It never fails to astonish that “god saved me from the disaster that he 1. failed to prevent and 2. failed to save everyone else from”
Although, to be fair, if there was a planned Left Wing Games, it’d be cancelled over the various groups playing “More Oppressed than Thou” – plus, they’d never determine the sequence of which game when, as that implies a value judgement when everyone’s supposed to be equal.
The dispute was over whether to call the gulf the Persian Gulf or the Arabian Gulf. Since this is a “all Muslims are great but no-one else is” event, why not just call it the Islamic Gulf? Oh no, that’d be too simple!
?!?!! There were NO humans there until christians showed up? Or no one that mattered, since they weren’t christian? Or just no one with the astounding arrogance to make such a statement?
@Doug. Don’t be silly, and pay attention: Christians were in the gulf before Muslims; I was posting in response to a suggestion it be called the ‘Islamic Gulf’.
A maker of gunsights for the US military has been putting references to Bible passages in its gunsights. So when you’re about to kill someone, you can remember that Jesus brings light to the world!
there’s a funny email going around from Satan to Pat – telling him it’s okay to blame god, but not to besmirch Satan, since cleary, any country that has a pact with him wouldn’t be poverty stricken, and that Pat doesn’t want to renegotiate his own pact.
On top of existing rifts, a dispute over the name for a body of water arose. The east side Musselmans called it by a name that had been around for about 2500 years, to the annoyance of the west side Musselmans, who preferred their 50 year old name. It seems that the dispute became a gulf, and any semblance of unity vanished.
Then along came Jos, proposing the name “Islamic Gulf”. Emetic nature of a faith-based name for a nice secular thing full of haram beasties aside, it seemed an entirely rational suggestion to solve the problem – a kind gesture from a (presumed) infidel.
(I’d rather call it the Sea of Mo or the Mo Sea –
We can mosey
By the Mo Sea
And feel sand
Between our toesies
– ‘course it wouldn’t rhyme in the local languages, and if dogs are frowned upon, then doggerel must be doubly dastardly.)
Have I got it so far?
RC proffers “Nah, they should call it the Christian Gulf; we were there 1st…”
Sounds like something I’d expect from Ann Coulter.
Now let’s consider the statement.
“we where there 1st”: Also sprach Zarathustra, “Das is nicht richtig!” (Ja, ja, Zo didn’t speak German). By at least 500 years not correct. Considering the proximity to where humans and chimpanzees kissed their common ancestor goodbye and went their separate ways, it seems likely that the first humans in the area were atheists, or at least worshipers of the local natural world rather than of a remote figment of imagination.
So, the statement is clearly untrue.
Does the statement offer a solution, comparable to Jos’, to aid restoration of the lost Islamic solidarity? Enhance peace in the region, and by extension, to the rest of the world? Well, um, uh, awe gee, uh, … no!
So, with no discernable merit so far, it seems to come down to a question of why the statement was made.
Is the statement simply shoving an oar in? A Jesusian oar. Probably. Religion seems to foster that sort of thing. Still, orders of magnitude less revolting than Annie’s get your gun, kill all their leaders and convert them to christianity foul remark from a few years back.
Is it legitimate to call something that is common a muck “astounding”? I guess not. But then, there are algae that are very common that I regard as astoundingly beautiful. Lightning is no less astounding for its ubiquity. Stet.
I know that you know that all press is good press, so I appreciate the shout-out. And you make God look like a big mean bully who kicks people when they are down, so I’m all over that action.
But when you say that Haiti has made a pact with me, it is totally humiliating. I may be evil incarnate, but I’m no welcher. The way you put it, making a deal with me leaves folks desperate and impoverished.
Sure, in the afterlife, but when I strike bargains with people, they first get something here on earth — glamour, beauty, talent, wealth, fame, glory, a golden fiddle. Those Haitians have nothing, and I mean nothing. And that was before the earthquake. Haven’t you seen “Crossroads”? Or “Damn Yankees”?
If I had a thing going with Haiti, there’d be lots of banks, skyscrapers, SUVs, exclusive night clubs, Botox — that kind of thing. An 80 percent poverty rate is so not my style. Nothing against it — I’m just saying: Not how I roll.
