Fun With Play-Dough

Earlier today, McCain made the following remarks:

“…I think it’s very clear who Hamas wants to be the next president of the United States. So apparently has [Sandanista leader] Danny Ortega and several others. I think that people should understand that I will be Hamas’s worst nightmare…If Senator Obama is favored by Hamas I think people can make judgments accordingly.”

He just can’t drop it, can he? In spite of all his talk about running a decent campaign (what does that mean anyway? Do you want to be President, or not?) he keeps making up these ridiculous accusations; why not attack Obama on his policies? Seems to me there are plenty of issues they disagree on. Of course, that would involve talking about those issues, and for that, McCain’s apparently not ready.

And besides, thinking you’re “Hamas’ worst nightmare” reeks of delusions of grandeur.  Don’t flatter yourself, John. I think at the end of the day, the leaders of Hamas don’t really give a crap who our President is. It’s unfortunate, but it’s true. They’ll do what they’ll do, regardless.

What I am curious about is who these “several others’ are. Just like McCain to leave us hanging like that.

Come on, tell us..is it Chavez? (by the way, gas costs 12 cents a gallon in Venezuela!). Is it Mahmoud Ahmadinejad? Al Sadr? Is it Smokey the Bear? You know what would really get the Democrats’ goat? If you claimed Pastor Hagee endorsed Obama. Now that would make us run the other way fast.

Oh wait, I forgot; Hagee already made his choice. How silly of me.

Every once in a while, I read a news story that tastes about as good as a dish of Gumbo that’s been sitting out in the sun for five hours.

While visiting New Orleans and making a ton of empty promises, McCain was asked about the comments of Texas televangelist John Hagee. Hagee has said, “Hurricane Katrina was God’s retribution for homosexual sin”. Because, you know, everyone in New Orleans is gay. When my husband and I lived there, we magically turned gay too. It’s the real reason Bush never wants to visit; he’s worried he’ll return to the White House with a boyfriend. And it says in the Bible that if you’re gay, the levees will break and the government will become even more incompetent than before.

Wait; no, it doesn’t.

I wonder what God’s punishment would be for being a stupid judgmental fuck.

While McCain repudiated Hagee’s verbal diarrhea, he never renounced the pastor’s endorsement. Then, he made some comments about Barack Obama, whose former pastor’s incendiary remarks also have come under the microscope.

“I didn’t attend Pastor Hagee’s church for 20 years,” McCain said. “There’s a great deal of difference between someone who endorses you, and other circumstances. (Source: AP)

What other circumstances? Besides, that’s not a fair comparison; nobody could hear Hagee preach week after week without becoming violently ill.

So if anyone says something hateful, and then endorses McCain, it’s okay because he or she is not his pastor? How does that work? If this is the logic with which McCain hopes to convince voters, he is sending a clear message: he thinks the voters are dumb.

That filthy hypocrite.

The apple of G-d’s Eye?

It’s what Pastor Hagee called us today; but in his relentless effort to convince us Jews that he is our friend, his word choice gives him away. It’s a phrase you use for little children; children that don’t know any better. It makes our relationship with G-d sound “cute”, like that of a kind old father with his toddlers. It diminishes our religion, history, and traditions; it’s condescending and it makes my hair stand on end.

I don’t trust Hagee, and his “Christian Support of Israel”. This kind of friend, we don’t need. The State of Israel should stop accepting his money; it’s going to get us all into trouble down the road. The man is poisonous and filled with hate, not only towards gays, Catholics, or those Christians that don’t exactly follow his way of thinking. The weeks preceding Passover give us time for our spiritual spring-cleaning; Hagee should be thrown out with the Chametz.

I know Obama’s speech won’t solve all his problems; unfortunately, racism is alive and well and won’t allow him to get off that easy. I for one am glad that he denounced the comments without denouncing the man. Still, with all this muck thrown at Jeremiah Wright, I am left with a few questions.

Why aren’t we hearing more about Pastor (and I’ve never used that term more loosely!) Hagee, and his support for McCain? Wright may be angry, but Hagee is downright dangerous. He’s said exceptionally vicious things about gays, and has made it clear on more than one occasion what he thinks of the Catholic Church. I am neither gay nor Catholic, but I can spot a hate monger when I see one.  And usually, people that are this negative about these two sections of society don’t have a high opinion of Jews either.

But that’s where it gets iffy. Hagee claims to be a supporter of Israel, and has spoken out against the conversion of Jews. He claims Jews don’t need to be saved by Jesus, Jews come first, and has donated to and raised large sums for the State of Israel. Yet, something’s not right.

First of all, do we want to be supported by somebody who is that much of a loudmouth when it comes to intolerance? Isn’t it a bit strange that he denounces whole segments of society at random, yet flirts incessantly with the Jews? What are we doing, accepting his support? And what does he really believe? Why has he chosen us? Who does he think he is, God?

There are those anti-Semites who hide under a cloak of pro-Jewish slogans. Hagee is one of them, and they are not as rare as you might think. They are dangerous, because they are so good at pretending to like us that we sometimes let them slide. We Jews, like every other people, want to be liked.

But we don’t need ‘friends’ like this. 

However; here’s what Hagee really thinks:

“It was the disobedience and rebellion of the Jews, God’s chosen people, to their covenantal responsibility to serve only the one true God, Jehovah, that gave rise to the opposition and persecution that they experienced beginning in Canaan and continuing to this very day… Their own rebellion had birthed the seed of anti-Semitism that would arise and bring destruction to them for centuries to come…. it rises from the judgment of God upon his rebellious chosen people. (Source: Wikipedia)

Aha; he’s a garden variety anti-Semite after all. We should put as much distance between this man and us as possible. Also, I vote we replace Reverend Wright’s sound bites by some of Hagee’s hate mongering messages, so this man can be seen for what he is.

We all know Rev. Wright’s comments by heart by now anyway.

Also read:

http://www.forward.com/articles/when-we-let-john-hagee-speak-for-us/

I’m not the only one whose hair stands on end when this man speaks.  And guess what; he divorced his first wife because he was cheating on her. Sound familiar?