerful article, Alastair Stevens argues that ISIS, as it exists today, is the eventual development that resulted from U.S. intervention in Iraq. He compares this result to the rise of the Taliban in Afghanistan, after that country became the unfortunate battleground between the superpowers when the U.S. meddled to thwart Soviet ambitions there. He also compares it to the rise of the Khmer Rouge after the Vietnam War. It is very eye-opening reading.

Stevens also argues that while the methods and the atrocities committed by ISIS are disgusting and criminal, their objective of a medieval caliphate is actually no different from what already exists in Saudi Arabia today, an evil country supported and propped up by the United States.

To make matters worse, we now face the threat of U.S. made weaponry in Iraq. This shows that in a powder-key like the Middle East, you can’t rely on your allies. Allies change as the political winds shift, but assault vehicles and weapons remain functional. According to Douglas Birch:

Never mind that the vehicle is a boxy, lumbering, second-hand set of wheels with a top speed of just 60 mph. To some of the fighters of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, the U.S. M1117, aka the Guardian Armored Security Vehicle, has become their favorite ride.

The question now is: Does the U.S. once again think it can just fix the world in its own image by waging an insanely expensive and largely ineffectual bombing campaign? Have we not figured out that in the last 50 years we have tried our hands at nation-building we have not succeeded one single time?

Where is Kuwait in all this craziness? I remember when we liberated Kuwait in 1991 after Iraq had invaded them. I would have sworn at the time that Kuwait would be an undying ally of the United States, with open financial and political support, not to mention cheap oil for decades to come. When have you last heard anything from Kuwait? The Kuwaiti princes, little boys at the time in 1991, are now flying their private jets to New York and pay $20,000 for hookers, buy estates in Rancho Santa Fe and live happily ever after. They wisely keep a low profile and high prices of oil. Of course, the U.S. taxpayer made it all possible when we liberated their fathers and gave them their money back. Does Obama remember? He was a 30-year-old professor teaching law at the time.

Have we not learned that these “terrorists” that come out of the woodwork in Iraq are the boys that were ten years old when we killed their daddies in the quest to unseat Saddam Hussein? Don’t you think if some foreign superpower swept through the American mainland and killed all the men, the boys would not grow up to hate that superpower and then gladly join some noble movement in the name of God?

 

Armed Police Raid Church in Ferguson

On By Norbert HauptIn AtrocitiesLeave a comment

Police raided a church in Ferguson with women and children in it, supposedly because they wanted to confiscate Maalox they had.

Maalox is a stomach relief medicine that can be mixed with water as a defense against teargas. So let’s get this straight:

An oppressed people congregate in their church to prepare for protest against oppression and educate themselves on how to protest, and protect themselves against weapons that may be used against them (basically the same as police putting on riot gear and gas masks). Then armed police raid that church on the pretense that they need to confiscate the Maalox.

This is raw intimidation and it illustrates the insensitivity of the authorities with regard to the people their are sworn to protect and serve.