I had some thoughts... but first, some other thoughts.

I was under the deluded impression that rabid Anti-Semitism and Christian Fundamentalism were, for the most part, seperate entities. Sadly, I was mistaken. Yes, Xanga. There are many, many more, but this one stood out to me. I think it was the Confederate Flag (never mind he lives in Kansas...) and Calvinism that I found most amusing. I'm not even going to get into the whole Southern Pride thing (remember, we, um, they [I claim no kinship. I live in Asheville, dammit. An oasis of humanity in a sea of xenophobia] won the War of Northern Aggression), but it just fits so perfectly. On another page somewheres, he was also seen wielding a rifle of some type or another. /looks closely... Nope, shottie. I'd say a Remington 870 Express, but see what you make of it. But I digress. The Calvinism is the other interesting point. I've a Calvinist friend, so I know a tad about the subject. Quite frankly, I love it. It's total crap, (God loves everyone, but everyone means an elect few. Everyone else is going to hell, and there's nothing they can do about it) but it gets me off the hook. Assuming I (and a few billion others) are wrong, and we are going to hell, it's not our fault. If I were meant to be saved, I would be saved. Works for me.

To sidetrack for a minute, I really, really hate the whole Gun Enthusiast=Fundamentalist Nutjob stereotype. I love guns with a passion. The precision, power, and cold, calculating exactness is just awesome. And yes, I hunt. I also eat that which I kill. Yet paradoxically, I'm against most wars the U.S. has entered into, I don't go around threatening people who disagree with me, I do not think I am part of some überrace, and quite frankly, I wish everyone would let well enough alone. There. Glad that's off my chest.

But on the Anti-Semitism thing, (actually Anti-Everything-Except-The-Holy-Trinity) it's astounding. I'm aware there's still people who think Jews, Catholics, Hollywood, and Yankees have some major world takeover plot, but I didn't think they had figured out what blogs were yet. Stupid, stupid me. They have forums, so why not blogs? What's even more frightening is the amount of comments the fellow has. I suspect it has something to do with Xanga, though. If you start a blog on Xanga, even if it's completely blank, you will have people leaving you "eProps" and comments about how cool/hot/sexy you are. On Blogger, you get spammers and linkfarmers.

Honestly, how someone can in this day and age seriously believe that organized religion is, well, organized enough to pull off something as grand as a world takeover, is beyond me. We're still blowing each other up for reasons that are murky at best, and people think there's some deeper meaning behind all of it?

And what's with this obsession with Lord of the Rings? I saw it on a few other similar blogs. If they're drawing parallels between it and nationalism, er, patriotism, I'm not seeing it. Wait... surely they don't view themselves as the Fellowship... nah...

Delusions of Grandeur indeed.

Um, edit, yeah. I forgot my original thought. Basically, this: what is the turnover rate from other religions to Athiesm, and for what reasons? I'd think Islam would be a tad lower than Christianity, mainly because you may well be excommunicated (of course, that happens here as well) or killed for denying Allah. But Buddhism, Taoism, Shinto, Paganism, Wicca... what compelling reason do they have? Their religions don't go around demanding everyone bow to their god[s], nor do they demand one turn a blind eye to science. It's more of a philosophy than anything else.