ECRASEZ L'INFAME!

[Bluebear]

It's a lesson the Islamic world has not yet learned. It's a lesson the Western world risks forgetting.


...Illiberal regimes at least have an excuse. Regression is part of their gross national product. The West has no such excuse, least of all in the world's self-appointed guardian of liberty. If l'infame's 21st century version is whatever replaces liberty, reason and the rule of law with dogma, faith-based bigotry and the lawless presumptions of a few arrogant men, then don't let the relative calm over cartoongate in America fool you.

L'infame is alive and well here, in small and broad ways: It is people holding up signs at gay funerals that say "No Fags in Heaven", and millions of people doing likewise in 11 states by voting to bar gays from marrying. It is columnist Ann Coulter calling Muslims "ragheads" at a conservative political conference and getting an ovation, or Jacksonville's Reverend Jerry Vines calling Mohammed a "demon-possessed pedophile" in an address to the Southern Baptist Conference, and getting alleluias.

L'infame is the National Cathedral service September 14, 2001, belting the wrathful and jingoist "Battle Hymn of the Republic" during a memorial service for the victims of the attacks three days earlier. Mostly, l'infame is President Bush, sworn to uphold the Constitution, saying he answers to a "higher power" while dragging the country's laws and liberties through a gutter dug by Osama bin Laden.

With advocates like these, liberty and democracy have about as much chance as the fugitive honesty in the Bush White House. But it worked in Voltaire's time. It'll work in ours: Ecrasez l'infame!

http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=4019

[Wetzelbill]

1. yeah! Hell yeah!

Wait, what does that mean?

[malaise]

2. Crush the infamy

he said he meant wiping out superstition, but his believers opted for wiping out the religious fundies of that period. I opt for wiping out the infamy of our day. Impeach!!

[magellan]

3. "Crush the infamous thing!"

In the eternal battle between reason and regression there’s never been a rallying cry as powerful as Voltaire’s double-barreled phrase: Écrasez l’infâme. It has been translated variously as “crush the infamous,” “crush the horror” or — my preference — “smash the rogues.” Voltaire’s targets, his recent biographer Ian Davidson writes, “included superstition, theological repression, Jesuits, monks, fanatical regicides, and the Inquisition in every shape and form; in short, all facets of the dark and regressive alliance between the Catholic Church and the French State.” By the 19 th century, the phrase had done its job, and not just in France. In the West, Church and State would be kept separate, for good reason: Absent a thick and uncompromising wall, the two cannot help but corrupt each other while tyrannizing, in a “higher power”’s name, the people they’re meant to serve.

[Nostradammit]

4. Here is George at the National Cathedral

Getting the S.O.A. (smirk of approval) from his daddy:






Ecrasez l'infame!Ecrasez l'infame!Ecrasez l'infame!Ecrasez l'infame!Ecrasez l'infame!Ecrasez l'infame!Ecrasez l'infame!Ecrasez l'infame!Ecrasez l'infame!Ecrasez l'infame!Ecrasez l'infame!Ecrasez l'infame!Ecrasez l'infame!

[magellan]

5. Oh poop, we didn't need a photo of the infamous things!!

What ugly people they are in every sense of the word.

[malaise]

6. That is an important photo

I've always interpreted it as 'Never mind son, we have this covered'.

Let the looting begin!!!

[magellan]

7. Grrrr.....

I look bloody forward to the day when I can join the rest of the spectators on Capitol Hill and catch up on some knitting.

[Beacho]

8. Voltaire was inspired by an incident in France

It was an incident that happened in the south of France involving persecution of some local protestants involving the Inquisition. the incident involved the burning of one of his works with the owner. We might not be that far from those times.