I wanted to share two videos from Seth Andrews, which speak to the terrible turn this country has taken. Both are insightful and thoughtful. I hope you take the time to listen and ponder what is being said.

Ryan Walters Is on a Mission (to Demolish Democracy)

Although Seth is speaking about his home state of Oklahoma, the same harmful rhetoric is being pushed in nationwide.

When speaking of the bible, Seth said, “This is a book of incest and human sacrifice, infanticide, genocide.” I couldn’t agree more. Think it isn’t? Come back to me after you’ve actually read it.

Seth also had this to say to Ryan Walters:

Book bans are obscene anyway, but if you’re going to piss and moan about indoctrination, and pornography and you’re stacking your rationalizations upon the bible, this is your go-to book, this is your grade a weapons grade Olympic level book, this is hypocrisy, you are obviously not pushing education, you are pushing a state church.

This is like a christian version of sharia law. It’s certainly an abuse power. It’s an abuse of your office. And honestly, it is terrifying that somebody placed in charge of Oklahoma education is so jaw-droppingly clueless.

One of the commenters on the video said, “It takes a lot of patience and strength to endure all this bullying… Respect to all you American freethinkers… Thanks to you I have learned to appreciate our freedoms in my corner of the world (Eastern Europe).”

I am about out of patience, but not strength. We will prevail in the end. We just have to keep fighting.

Radical Islam and Radical America: Thoughts from an Ex-Muslim

Asad Bangash is an American ex-Muslim. He sees dangerous parallels between Islamic nations and the rising calls for an American theocracy.

I found the following comment quite thought-provoking.

I am a former U.S. Marine. During the 2nd Gulf War while we were in Kuwait, we where talking to some Muslim guards at the Camp Doha base before we where to drive off in the desert to set of an OP/LP (Observation Post/Listening Post) as the ASLT (Air Support Liaison Team).

One of my Marines decided to debate a Kuwaiti guard about the merits of being a Catholic vice a Muslim while we were marking time before the go. I remember hearing some of the conversation and the guard said to the Marine that “Little boys are for having fun, Little girls are for making babies”. That stuck with me while we were out on the mission. The Marine says to me later own when we returned to base, that what the guard said was disgusting and I replied “That’s what Catholic priests do, just in a different country under the guise of a different religion” He didn’t talk to me much after that.

Although I never treated the Marine any different because of his religion, he was the exact opposite to me. Questioning my orders, being belligerent and just telling everyone in the team that I was an evil atheist and should not be the Crew Chief because of my non beliefs.

This came to a head later when we were getting an intel brief for our next op. He wanted to say a prayer to God that we would receive good intel and I shut him down pretty hard. He then complained to the Capt. that he could not follow my orders due to him being a Catholic and me being an Atheist.

The Lt. and the Marine had a meeting with the Capt. and I got word from the Lt. that the Marine would not be joining use for the next op, all of his gear was gone as was he. I figured he got court martialled and sent back to the States. There are good people in the world and there are bad people in the world, But only 2 things make good people do bad things. Drugs (meth, ice) and religion.

I especially agree with the last sentence, especially with religion. I have been on the receiving end of “righteous” christians many times. Their beliefs often lead them to say and do many bad things. One of the saddest things I see is so many who give up drugs only to turn to religion. All they have done is exchange one fantasy with another.

Seth finished his video on Ryan Walters with this comment:

If you want to preach privately, [you] want to go out and preach and teach this nonsense in your personal and private life, you have that right. You have that freedom. If you want to betray history, fairness, decency, and democracy in your public life, that is an abuse of power. It’s an abuse of your office and Oklahoma deserves much, much better.

We all deserve much better.

Asad was on point when he said the following:

I am afraid of what I am seeing in this country.

When I see what is happening here now with the hyper push toward an extreme christian religion or a government that is pseudo-theocracy, I see Saudi Arabia. I see Boko Haram. I see the Taliban.

I see the ending and it is very scary because I grew up in a country that said, we accept all, we take all, and you can be your best here. That is starting to slip away.

The fight for freedom is never over. I think we’ve not always kept that in mind. If we don’t continue our fight, America will be no more and we will be just like Iran in 1979. It is slipping away.