Russia and Egypt Refuse to Sign the Olympic Charter with LGBT Protections

One of the ways that Vladimir Putin has endeavored to retain support is by pandering to the most extreme elements of the hysterically anti-gay Russian Orthodox Church.  Here in America, Der Trumpenführer has mimicked Putin's tactic and has been dismantling LGBT non-discrimination protections to the near orgasmic delight of Christofascists.  In Egypt, increasing anti-LGBT efforts - including the arrest and imprisonment of gays - is aimed at pandering to Islamic extremists.  All three situations are examples of how tyrants - or a would be tyrant - use the toxicity of religion to bolster their own power.  Now, in advance of the 2018 Winter Olympic Games, Russia and Egypt are refusing to sign the Olympic charter for the 2018 games if it includes provisions banning discrimination and abuse of LGBT athletes.  Putin's aim is to thrill the homophobes in his Russian Orthodox Church base.  In Egypt, the goal is to mollify Islamic extremists.  A piece in Newnownext looks at this disturbing development:

Russia and Egypt are fighting a resolution by the International Olympic Committee that would ban discrimination based on sexual orientation at the 2018 Winter Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea.

Since 2015, Principle 6 of the Olympic Charter has condemned anti-LGBT bias, but representatives from the two countries have issued an ultimatum at the U.N, where member nations are negotiating the Olympic Truce Resolution: Either LGBT protections are stripped from Principle 6 or they won’t sign the treaty.

“Egypt and Russia are not simply fighting over symbolic language but over the levels of violence governments are allowed to use against LGBT people,” saidOutRight International’s Jessica Stern.

The ultimatum comes as attacks on LGBT citizens are escalating in both nations.

“After systematic attacks on LGBT people in their own countries, they are now setting their sights on promoting violence and discrimination in every country of the world,” says Stern. “The Olympics Games are supposed to be a time for sport, technique, pride and community, not for politicking, hatred and violence.”

After a rainbow flag was spotted at a concert in Cairo in September, Egyptian authorities launched a crackdown that has seen dozens of suspected homosexuals arrested and detained. Last week a bill was introduced to criminalize homosexuality and support for LGBT people.

In Russia, senior officials have called for jail time for violators of the country’s infamous anti-gay propaganda ban. The Russian government has also been criticized for turning a blind eye to the anti-gay purge in Chechnya.

Protections for LGBT people were originally added to the Olympic Charter in advance of the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, after the country first instituted its ban.

Said Stern, “We cannot allow this type of bullying to target LGBT people or undermine the principle of global community.”

Fear of the Rainbow Flag: Cynical Scapegoating of Gays in Egypt.

Last week in a post I noted the rising tide of homophobia around the world, including here in America under the regime of Donald Trump and Mike Pence, the latter of whom is a Christofascist himself.   Now a piece in the New York Times looks specifically at the growing anti-LGBT zealotry in Egypt, a country where technically homosexuality isn't illegal, but where thuggish rulers and religious fanatics are scapegoating gays as  (i) a means to distract the populous form the failures of both groups to bring prosperity and freedom to the country, and (ii) a way to fabricate an external enemy - western tolerance - to rally support for leaders who could care less about the best interests of the populace.  Ironically, these are  similar to the tactics Der Trumpenführer is employing to bolster his support among evangelical Christians and outright Christofascists here in America. Stated another way, America's would be strong man is mimicking the tactics of real life strong men.  Here are highlights from the article:

On Oct. 21, militants fired rockets and detonated explosives in the desert southwest of Cairo, killing at least 59 Egyptian police officers and security officials in the worst assault on security forces since 2015. The shocking attack is the latest reminder of the very real threat that armed militants pose to Egypt’s security forces.

President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi seems incapable of quelling this menace. . . . So with such a real and present danger, why would Mr. Sisi’s government, aided by a team of media personalities and religious authorities, spend the past month whipping up a frenzy over another kind of “threat” altogether?

As part of what can best be described as hysterical homophobia, more than 65 people, mostly gay men, have been arrested in the crackdown against L.G.B.T. Egyptians. At least 20 people have received prison sentences, ranging from six months to six years.

This wave of arrests and raids began after gay-pride rainbow flags were flown at a concert by a Lebanese indie-rock band, Mashrou’ Leila, whose lead singer, Hamed Sinno, is openly gay. It was not the first time fans displayed rainbow flags at a Mashrou’ Leila concert, a gay friend who has attended some of the band’s previous concerts in Cairo reminds me. He also reminds me that rainbow flags were flown in Tahrir Square during the 18 days of protest that toppled President Hosni Mubarak in 2011.

Same-sex relationships are not illegal in Egypt, but gay men are arrested under “debauchery” laws. So why now? Why the parade of men “confessing” to being gay and “repenting” on TV talk shows, and the psychiatrists touting “conversion therapy”?

It would be easy to label the crackdown a distraction. There is much that Egyptians need distracting from: disastrous economic austerity policies, the insurgency in Sinai, 60,000 political prisoners.

And it does make for a convenient topic. Egypt’s political parties might disagree on how to remedy any or all of those issues — but homophobia cuts across disagreement. . . . . my friend told me. “Some people think gay people should be stoned, others recommend burning them after stoning, while some sheikhs are saying their hands and legs should be cut on opposite sides of their bodies, and ask in the softest of voices for their imprisonment or deportation.”

But there is more than just distraction at play. A talk-show host who suggested that both terrorism and homosexuality were being used to “ruin our youth” by a nameless external enemy offered perhaps the most honest explanation for this vicious round of homophobia in Egypt: the conflation of a security threat with a “moral” threat.

Across the Middle East and North Africa, increasingly bold expressions of sexual freedom are clearly unsettling regimes accustomed to being guardians not just of “national security” but also of our bodies and sexualities. Mr. Sinno is unapologetically “brown, queer and from a Muslim family” by his own description. . . . . Armed with social media and audacity, more people are questioning taboos around religion and sexuality.

Egypt, of course, is far from alone in its witch hunt. From Chechnya to Azerbaijan and from Tanzania to Indonesia there are similar crackdowns by governments obsessed with policing people’s sexuality. (And let’s not forget that President Sisi’s booster, President Trump, is no friend to L.G.B.T. rights.)

Morality crusades unite military regimes and religious zealots alike. Mr. Sisi, a former army general who became president after forcing out Mohamed Morsi, of the Muslim Brotherhood, understands the potency of connecting the catchall “national security” to “inciting debauchery” as a deliberate reminder that the Islamists do not hold the copyright on piety.

