Many, many years ago when I was living in the land of milk and guinness, we used to sit around and sing (kids did that in those olden days). One of the songs we sang was:
Plastic Jesus (PBUH)What, you might ask, is PBUH? Well, I was struck by the letter that the president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, sent to George Bush. Scattered through the letter, whenever someone is mentioned that is considered a prophet by Islam, the name is always followed by PBUH. After scrounging around, I discovered that it stands for "Peace Be Upon Him."
I don't care if it rains of freezes
'Long as I got my Plastic Jesus (PBUH)
Riding on the dashboard of my car.
Through my trials and tribulations
And my travels through the nations
With my Plastic Jesus (PBUH) I'll go far.
Plastic Jesus (PBUH)! Plastic Jesus (PBUH),
Riding on the dashboard of my car
Where, you might be asking, is this idiot taking me? Well, for some reason it reminded me of when I was a Catholic kid and everytime we said the name "Jesus," we had to bow our heads. (The original bobble heads.)
But that wasn't the only time that I was in the company of people bobbling. Whenever we sang "Plastic Jesus," all the young Colleens would dutifully bobble their head during the chorus.
óige caite ar an drabhlás
Now this behavior was reflex. The inclusion of PBUH and the ubiquitous "Praise Jesus" of the fundamentalists, I would contend, is a more conscious behavior and indicates, in both cases, a fanaticism that is going to be the death of us.
I have a friend who is an Iranian. She just told me that Ahmadinejad is crazy. I believe her.
(In case you're wondering, the Irish phrase is "misspent youth." At least I think so.)
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