Susanne Atanus, Who Believes Gay Rights Cause Tornadoes And Autism Is A Punishment From God, Wins Illinois Republican Primary

[interestrateripoff]

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/susanne-atanus-who-believes-gay-rights-cause-tornadoes-and-autism-is-a-punishment-from-god-wins-illinois-republican-primary-9204598.html

A congressional candidate in Chicago, who blames natural disasters such as tornados on gay rights and claims autism is a punishment from God, has won the GOP nomination and will challenge Democrat Jan Schakowsky for the 9th Congressional district of the city.

Among her many controversial views, Susanne Atanus is vehemently against access to abortion, marriage equality and the rights of gay men and women.

The 55-year-old has claimed that same-sex marriages “breed aids” and autism and dementia are punishments from God.

During a filmed interview with her opponent David Earl Williams for The Daily Herald in January, Atanus made her views clear with remarks such as: "I am not in favour of abortions, I am not in favour of gay rights."

"God controls the weather. God is angry. We are provoking him with abortions and same-sex marriage and civil unions," she continued. "Same-sex activity is going to increase AIDS. If it's in our military, it will weaken our military. We need to respect God."

According to unofficial totals, Atanus received 15,238 votes compared with Williams’ 13,864 votes, The Park Ridge Sun Times has reported.

Which God is she wanting to respect the old testament one or the new testament one?

[Eddie_George]

She has a name perfect for ridicule.

Someone register the Twitter adrdress @anus

[macbeth79]

If she signs her name

S.atanus = Satan US

[thecrashingisles]

Someone should ask her where the missing plane is.

[fluffy666]

Which God is she wanting to respect the old testament one or the new testament one?

Me.

(Edit: I don't think she considered that her god was a Guardian reader)

[Executive Sadman]

Look at the bright side, independent readers, she is a woman, and men are the problem, right?

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2014/03/19/The-Left-Also-Owns-Atanus-in-Illinois

Many of those Democrats, not knowing much about either Republican, may simply have voted for the female candidate, as per recent habit.

[GinAndPlatonic]

I`m sure it will turn out she is a transvestite who smokes pot in secret and has had a zillion affairs of all genders.....don`t they all when shouting such hardline rightwing rhetoric.??

[The Masked Tulip]

[swissy_fit]

Mormonism may or may not be dumb but all the young Mormon people I've ever met have been pleasant, honest, well-educated, hard-working and seemingly quite well-balanced, or at least on the surface of it. I'm not always convinced that humans are ready for life without religion, it's an efficient tool in instilling moral structures, so far I don't believe we've found anything as "good".

[okaycuckoo]

Perfectly reasonable views if God exists.

We vote for politicians who believe in the existence of the free market, the rational choice theory, and the Just World fallacy. No less irrational than this woman.

[oracle]

Mormonism may or may not be dumb but all the young Mormon people I've ever met have been pleasant, honest, well-educated, hard-working and seemingly quite well-balanced, or at least on the surface of it. I'm not always convinced that humans are ready for life without religion, it's an efficient tool in instilling moral structures, so far I don't believe we've found anything as "good".

....if it's used properly,yes.

if it's abused,then you get an overlord caste of "priesthood" selling the people any old sh1te in order to maintain their power base.

pretty much as jesus described when he railed against the pharisees.

not going to be any different at the end of this age either.

[Oliver Sutton]

Mormonism may or may not be dumb but all the young Mormon people I've ever met have been pleasant, honest, well-educated, hard-working and seemingly quite well-balanced, or at least on the surface of it. I'm not always convinced that humans are ready for life without religion, it's an efficient tool in instilling moral structures, so far I don't believe we've found anything as "good".

Then why are the less religious countries the most civilized and crime-free?

[Frank Hovis]

Then why are the less religious countries the most civilized and crime-free?

Bit of a sweeping statement there!

The Irish Republic went from a heavily religious nation in 1960 through big change in the 70s and 80s to 90s secular consumerism.

