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Bush's Worst Appointment Yet? Read Jeffrey St Clair's blazing expose of the new Interior Secretary nominee , Dirk Kempthorne, and make up your own mind. Even in the dingy history of Idaho's predators, Kempthorne stood proud as the dingiest of them all. Now he's poised to seize his place in history. Will he be the sleaziest Interior Secretary in history, sleazier than Watt, fouler than Fall? More on the great Israel Lobby debate! Norman Finkelstein blazes a new path, asks "Are the Neo-Cons really committed Zionists?" "Bliss was it in that dawn" Not in Michigan! Raymond Garcia describes Dem governor's appalling plan to scapegoat youth and teachers. Plus the full print version of Virginia Tilley's savage dissection on this website of the double-standard onslaught on Hamas by the US and EU. CounterPunch Online is read by millions of viewers each month! But remember, we are funded solely by the subscribers to the print edition of CounterPunch. Please support this website by buying a subscription to our newsletter, which contains fresh material you won't find anywhere else, or by making a donation for the online edition. Remember contributions are tax-deductible. Click here to make a donation. If you find our site useful please: Subscribe Now! |
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Today's Stories May 20 / 21, 2006 Patrick Cockburn May 19, 2006 Winslow T. Wheeler José Pertierra John Ross Dave Lindorff Jeff Juel Alan Farago Eric Johnson-DeBaufre José Martî Jonathan Cook Website of the
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May 18, 2006 Bill Simpich Patrick Cockburn Christopher Brauchli Nora Barrows-Friedman Victoria Buch Eric Ruder George Wuerthner Juan Santos Website of the Day
May 17, 2006 Lenni Brenner Carlos Villarreal Larry Everest CounterPunch News Service Lee Sustar Anthony Papa William S. Lind Bruce K. Gagnon JoAnn Wypijewski Website of the Day
May 16, 2006 Ward Churchill Ted Honderich Paul Craig Roberts Annie Nocenti Charles V. Peña Ron Jacobs Norman Solomon Harvey Wasserman Michael George
Smith Harry Browne Website of the
Day
May 15, 2006 Alexander Cockburn William Blum Tanya Golash-Boza
and Douglas A. Parker Dave Lindorff Debra Schaffer
Hubert Patrick Cockburn Tom Turnipseed Ken Livingstone Gideon Levy Mickey Z. Jeff Faux Website of the Day
May 13 / 14, 2006 Vijay Prashad Joan Roelofs Kathy Kelly Michael Neumann Dr. Susan Block Daniel Cassidy Christopher Reed Mike Roselle Saul Landau Robert Fisk Ralph Nader Evelyn Pringle Fred Gardner Stanley Heller Conn Hallinan Valentina Palma Novoa David Krieger Col. Dan Smith Christopher Brauchli Jeffrey St. Clair Poets' Basement Website of the Weekend
May 12, 2006 Michael Snedeker Dave Lindorff Leah Fishbein
/ RJ Schinner Brian Kwoba Chris Kromm Kai Diekmann David Swanson Virginia Tilley Website of the
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May 11, 2006 Sunsara Taylor Jonathan Cook Tariq Ali Wayne S. Smith Mike Whitney Pratyush Chandra Joshua Frank Mickey Z. Francis Boyle Edward S. Herman
/ David Peterson Website of the
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May 10, 2006 Werther Larry Birns / Michael Lettieri Ramzy Baroud Kevin Zeese Evelyn Pringle Amira Hass Michael Donnelly Ron Jacobs Sharon Smith Website of the Day
May 9, 2006 Ray McGovern M. Shahid Alam Moshe Adler Walter MIgnolo Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor William S. Lind Todd Chretien Dave Lindorff Ishmael Reed Website of the
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May 8, 2006 Kate McCabe Paul Craig Roberts Col. Dan Smith Norman Solomon Ingmar Lee Robert Jensen Ricardo Alarcon Will Youmans / M. Kay Siblani Alexander Cockburn Website of the
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May 6 / 7, 2006 Jeffrey St. Clair Ariel Dorfman Joe Allen Fred Gardner Jeff Taylor Saul Landau Stephen Philion Trish Schuh Ralph Nader Robert Fisk Paul Cantor John Holt James Ryan Lawrence R. Velvel Greg Moses Laray Polk Ron Jacobs Ben Tripp Mickey Z. Jeffrey St. Clair Poets' Basement Website of the Week
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Feingold Anthony Papa Website of the
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May Day, 2006 Norman Finkelstein Christopher Reed Michael Donnelly Dave Zirin Mike Whitney Gilad Atzmon Missy Comley Beattie Alexander Cockburn Website of the
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April 29 / 30, 2006 Peter Linebaugh Ralph Nader Robert Bryce Rev. William
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Weekend