You’re doing great work, Pat, and I don’t want to clip your wings — just, come on, you’re making me look bad. And not the good kind of bad. Keep blaming God. That’s working. But leave me out of it, please. Or we may need to renegotiate your own contract.
Solidarity and racism are more synonymous that we often assume. Orwellian indeed, as “tie” has put it. The reason is that solidarity is always “in-group solidarity”, so its counterpart is always “out-group racism”. And, similarly, racism is “out-group racism” but also “in-group solidarity”. South African apartheid was a good example: racism against Blacks promoted solidarity between Whites (particularly important to “fuse” Anglophone whites and Dutch-speaking Boers).
@Doug: atheists could not have been the 1st inhabitants of any area; for Atheism to exist there needs to be pre-existing theology (and/or actual God) for atheists to disbelieve in. All be that as it may, if ‘Atheist Gulf’ aggravates the Muslims more than ‘Christian Gulf’, that’s fine by me…or how about ‘Jewish Gulf’ , ‘Zionist Gulf’…or what the heck: ‘Shi-ite Gulf’.
Atheists don’t necessarily actively disbelieve any ideology – they’re simply people who don’t believe in a deity.
So until we invented god, we were all atheists – though there would have been no need for the term.
If people stop hiding behind childish wishful thinking, and god is consigned to the history books, the term ‘atheist’ will be too – we’ll just be people.
“… there needs to be pre-existing theology (and/or actual God) …”
By this ‘logic’, it is impossible to be an apterobufoverrucatist because no one believes in winged toads that deliver warts to disobedient children, and there is no organized study thereof. Or, taken other-end-in, to reject the existence of such toads is to prove their existence.
“… if ‘Atheist Gulf’ aggravates the Muslims …”
Isn’t there something in christian doctrine about confession being good for the soul? It rather seems that this confession might have the soul whisked straight to Circle 8, Bolgia 9. Guess who is already there!
@Crusader – do you dislike atheists or Muslims more? Or both equally?
Why diss other religious people who actually worship the same old, bearded sky dude as you do? And how does all that intolerance even make sense with that pesky religious policy of being nice unto others? Just wondering.
That whole area should be re-named the Gulf of Humanity. As far as I can tell, a scrap broke out there a few thousand years ago that is still being fought and is still ripping us apart.
Jesus & Mo (the characters) are absurd, blinkered, and oddly very sweet. J&M (the cartoon) is brilliant: sharp, delicious, irresistible. Salman Rushdie
Jesus and Mo cartoons are wonderfully funny and true. Richard Dawkins
Jesus and Mo make the world a better place, bless their little hearts. Ophelia Benson
In a world defined by outrage and offence and liberal spinelessness, Jesus and Mo is a treasure, whose value we should never fail to recognize. Read them. Laugh. And think. Kenan Malik
The brilliant, celebrated, freaking hilarious atheist comic strip ... Greta Christina
...rays of sanity in a befuddled world. Keri Hulme
The liveliest depictions of Muhammad currently available... Malise Ruthven
J & Mo is the funniest and most consistently thought-provoking cartoon strip on the Net. In a saner world, it would run in a major newspaper. Nelson Jones, Heresy Corner
Consistently amusing, frequently thought-provoking and often heart-warming. New Humanist
Jesus & Mo is one of the most wonderful things on the internet.. JT Eberhard
Wittily captures much of the absurdity of religious apologetics. Mano Singham
I love jesusandmo.net cartoons - witty and sharp! Katha Pollitt
Often hilarious, frequently wry, these cartoons do what all the best cartoons do: they tell the truth through humour. Terry Sanderson, NSS President
...a wonderfully acid British cartoonist... Nick Cohen
I love the scrappy mockery of Jesus and Mo. Freedom of speech
includes the freedom to mock any person, any thing, any activity, and
any belief -- and J&M stands up for this unflinchingly Richard Stallman
...empowering, important and deeply progressive, not to mention hilarious... Council of Ex-Muslims
December 19, 2008
Typo in the second frame. It’s missing a “to”.
It’s funny because it’s true! Love to see the 100 meter dash done in a burka.
Thanks Occam’s Machete. Fixed now.