On Oct. 19 — a day of global solidarity with L.G.B.T. Egyptians — I saw Mashrou’ Leila in concert in Montreal. That day, a protest had been held outside the Egyptian Consulate there. Some concertgoers flew an Egyptian flag alongside a rainbow flag. Mr. Sinno told the audience that the best way to fight the crackdown in Egypt was to keep up international pressure. He understands the importance of visibility — for safety and for solidarity.

 Human rights around the world used to be a concern for America. Now, under Trump/Pence, not so much.  Indeed, America voted against a United Nations resolution that condemned the death penalty for gays due to their involvement in consenting relationships between adults.  America has indeed fallen and will likely only increase in ugliness under the current misrule. 

The Rising Global Tide Against LGBT Individuals

I generally do not view myself as paranoid, but if one looks at what is happening both here in America and around many places in the world, if one is LGBT, there is much to worry about.  Here in America the Trump/Pence regime is waging a relentless war against LGBT Americans and has already taken measures rolling back LGBT protections put in place by the Obama administration, has intervened in a case in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit arguing that existing federal civil rights laws do not apply to LGBT individuals and that gays can be fired at will, and had its representative to the United Nations recently voted against a U.N. Human Rights Council resolution that condemned the death penalty for those found guilty of committing consensual same-sex sexual acts.  Meanwhile, Betty Price, a member of the Georgia House of Representatives and wife of former Trump Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, asked this week whether the government could quarantine people with HIV to limit transmission of the virus that causes AIDS.  In doing so, Price parroted a long time talking point of Christofascist organizations - much like what the Nazis did toward Jews - that gays are diseased and pose a public health crisis.  In her ignorance, Price ignored the fact that the exploding HIV crisis now is among blacks, but then again the Trump regime and evangelical Christians do not like blacks anymore than they like gays.

Overseas, things are just as disturbing.   In Russia, that country's awful law that fines anyone expressing support for LGBT rights in public could get even harsher after a senior official in the Ministry of the Interior suggested making it a criminal offense.  A piece in the Washington Post lists other anti-LGBT efforts fueled by religious belief and opportunist politicians only too happy to scapegoat gays to divert attention from their failing policies.  Here are excerpts:

This week, a government journal in the former Soviet republic of Tajikistan announced that the country's interior ministry had compiled a registry of “proven” gays and lesbians. The list named 319 men and 48 women, whom Tajik federal prosecutors identified in operations they called “Morality” and “Purge.”

A purge — likely in the form of mass incarcerations — is exactly what human rights organizations are afraid will happen. But the phenomenon would not be unique to Tajikistan: Over the past few months, police in Egypt, Azerbaijan, Tanzania, Indonesia and the Russian republic of Chechnya have rounded up people suspected of being gay — and in many cases tortured or publicly humiliated them.

What's more, many of the crackdowns look like “copycats” of one another. “There are a lot of ways in which these crackdowns follow the same sequence of events,” said Kyle Knight, a researcher on LGBT rights at Human Rights Watch. “And there's reason to believe that what's happening in Tajikistan now is based on things their government there has learned from, say, what Azerbaijan just did.”

The sequence generally starts with someone — most likely a religious figure or government official — publicly denigrating acts of alleged sexual deviance. In countries where homosexuality is taboo and driven underground, such comments may be the first thing a person has heard in public about LGBT people. “It is easy to say that these particular people are spreading disease, that they are foreigners or sinners. From a starting point of ignorance, prejudice is an easy next step,” said Knight.

Then things get dangerous. . . . In most of the countries listed above, homosexuality is not illegal. But there also aren't any nondiscrimination laws that include sexuality. Without them, political leaders have to expend their own political capital to step in — assuming they think LGBT communities deserve protection at all. Instead, leaders usually side with the denunciations, or even calls for criminalization, and obscenity and prostitution laws are often turned against sexual minorities.  My colleagues in Jakarta, Moscow and Cairo have all recently documented that sequence.

As of this Tuesday, at least 20 people in Egypt had received prison sentences ranging from six months to six years, the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights told our Cairo bureau chief, Sudarsan Raghavan. Four people were sentenced to three years each, and rights groups say some have already been beaten and forced to undergo anal examinations.  Of the 20, some were arrested for waving rainbow flags at a concert, others for Facebook posts supporting the LGBT community, and some were tracked down by police on gay dating apps and chatrooms.

In Azerbaijan, meanwhile, more than 80 people have been arrested since mid-September for suspected homosexuality.

The United Nations and Human Rights Watch have interviewed some of those arrested in Azerbaijian, who claim they were subjected to “electric shocks, beatings, forced shaving and other forms of humiliation to force them to incriminate themselves before being released,” according to a U.N. spokesman.

That torture and humiliation is reminiscent of what rights groups were hearing out of the Russian republic of Chechnya earlier this year. Roughly 100 people, mostly young men, were allegedly detained and mercilessly beaten as police attempted to force them to confess their homosexuality. This week, Maxim Lapunov became the first of them to lodge a formal complaint with Russia's Investigative Committee, which has previously dismissed allegations that any such “gay pogrom” ever took place.

Knight, of Human Rights Watch, said conditions are ripe for similar crackdowns in countries all over the world, pointing to Malaysia, Kyrgyzstan and Moldova as examples.

 International out cry can push back against these horrific agendas.  Yet the United States in the age of Trump has signaled that it will not champion human rights for all even as it strives to give Christian extremist at home special rights to ignore non-discrimination and public accommodation laws. Here in Virginia, extremist GOP attorney general candidate John Adams has made it clear that he thinks religious belief should trump the Constitution's right of freedom of religion for those who are not right wing Christians.  It is indeed a worrisome time to be LGBT.  

Religion as an Evil: Egypt's Anus Inspector

Ridiculous cretin "Dr." Louis

One has to wonder at times why the Abrahamic religions are so obsessed with sex and the suppression of what modern science and medical knowledge have found to be normal sexual activities and sexual orientations.  An obsession with homosexuality is found across conservative Judaism, Christianity and Islam.  And none of these "godly folk" will face the fact that (i) the Old Testament was written by ignorant goat herders and (ii) nowadays, Mohammed would have been likely committed to an insane asylum.  Islam, however, seems hell bent on winning the prize for the most bizarrely obsessed with all things gays. As BuzzFeed is reporting, in Egypt the police medical examiners actually inspect the anus of anyone suspected of homosexuality.  This reality makes the bitter old queens in dresses at the Vatican almost look rational.  Here are highlights on this sick, bizarre practice:

When asked to explain what Cairo’s medical inspectors look for when they examine someone who’s been arrested for homosexuality, Dr. Maged Louis picked up a pen and started sketching an oval with sharp points on both ends. 

