With Apologies to Tennyson.....

(Ahem):
Fruitcakes to Right of us,
Fruitcakes to Left of us,
Politicos in front of us
Volley’d and thunder’d;
Storm’d with rhetoric, to win:
Boldly we rode, straight in,
Into Election ‘08,
Into the mouth of Spin
Rode the American public.


Election 2008 just keeps getting crazier and crazier.

The newest wave of nuttiness hit this week, as reported by Ronald Maxwell of the Huffington Post, and other sources.
Maxwell writes,
"In 1644 the poet John Milton commented on similar book burnings in England. "Who kills a man kills a reasonable creature, God's image, but he who destroys a good book kills reason itself, kills the image of God, as it were, in the eye." At the same time, the urge to ban, censor and prohibit was being carried, along with smallpox and typhus, to the New World. The first recorded book burning in Massachusetts took place in 1650. The Puritan authorities condemned and confiscated a religious pamphlet by William Pynchon. The book, though not the man, was burned by the public executioner in the Boston commons. A few years later some women in nearby Salem were less fortunate. ...Which brings us to Pastor Muthee, the guest pastor from Kenya who had prayed over Sarah Palin when she was running for Governor of Alaska. According to the Christian Science Monitor,

“Muthee began his life in ministry in Africa by hunting down a local woman named Mama Jane after proclaiming her a witch. Six months of fervent prayer and research identified the source of the witchcraft as a local woman called Mama Jane, who ran a “divination” centre called the Emmanuel Clinic in Kiambu, Kenya. Her alleged involvement in fortune-telling and the fact that she lived near the site of a number of fatal car accidents led Pastor Muthee to publicly declare her a witch responsible for the town’s ills, and order her to offer up her soul for salvation or leave Kiambu. After Pastor Muthee declared Mama Jane a witch, the townspeople became suspicious and began to turn on her, demanding that she be stoned. Public outrage eventually led the police to raid her home, where they fired gunshots, killing a pet python which they believed to be a demon.”

Also, according to The Huffington Post, in August, 1999, Paul Harris wrote the following report, which appeared in Britain’s Sunday Telegraph under the headline, "Hundreds burnt to death in Tanzanian witch-hunt":

“Lynch mobs have killed hundreds of Tanzanians whom they accuse of witchcraft as black magic hysteria sweeps East Africa. Most of the usually elderly victims have been beaten or burnt to death by gangs of youths. Some old women have been singled out simply because they have red eyes — regarded as a sign of sorcery by their assailants. The condition is actually caused by years of toiling in smoky kitchens cooking family meals. … Police say 357 suspected witches have been killed in the past 18 months, but the Ministry of Home Affairs believes that the true figure is much higher. A departmental survey said as many as 5,000 people were lynched between 1994 and 1998.”

Some of these nuts are even attacking little children, declaring them to be witches:

"Mary Sudnad, 10, grimaces as her hair is pulled into corn rows by Agnes, 11, but the scalp just above her forehead is bald and blistered. Mary tells her story fast, in staccato, staring fixedly at the ground.

'My youngest brother died. The pastor told my mother it was because I was a
witch. Three men came to my house. I didn't know these men. My mother left the
house. Left these men. They beat me.'

She pushes her fists under her chin to show how her father lay, stretched out on his stomach on the floor of their hut, watching. After the beating there was a trip to the church for 'a deliverance'.
A day later there was a walk in the bush with her mother. They picked poisonous 'asiri' berries that were made into a draught and forced down Mary's throat. If that didn't kill her, her mother warned her, then it would be a barbed-wire hanging. Finally her mother threw boiling water and caustic soda over her head and body, and her father dumped his screaming daughter in a field. Drifting in and out of consciousness, she stayed near the house for a long time before finally slinking off into the bush.Mary was seven. She says she still doesn't feel safe. She says:

'My mother doesn't love me."

And, finally, a tear streaks down her beautiful face.
The Guardian UK Observer, 12/09/07, written by Tracey McVeigh in Esit Eket

Now, in all fairness to Murthee, I DO NOT know if children were targeted in any of his personal "witch hunts", but his activities certainly fed the superstitious mindset that has led to the murder and torture of these little ones.Palin knew about Murthee's witch hunting -- that is the man's claim to fame, and it was why he had been invited to preach at the Wasilla Assembly of God Church, on the day that he anointed Sarah Palin.

According to an article by Digital Journal, Palin has actually gone on record as linking her success to Murthee, who some would say is a modern day African Cotton Mather who harasses crazy old women from their homes:

" It was upon the basis of this anti-witch crusade that Muthee came to preach at Sarah Palin’s church in Wasilla in 2005, as Palin was preparing to campaign for Governor of Alaska, and then again in 2008. When Muthee first visited Alaska, Sarah Palin, hearing of Muthee’s witch-fighting prowess, asked Muthee to pray over her to give her the power to become Governor of Alaska. Palin believes that Muthee’s ability to gain the favor of God is what won the election for her, not the voters. Because of the supernatural powers of Muthee, God himself appointed her to be Governor.

Palin is quoted as gushing,

“And I’m thinking, this guy’s really bold, he doesn’t even know what I’m going to do, he doesn’t know what my plans are. And he’s praying not “Oh Lord, if it be your will may she become governor,” no, he just prayed for it. He said, “Lord make a way and let her do this next step. And that’s exactly what
happened.”

Sheesh -- and all these years I thought that praying, "Thy will be done" was a good thing......