Dark Wraith’s fractured Christmas Carol

Dark Wraith,author and publisher of Dark Wraith Forums, UnCapitalist Journal and the Big Brass Blog performs his very own Fractured Christmas carole:

 

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Focused on Impeachment-H.RES.799

This is from Fran over at Ramblings. All the info you need to get in touch with your elected officials. - Dusty

Portland Indy Media reports:

Impeach Cheney
author: Mollie
Time to pressure Rep. John Conyers and other members of the Judiciary Committee:
Call toll free: 1-800-828-0498, 1-800-862-5530; email: http://judiciary.house.gov/contact.aspx

“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands in times of challenge and controversy.” Martin Luther King, Jr.

Now is their moment in history to stand up for Democracy, to restore the Constitution, and to tell future Presidents that we will no longer tolerate abuses of power and lying to take us into illegal wars and occupations. It is their moment to tell the world that no one in America is above the law.

The Judiciary Committee represents all of us, so they do not have the screeners like some of the Congress people. Email the Judiciary Committee: http://judiciary.house.gov/contact.aspx
Website: http://judiciary.house.gov/
Here are their names and contact information. Those with * by name are either co-signers of HRes 333 or believed to be supportive of impeachment. It now has a new bill number: .RES.799

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The Legacy of Chimpy/Gopper Klanservatism

We Welcome a new author to Sirens, Jolly Roger from Reconstitution. He doesn’t shy away from speaking his mind which is why I heart him so much-Dusty

Let me beat that dead horse once again, for those who may not have been here for any of my other beatings.The election of 2004 was framed around the issue of “gay marriage” in order to get the Jesusistan wingtards to the polls to keep the moronic monkey installed in office. They, plus the sleazy machinations of J. Kenneth Blackwell in rigging the Ohio election, got the job done. But hating gays is only the tip of the flaming cross.

Those who have been paying attention for longer than 5 minutes know all about the Jesusistan fringe of Gopperdom. They claim to congregate (and vote) out of Christian love, but their street message is an unrelenting tome of hate. They hate women who have abortions (whether or not the abortion is because of rape, or sex with your brother, or to save your life.) The funny thing is, they hate people who wind up on public assistance (nearly all of whom have children) every bit as much as they hate women who have abortions. I suppose that one could conclude that they want to make sure that they never run out of people to hate. But, I digress…

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Introducing This Election’s Swing Vote

This post is reprinted with permission from MovementVisionLab.org. It’s a vitally important topic for the coming election year. You can watch the Heartland Presidential Forum in it’s entirety here. They also have portions of this forum on their YouTube channel here. The Forum was held in Iowa on December 1st and five of the Democratic candidates(Edwards, Obama, Kucinich, Dodd,Clinton) attended. -Dusty

This past weekend more than 3,600 people braved an ice storm to attend the Heartland Presidential Forum at the HyVee Hall in Des Moines, Iowa. The event, launched by the national Campaign for Community Values, hosted five Democratic presidential candidates’ and featured an unprecedented format that gave everyday people the opportunity to speak directly to the candidates about issues that matter to all Americans.-Martin Matishak

Introducing This Election’s Swing Vote
Posted by: Sally Kohn , December 05, 2007

Real people and real issues will be front and center at the next presidential election.

It’s rare that everyday Americans take center stage in the presidential election. News pundits and political consultants are more concerned with the sex lives of the candidates than the real stories and real issues of voters. But this election, everything will change. Real people and real issues will be front and center. And if the candidates listen closely, they’ll hear a new story of hope and possibility for the future of America.

The American people are tired of the politics of division and isolation. For too many years, politicians on both sides of the aisle have told us we’re on our own, that we have to pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps, that it’s an us-against-them world and selfishness and greed are our best defense. But the politics of isolation have only led to a broken economy and a broken social safety net, division between nations and division between communities. We, the people, have had enough. It’s time for a new politics in America.

This past Saturday December 1, in Des Moines, Iowa, more than 3,600 people packed a crowded hall in Des Moines, Iowa, to hear everyday Americans tell their stories to five of the top presidential candidates. At the Heartland Presidential Forum, Senators John Edwards, Barack Obama, Chris Dodd and Hillary Clinton and Representative Dennis Kucinich did more listening than talking as real people finally took center stage in this election.