“The shape of the hole will change,” he said. The anus “won’t be normal any more and will look like the female vagina.”

More than 150 people have been arrested on charges of homosexuality since President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi took power just under two years ago, the largest roundup of alleged LGBT people in more than a decade in Egypt. Anal exams are a routine part of the investigation in such cases, and Louis has a role in overseeing all of them. He is the deputy director of the Justice Ministry’s Forensic Medical Authority, as well as the chief of forensic medicine for the Cairo police district.

“First we make them take the prostrate position — the position that Muslims take when they pray,” he said in an interview with BuzzFeed News. The tests are intended not just to determine whether someone has ever had anal sex, but also to detect “chronic homosexuals,” because the letter of Egyptian law only criminalizes men who engage in “habitual debauchery.” Louis said that he believed that in addition to their elongation, the anuses of “chronic homosexuals” also don’t clench when touched or don’t contract as tightly.  “A normal man’s anus can’t take more than one joint of the small finger,” he said. 

International human rights and medical experts dismissed Louis’s checklist as having “no medical basis” and being “categorically not true.” Most of those interviewed by BuzzFeed News couldn’t contain their shock before all of the criteria were listed.

“I think you heard my laugh — I think that says it all,” said Dr. Joel Palefsky, a professor at the University of California San Francisco specializing in anal cancer who is president of the International Anal Neoplasia Society. “We run a clinic where we do anal examinations of thousands of patients … Never in my 20 years of doing this have I seen an anus that looks like a vagina.”

The idea that inspectors are intentionally fabricating evidence because of their own homophobia isn’t what makes these exams so disturbing — though that does sometimes happen, according to defendants’ accounts. It’s that beliefs about homosexuality are leading doctors — some of whom have done extensive (and horrific) research into perfecting diagnostic techniques — to believe that what they are doing is science.

This insane drivel sounds like something the Nazis dreamed up about the Jews and skull size, etc.   I'm not sure where Dr. Louis got his supposed medical degree, but it needs to be revoked immediately.   The larger issue, of course, is why the USA continues to give billions of dollars to such retrograde regimes and why anyone gives any deference to the practitioners of such batshitery.

Right Wing Christians Behind Anti-Muslim Video That Started Riots

I often remark that I view fundamentalist religion in general and fundamentalist Christianity in particular as being one of the great scourges of mankind.  Fundamentalist Islam likewise destroys lives and perpetuates hate, bigotry and intolerance.  But back to the Christofascists.  The Guardian is carrying a story that provides more information about those who are behind the production and promotion of the horrid movie "The Innocence of Muslims."   As once might have surmised, the responsible parties appear to be far right Christians and Coptic Christians who sought to destabilize post-Mubarak Egypt and inflame the U. S. political campaigns.  These people may well have the blood of four Americans on their hands and demonstrate why I have growing contempt for far right Christians who by their conduct make a mockery of the Gospel message of Christ.  Here are highlights from the Guardian story:

[E]ven though the deadly scene in Benghazi may not have resulted directly from the angry reaction to the Islamophobic video, the violence has helped realize the apocalyptic visions of the film's backers.

Produced and promoted by a strange collection of rightwing Christian evangelicals and exiled Egyptian Copts, the trailer was created with the intention of both destabilizing post-Mubarak Egypt and roiling the US presidential election. As a consultant for the film named Steve Klein said: "We went into this knowing this was probably going to happen."

After being duped by Bacile, AP traced his address to the home of Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, a militant Coptic separatist and felon convicted of check fraud. On September 13, US law enforcement officials confirmed that "Sam Bacile" was an alias Nakoula used to advance his various scams, which apparently included the production of The Innocence of Muslims.

According to an actor in the film, the all-volunteer cast was deceived into believing they were acting in a benign biblical epic about "how things were 2,000 years ago". The script was titled Desert Warrior, and its contents made no mention of Muhammad – his name was dubbed into the film during post-production.

Before Nakoula was unmasked, the only person to publicly claim any role in the film was Klein, an insurance salesman and Vietnam veteran from Hemet, California, who emerged from the same Islamophobic movement that produced the Norwegian mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik. Styling themselves as "counter-Jihadists", anti-Muslim crusaders like Klein took their cues from top propagandists like Pamela Geller, the blogger who once suggested that Barack Obama was the lovechild of Malcolm X, and Robert Spencer, a pseudo-academic expert on Muslim radicalization who claimed that Islam was no more than "a developed doctrine and tradition of warfare against unbelievers". Both Geller and Spencer were labeled hate group leaders by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Klein urges a violent response to the perceived threat of Islam in the United States, posting an image to his website depicting a middle-American family with a mock tank turret strapped to the roof of their car. "Can you direct us to the nearest mosque?" read a caption Klein added to the photo.

Through his friendship with Nasrallah, Klein encountered another radical Coptic separatist named Morris Sadek. Sadek has been banned from returning to his Egypt, where he is widely hated for his outrageous anti-Muslim displays.

As soon as the film appeared on YouTube, Sadek promoted it on his website, transforming the obscure clip into a viral source of outrage in the Middle East. And like clockwork, on September 11, crowds of Muslim protesters stormed the walls of the US embassy in Cairo, demanding retribution for the insult to the prophet Muhammad. The demonstrations ricocheted into Libya, where the deadly attack that may have been only peripherally related to the film occurred.

For Sadek, the chaos was an encouraging development. He and his allies had been steadfastly opposed to the Egyptian revolution, fearing that it would usher in the Muslim Brotherhood as the country's new leaders. Now that their worst fears were realized, Coptic extremists and other pro-Mubarak dead-enders were resorting to subterfuge to undermine the ruling party, while pointing to the destabilizing impact of their efforts as proof of the government's bankruptcy.

For far-right Christian right activists like Klein, the attacks on American interests abroad seemed likely to advance their ambitions back in the US. With Americans confronted with shocking images of violent Muslims in Egypt and Libya on the evening news, their already negative attitudes toward their Muslim neighbors were likely to harden. In turn, the presidential candidates, Obama and Romney, would be forced to compete for who could take the hardest line against Islamic "terror".