Their crime rate (indictable crimes, per specific year not per decade) went:

1960 15k

1970 30k

1980 72k

1990 88k

Source: Crime in Ireland Report

link below but warning it is a big pdf:

http://www.crimecouncil.gov.ie/downloads/CrimeReport.pdf

[interestrateripoff]

Perfectly reasonable views if God exists.

We vote for politicians who believe in the existence of the free market, the rational choice theory, and the Just World fallacy. No less irrational than this woman.

Why are you saying god does hate gays?

The logic is that god has failed because we are made in his image meaning god is flawed.

[interestrateripoff]

Bit of a sweeping statement there!

The Irish Republic went from a heavily religious nation in 1960 through big change in the 70s and 80s to 90s secular consumerism.

Their crime rate (indictable crimes, per specific year not per decade) went:

1960 15k

1970 30k

1980 72k

1990 88k

Source: Crime in Ireland Report

link below but warning it is a big pdf:

http://www.crimecouncil.gov.ie/downloads/CrimeReport.pdf

On a separate point did over the years the population acquire more assets which might be worth stealing? If you have feck all I'm guessing crime rates will be much lower.

[Frank Hovis]

On a separate point did over the years the population acquire more assets which might be worth stealing? If you have feck all I'm guessing crime rates will be much lower.

There will be other reasons but I would say that the loss of a proper national religion is a big one; a belief that "we're all in this together" rather than a beggar your neighbour world like London.

There is more crime in poor environments because it is a "zero sum" situation - if you want something then take it from somebody else so I don't think it's that as a cause.

[Mrs Bear]

She has a lot in common with extreme Islam. My daughter was working in Aceh after the tsunami, and some of the local imams were loudly blaming it on ungodly local facilities such as cinema and swimming pool. If not for these Allah would have spared them.

Daughter did once try telling locals (who felt that being so religious, imams could and should be right) that people in the UK were an awful lot more ungodly than the Acehnese, so why didn't we get tsunamis? But the question made them uncomfortable (threatening to raise doubts about beliefs they were happy with) so she didn't persist.

[swissy_fit]

Then why are the less religious countries the most civilized and crime-free?

Although other posters have, I think, more or less replied to you, this is still an interesting point as I believe the Scandinavian countries to be low on religion and low on crime (happy to be corrected if this is false).

My own guess is that some cultures are more naturally cohesive, with or without religion, and some cultures seem to need a religious element to make them more cohesive.

I guess in the end it's all about fear and a sense of community.

If you fear a God, or fear the disapproval and/or exclusion of your family and peers, or fear the harsh punishment that might follow being caught, or have a strong sense of being part of something you don't want to damage or destroy, then you're less likely to commit crimes.

[Nuggets Mahoney]

Although other posters have, I think, more or less replied to you, this is still an interesting point as I believe the Scandinavian countries to be low on religion and low on crime (happy to be corrected if this is false).

They may be low on religion now but it was pretty full-on Lutheran/ Calvinist in the past.

The stereotypical Lutheran/ Calvinist/ Dutch/ Swedish personality being socially liberal, dour, frugal and hard-working.

I wouldn't pretend to have any insight into whether the tone of the church shaped the national temperament or the national temperament shaped the tone of the church.

btw I noticed a provocative little claim from Niall Ferguson just now whilst looking up 'protestant work ethic'

In a New York Times article, published in June 8, 2003, Niall Ferguson pointed that data from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) seems to confirm that "the experience of Western Europe in the past quarter-century offers an unexpected confirmation of the Protestant ethic. To put it bluntly, we are witnessing the decline and fall of the Protestant work ethic in Europe. This represents the stunning triumph of secularization in Western Europe -- the simultaneous decline of both Protestantism and its unique work ethic."

NYT: The World; Why America Outpaces Europe (Clue: The God Factor)

[interestrateripoff]

They may be low on religion now but it was pretty full-on Lutheran/ Calvinist in the past.

