PC madness in Bloomington IN

Here's another one for our "You couldn't make this stuff up" file. The Bloomington (IN) Herald-Times reports that there will be no more Good Friday and Columbus Day holidays in Bloomington, Indiana. Really. The holy day and holiday in question will henceforth be known as "Spring Holiday" and "Fall Holiday".

Why? Because the new super-politically correct names will help make the holidays more inclusive, according to Bloomington Mayor John Hamilton. (Mayor Hamilton is unrelated to Alexander Hamilton, the subject of the eponymous Broadway musical, which also happens to be very PC.) Mayor Hamilton sent a memo to city employees this week in which he explained that the centuries-old names imply cultural insensitivity. The new names will avoid even the remotest possibility of giving offence to anyone except Christians and Italian-Americans.

In his memo, Mayor Hamilton raised to new heights the bar for "celebrating diversity" ["pandering", surely. Ed.]. "We are terrifically proud of our diverse workforce at the city," Hizzoner wrote. "That diversity makes us stronger and more representative of the public we proudly serve. These updated names for two days of well-merited time off is another way we can demonstrate our commitment to inclusivity."

Mr Hamilton's unilateral decision to rename the days will be no surprise to residents of Bloomington. Thanks to the presence in the city of that great seat of liberal learning, Indiana University, Bloomington and surrounding Monroe County are overwhelmingly populated by guilt-ridden white liberals. The county gave Hellery Clinton 58.6% the vote on November 8th, preferring her to President-elect Trump [Walt loves that phrase! Ed.] by nearly 14,000 votes.

Book recommendation: Guilt, by Ann Coulter (Three Rivers Press, 2009). Amongst other things, you can read about all the confused white gliberals who "self-identified" as "oppressed minorities" and all the "hate crimes" that turned out to be hoaxes perpetrated by SJWs.

Religious persecution rampant in 15 countries. Guess which ones...

Earlier today I wrote about the increasing persecution of Christians -- and Muslims and Buddhists -- in Communist China. See "Religious freedom guaranteed by Communist China's constitution? LMAO!" But China is not the only country whose government is out to get believers.

In its newly released annual report for 1914, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) urges the State Department to designate (or redesignate) 15 nations as “countries of particular concern” (CPCs) because they are places “where particularly severe violations of religious freedom are tolerated or perpetrated.”

Here's the USCIRF list, in alphabetical order, with notes from Walt on who's persecuting whom.

CPCs -- Countries of Particular Concern
Burma - Buddhist majority would like to drive Muslim and Hindu minorities out of the country entirely.
China - No discrimination, persecutes all religions. Follow the link above.
Egypt - Cracking down on the Muslim Brotherhood at the moment, but Coptic Christians are a much persecuted minority.
Eritrea - The Eritrean government tolerates Orthodox, Catholics, Lutherans and Muslims, but has cracked down in the last decade on evangelical Protestants. "In Eritrea, 'Persecution greater than ever and getting worse'"
Iran - The Ayatollahs are still in charge. No infidels allowed.
Iraq - Like Iran except that the Muslims are killing each other, with Christians caught in the middle. See "'We are a ruined church': Patriarch Sako talks about Christianity in Iraq"
Nigeria - "Boko haram". Virtual civil war between the militant Islamists in the north and the somewhat Christian south.
North Korea - Worse than China.
Pakistan - Kill anyone who dares to blaspheme against the Prophet.
Saudi Arabia - Worse than Iran.
Sudan - Another Islamic state. Christians should refugee to strife-torn South Sudan PDQ.
Syria - Worse than Iraq, even without the "help" of America.
Tajikistan - No. 44 (only) on the OpenDoors watch list of countries that persecute Christians.
Turkmenistan - See Tajikistan (above) or Uzbekistan (below). All the "Stans" are the same -- no place for infidels.
Uzbekistan - Human Rights Watch said in its 2013 World Report authorities "persecute religious believers who worship outside strict state controls". Yes, even Muslims.
Vietnam - Like China, only smaller, and with no to worry about. Like Cuba in struggling to suppress the Catholic Church.