A group of fringe extremists had proven that with a little bit of money and an unbelievably cynical scam, they could shape history to fit their apocalyptic vision. But in the end, they were not immune to the violence they incited. 

According to Copts Today, an Arabic news outlet focusing on Coptic affairs, Sadek was seen taking a leisurely stroll down Washington's M Street on September 11, soaking in the sun on a perfect autumn day. All of a sudden, he found himself surrounded by four angry Coptic women. Berating Sadek for fueling the flames of sectarian violence, the women took off their heels and began beating him over the head.

If these men and their supporters are the face of Christianity, the world would be a far better place if Christianity were to become a dead religion.  Likewise, fundamentalist Islam needs to find its way to the trash heap of history. 

New York Times Slams Romney

As noted before, the blow back against Mitt Romney (shown smirking after his attack on Obama) just seems to go on and on even as some of the usual shrills of the lunatic far right try to offer up tortured support for his insensitivity and rashness.  Today's New York Times main editorial slams Romney and his craven effort to make political points out of a tragedy.  The man is truly a lying, self-centered, out of touch douche bag.  Here are excerpts from the Times' editorial:

Libya and its pro-democracy revolution had no better friend than J. Christopher Stevens, the United States ambassador who was killed along with three other Americans in Tuesday’s attack on the consulate in Benghazi.

President Obama’s statement of outrage and his vow to bring the killers to justice received bipartisan support, including from politicians otherwise committed to partisan warfare, like the House speaker, John Boehner, and the Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell, who rarely misses a chance to attack Mr. Obama. 

But not from Mitt Romney, who wants Americans to believe he can be president but showed an extraordinary lack of presidential character by using the murders of the Americans in Libya as an excuse not just to attack Mr. Obama, but to do so in a way that suggested either a dangerous ignorance of the facts or an equally dangerous willingness to twist them to his narrow partisan aims. 

Mr. Romney could easily have held his fire during this crisis, if he could not summon the decency to support the United States government. Instead, he misrepresented the administration as “sympathizing” with the attackers. There was no truth in what he said. In fact, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton made the first official comment on the killings, a strong condemnation, before Mr. Romney released his statement. Even after having a night to reconsider his response, Mr. Romney merely doubled down on his false charges, as he is prone to do.

Libya’s shaky new government will need American support to bring the killers to justice. The origins of the video, which mocks the Prophet Muhammad, are not clear. There is considerable speculation about who even produced the film, which largely went unnoticed until it was promoted on the Internet by Morris Sadek, an Egyptian-born Coptic Christian ally of Terry Jones, a Florida pastor and hatemonger whose threats to burn a copy of the Koran inspired deadly riots in Afghanistan in 2010 and 2011. 

However offensive the video is, it could never justify the violence in Benghazi and Cairo. But Mr. Jones, Mr. Sadek and whoever made the film did true damage to the interests of the United States and its core principle of respecting all faiths.

The worst thing now would be for the United States to turn away from its commitments to work with Libya and Egypt as they try to build stable new societies. A number of Libyan security guards died trying to save the Americans, and Libyan leaders have condemned the killings and promised to work to apprehend those responsible.

Negative Reactions Continue to Dog Romney and His Cairo Statement

To me, Mitt Romney is an arrogant man who made a fortune as a vulture capitalist and who is seemingly incapable of feeling empathy towards anyone else outside perhaps his immediate family.  His political history has demonstrated that he will do anything and say anything - and change his positions incessantly - if at any particular moment he thinks it furthers his interests.   As noted before in an earlier post, the unfeeling and out of touch Romney sought to capitalize on yesterday's sad events in Cairo and Benghazi and attacked Barack Obama and tangentially the State Department for coddling anti-American protesters.  As we all know, the facts have not borne out Romney's statement and the negative reactions continue to reverberate - even from Republicans who are in some cases ripping Romney a new one.  Here are excerpts from BuzzFeed:

Mitt Romney's sharply-worded attack on President Obama over a pair of deadly riots in Muslim countries last night has backfired badly among foreign policy hands of both parties, who cast it as hasty and off-key, released before the facts were clear at what has become a moment of tragedy.

Romney keyed his statement to the American Embassy in Cairo's condemnation of an anti-Muslim video that served as the trigger for the latest in a series of regional riots over obscure perceived slights to the faith. But his statement — initially embargoed to avoid release on September 11, then released yesterday evening anyway — came just before news that the American Ambassador to Libya had been killed and broke with a tradition of unity around national tragedies, and of avoiding hasty statements on foreign policy. It was the second time Romney has been burned by an early statement on a complex crisis: Romney denounced the Obama Administration's handling of a Chinese dissident's escape just as the Administration negotiated behind the scenes for his departure from the country.
"It’s deeply unfortunate when the circumstance of the statement becomes the story," said Rick Perry's former foreign policy adviser, Victoria Coates .   .   .   .   Other conservatives were less sympathetic.

"It's bad," said a former aide to Senator John McCain's 2008 presidential campaign. "Just on a factual level that the statement was not a response but preceding, or one could make the case precipitating. And just calling it a 'disgrace' doesn't really cut it. Not ready for prime time."

A third Republican, a former Bush State Department official, told BuzzFeed, "It wasn't presidential of Romney to go political immediately — a tragedy of this magnitude should be something the nation collectively grieves before politics enters the conversation."

Heather Hurlburt, who heads the National Security Network, a Democratic group, said the statement "shows not just poor judgment and a willingness to use tragedy for political gains, regardless of the security consequences — but also poor management. He has policy people on his team who know better. Clearly they weren't consulted."

[S]aid Steve Clemons, the founder of the American Strategy Program at the New America Foundation. "An attack on an Embassy, the murder of U.S. officials including an Ambassador, is an attack on all Americans and the idea of America — and Romney gave terrorists what they want — a divided country still torn emotionally and politically by the events of 9-11. Romney talks of leadership but with his reckless commentary when events were fragile and still unfolding, he belly-flopped."