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The Christmas Wars: How the Radical Christian Right will again bastardize the Spirit of Christmas.

The Christmas Wars:
How the Radical Christian Right Will Again Bastardize the Spirit of Christmas

By BibleBelted, PraetorOne and Matthew5

“I am not going to let aggressive totalitarian and anti-Christian forces in this country diminish, denigrate, the holiday and the celebration. I’m gonna use all the power that I have on radio and television to bring horror into the world of people who are trying to do that..”

Bill O’Reilly trying to sound like a Christian, circa 2006

It seems as if the Radical Christian Right has stepped up its attack on America and mainstream Christianity by extending the Cultural War to include the words Happy Holidays; and while they may not realize it, they haven’t exactly done a lot to equate their battle cry of “Merry Christmas” with anything especially Merry or Christian either.

On the surface, the whole thing seems rather bizarre. Christ, after all, never politicized his religious teachings; and the last we knew, bringing horror into the world of concerned Americans who oppose a Christian Republic or a Fundamentalist theocracy isn’t exactly a Christian standard. So you just have to wonder: Why would the same professional misanthropes who so fervently complain about political correctness, want to demote the words “Merry Christmas” to the mere equivalent of right wing political war chant? Why would they want use Christmas, of all things, as an excuse to infuriate the American people at what they claim is the holiest time of the year?

First and foremost, we need to remember that this isn’t the first time that the Pseudo Christian Right has used Christmas as a weapon against its opponents.

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The 14 Characteristics of Fascism continued..

THE FOURTEEN CHARACTERISTICS OF FASCISM PART VII:

OBSESSION WITH NATIONAL SECURITY ESSAY II:

Power Corrupts Bush Absolutely
By Matthew5 and DoctorWho

“Liberty is not a means to a higher political end. It is itself the highest political end….liberty is the only object which benefits all alike, and provokes no sincere opposition. ” -Historian Lord Acton.

We should be so proud. We have a President who should either be impeached for an abuse of power, or who should be removed from office by reason of diminished mental capacity, (i.e. megalomania). The idea that this president wants to protect us is laughable at best and delusional at the very worst.

The fact of the matter is that Bush has already confessed to having broken a federal law, the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. True, FISA does allow for the surveillance of American citizens –when they are communicating outside the United States to potentially dangerous groups or individuals, but before that can happen you actually have to acquire a so called FISA warrant; you actually have to prove some kind of probable cause before you can do monitor an American citizen. And (surprise, surprise) Bush did not do this. He just went ahead, acting on yet another faith-based, internal impulse, and used the situation to satisfy his insatiable craving for personal power.

Let’s not forget that we really don’t know who’s being monitored here. For all we know, Bush and his lackeys could be listening to American citizens for domestic, political reasons which have nothing to do with national security. That seems plausible when you consider the fact criticism of any kind represents a threat to national security in the Demander and Thief’s irrational thought process. We are, after all, dealing with a President who cannot and will not admit that he ever made a mistake, and who views political criticism as a form of treasonous behavior. And when you’re dealing with someone whose thought process (or lack thereof) is that rigid and that paranoid, you can bet dollars to doughnuts that he’s monitoring whoever he thinks may represent a political threat, not just a security threat.

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The 14 Characteristics of Fascism, Part 4

Another in our series on the 14 Characteristics of Fascism and how the Republicans and BushCo in particular use them. -Dusty

PART IV: THE SUPREMACY OF THE MILITARY
Essay 2: The Recruitment of Skinheads, and Nazis
By BibleBelted

And to think there was a time when we thought the Bush Administration only anted to exploit the troops by using them as props, as propaganda tools whenever he wanted to boost his sagging approval ratings. Now we know differently. It isn’t only a matter of exploiting those troops who are truly honorable, but also a matter of attracting sadistic bullies, thugs, and hatemongers on the far right. Since this article was written in the summer of 2005 we have learned that the United States military, in an attempt to meet quotas, has lowered the bar and has been recruiting–of all things– criminals, addicts, and more chillingly, skinheads and Nazis.