[…] solidarity games I know I’ve already posted one comic today, but this is just pure […]
This one is not a joke. They are just reading stuff, that is actually in the newspaper. Still pretty damn funny, though…
Like* the front cover of the Guardian Mo’s reading. And the ‘non-believers aid’ link.
*’Like’s not really the right word, given the circumstances.
It never fails to astonish that “god saved me from the disaster that he 1. failed to prevent and 2. failed to save everyone else from”
Although, to be fair, if there was a planned Left Wing Games, it’d be cancelled over the various groups playing “More Oppressed than Thou” – plus, they’d never determine the sequence of which game when, as that implies a value judgement when everyone’s supposed to be equal.
The dispute was over whether to call the gulf the Persian Gulf or the Arabian Gulf. Since this is a “all Muslims are great but no-one else is” event, why not just call it the Islamic Gulf? Oh no, that’d be too simple!
@Jos. Nah, they should call it the Christian Gulf; we were there 1st – and still are there, Bahrain for eg.
I can think of some Islamic sports though I bet they weren’t included!
PZ has pointed out that Haiti is going to be receiving lots of desperately needed solar-powered digital audio bibles and scientology e-meters.
http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2010/01/just_stay_home_scientologists.php
@William Jansen. Because it is true it is so hilarious.
Where is my irony meter now ?!?!?!
… SPOING!!! Oh there it goes…
…we were there 1st
?!?!! There were NO humans there until christians showed up? Or no one that mattered, since they weren’t christian? Or just no one with the astounding arrogance to make such a statement?
@Doug. Don’t be silly, and pay attention: Christians were in the gulf before Muslims; I was posting in response to a suggestion it be called the ‘Islamic Gulf’.
It’s a race for who was there first is it? Homo erectus perhaps?
It’s not so much who was there first, but who will be there last. At this time, the smart money is on the cockroaches.
OK, this is creepy.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100119/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_military_weapons_bible_passages
A maker of gunsights for the US military has been putting references to Bible passages in its gunsights. So when you’re about to kill someone, you can remember that Jesus brings light to the world!
@Chris
just in case people doubted that the current situation is the 10th Crusade?
I just love the use of the word ‘squabbling’! It puts just the right amount of infantilisation into the situation.
I was so bummed that todays comic didn’t involve Pat Robertson’s comments, but I suppose Pat is primarily an American problem anyway…
awesome,
Islamic solidarity games… it’s Orwellian stuff
@KP
there’s a funny email going around from Satan to Pat – telling him it’s okay to blame god, but not to besmirch Satan, since cleary, any country that has a pact with him wouldn’t be poverty stricken, and that Pat doesn’t want to renegotiate his own pact.
“..pay attention..”
Ah, but I was! Let’s recap:
On top of existing rifts, a dispute over the name for a body of water arose. The east side Musselmans called it by a name that had been around for about 2500 years, to the annoyance of the west side Musselmans, who preferred their 50 year old name. It seems that the dispute became a gulf, and any semblance of unity vanished.
Then along came Jos, proposing the name “Islamic Gulf”. Emetic nature of a faith-based name for a nice secular thing full of haram beasties aside, it seemed an entirely rational suggestion to solve the problem – a kind gesture from a (presumed) infidel.
(I’d rather call it the Sea of Mo or the Mo Sea –
We can mosey
By the Mo Sea
And feel sand
Between our toesies
– ‘course it wouldn’t rhyme in the local languages, and if dogs are frowned upon, then doggerel must be doubly dastardly.)
Have I got it so far?
RC proffers “Nah, they should call it the Christian Gulf; we were there 1st…”
Sounds like something I’d expect from Ann Coulter.
Now let’s consider the statement.
“we where there 1st”: Also sprach Zarathustra, “Das is nicht richtig!” (Ja, ja, Zo didn’t speak German). By at least 500 years not correct. Considering the proximity to where humans and chimpanzees kissed their common ancestor goodbye and went their separate ways, it seems likely that the first humans in the area were atheists, or at least worshipers of the local natural world rather than of a remote figment of imagination.
So, the statement is clearly untrue.
Does the statement offer a solution, comparable to Jos’, to aid restoration of the lost Islamic solidarity? Enhance peace in the region, and by extension, to the rest of the world? Well, um, uh, awe gee, uh, … no!
So, with no discernable merit so far, it seems to come down to a question of why the statement was made.
