Snow-Day In the Mid-Atlantic

This is why I don't watch the news. It lets me be surprised. I had no idea a snow storm was coming. Now I'm thrilled that I get one more day to work on my Genetics assignment.

I took some pictures. But as usually happens when I have a slow morning, I did turn on the t.v. All I have at the place where I'm staying is broadcast, which limits me to choosing ABC, NBC or CBS, which is a lot like choosing between a badger, a lemming and a koala for a guard dog. I clicked over to CBS and whattya know, there was some fun religious controversy on the agenda.

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Yea, can anything good come out of Jersey? (John 1:46 reference, there) As it turns out, not only was an ethnocentric nationalist religion founded there in 1913, but it also happens that America doesn't only breed faux-Christian cults, but Islamic ones as well.

Wiki: Moorish Science Temple of America

The Moorish Nationals are a minor religion numbering in the tens of thousands just 100 years after  the founding, but it just recently made news because several members are 'claiming property' that doesn't belong to them, under the auspices of it belonging to them because they are the original settlers of America and therefore are sovereign and not obliged to obey US laws.

Sounds very familiar. This also sounded familiar: the CBS hosts all sang in united chorus that "this is just an unrepresentative sect" of a much larger belief system, where "the majority of people do not commit fraud or engage in criminal activity." (closely paraphrased by memory. I don't know where to find the interview clip this early after air-time).

I think we've heard that before. Lawbreakers belonging to a religion aren't representative of that religion as a whole? How do we know that? Short answer: we don't. The way to know that would involve learning their religious doctrines and evaluating whether their actions match up with their beliefs. If their beliefs don't teach disregard for US law, then these guys are just nutters who don't represent anybody else, true. But if their beliefs do teach that, then these guys ARE representative of their religion, and it should urge greater caution and scrutiny of that 'faith.'

The Moorish Science cult actually preceded the Nation of Islam by almost two decades. Incidentally, that was founded in Detroit. 

Malcolm X was in the Nation of Islam. He was interviewed once by Alex Haley, the man who wrote Roots. 

"Thoughtful white people know they are inferior to Black people." ~ Malcolm X

I don't have the energy to show how very racist these ethno-cults derived from Islam and marketed toward dispossessed African Americans are. But that quote and the links provided should give you a starting point for understanding the same.

Wait, just one more. Do you know what the SPLC (Southern Poverty Law Center) is? It's like the ACLU. It's a left-leaning (to describe it in the most generous terms) organization, which operates in the realm of law. Whereas the ACLU brings suit, the SPLC pronounces groups to be "hate organizations." It happens to consider the Family Research Council a hate group. So it's ironic that the SPLC would keep a record of statements made by the now-leader of the Nation of Islam, Louis Farrakhan. The following is from the wikipedia article:

"Jews have been conclusively linked to the greatest criminal endeavor ever undertaken against an entire race of people ... the black African Holocaust.

Who are the slumlords in the Black community? The so-called Jews ... Who is it sucking our blood in the Black community? A white imposter Arab and a white imposter Jew." ~ Louis Farrakhan 

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How come religious cults always end up spewing anti-semitism? Now, I'm not a Jew by ancestry (wouldn't that be a surprise!), but I happen to love the Jewish people, because I've read Genesis, Exodus and Revelation. That's, honestly, all you need to know, at a minimum, to realize that God really loves these guys. And if you want to hate something or someone that God loves, ehhh...that's your prerogative, know what I'm saying? I'll stick to making wise choices.

Snow-Day pictures from Undisclosed Location 1: 

 ^ View from the front door.

^ View from the back.

It's funny, this is only the second time I've seen snow all winter. The snow storms that have kept plowing through and slamming the Northeast have all gone above the Mason-Dixon Line, and we've been conveniently missed by every single one. And even now, the Northeast is STILL going to get hit by this storm. A lot of people up there are either feeling really happy, or really really bummed.

~ Rak Chazak