Edition Gaming ArmageddonPraise the Lord and Pass the JoystickBy JOHN ZAVESKY Never forgoing the opportunity to wage war upon the evil empire of secular humanists and spread the "good word," the Christian Fundamentalists have taken their pitch to new heights. Not so ironically it was in a secular setting. The folks responsible for the riveting Left Behind series of books debuted their latest attempt to "win" lost souls with the new video game, Left Behind: Eternal Forces at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles. For those non-gamers the EE Expo is the NASCAR championship of computer game conventions. The convention drew a record crowd eager to see and experience the next level of cyber reality. This was a smart move on the part of Tyndale House Publish-ers, owners of the Left Behind trademark. God of War, Doom and Oblivion were just a few of the secular games on exhibit. Along with companies such as Alliance Distributors, Axis Animation and Empire Interactive the fundamentalists must have felt right at home. On the other hand the convention also included Darwin Dimensions, Evolved Games and Wizards of the Coast so the "Fundies" must have taken it as their duty to show. The object of the Left Behind video game is to "Wage a war of apocalyptic proportions. Join the ultimate fight of Good against Evil, commanding Tribulation Forces or the Global Community Peacekeepers, and uncover the truth about worldwide disappearances." This is a direct quote from the company's website. All of those wonderfully heroic and holy characters, Rayford, Chole, Buck and Bruce from the novels are included in the game ready to do battle with nonbelievers. They lead the Tribulation Force against Nicolae Carpathia, the Anti-Christ who heads up the secular Global Community Peacekeepers [think U.N.]. Among the many levels and stratagems a gamer is able to experience include:
Again, this copy is directly from the company website. No writer could come up with material like that on their own without heavy pharmaceutical assistance. The game's trailer breaks down humans into three separate categories:
The first group was depicted in the promotional video as a husband and wife praying before going to bed. The Unbelievers and Believers who don't seek after God were numerous, anonymous, unidentifiable figures bustling down a city street. The Faithless had the appearance of your average local militia group. Other than the earth shattering revelation that no one knows the exact time or place of the Apocalypse little else is to be gleaned from the pro-motional video with the exception that this is the mother of all battles and that those "left behind" are the ones who will wage it against the forces of darkness. To say that the game's characters are confusing is to say the least. The evilest characters are the Faithless. They ironically look exactly like the militia minded folk that flock to Fundamentalist religions by the drove. This will be only serve to befuddle most secular humanists whom the Fundies have aimed the game toward as a means of conversion. The fact that the secular characters (unbelievers and believers not seeking a relationship with the big guy) are depicted as an anonymous monolithic bunch speaks volumes as well. Another vexing point of the game's characters is the fine distinction being made between "believers who don't seek after God" and "those who chose to ignore God." It may just be semantics but both groups sound like they have better things to do than sit around waiting for the Rapture just so they can leave their wardrobe behind. Using the term "Global Community Peacekeepers" is also odd when these are the evil folk the Tribula-tion Force is bent on defeating. The game must have been designed by Old Testament Fundies since "peace" was the main message of the New Testament. Even on the surface it is apparent that the folks behind the game and restructuring our Constitution have little interest in compassion, charity, love or peace, all basic tenants of the Christianity that the man from Galilee preached. The hypocrisy of the self-appointed righteous continues to escalate when a closer look is given to their methods and manners. The Fundies consistently assail the entertainment industry as hedonistic and godless, yet it is exactly that very arena where they are cur-rently waging the battle to convert all those "other" folk to their side. When it comes to all things holy and sacred nothing says it better than Nintendo. Install Left Behind on a Gameboy and it's better than a talking burning bush for spreading the "word." Taking the simplistic approach of putting all things on a "You're either with us or against us" level is dangerous at best and absolutely