A column in Forbes - not exactly a left wing news outlet - was equally scathing in its rebuke to Romney.  Here are excerpts:

While the Romney campaign chose to turn yesterday’s events in Cairo and Benghazi into a political opportunity by criticizing the Obama Administration for a statement issued by our embassy in Cairo earlier in the day (more on that in a moment), a check of Twitter and other communications sources reveals that, as of the time of publication of this piece, Governor Romney has not yet seen fit to so much as express his condolences to the families of Ambassador Stevens and the other Americans who lost their lives in service to their country. Now, if I’ve somehow missed Romney’ issuance of condolences, I’m sure that there are many readers who will gladly point this out. I, in turn, will be more than willing to correct the record if this is the case—however a close search of all sources reveals that no such statement has been forthcoming from the Romney camp.

These words were uttered at the time when the families of our fellow countrymen were being notified of the terrible fate that had befallen their loved ones.

Is this really how leadership works?  A leader waits until all the facts are available and the impact of one’s words can be more fully assessed. In speaking out before he was fully aware of the situation on the ground, Governor Romney chose the path of the impulsive politician rather that the road taken by a measured leader—and all in the quest of political gain.

I’m sure the irony of our Ambassador’s death at the hands of such a mob is completely lost on Governor Romney who has now cashed in the decency I have always ascribed to the man in exchange for his willingness to do anything—and say anything—if it helps him capture the prize he so intensely seeks. No doubt, the Romney campaign tells itself that trading their souls is the price they must pay for the greater good. No doubt, they convince themselves of some wisdom they find in speaking first and thinking later if that is what must be done to save the American people from themselves. Yet, I think all Americans know how that storyline ends.

Ouch!!  Sometimes the truth hurts and the truth is that Mitt Romney is an unfeeling, calculating man who seems incapable of the empathy and emotions that most of us find to be an important part of ourselves.  I guess that's why he felt nothing for all of the employees who were fired and left with nothing during his vulture capitalist days at Bain Capital. 

Quote of the Day: M. L. Mencken on Religion

In light of the tragic events in Egypt and Libya - all of which appear to have been religiously motivated both on the part of the film's makers and those who attacked the U.S. embassies and wrought violence and murder - on of the statements of the late M. L. Mencken (who was born on this date in 1880 and was a well known literary critic, editor and journalist) seemed very much on point in terms of the foul fruits of religion:

“I believe that religion, generally speaking, has been a curse to mankind – that its modest and greatly overestimated services on the ethical side have been more than overcome by the damage it has done to clear and honest thinking.  “I believe that no discovery of fact, however trivial, can be wholly useless to the race, and that no trumpeting of falsehood, however virtuous in intent, can be anything but vicious.

Be it Christian fundamentalism or Islamic fundamentalism the fruits are the same: hatred of others, the denigration of freedom and true liberty, and typically a small cadre who enrich and empower themselves through their control of others.  Pope Benedict XVI and the ayatollahs in Iran and Saudi Arabia have more in common than their followers care to admit. 

Quote is via Civil Commotion.

Romney's Pandering Statement Bites Him in The Ass

Virtually with every passing day my opinion of Mitt Romney goes lower.  The man is shameless, uncaring and willing to stoop to any lengths to try to get himself elected - something that ought to scare the hell out of rational, thinking Americans (yes, I know - that excludes the GOP base).  But seriously, even before he knew the facts and details of yesterday's sad events in Egypt and Libya, Romney was trying to score political points with no regard for the families of those at risk.  Fortunately, the reaction from all but the Kool-Aid drinker crowd seems to be uniform in its condemnation of Romney.  Here are excerpts from a piece on Politico:

The folks at First Read capture the snap consensus among the political class that Mitt Romney's statement on Egypt and Libya was a big tactical mistake:

*** Over the top Yesterday we noted that Mitt Romney, down in the polls after the convention, was throwing the kitchen sink at President Obama. Little did we know the kitchen sink would include — on the anniversary of Sept. 11 — one of the most over-the-top and (it turns out) incorrect attacks of the general election campaign. Last night after 10 .pm. ET, Romney released a statement on the attacks on the U.S. embassies in Egypt and Libya. After saying he was “outraged” by these attacks and the death of an American consulate worker, Romney said, “It's disgraceful that the Obama administration's first response was not to condemn attacks on our diplomatic missions, but to sympathize with those who waged the attacks.” 

Yet after learning every piece of new information about those the attacks, the Romney statement looks worse and worse — and simply off-key. First, Romney was referring to a statement that the U.S. Embassy in Egypt issued condemning the “efforts by misguided individuals to hurt the religious feelings of Muslims.” But that embassy statement, which the White House has distanced itself from, was in reference to an anti-Islam movie and anti-Islam pastor Terry Jones, and it came out BEFORE the embassy attacks began. Then this morning, we learned that the U.S. ambassador to Libya, Chris Stevens, and others died in one of the attacks.

 *** When news-cycle campaigning goes awry: Bottom line: This was news-cycle campaigning by the Romney campaign gone awry. Why didn’t the Romney campaign wait until it had all the facts?  .   .   .  .  But how much time do you give an administration to work through a diplomatic and international crisis before trying to score immediate political points? You’d expect the Sarah Palins of the world to quickly pounce on something like this, and she predictably did. But a presidential nominee running for the highest office in the land? After the facts have come out, last night’s Romney statement only feeds the narrative that his campaign is desperate.

There are a lot of problems with Romney's reaction to the U.S. consulate attacks, but the most straightforward one may be that it burns away time his campaign didn't have. We're now going to spend at least one news cycle — and probably more — analyzing and responding to Romney's incendiary statement, and the issue will surely carry through to the Sunday shows this weekend. When you're trailing in a presidential election with eight weeks to go, you can't afford to spend one of those weeks defending a provocative statement that you didn't have to make in the first place, especially when you were already on the defensive on national security.

Andrew Sullivan summed up Romney/Ryan's unfitness for office well:

These people are simply unfit for the responsibility of running the United States. The knee-jerk judgments, based on ideology not reality; the inability to back down when you have said something obviously wrong; and the attempt to argue that the president of the US actually sympathized with those who murdered his own ambassador in Benghazi: these are disqualifying instincts for someone hoping to be the president of the US. Disqualifying.

UPDATE: Florida Christofascist Movie Causes Assaults on U. S. Embassies

Yesterday I looked at the violence triggered in Egypt and Libya by the foul video produced and promoted by Christofascist pastor Terry Jones and his fellow hate merchants.  This morning, it is being reported that the U. S. ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens (pictured above) and three others Americans were killed in yesterday's violence, so once again we see Jones' hate and hubris claiming the lives of innocents.  I in no way condone the actions of the protesters in Egypt and Libya, but on the other hand deliberate efforts to promote hate and violence should not be allowed.  There need to be serious consequences for Jones and his accomplices.  Here are highlights from the Virginian Pilot:

Libyan officials said this morning that the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans were killed in an attack on the U.S. embassy in Benghazi by protesters angry over a film that ridiculed Islam's Prophet Muhammad.