According to the Southern Poverty Law Center the United States Military has now been infested with NeoNazis and skinheads who hope to use their military training here at home. How bad is it? The following quote comes from a right wing hate blog:

“Light infantry is your branch of choice because the coming race war and the ethnic cleansing to follow will be very much an infantryman’s war,” he wrote. “It will be house-to-house, neighborhood-by-neighborhood until your town or city is cleared and the alien races are driven into the countryside where they can be hunted down and ‘cleansed.”

Ask yourselves this: Can this be a coincidence? When you look at the Bush Administration’s attitude towards civil liberties, at the Administration’s almost obsessive desire to know what every American is doing at almost any time, and it’s basic contempt for the Constitution, is it really too hard to believe that the Administration secretly approves of goons like the one who I quoted above? Granted, the Administration isn’t as flamboyant as the Skin Heads or the Aryan Nation, but when you look at some of their policies the similarities are indeed stunning.

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The 14 Characteristics of Fascism, Part 3 continued

THE FOURTEEN CHARACTERISTICS OF FASCISM PART III: IDENTIFICATION OF ENEMIES (Essay 1: The Cultural War Against Gays By SweetPea (Daniel) SECTION 3

Who Suffers? We Do.
The Inevitable Results of Threats and Hate Speech

The verbal attacks continue. Gays and lesbians are compared to everything from rats to Devil worshipers, which makes me wonder, what kind of effect does this have on the society at large? Well, we a lready know, don’t we? It creates an atmosphere in which those who are less than balanced, in which the highly disturbed feel free to act on their violent impulses. Can you say Matthew Shepherd? Can you say Harvey Milk? They were individuals who were quite literally murdered because of their sexual orientation, and they aren’t the only ones who have suffered such a tragic fate.

*Nicholas Ray West, a 23-year-old Southern Baptist singer was kidnapped, tortured and executed in a gravel pit because he was gay. [21]

*January 1994, Michael Benishek, another gay Texan, was found dead in San Antonio. The coroner was uncertain if he died from a severe blow to his head with a blunt instrument or from a knife slash across his throat. [22]

*February 1994, Tommy Musick, age 48, a gay hairstylist from Midland, Texas, was shot four times in the head. His 18-year-old killer, Ramsey Harrell, received a mere twelve year sentence because the jury held an an obvious bias against gay people. [23]

*In March 1994, police discovered the body of Joe Trevino, another gay man who had been strangled and bludgeoned to death in his home by two teenagers. [24]

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The 14 Characteristics of Fascism, Part 3 continued

Another in our series on the 14 Characteristics of Fascism and how BushCo and the extreme right use them. This post was authored by SweetPea, a member of the Coalition for a Republican-Free America

 

The 14 Characteristics of Fascism

Part III, Identification of Scapegoats

(Distorted Facts: The Cultural War Against Gays)

by SweetPea

SECTION 2

As an out-of-the-closet gay male I am getting a little sick and tired of being compared to everyone and everything from Typhoid Mary to Jeffrey Dahmer. For all intents and purposes gay males are compared to the worst kinds of people that you could ever possibly imagine and the sad truth of the matter is that all too often what the far right promotes as the truth is often picked at random out of their proverbial, theocratic asses.

This is the kind of garbage that we hear on an all to regular basis.

Gays Are Diseased

First let’s get something straight. Homosexuality is not a disease. Countless respected, mainstream organizations will tell you this, including: The American Psychiatric Association, the American Law Institute, American Bar Association, the World Health Organization, The American Psychological Association, the American Medical Association, the Academy of Pediatrics, and the Council on Child and Adolescent Health. Moreover, in 1999, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Counseling Association, American the Association of School Administrators, the American Federation of Teachers, the American Psychological Association, the American School Health Association, the Interfaith Alliance Foundation, the National Association of school psychologists, the National Association of Social Workers and the National Education Association, issued a document called Just the Facts About Sexual Orientation in which they:

“Expressed concern about harassment of gay and lesbian youth; condemned reparative therapy as potentially harmful and of little or no effectiveness, and describe transformational ministries as representing only one part of Christianity–those faith groups which view homosexuality as outside God’s will. and incompatible with Christianity. The site other denominations as supporting equal rights, and protection against discrimination, for gays and lesbians.”[7]

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The 14 Characteristics of Fascism, Part 3

ESSAY II:
RACIAL PROFILING: CODE WORD FOR RACISM
By PraetorOne and Biblebelted

In the 1960s Lyndon B Johnson incurred the wrath of Conservative Southern Democrats by supporting the civil rights movement; specifically the Voting Rights Act. Admittedly, Johnson was a piece of self-centered work, a flawed, even power hungry individual (though a rank amateur when compared to George W. Bush), but his stand against right wing bigots was an honorable and a productive one. Few pieces of legislation have been as effective and as beneficial as the Voting Rights Act. And what was the Republican response? In the years after the Johnson Presidency, Richard M. Nixon and his merry band of authoritarian cronies decided that they would play the proverbial race card and divide the south along racial lines. In a stunning display of bigotry, the party of Lincoln decided to embrace hate-mongering, southern racists and religious fanatics who had routinely stood in the way of equal rights for Black Americans.

Now fast forward to August 2006. Only hours after Great Britain thwarted a pending terrorist attack, the right wing bigots on AM hate radio and the Reich Propaganda Cable bands were advocating–get this–a policy of racial profiling for Muslims. Allow me to repeat that: a policy of racial profiling for Muslims.

Call me naive, but isn’t that a little like trying to use a fly swatter to diagnose a case of Scarlet fever?

Will somebody–anybody–please be so kind as to tell the incompetents who compose this Administration that Muslims come in all varieties and colors, from the very liberal Sufis, to the very repressive Fundamentalists; to the very white to the very dark; and everything in between? Indonesian Muslims probably tend to be Asians. European Muslims probably tend to be white. Many American Muslims are probably black. And those are–at the very best–the broadest of generalizations. There are as many shades of Islam as there are Muslims. Like Christianity, Islam is a global religion, there are adherents in every country on the face of the earth. But for some reason, right wing pundits like Bill O’Reilly, Rush Limbaugh, and Sean Hannitty assume (incorrectly) that if we profile young males ages 16 to whatever with brown skin that we will win the war on terrorism.

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CHEAP GRACE

This morning we have a group of guest writers. The cast and crew from Republican-Free America and the Coalition for a Democratic America. This post originally appeared here.

CHEAP GRACE:
THE HYPOCRITICAL AND DESTRUCTIVE NATURE OF THE PSEUDO-CHRISTIAN RIGHT

By Trevor, Jeffrey, Brandon, Daniel, Kyle and Brian

“We don’t lie, cheat, or steal on Sunday, but God help you on Monday.”
An old Midwestern joke

Call it what you like: cheap grace, hypocrisy, dime store theology, a mockery of the Holy bible, sociopathy: In the end it is almost invariably excused by two of the worst and most abused passages in the New Testament:

“And whosoever shall not receive you nor hear your words when ye depart out of that house or city, Shake off the dust of your feet…”
——-The Gospel of Saint Matthew 10:14

And

“Jesus answered and said unto him, verily, verily I say unto thee except a man be born again he cannot see the Kingdom of God. Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb and be born? Jesus answered, Verily, verily I saith unto thee, except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit. Marvel not that I said…”
——-The Gospel of Saint John 3: 3-7

——-One of the great ironies (read deceptions) in the year 2006 was the utter lack of consistency that the so-called Christian Right brings to both, the political and religious arenas. Certain pastors and politicians argue that the Ten Commandments are so important and such an integral part of Western Civilization, that they must turn them into graven images, mere idols as a part of the Christian Right’s ongoing war against western civilization. The Ten Commandments, argues the Christian Right, must be forced into virtually every aspect of our public institutions, from village squares to court house lawns, to school rooms and governmental buildings etc. But what the Christian Right fails to tell you is that while reactionary religious leaders on the far right are trying to force the Ten Commandments on everyone else, those same religious leaders are telling their own congregations that the Ten Commandments are obsolete, that Jesus Christ nailed them to the cross and that we are all saved through grace alone, not deeds or actions .

