new since…

Mr. United Nations is especially well depicted. Courtesy of Al Jazeera

‘Jesus Guns’: Two More Countries Rethink Using Weapons with Secret Bible References

After an ABC News report that secret Bible messages are encoded on gun sights used by the U.S. military in Iraq and Afghanistan, at least two other countries that also use the equipment in Afghanistan are now considering what action to take.

…The sights are used by U.S. troops and in the training of Iraqi and Afghan soldiers. The model numbers inscribed on the scopes include coded references to New Testament verses.

…”The perfect parallel that I see,” said Maj. John Redfield, spokesperson for CentCom, told ABC News, “is between the statement that’s on the back of our dollar bills, which is ‘In God We Trust,’ and we haven’t moved away from that.”

…On Tuesday, Redfield of CentCom told ABC News that the inscriptions did not violate the directive against proselytizing. “This does not constitute proselytizing because this equipment is not issued beyond the U.S. Defense Department personnel. It’s not something we’re giving away to the local folks.”

The U.S. is not a Christian nation–it’s a secular nation and always has been, despite the attempts of fundamentalist know-nothings (and some knowing liars) to rewrite history.  The U.S. Constitution does not mention God, and it specifically prohibits any governmental establishment of religion or any religious test to hold office.  A U.S. treaty from 1797, signed by our second President John Adams, states explicitly that “the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion.”

Major Redfield’s arguments are ludicrous.  Constitutionally, the U.S. military can’t proselytize among U.S. soldiers any more than it can among foreign nations.  And “In God We Trust,” constitutionally dubious as it is, isn’t offensive to Muslims and isn’t used to kill people–people overseas are not going to care that it’s on U.S. money.  But Muslims may find it very offensive indeed for their coreligionists to be shot at with guns that have Biblical citations on them.

They’re not in some secret code, as the lede might imply–the article later states, “John 8:12 [is] referred to on the gun sights as JN8:12″  JN8:12 is hardly a very secretive way to refer to this verse, which reads, “Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.”  I guess that has some mystical connection with the light of a gun sight.  (I’m not joking here–apparently all of the verses cited on various different guns have to do with light.)

Trijicon’s director of sales and marketing “said the issue was being raised by a group that is ‘not Christian.’”  In other words, the person who represents the firm making these guns uses an ad hominem fallacy to try to discredit a message because the people it comes from are purportedly the wrong religion.  The gun sight codes aside, why is the U.S. government doing business with religious bigots?

It’s not often that a single cartoon sums up, not only the whole current situation, but even its whole history.  This, from South African newspaper Mail & Guardian Online‘s cartoonist Zapiro:

I’m normally not much for photo-essays, but please do see Callie Shell’s awesome pics of Obama and family in Time, of which this (without the text) is only won…uh, one.

Let me tell you something.  The real barbarians are those who live under a barbaric order and accept it.  Barbarians are quite okay with the fact that the existing regime treats some of its “own” people barbarically.

The barbarians are INSIDE the gate.

Enter your keypad number.

My sentiments exactly…

That’s the actual headline from an Associated Press story on Yahoo.

But isn’t that what the whole world has been saying for years now? Anyway, it’s sorta surprising to see Gates say this to his own “boss.”

(Okay, okay, another cheap, jokey entry…but I couldn’t resist.)