Rest in Peace, Maqbool Fida Husain

"Bharat Mata". Artist: MF Husain.

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Why I detest organized religion

When I first heard this news, I was too sickened to read the article for several hours.  It's a familiar tiny hard knot of rage and frustration mixed with heartbreak and anguish in my gut.  I get it every time I hear an innocent died because of the deep disrespect an idiot showed to another idiot over said idiot's imaginary friend - take your pick on which idiot.

"Islam is of the Devil?" Source: Suite101.com/ Menno weekly review - Scott Camil

Internationally reviled Christian preacher Terry Jones who thinks "Islam is of the Devil" looks good on tee shirts and mugs and caps and book titles, sneaked in a Quran burning in front of a small crowd of less than 30 at a church in Florida on March 20, 2011, six months after he promised to heed six billion people who warned him not to turn September 11, 2010 into Burn the Quran Day.  "We will definitely not burn the Quran, no," he said on NBC's Today Show.  "Not today, not ever."

Predictably, this bait and switch act of incomprehensible and indefensible stupidity was met with a dignified silence from the Muslim community in the United States but angered many others worldwide, including the Pakistan government, arguably the single most important strategic ally of the U.S. government in the "war on terror" for as long as the American people choose to blindly bless duplicitous corruption with tax dollars from their grandchildren.  Sadly, it also provoked armed insurgents in a crowd of protesters in the northern region of Afghanistan to kill 20 U.N. employees, killing eight foreigners and beheading two. 

Terry Jones got what he wanted and what he knew was coming.  Might I suggest, he burn and rot in hell.  Thank you, suspended New York City Christian school teacher.  If I didn't have my own blog, I might be venting this rant on your crazy website.

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Wikileaks, Cablegate and the era of Loki

Is anyone else wondering just how much fun N. Ram and his untitled Cablegate - Indian edition project team at The Hindu are having right about now?

Sure, they promised us "unprecedented insights into India's foreign policy and domestic affairs" captured by U.S. diplomats viewing events through the prism of American self-interest.  But they had to know what they were really doing was ushering in the era of Loki, Norse god of mischief, admired and distrusted by the rest of the gods for his "impulsive intelligence".

h/t Wikipedia

Loki was a shape-shifting trickster offspring of giants who grew up to be counted as one of the twelve Aesir gods.  He was considered brave and helpful, deceptive and scheming, cunning and malicious, charming and good looking - a marvelously complex and famous character in Norse mythology.

It's very early days yet and five thousand cables still to go on Cablegate - Indian edition but if this past fortnight portends things to come, holy democracy Batman!  Post March 15, I feel like I'm watching endless rounds of political ping pong on paper, although I do recognize every day in politics pre-March 15 was also always a potential ping pong day.  Twitter, that thoroughly useless barometer of public opinion in this context, boasted #defeatcongress as one of the top trending sentiments in India today.  I don't see why #ican'ttrustthebjp won't start doing the rounds tomorrow.  The Hindu feeds both sides just enough to keep the show on the road and they're probably not unhappy about help from very predictable quarters.

After all, Loki is a legendary contradiction - sometimes his antics are helpful to the gods, sometimes he creates more problems than he can solve.  Either way, this should be a very engaging era for all of us mere mortals....as long as we can keep Loki from crashing dinner parties on Friday the 13th.

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