Sneering at the Bolter is easy, fixing the Bolter is hard ...

Reading the Bolter - a mind-rotting activity which can only be tackled by the most hardened and immunised souls - reminded the pond of a couple of quotes in Steve Coll's review of Hitler and the Muslims (unfortunately inside the NYRB paywall).

You see, only the other day, the pond heard the Bolter sucking up to Christians, spreading love and peace on Easter, yet here he is today, joining in the bile and the hate.

It reminded the pond of Himmler's thoughts on Islam in 1942:

Mohammed knew that most people are terribly cowardly and stupid ... that is why he promised every warrior who fights courageously and falls in battle two (sic) beautiful women ... You may call this primitive and laugh about it ... but it is based on deeper wisdom. A religion must speak a man's language ...

And Himmler again:

I must say, I don't have anything against Islam because it educates men ... for me and promises them paradise when they have fought and been killed in battle. A practical and attractive religion for soldiers.

And the difference with Christianity is ....?

It's Christmas in Heaven, 
All the children sing, 
It's Christmas in Heaven, 
Hark hark those church bells ring. 
It's Christmas in Heaven, 
The snow falls from the sky. 
But it's nice and warm and everyone 
Look's smart and wears a tie. 
It's Christmas in Heaven,
There's great films on TV... 
'The Sound of Music' twice an hour 
And 'Jaws' I, II and III.
There's gifts for all the family, 
There's toiletries and trains... 
There's Sony Walkman Headphone sets 
And the latest video games! 
It's Christmas 
It's Christmas in Heaven, 
Hip hip hip hip hip hooray, 
Every single day, 
Is Christmas day. 
It's Christmas 
It's Christmas in Heaven, 
Hip hip hip hip hip hooray, 
Every single day, 
It's Christmas day.

Yes if you head off to fight for the West, all this can be yours, and never mind if the breasts look a little fake.

Die in the heat of battle and you're sure to end in a genuine paradise of mid-west taste:

It surely helps to explain how Christian countries could indulge in a couple of world wars, which incidentally created mayhem in the middle west.

But the Bolter is a feeble woeful wavering agnostic, wanting to pander to his fundie Christian base and the Danny Nalliahs of the world .... rabid fundie, trouble raising, raising people from the dead  hellions that they are ... (I was raised from the dead, woman tells).

The Bolter will always see Islam as the problem, and not religion in general - remembering to include secular religions in that.

One of Guerra’s revelations is the use Fidel made of religious symbols. As a steady leitmotif he would say things like: “They speak ill of me because I have spoken the truth. They crucified Christ for speaking the truth” or “Whoever condemns a revolution like this one betrays Christ and declares himself capable of crucifying that very Christ once again.” Although he had been educated by the Jesuits, Castro had no belief in religious dogmas. Nevertheless he affirmed and imposed his beliefs as if they were in themselves religious dogmas. A new faith, Fidelismo, began to form around his person. Drawings were published with Fidel inserted into scenes from the Bible; pilgrimages were conducted to sacralized sites in the former guerrilla haven of the Sierra Maestra or to the Turquino mountain, which Fidel had once climbed. In a conversation with a journalist from the magazine Carteles, an old peasant succinctly expressed his reverence:
Question: What do you think of the Agrarian Reform?
Blanco: That is a blessing of God.
Question: You mean from Fidel, from the Revolution?
Blanco: I mean from God, through Fidel.
The new faith created its own ample vocabulary. Amongst its simplest epithets were "traitors" and vendepatrias ("sell-outs of the nation"), first applied to those accused of torture and murder in the service of the defeated Batista regime. (here but behind the NRYB paywall)

Which come to think of it, is not far off the simplest epithets used by the professional defamer.

It seems the Bolter will always demonise one religion and let his own pet brand of fundies and fools off the hook.

Here, try on a belt buckle and some Nazi iconography here, the pond feels like spending up big on Godwin's Law:

Which is why sneering at the Bolter is easy, but fixing the Bolter is impossible. He's an intellectual coward and a thug to boot ...

Which - let's do a major change of pace and a lightening of the load - really only serves as an introduction to a site which has provided great fun amongst the coeliac community in recent times.

You see, these folk take a sometimes stern view of people who want to live a gluten-free life without any medical need or requirement, apart from a deeps-seated neurosis.

If you have to eat the cardboard that passes for bread and pasta designed for coeliacs, you'll understand their resentment ...

So in a satirical thrust, a site came up with the idea of stripping various images of gluten.

Here's how it's played:

There's more here, in a larger size, and with a link to more at the source Tumblr, but the pond wanted to serve up a nice set of gluten-free images with your wheat-free dinner:

Well it's more fun than an unvarying diet of Bolter hypocrisy, and you can do it without the stench ...