Is the statement simply shoving an oar in? A Jesusian oar. Probably. Religion seems to foster that sort of thing. Still, orders of magnitude less revolting than Annie’s get your gun, kill all their leaders and convert them to christianity foul remark from a few years back.
Is it legitimate to call something that is common a muck “astounding”? I guess not. But then, there are algae that are very common that I regard as astoundingly beautiful. Lightning is no less astounding for its ubiquity. Stet.
Dear Pat Robertson,
I know that you know that all press is good press, so I appreciate the shout-out. And you make God look like a big mean bully who kicks people when they are down, so I’m all over that action.
But when you say that Haiti has made a pact with me, it is totally humiliating. I may be evil incarnate, but I’m no welcher. The way you put it, making a deal with me leaves folks desperate and impoverished.
Sure, in the afterlife, but when I strike bargains with people, they first get something here on earth — glamour, beauty, talent, wealth, fame, glory, a golden fiddle. Those Haitians have nothing, and I mean nothing. And that was before the earthquake. Haven’t you seen “Crossroads”? Or “Damn Yankees”?
If I had a thing going with Haiti, there’d be lots of banks, skyscrapers, SUVs, exclusive night clubs, Botox — that kind of thing. An 80 percent poverty rate is so not my style. Nothing against it — I’m just saying: Not how I roll.
You’re doing great work, Pat, and I don’t want to clip your wings — just, come on, you’re making me look bad. And not the good kind of bad. Keep blaming God. That’s working. But leave me out of it, please. Or we may need to renegotiate your own contract.
Best, Satan
Solidarity and racism are more synonymous that we often assume. Orwellian indeed, as “tie” has put it. The reason is that solidarity is always “in-group solidarity”, so its counterpart is always “out-group racism”. And, similarly, racism is “out-group racism” but also “in-group solidarity”. South African apartheid was a good example: racism against Blacks promoted solidarity between Whites (particularly important to “fuse” Anglophone whites and Dutch-speaking Boers).
Oooh! Drat it. I spelled Mussulmans wrong! (at least according to O.E.D.)
Author, have I told you lately that I love you?
re gobbycoot
Seconded.
Doug,too.
…mosey by the Mo Sea…
tea out the nose
Dude, took me a few days but i managed to read them all from the start, great piece of work, like the new drawing.
Keep up the good work.
2# typo – where’s the ‘u’ in ‘colour’?
Vlad, it was a quote.
Call it the Gulf of Black Gold… probably 50%+ of the world’s conventional oil reserves are in it or w/in 200km of its shores.
@Doug: atheists could not have been the 1st inhabitants of any area; for Atheism to exist there needs to be pre-existing theology (and/or actual God) for atheists to disbelieve in. All be that as it may, if ‘Atheist Gulf’ aggravates the Muslims more than ‘Christian Gulf’, that’s fine by me…or how about ‘Jewish Gulf’ , ‘Zionist Gulf’…or what the heck: ‘Shi-ite Gulf’.
Atheists don’t necessarily actively disbelieve any ideology – they’re simply people who don’t believe in a deity.
So until we invented god, we were all atheists – though there would have been no need for the term.
If people stop hiding behind childish wishful thinking, and god is consigned to the history books, the term ‘atheist’ will be too – we’ll just be people.
“… there needs to be pre-existing theology (and/or actual God) …”
By this ‘logic’, it is impossible to be an apterobufoverrucatist because no one believes in winged toads that deliver warts to disobedient children, and there is no organized study thereof. Or, taken other-end-in, to reject the existence of such toads is to prove their existence.
“… if ‘Atheist Gulf’ aggravates the Muslims …”
Isn’t there something in christian doctrine about confession being good for the soul? It rather seems that this confession might have the soul whisked straight to Circle 8, Bolgia 9. Guess who is already there!
@Crusader – do you dislike atheists or Muslims more? Or both equally?
Why diss other religious people who actually worship the same old, bearded sky dude as you do? And how does all that intolerance even make sense with that pesky religious policy of being nice unto others? Just wondering.
That whole area should be re-named the Gulf of Humanity. As far as I can tell, a scrap broke out there a few thousand years ago that is still being fought and is still ripping us apart.
is this time for a spoing or not?