The officials say Ambassador Chris Stevens was killed Tuesday night when he and a group of embassy employees went to the consulate to try to evacuate staff. The protesters were firing gunshots and rocket propelled grenades.

The protests in both countries were sparked by outrage over a film ridiculing Muhammad produced by an American in California and being promoted by an extreme anti-Muslim Egyptian Christian campaigner in the United States. Excerpts from the film dubbed into Arabic were posted on YouTube.

"Some have sought to justify this vicious behavior as a response to inflammatory material posted on the Internet," Clinton said in a statement released by the State Department. "The United States deplores any intentional effort to denigrate the religious beliefs of others. Our commitment to religious tolerance goes back to the very beginning of our nation. But let me be clear: There is never any justification for violent acts of this kind. "

A 14-minute trailer of the movie that sparked the protests, posted on the website YouTube in an original English version and another dubbed into Egyptian Arabic, depicts Muhammad as a fraud, a womanizer and a madman in an overtly ridiculing way, showing him having sex and calling for massacres.

A YouTube spokesperson said the website would not take down the video at this point. The website's guidelines call for removing videos that include a threat of violence, but not those only expressing opinions. YouTube's practice is not to comment on a specific videos.

Some work for peace and tolerance in the world.  Others do not, including Christian and Islamic extremists who I view as a pervasive evil.  Meanwhile, You Tube's gutlessness is disappointing.  Meanwhile, part of me would love to see a similar video depicting Christ put up on You Tube so that the Christofascists would get a taste of their own medicine.  Somehow, I suspect that You Tube would suddenly find a reason to remove the video.  After all, far right Christians in America seem to have special rights not allowed to the rest of us.

Florida Christofascist Movie Causes Assaults on U. S. Embassies

There are times when it is difficult to restrain my contempt for today's far right Christians who - along with their Islamic equivalents - seem to be among the vilest elements of humanity.   Among the many liars and total douche bags that make up the "godly Christian" crowd, Florida pastor Terry Jones holds a special place of distinction.  Yes, the same Terry Jones who burned a Koran back in 2011 which caused a riot in Afghanistan that claimed the lives of 11 innocent people.  The Atlantic looks at the movie and the assaults on America's embassies in Cairo and in Libya after the Egyptian media got its hands on an anti-Muslim video being promoted by Jones and similar Christofascists.  Here are excerpts:

Right now, protesters in Cairo are gathered at the U.S. embassy compound, where some have scaled the walls and pulled down the American flag, with which they've replaced a black flag bearing the prayer "There is no god but Allah and Mohammed is his messenger." They say they're protesting an American film that insults Prophet Mohammed. About half an hour in, someone took a photo that appears to show some of the protesters, of which Reuters estimates there to be 2,000, setting off celebratory fireworks.

The movie is called Innocence of Muslims, although some Egyptian media have reported its title as Mohammed Nabi al-Muslimin, or Mohammed, Prophet of the Muslims. If you've never heard of it, that's because most of the few clips circulating online are dubbed in Arabic. The above clip, which is allegedly from the film (update: Kurt Werthmuller, a Coptic specialist at the Hudson Institute, says he's confirmed the clip's authenticity*) is one of the only in English. That's also because it's associated with Florida Pastor Terry Jones (yes, the asshole who burnt the Koran despite Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates' pleas) and two Egyptians living in the U.S., according to Egyptian press accounts.* The Egyptians are allegedly Coptic, the Christian minority that makes up about a tenth of Egypt.

Obviously, there's a lot to this story that's still unclear. What we do know is that some members of Egypt's sometimes-raucous, often rumor-heavy media have been playing highly offensive clips from the highly offensive film, stressing its U.S. and Coptic connections.

As the fervor has built, both the Coptic Church and the U.S. embassy to Egypt issued formal condemnations of the film. The latter, made just this morning, began, "The Embassy of the United States in Cairo condemns the continuing efforts by misguided individuals to hurt the religious feelings of Muslims." The statement also noted the September 11 anniversary, adding, "Respect for religious beliefs is a cornerstone of American democracy."

What exactly does the film say? It's still not clear, but it appears to compare Mohammed to a goat and Muslims, according to one translation, to "child-lovers." .   .   .   .  A number of Islam's founding figures, including the prophet, are accused of homosexuality and child molestation.

The movie, like Terry Jones himself and his earlier Koran-burning stunt, have received attention far beyond their reach, which would be modest if not for obsessively outraged media. And yet, here the movie is, not just offending apparently significant numbers of people, but producing real-world damage.

 

No doubt Jones and his cohorts will claim that they are merely exercising their right to freedom of speech.  One can just imagine the shrieks, screams and flying spittle if a Muslim produced movie treated Christ anywhere close to how Mohammed has been depicted.  Frankly, I wish a way would be found to prosecute the bastards for interfering with national foreign policy or security matters.  

