I say yes, you say no, OR People are Strange

The shorter ones and tweedy ones were very nice. I could wear a couple of them. But it has been 20 years since I've worn a really short skirt. I favor the Hillary Clinton style, all pants all the time. 

Funny, but this is the first collection that i could actually see myself wearing, at least the longer styles, even the busy first two.  Remind me a lot of my youth.

Poor Canadians if that happened - lol!

What I read of the Sharia law was pretty much what I would expect from laws based on Biblical teachings.  It's what would happen with any theocracy IMO.  Which is why I totally oppose giving any religion a say in making this country's laws or running government.  It was not, however, as radical as I expected.  I did not expect women to have any property rights, or the right to initiate a divorce, or that it would say they had to agree to a marriage.    

Does the fundamentalist far right not understand that this mirrors their stated wish to let religion influence law and government here?  Can their fear and distrust of Sharia law help them understand our fear and distrust of any kind of law based on Biblical teachings and religion?  I hope so. 

That's the problem. They don't see that there is NO DAYLIGHT between fundamentalist Islam and fundamentalist Christianity. They both preach intolerance and the subversion of a modern, secular society. We've had fundamentalists run for office with platforms that would take away human rights (especially those of women) and institute religion as a deciding factor. Two that come to mind are Mike Huckabee and Rick Santorum. Hell, we've had candidates that condone rape.

Sharia is, apparently, practiced and observed to very different degrees depending on how orthodox the person is. So a more secular Muslim would not observe laws limiting women's educational rights, while nutsos like the Taliban would. But even the most orthodox of sharia followers couldn't be much worse than some of the jokers that have run under the republican banner in this country. Or their minions, who blame natural disasters on political opponents.

If it is allowable to condone rape (whether via ultrasound or b forbidding rape victims to abort) then what could possibly be so bad about sharia.

Simple answer: the sharia lot will generally have darker skin pigmentation and not a US passport.

The underbelly of this is all the same, folks. Jingoism.  

Well said, Athena.

Reminds me, I remember seeing this meme at the Daily Kos after the election:

Belinda, love it!

Athena, the problem is not the Sharia. It is also true that fundy Islam, Christianity and Judaism are more alike than any of them usually like to admit. When you are dealing with the fundy element of any of those stripes, the main argument is whose version of fundy rightousness gets to win.

However, where the Sharia does get problematic is in its intertwining of secular and religious law. Christians do have the principle of "give unto Ceasar." The fundies may not be very wedded to it, but the principle nonetheless is there. Theocracy is not inherent in Christianity.

Ultimately the goal of Islam is for the state to be Islamic. There is in Islam the principle of dhimmitude, which means that people of the book, i.e. Jews and Christians, are entitled to protection and free exercise of their religion. This protection does, however, also bring with it what amounts to a second class status in various ways, including legally. 

So both secularism and tolerance of other religions is fraught with various problems in relation to Islam, as we can see playing out right now in Syria, for example.

In other words, although it makes sense to consider fundy strains of all the Abrahamic religions as similar, I do not think it is intellectually honest to relativize to the point of saying that Christianity is no different than Islam.

At the same time, I find the current hysteria in the West about Sharia and Islam to be overwrought. I simply don't see how such a small minority is supposed to impose its religious ideology on all the rest of us if we don't want it. I have enough faith in our institutions, for now anyway, that I think we can perfectly well tolerate a Muslim minority in our midst without any harm befalling us.

I must say you have all summed up my feelings to a tee.  I always find it hard to run up against the don't do as I do, do as I say crowd.  If I live to be a hundred I think I still won't understand why it is so hard to acknowledge that we are in this together.  Black,yellow, white, religion, no religion or somewhere in between.  

It would seem to me that the current group in the Senate/White House, along with a fair number of their predecessors were and have been itching for a fight they are losing.  To that end it seems only one person or party is now running the country.  Well, that is not by choice -- the other party has to participate with more than obstructionism.  I'm sure there will be the normal rt. handed pundit 'fuel' parcelled out. In part, that is how we got this far.  I think of the adage of :  if you keep doing what you've have always done ( certainly in the last four yrs. ) you'll keep getting what you've always got.   If the Republicans would like to have a say so......then they need to quit obstructing.  They are choosing not to play so to speak, and crying about the outcome. 

I kept hoping that there would be a turn-around, but you have to want what is best for people, all of them.  It is not so far-fetched that our country could be in the black.  It wasn't all that terribly long ago that it was.

Jackie

Holy crappoli, with 10 laps to go Ms Danica Patrick is in the top five. Caution out, it'll be a shoot out!



Go Girl!

WooHoo she took the eighth spot in the last minute scramble. Fantastic for a rookie! Ok bubba is going back in her shack. I might have to watch more races this year.

I give thanks for the small pleasure of seeing jewels sparkle in high def! Even old B&W movies, the dazzle is remarkable.



Some fun escapism.