"Governments that engage in or tolerate violations that are serious, but which are not CPC-level violators"
Afghanistan - No comment necessary.
Azerbaijan - Another state where all citizens are theoretically free to choose their religion. In practice the government -- like those of China and Eritrea -- maintains many Soviet-era controls over religion. 90% of the people are non-observant Muslims.
Cuba - Communist government hasn't been able to extinguish the deep Catholic Faith of the people, but the Church is far from free.
India - Supposedly a secular state, but violence by Hindu extremists against Muslims and (especially) Christians goes unpunished.
Indonesia - World's biggest Muslim nation (by population), with Sharia law being promoted in some places (like Aceh province) and ongoing violence against Christians.
Kazakhstan - Another "Stan"; see Pakistan, Tajikistan, etc.
Laos - Majority Buddhist population. Government doesn't mind Catholics, but seeks to control incursions by Protestant missionaries. Malaysia - Very Muslim, but Christians aren't killed so much as locked up if they don't follow Islamic laws and customs. For instance, a Christian who dares to say "Allah" could do some jail time.
Russia - Probably on the list because the USA doesn't like the Putin government. Orthodox Christianity is the established religion -- antagonism to Catholicism lurks below the surface -- but it's really the Protestants who are targeted.
Turkey - Officially a secular state, becoming more and more Islamic in practice.

Countries which persecute religious minorities but somehow got left off the USCIRF list
Israel - Even John Kerry knows it's a de facto "apartheid state".
United States of America - Where the secular humanists who run the media and the so-called administration of President Hussein Obama are trying harder than ever to restrict or eliminate entirely the freedom of Christians -- especially Catholics and evangelical Protestants -- to live their lives in accordance with their religious convictions. Or, we might say, to obey God rather than the godless.

Freedom of religion is enshrined in the United States constitution. Just like that of Communist China.

Today's special in Central Africa: Muslims! Deeeelicious!

As the year 2013 passed into history -- not a moment too soon, either -- Walt posted "Chaos in the CAR: an African mess gets messier", about the sectarian warfare in the Central African Republic.

In spite of the accompanying picture of an attractive Ubangi, not many people read that post. Muslims are killing Christians, Christians are killing Muslims, and no-one seems to give a skit. [Eh? Ed.]

So here we are, two weeks later, and the situation has gotten uglier. According to Associated Press and CBCNews, some of the Christians are not just killing, but eating the followers of the Prophet.

In the CAR's capital, Bangui, a Christian mob killed a Muslim man, says the CBC's Paul Wood, and one of them publicly ate from the dead man’s charred flesh. That's "charred", not "boiled", so the old cartoon image is not valid in today's Africa.

Walt regrets not having access to a video shot by bystanders, which appears to show a charred body being dragged through the street while the crowd cheered. Another video shows the mob leader, identified as Wanja Mogloire, eating one of the dead man’s legs, his cheeks full to bulging. When these videos appear on YouTube, we'll certainly bring them to you.

M. Magloire told Wood that what he did has made him famous as "Mad Dog Magloire". His motive, he said, was revenge for the killing by Muslims of several members of his family.

The CBCNews report goes on to say that, while most Christians were horrified by the "apparent" act of cannibalism, some viewed M. Magloire as a hero, shaking his hand and patting his head.

Walt feels the whole episode may have been misunderstood by those unfamiliar with African ways. It may well have started as an exercise in drawing members of both faiths together. "I know what... Let's have some Muslims in for dinner."

Open season on Christians: latest from Kenya and Pakistan

For those keeping score, the latest death toll in attacks by Islamic extremists [Is there any other kind? Ed.] reported here this morning is: 68 dead in Kenya, 78 in Pakistan. But the fat lady hasn't sung yet in Kenya, where some of the Somali terrorists are still lurking in the shopping mall. It's possible they're hiding amongst the pork carcasses in the butchery, where they figure the Israeli SWAT team won't be looking.

Cutting back to Pakistan, the two Taliban suicide bombers strapped to themselves packs of ball bearings and scrap iron, so the amount of shrapnel flying around was horrendous and the number of injured is said to be in the hundreds. In Kenya, the official count of injured stands at 175, with many expected to move into the "deceased" column. Death tolls in both countries will certainly rise.

Recommended reading: "It’s open season on Christians in Syria and across the Muslim world", by Matthew Fisher, in today's National Post.