Growing Revolt in Egypt Shows Weakness in U.S. Strategy

Time and time again throughout the last fifty or more years, the U.S. has backed dictators and corrupt rulers out of what I am sure seemed to be expediency at the time or because such despots seemed a better short term solution to the immediate situation. Unfortunately, such decisions never seemed to have had a long term view of where things might develop down the road. The ongoing revolt in Egypt is a case in point. For nearly thirty years "President" Hosni Mubarak has been a dictator in all by name. If his government is toppled - and it seems it could happen as reports of army troops siding with protesters are increasing - I suspect we will learn that the USA has no "Plan B" for such an eventuality. Obviously, the world does not need another Muslim extremist regime, but by solidly backing Mubarak for decades, I fear that the USA has helped create a vacuum for any organized alternative government that isn't potentially religious based. Time will tell, but the situation is most worrisome. Moreover, if discontent and upheaval spreads across the Red Sea to Saudi Arabia, the USA's foolish dependence on foreign oil may bite all of us in the ass big time. So far, Mubarak is employing more of the same old heavy handed tactics and has shut down the Internet and the operations of Al Jazeera's Cairo bureau in an effort to keep protesters uninformed. Here are highlights from the New York Times on the escalating chaos:
*
As President Hosni Mubarak struggled to maintain a tenuous hold on power and the Egyptian military reinforced strategic points in the capital, the United States said on Sunday it was offering evacuation flights for its citizens and urged all Americans currently in Egypt to “consider leaving as soon as they can safely do so.”
*
The announcement injected a stronger note of growing alarm among Egypt’s allies as an uprising against Mr. Mubarak’s almost three decades in power entered a sixth day, fraught with uncertainty about its outcome. Police have largely withdrawn from the country’s major cities and the military has done little so far to hold back tens of thousands of demonstrators defying a curfew to call for an end to Mr. Mubarak’s rule..
*
On Sunday, Turkey, a major regional player, said it was sending three flights to evacuate 750 of its citizens from Cairo and Alexandria, one day after Israel flew back the families of its diplomats in Egypt on Saturday
*
France, Britain and Germany issued a rare joint statement urging President Mubarak and the protesters to show restraint. But, like President Obama, they did not call for the ouster of an autocratic leader who has cast himself as a linchpin of Western diplomatic and security interests in the Middle East.
*
State television said Al Jazeera, the Qatar-based satellite broadcaster whose coverage of the turmoil in the Arab world has spread word of protests from capital to capital, was being taken off the air in Egypt. But, initially at least, the station continued to broadcast. Earlier, its Arabic channel had proclaimed: “Egypt speaks for itself.” Internet connections remained cut on Sunday as the authorities sought to contain the potential spread of unrest.
*
It was unclear whether the soldiers in the streets were operating without orders or in defiance of them. But their displays of support for the protesters were conspicuous throughout the capital. In one striking example, four armored military vehicles moved at the front of a crowd of thousands of protesters in a pitched battle against the Egyptian security police defending the Interior Ministry.
*
If Mr. Mubarak’s decision to pick a vice president aroused hopes of his exit, his choice of Mr. Suleiman did nothing to appease the crowds in the streets. Long trusted with most sensitive matters like the Israeli-Palestinian talks, Mr. Suleiman is well connected in both Washington and Tel Aviv. But he is also Mr. Mubarak’s closest aide, considered almost an alter ego, and the protesters’ negative reaction was immediate.
*
Many of the protesters were critical of the United States and complained about American government support for Mr. Mubarak or expressed disappointment with President Obama. “I want to send a message to President Obama,” said Mohamed el-Mesry, a middle-aged professional. “I call on President Obama, at least in his statements, to be in solidarity with the Egyptian people and freedom, truly like he says.”

Gaza Strip: Surfing as International Diplomacy

I will confess that I love surfing and that I find it to not only to be a wonderful sport, but also a wonderful way to build camaraderie and a bond with your surf buddies. It relieves stress and often helps you get a proper perspective on things as you are surrounded by the elements, narrow your focus on the waves, and realize your own insignificance compared to the power of the sea. Spend a day in the water with someone and you will always have a special shared experience. Interestingly enough, CNN has a story on a small band of Palestinian surfers who surprisingly enough are getting aid from surfers in Israel. For the Palestinian surfers, surfing offers a short term escape from the often unpleasant lives. For the Israeli surfers, it sends the message that we are all human. Surfing knows no dogma and one is recognized for one's skill and ability. Religion in contrast focuses on differences and the "otherness" of those of different faiths and in the process all too often dehumanize the "other." Would that focus was on our similarities as part of the human family rather than our differences. Religious based hate has caused so much misery over the centuries. Here are highlights from the CNN story:

*
In Gaza, a handful of Palestinian men have found a way to escape temporarily from the hardships of life in their conflict-wracked home. They go surfing. Dirt poor and mainly from refugee camps, they find joy riding waves, often on makeshift boards, in the green waters off Gaza's beaches.
*
Over the past few years, a number of groups, some based in Israel, have made it their business to try to help the Gaza surfers. Explore Corps and Jewish Surfing 4 Peace have sent surf boards and wetsuits to the 20 or so Palestinian wave riders, hoping to extend the hand of friendship across the bullet-pocked border.
*
U.S. filmmaker Alexander Klein managed to get in to Gaza to film the latest mission, the story of which he tells in documentary "God Went Surfing with the Devil." "It seemed like an important story to tell," he told CNN. . . . "Here was a story about young guys who could have been coming together to shoot at each other, but instead all they want to do is surf together."
*
But the club is about more than just helping a few beach guys have a good time.
Matt Olsen, of Explore Corps, one of the founders of the surf club, believes small acts of friendship, like this, can help the peace process from the bottom up.
"We think that this is a great way to get people to connect and get people to talk," Olsen told CNN.
*
Veterans of the tiny Gaza surf scene have been riding for many years, using anything from 100lb windsurfers with the sails taken off to old broken surfboards with pieces of plywood for fins. Under an economic embargo enforced by the Israeli government, only basic foodstuffs and humanitarian supplies are allowed into Gaza, making it almost impossible for the surfers to get hold of equipment themselves.
*
"They have a real community down there," said Olsen. "It's really wonderful to go there and hang out." The tiny Gazan surf community couldn't be more different from the scene in Israel. Israeli surfer Arthur Rashkovan, one of the founders of Surfing 4 Peace estimates there are some 30,000 surfers in Israel, a tiny land of just over seven million people.
*

Despite working with the surfers of Gaza, Rashkovan has never met any of them. He has never been across the border. "They cannot get out of Gaza and I cannot get in," said Tel Aviv-based Rashkovan. "Hopefully, one day we will meet and go surfing together."

