Odds and Ends

[gehayi]

Shirvell taint extends to Cox.

***

The Right Wing Sounds the Sharia Alarm Over Campbell's Making Halal Soups. Exactly why soups that comply with Islamic dietary regulations are any worse than kosher soups is beyond me. Campbell's, to my way of thinking, is showing good sense by finding and exploiting a hitherto unrecognized market

Comments

[gehayi]

Exactly. We can't confine the message to the kids; we have to send the message that bigotry and cruelty are not acceptable even if adults are the ones being bigoted and cruel, and even if the adults have gotten away with being bigoted and cruel up till now.

This would seem to be obvious, but it is not going to be a popular message. Hatred and anger against anyone who does not conform to a very narrowly construed norm are all too common in America these days.

[gehayi]

Same here. I don't really understand where this vituperative hatred is coming from. My parents had a theory that countries went insane about every thirty years or so, and I'm beginning to think they were right.

[lilacsigil]

Thoroughly agreed - I was a fat, nerdy, atheist, feminist lesbian on a scholarship at a rural Christian high school, but I wasn't bullied (and there was little bullying overall) because the adults didn't participate in or tolerate it, and acted quickly and firmly when bullying was reported or seen. My brothers attended the school after me, and the new headmaster that came in while my youngest brother was there got rid of the anti-bullying program in favour of "Christian tolerance". It certainly meant a lot fewer reports of bullying, anyway...

[rubygirl29]

Okay, who let the inmates out of the asylum? Boycott Campbell's because they make soups that follow halal guidelines? Sharia coming to the US? Banning gays and unwed moms from teaching?

This confirms my earlier rant about the Tea Party and far-right extremists who claim to be "protecting" the American way of life. I am totally disgusted by all this.

And I'm so not in the mood to put up with it today, so I think I'd better just leave it at that!

[ravenclaw_eric]

In my experience, 95% or more of the people who go nuts at the word "sharia" couldn't pass a basic test on the subject if it meant the firing squad.

[gehayi]

Wouldn't you think, then, that they could look the word "Sharia" up first and see if it had anything to do with the fears spawned by their own bigotry?

Oh, wait. That would involve intelligence, objectivity and common sense. Forget I asked.

[rikibeth]

They'd probably also be wetting their pants if I pointed out to them that the delicious minestrone I just made pretty much from scratch (the beans are canned because I've learned that there are too many ways for me to fail at cooking dried beans, and the little can of tomato sauce was mass-market, not home-canned, because I am not that much of a farm wife type) is not only vegetarian but VEGAN, and if I dished out a serving before adding the pasta shells could be GLUTEN-FREE, and thus would fit into a whole LOT of dietary-restriction profiles, be they religious or health-based (assuming the religious people trusted my pots, or if I made it for them in THEIR kitchens), and yet I am a thoroughly secular omnivore.

It's FOOD, people. You EAT it. Be glad you have it!

[gehayi]

It's FOOD, people. You EAT it. Be glad you have it!

Exactly! Protesting the existence of edible food that people are allowed to eat is DUMB.