There’s a new email forward circulating. New to me, at least.

It features this photo, reminiscent of President Bush’s binoculars-with-the-caps-on picture, and another one of the same phone theme.

Pretty embarassing, says the folks who will find any reason to dislike and/or mock the man, but here’s the real photo.

I expect much more of this.

This picture from Seth Godin’s blog (photo credit there is listed as Jon and Mordechai but no link provided) is just too funny not to share.

In incredibly odd news, China has banned Buddhist monks in Tibet from reincarnating without permission.

From the article in Newsweek:

According to a statement issued by the State Administration for Religious Affairs, the law, which goes into effect next month and strictly stipulates the procedures by which one is to reincarnate, is “an important move to institutionalize management of reincarnation.”

For anyone knowing anything about the China/Tibet issues, the reasoning on the part of the Chinese government is apparent here without even reading the article. Obviously this is pretty silly to anyone that doesn’t believe in reincarnation in the first place, but I do find it interesting that a nation is legislating its citizens’ participation in whatever they believe the afterlife to be.

Came across a very interesting article about “devil worshippers” in Iraq. I consider myself a student of religions, and this is a group I hadn’t ever looked into. I’ve copied some interesting bits from the article after the cut, added my own thoughts, and some links to Wikipedia on some of the terms.

Yezidism is syncretistic: it combines elements of many faiths. Like Hindus, they believe in reincarnation. Like ancient Mithraists, they sacrifice bulls. They practise baptism, like Christians. When they pray they face the sun, like Zoroastrians. They profess to revile Islam, but there are strong links with Sufism, the mystical branch of Islam.

The Yazidis believe that God created the world and left it in the care of seven holy beings, the chief of those being Melek Taus, the Peacock Angel.

And who is Melek Taus? Halil looks slightly uncomfortable: “We believe he is a proud angel, who rebelled and was thrown into Hell by God. He stayed there 40,000 years, until his tears quenched the fires of the underworld. Now he is reconciled to God.”

This is where the devil-worshipper charges come in, I guess.

The parallels between the story of the peacock angel’s rebellion, and the story of Lucifer, cast into Hell by the Christian God, are surely too close to be coincidence. The very word “Melek” is cognate with “Moloch“, the name of a Biblical demon – who demanded human sacrifice.

As an interesting aside, ceremonies at Bohemian Grove are also said to invoke Moloch.

And an interesting bit from the wikipedia page for Yezidism:

The tale of the Yazidis’ origin found in the Black Book gives them a distinctive ancestry and expresses their feeling of difference from other races. Before the roles of the sexes were determined, Adam and Eve quarreled about which of them provided the creative element in the begetting of children. Each stored their seed in a jar which was then sealed. When Eve’s was opened it was full of insects and other unpleasant creatures, but inside Adam’s jar was a beautiful boychild. This lovely child, known as son of Jar grew up to marry a houri and became the ancestor of the Yazidis. Therefore, the Yazidi are regarded as descending from Adam alone, while other humans are descendants of both Adam and Eve.

Religions of the world are probably what fascinate me the most. I spend a lot of time thinking and reading about how we, as humans form our belief structures and traditions and the connections between all the different religions and belief systems of the world. Syncretism is certainly apparent in far more than Yezidism, as you’ll find if you read anything at all about the history of any of the Judaeo-Christian religions.

To bring this back into relevance with current events, the last paragraph of the article:

He sighs, and adds: “The Yezidi have been persecuted for thousands of years, we are used to it. But we thought the new Iraq would protect minorities. We thought that things would get better when the Americans came…” And then he turns, and stares at the serene blue image, of the great peacock angel.

[via The Telegraph]

::mcmorran.org:: Star Wars toys that never made it

Toddler gets served (I hope she’s ok, but seriously couldn’t help but laugh – I’m probably going to Hell, if there is such a place.):

And speaking of Hell:
Jerry Falwell’s Greatest Hits

It’s always refreshing to hear a political candidate come right out and give his honest beliefs on topics. It’s even better when those beliefs are pro-human rights of all people, are non-homophobic and make sense. When people think, everyone wins.

“If a couple of lesbians or gay men want to get married, and they love each other, they should have the right to do that and enjoy all the legalities in our society that go along with that. I have no problem with that at all.”

“I think that people who create these problems of homophobia and the likes of that do us a disservice,” Gravel continues. “We are all human beings and one of the things that should motivate us, most of all, is love.”

He blasts President Bush’s “faith-based leadership,” saying, “You can’t legislate morality.”

That last sentence is something I’ve been saying for a long, long time. You can’t legislate morality any more than you can depend on religion to teach it. I’ve long said that a person knows right from wrong. Sure, the Church can help guide people, and I don’t discount the value of faith-based community service and outreach to those in need, but folks seem to think that without religion, the world would be a mess… Well newsflash folks, the world is a mess, and it has a lot to do with religion. No, religion isn’t the only cause of violence and evil, but I’d probably argue that it is the most persuasive, and most harmful.

Anyway, enough rant for now. Link to video below.

PageOneQ | Mike Gravel, 2008 Democratic presidential candidate, says he has no problem with gay love.

From the oh-give-me-a-break department:

Woman expresses indignation at quote on Starbucks cup

Soccer game for priests, imams cancelled

Investigator finds reasonable grounds for claim of atheism firing