Scientists: Biblical Plagues of Egypt Result of Natural Disasters

Most myths derive from some historical events in the distant past and are an attempt to explain the happenings observed by the uneducated without an understanding of the true cause. Of course tribal needs and desires for aggrandizement can also factor into the myths as time passes by. Now, scientists have laid out a totally natural explanation for the ten plagues alleged to have been leveled against Egypt for the purposes of forcing King Ramses to release the Israelites from bondage in Egypt as described in the Book of Exodus. I do not mean to disparage the Bible, but this latest scientific studies is yet more piece of evidence as to why the Bible cannot be interpreted literally. I subscribe to the Gospel message of Christ, but the Old Testament and the Epistles truly need to be read with caution. I'm sure these new theories will be most unwelcomed by creationists and far right fundamentalist Christians. Here are highlights from Timesonline:
*
Researchers believe they have found evidence of real natural disasters on which the ten plagues of Egypt, which led to Moses freeing the Israelites from slavery in the Book of Exodus in the Bible, were based. But rather than explaining them as the wrathful act of a vengeful God, the scientists claim the plagues can be attributed to a chain of natural phenomena triggered by changes in the climate and environmental disasters that happened hundreds of miles away.
*
They have compiled compelling evidence that offers new explanations for the Biblical plagues, which will be outlined in a new series to be broadcast on the National Geographical Channel on Easter Sunday.
*
Archaeologists now widely believe the plagues occurred at an ancient city of Pi-Rameses on the Nile Delta, which was the capital of Egypt during the reign of Pharaoh Rameses the Second, who ruled between 1279BC and 1213BC. They found that Rameses reign coincided with a warm, wet climate, but then the climate switched to a dry period.
*
Professor Augusto Magini, a paleoclimatologist at Heidelberg University's institute for environmental physics, said: "Pharaoh Rameses II reigned during a very favourable climatic period. "There was plenty of rain and his country flourished. However, this wet period only lasted a few decades. After Rameses' reign, the climate curve goes sharply downwards. "There is a dry period which would certainly have had serious consequences." The scientists believe this switch in the climate was the trigger for the first of the plagues.
*
Dr Stephan Pflugmacher, a biologist at the Leibniz Institute for Water Ecology and Inland Fisheries in Berlin . . . . said the bacterium, known as Burgundy Blood algae or Oscillatoria rubescens, is known to have existed 3,000 years ago and still causes similar effects today. He said: "It multiplies massively in slow-moving warm waters with high levels of nutrition. And as it dies, it stains the water red." The scientists also claim the arrival of this algae set in motion the events that led to the second, third and forth plagues – frogs, lice and flies. He said: "It multiplies massively in slow-moving warm waters with high levels of nutrition. And as it dies, it stains the water red." The scientists also claim the arrival of this algae set in motion the events that led to the second, third and forth plagues – frogs, lice and flies.
*
Another major natural disaster more than 400 miles away is now also thought to be responsible for triggering the seventh, eighth and ninth plagues that bring hail, locusts and darkness to Egypt. One of the biggest volcanic eruptions in human history occurred when Thera, a volcano that was part of the Mediterranean islands of Santorini, just north of Crete, exploded around 3,500 year ago, spewing billions of tons of volcanic ash into the atmosphere.
*
Nadine von Blohm, from the Institute for Atmospheric Physics in Germany, has been conducting experiments on how hailstorms form and believes that the volcanic ash could have clashed with thunderstorms above Egypt to produce dramatic hail storms.
*
"The ash fall out caused weather anomalies, which translates into higher precipitations, higher humidity. And that's exactly what fosters the presence of the locusts." The volcanic ash could also have blocked out the sunlight causing the stories of a plague of darkness. Scientists have found pumice, stone made from cooled volcanic lava, during excavations of Egyptian ruins despite there not being any volcanoes in Egypt. Analysis of the rock shows that it came from the Santorini volcano, providing physical evidence that the ash fallout from the eruption at Santorini reached Egyptian shores.

Monument to Isis Lifted from Cleopatra's Underwater City

The history lover in me could not pass up this story on a new artifact raised from areas of ancient Alexandria, Egypt, now beneath the harbor of modern day Alexandria as the result of earth quakes in the 4th century. The area of the ancient city involved include the palace and temple complexes of the Ptolemies who ruled Egypt for roughly 300 years - well longer than the period of time the USA has existed. The object retrieved is from the temple of Isis complex and consists of a pylon, which once stood at the entrance to a temple of Isis. In many ways, the cult of Isis with its theme of death and resurrection was a precursor to the underlying theme of Christianity - something that like would appall the Christo-fascists in the USA who seek to restrain knowledge and rewrite history to fit their own ignorant beliefs. First, some highlights from Yahoo News on the discovery, then more on Isis:

*
ALEXANDRIA, Egypt – Archaeologists on Thursday hoisted a 9-ton temple pylon from the waters of the Mediterranean that was part of the palace complex of the fabled Cleopatra before it became submerged for centuries in the harbor of Alexandria.
*
The pylon, which once stood at the entrance to a temple of Isis, is to be the centerpiece of an ambitious underwater museum planned by Egypt to showcase the sunken city, believed to have been toppled into the sea by earthquakes in the 4th century.
*
The pylon is the first major artifact extracted from the harbor since 2002, when authorities banned further removal of major artifacts from the sea for fear it would damage them.
*
"The tower is unique among Alexandria's antiquities. We believe it was part of the complex surrounding Cleopatra's palace," Hawass said, as the crane gently placed the pylon on the harbor bank. "This is an important part of Alexandria's history and it brings us closer to knowing more about the ancient city."
*
Hawass has already launched another high-profile dig connected to Cleopatra. In April, he said he hopes to find the long-lost tomb of Antony and Cleopatra — and that he believes it may be inside a temple of Osiris located about 30 miles (50 kilometers) west of Alexandria.
*
Having read "Alexander's Tomb," which recounts efforts to find the tomb of Alexander the Great but is in many ways a history of Alexandria, the find is of huge importance and may lead to other amazing finds. As for Isis, here are some details that suggest the Christian resurrection belief certainly had existing precedents:

*
In later myths about Isis, she had a brother, Osiris, who became her husband, and she then was said to have conceived Horus. Isis was instrumental in the resurrection of Osiris when he was murdered by Set. Her magical skills restored his body to life after she gathered the body parts that had been strewn about the earth by Set. This myth became very important in later Egyptian religious beliefs. . . The worship of Isis eventually spread throughout the Greco-Roman world, continuing until the suppression of paganism in the Christian era.
*
Roman perspectives on cults were syncretic, seeing in new deities, merely local aspects of a familiar one. For many Romans, Egyptian Isis was an aspect of Phrygian Cybele, whose orgiastic rites were long-naturalized at Rome, indeed, she was known as Isis of Ten Thousand Names. Among these names of Roman Isis, Queen of Heaven is outstanding for its long and continuous history. Herodotus identified Isis with the Greek and Roman goddesses of agriculture, Demeter and Ceres. In later years, Isis also had temples throughout Europe, Britain, Africa and Asia. An alabaster statue of Isis from the 3rd century BC, found in Ohrid, in the Republic of Macedonia, is depicted on the obverse of the Macedonian 10 denars banknote, issued in 1996.