lethal at its worst. Just look at what it has done for Bos-nia. It is exactly that type of mentality that has gotten this country into yet another un-winnable war. When it comes to matters of religion and politics, as tenuous as it may be, we still do have a separation of Church and State in the U.S. It is impossible to debate or discuss the need for such a separation with a Fundie. God is on their side and all else is part of Satan's realm in their black and white world. Shades of gray simply don't exist in a Fundie's world. Even without all the pseudo proselytizing Left Behind is thankfully an abject failure as a video game. It is PG rated and prides itself on this fact at the company's website. Such a rating creates a game that eschews the very things that attract gamers in the first place. Grand Theft Auto is a major seller not because its storyline was ripped from the pages of Tolstoy. It is popular because it has plenty of graphic violence, celebrates the criminal and also tosses in animated sex for good measure. Video games by their very nature are not meant to be on the level of a Kant dissertation. They are designed to be relatively simple in storyline and appeal to the masses. When you are talking about an American audience that means appealing to the lowest common denominator. Mediocrity is greatly rewarded in this country when it comes to the entertainment industry, how else to explain the success of Tom Cruise, Katie Couric and Justin Timberlake? During the Middle Ages, what the Fundies like to call 'the good old days,' artists were not afraid to graphically depict the horrors of hell. Bruegel and Bosch are just two such artists who come to mind. While the first image in the game's promo is a direct rip off of the Michelangelo Sistine Chapel paintings, obviously the game's designers lacked the courage of their convictions to really allow the secular humanists a good look at what is in store for them come the Apocalypse. Possibly like Grand Theft Auto there is the "secret key" to open a "door" and get a real sense of the fiery future eternity holds for everyone except a Fundie, but that is doubtful. As hypocritical as it is for the Fundies to criticize the entertainment industry on one hand, it is the only logical step for them to take if they expect to influence and win converts in the modern age of 3D graphics and DVDs. It also taps heavily into their extreme pro-war stance, another contradiction in the interpretation of Christian doctrine but then who is counting? The Fundies have co-opted the Republican Party and cozy up to Jewish Fundamentalist groups as well. This is understandable since all three are working overtime to see that Armageddon at least makes it to the Middle East if not the Western hemisphere. The Fundies are probably the
only group on the entire planet who actually look forward to
a world wide apocalypse. It is the culmination of their belief
system and for them it's like winning the Grand Lotto. Unfortunately
as with any war there are all those millions affected who didn't
sign on for the Rapture. By using a simple video game to set
the stage for the real Armageddon the Fundies are once again
lying. In a real war prayer does not miraculously restore powers
to a wounded soldier whose leg has been blown off and allow him
to reenter the battlefield. In a real war no one has the ability
to bestow super powers that make a soldier invincible to the
onslaught of an opposing army. This is brainwashing on the most
simplistic level. In a real war one survives not by reaching
for a joystick, but through cunning, craft and more than a little
luck. If operating a joy stick was all it took there would be
far fewer soldiers left behind on the battlefield and returning
home unscathed. All that a game like Left Behind does
is to further point out the hy-pocrisies of a group that breeds
hate and intolerance and wraps itself in a flag while striving
to undo the greatest political document ever written by modern
man. In this case it is best to take the Fundies at their word
and leave this game behind on the store shelf.
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from CounterPunch Books! The Case Against Israel By Michael Neumann Grand Theft Pentagon: Tales of Greed and Profiteering in the War on Terror by Jeffrey St. Clair Sick of sit-on-the-Fence speakers, tongue-tied and timid? CounterPunch Editors Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St Clair are available to speak forcefully on ALL the burning issues, as are other CounterPunchers seasoned in stump oratory. Call CounterPunch Speakers Bureau, 1-800-840-3683. Or email beckyg@counterpunch.org. |