——-To be honest, I have some major problems with that kind of theology (or lack thereof). In many ways it reminds of me of an under-Christianized version of navel contemplation, an excuse for doing nothing, for not getting involved with the world condition while human suffering and abject misery run rampant. Ideally, faith or grace-based theology is supposed to work like this: You are born again; you accept Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, and if you are sincere in your acceptance you will naturally be guided to behave in a way that is acceptable and pleasing in the eyes of the Lord because you have been filed with the Holy Spirit. But as we all know, there is a tremendous difference between the stated idea and the actual end result, the every day practice of one’s religion.

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WE SHOULD BE ASHAMED OF OURSELVES

By Praetor One

In 1943 the Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto staged an insurgency against their Nazi oppressors which quite literally took the Nazis by surprise. Deceived by their own propaganda, the Nazis found it difficult to believe that their prisoners, their innocent victims would actually dare to fight back, a belief which was quickly shattered when the Jews, upon learning that they were to be exterminated anyhow, decided to fight back against what proved to be impossible odds. Eventually the Jewish resistance was destroyed, but not before the Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto had proven that they believed in freedom and basic survival.

In the early years of the Twentieth Century–1916-1945–Mahatma Ghandi led a peaceful, nonviolent revolt in which he successfully gained Indian Independence from the might of the British Empire. Unlike the revolt in the Warsaw Ghetto and the following examples, Ghandi successfully obtained that independence by refusing to take up arms against British soldiers. Moreover, Ghandi not only believed that it was enough to win the political and military aspects of the peaceful revolt. He also believe that there was no victory unless he convinced his opponents of the moral superiority of his mission.

In 1989 the government and military fores of the Peoples Republic of China, were stunned and horrified when peaceful protesters took to the street in peaceful protest to demand reforms and more personal freedom. Again, the protesters clearly understood that they were both, out numbered and out gunned and that the government could lash out and crush them in a single blow, but that didn’t stop a brief, shining moment of idealism from outshining the forces of tyranny and repression.

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QUICK INTERVIEW WITH SATAN

By PraetorOne

Under normal circumstances I prefer to write our posts in an article format, but when I considered the cultural, moral, and spiritual influences that our guest has exerted throughout mankind’s history I decided that it might be prudent to present this post in an interview format with as little editing as is humanly possible.

The interview took place on June 6th 2007 at 6:00 p.m. following a local meeting of the Young Republicans in Shit Hole, Alabama where the subject of my interview was the invited guest speaker. Usually I try to avoid interviews with supernatural being, but when I pondered the world condition it suddenly occurred to me that my subject may well have been behind, or possibly even led, some of the greatest and most destructive movements in the history of both Eastern and Western Civilization.

I am of course talking about the Prince of Lies, the Great Deceiver, the Horned God who was Cast out of Heaven when he and his acquiescent angels rebelled against the Lord God. Or as you may know him, the one and only Satan.

During our interview Satan made a point of furling and unfurling his leathery, bat like wings, occasionally stroking his tail or horns while he commented on politics, war, and the state of Christianity in the world today.

Many will be justifiably upset by the Infernal Master’s comments, but in the interest of fair and unbiased reporting, I have opted to present his revealing remarks here. We don’t expect our readers to approve, but we will ask them to understand that these are the opinions of a powerful, albeit, cunning, supernatural being, and we beg our readers’ patience and tolerance.

BRANDON: Welcome. It’s an…honor?…to have you here.
SATAN: The honor is all yours, I assure you.
BRANDON: Mister Satan…
SATAN (INTERRUPTING): Okay shithead, let’s get something straight. From now on when you address me you shall refer to me as “Your Infernal Majesty,” or Majesty. Got it straight, punk?”
BRANDON: Your Infernal Majesty?
SATAN: That’s right.

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LOVING PARENTS DON’T ALWAYS SAY YES

A guest post by Donatra’s mother-in-law Rachel. Please welcome her to the Sirens family.

KEEPING THE KIDS OFF THE HIGHWAY, OFF DRUGS AND BRINGING THEM HOME FROM THE BUSH WAR

by Rachel

I assume you have already heard about the delusional band of abusive and neglectful parents who are slithering their way down to the Anti-Christ’s lair in Crawford, Texas to harass Gold Star Mom, Cindy Sheehan? No, that is not a typographical error, no misprint. I wrote the words abusive and neglectful and I make no apologies. I stand by them because they were the words I had intended to use.

As far as I am concerned, those individuals who did not make an attempt to discourage their children from joining the military after this travesty of a “leader” was appointed as president were just plain neglectful. Those individuals who are either too stupid or too cruel to not want an end to the futile blood bath in Iraq are advocating a policy which puts their children and other parents’ children in harm’s way–and if that doesn’t qualify as abusive then I don’t know what does. (On a side note, you really don’t want to know what I think of the proverbial psychopaths who would actively encourage their children to join the military now that the Bush War has turned sour the way we had said it would all along.)

Be honest. Wouldn’t you like to make your own bumper sticker that reads: “We love the troops so much that we want to bring them home right now?” Wouldn’t you like to vomit when you hear psychotic nonsense about how the troops knew what they were getting into because they volunteered? Wouldn’t you just love to scream back that most Americans, including volunteer soldiers, trusted their President to actually avoid unnecessary wars as opposed to blundering into them? Aren’t you getting just a little sick and tired of empty, irrelevant rhetoric about how we’ll hurt the troops’ moral if we don’t support their Bush-given right to commit suicide? Don’t you feel just a little nauseated when you hear right wing lunacy about our soldiers efforts being for nothing if we don’t leave them in a dangerous war zone until the Bush regime’s misbegotten policies finally erupt in an Iraqi Civil War?

Yeah. I’m getting sick and tired of their excuses too.

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Christophrenia: Diseases of the Radical Christian Right

Today we welcome a male to Sirens as a guest author of our Daily Feature. Praeterone writes with passion and intelligence on several blogs, The Coalition for a Republican-free America and the Coalition for a Democratic America. Both are group blogs that include his father and step-mother, as well as his wife and extended family members. They are a wonderful group of progressives that research their pieces well and provide impeccable, thought-provoking articles for our enjoyment. His wife is our lovely and currently pregnant Donatra.

CHRISTOPHRENIA

Diagnostic Summary

The essential feature of Christophrenia is a marked and persistent fear of anything and everything which is associated with Christ’s philosophy of love, peace, and forgiveness, and which counters the violent, often homicidal passages in the King James Bible. In an attempt to escape the daily challenges of living in the real world, the patient begins to construct a fantasy dreamscape in which fundamentalist religious beliefs take the place of Christ’s true teachings.

INITIAL PHASE

In the initial phase, Christophrenia may cause extreme anxiety or even phobic reactions when the patient is confronted with secular practices and/or traditions, often resulting in an obsessive- compulsive urge to either ban the teaching of evolution or to force public school children to recite either The Lord’s Prayer or The Pledge of Allegiance. The patient may feel an overwhelming urge to make an obscene phone call to the Freedom From Religion Foundation, or, may assume that Americans United for Separation of Church and State is a Satanic organization dedicated to the elimination of Fundamentalist Christianity , when, in fact it is the patient which may want to eradicate every theological belief except his or her own.

Pop singers and movie stars will often be seen as agents in a plot to destroy America or Western civilization in general, and the patient may spend hours on end conversing about the Satanic influences of the Harry Potter series. Mainstream television programs such as The Charmed Ones, Wheel of Fortune, and Sesame Street may be seen as manifestations of a vast left-wing conspiracy and the patient may feel obligated to write to the FCC about offensive programming; including, but not limited to, Sponge Bob, Barney the Purple Dinosaur, and Buster the Asthmatic Rabbit.

On other occasions, the patient may feel compelled to steal “indecent” or immoral” publications from the shelves of public libraries in an attempt to save the public from its own puerile interests. Certain patients may feel an obsessive desire to either challenge or even ban books by Lord Bertrand Russel, J.D. Salinger, J.K. Rowling, ad infinitum.

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