The stereotypical Lutheran/ Calvinist/ Dutch/ Swedish personality being socially liberal, dour, frugal and hard-working.

I wouldn't pretend to have any insight into whether the tone of the church shaped the national temperament or the national temperament shaped the tone of the church.

btw I noticed a provocative little claim from Niall Ferguson just now whilst looking up 'protestant work ethic'

NYT: The World; Why America Outpaces Europe (Clue: The God Factor)

Interesting, although one point could be that Americans still believed in the American Dream.

[Nuggets Mahoney]

Interesting, although one point could be that Americans still believed in the American Dream.

Ferguson is a pin-up boy of US neoconservatives and knows what side his bread is buttered. Neoconservatism was, in turn, shaped in part by the teachings of Leo Strauss who was, in turn, a big fan of Plato's noble lie.

When discussing concepts such as religion or patriotism, Straussians are more inclined to consider their utility rather than whether these 'useful' ideologies are underpinned by anything real or not.

One consequence of all this is that you can never be entirely sure if politicians, particularly US politicians, have sincerely bought into their own mythic spout or not.

[interestrateripoff]

Ferguson is a pin-up boy of US neoconservatives and knows what side his bread is buttered. Neoconservatism was, in turn, shaped in part by the teachings of Leo Strauss who was, in turn, a big fan of Plato's noble lie.

When discussing concepts such as religion or patriotism, Straussians are more inclined to consider their utility rather than whether these 'useful' ideologies are underpinned by anything real or not.

One consequence of all this is that you can never be entirely sure if politicians, particularly US politicians, have sincerely bought into their own mythic spout or not.

Thanks, I'll have to have a quick read up on this as it may be useful for something I'm currently doing.

[Nuggets Mahoney]

Thanks, I'll have to have a quick read up on this as it may be useful for something I'm currently doing.

Adam Curtis refers to Leo Strauss in the back half of the first part of The Power of Nightmares

[The Ayatollah Buggeri]

I do wonder if people like this win votes more in protest against extreme leftist political correctness, rather than face-value support for the sort of views she espouses.

Personally, I am fed up to the back teeth with gayness and gay weddings. These people only constitute between around 0.2 and 8% of the population, depending on whose figures you believe, but yet any gay person who claims any sort of discrimination is instantly treated like royalty and has people walking on eggshells around them, celebrities who are minor (if any) talents are celebrated simply for the fact that they are gay, and politicians are spending a disporoportionate amount of their time addressing gay rights issues (e.g. Cameron and gay weddings), while ignoring bigger ones that directly affect the entire population, not just a tiny percentage of it. I would not like to see homosexuality re-illegalised, but neither do I want to see it promoted and obsessed about. And yes, as a Christian, I do believe that gay sexual intercourse is fundamentally unnatural. Human beings do lots of other things that are fundamentally unnatural as well, and we don't pass judgment on them (although we sometimes do on the acts themselves), and so I'm not for banning it. These are personal decisions, that you may have to explain to God when the time comes. But there is a reason why the word "buggered" is in widespread use as a colloquialism to mean "broken", "destroyed", "in trouble", etc. etc., and the left is not going to change that belief by imposing political correctness. At most it'll succeed in driving it underground.

As for abortion, I - and I believe, most of the population - that it should happen as little as possible, while recognising that there are cases in which it's the least worst option. Again, I'm not in favour of outright outlawing, but do believe that late-term abortion should be restricted to circumstances in which a mother's life is in direct danger from the pregnancy, and that there should be some sort of counselling procedure to ensure that earlier ones only happen if, after careful consideration, both parents are agreed that it is the only viable solution to a pregnancy that is perceived as being a problem. But yet if I were to express that view in any sort of public setting (and especially the view that, except in cases of rape, the father should be allowed an input into the decision), I would be shouted down by the "woman's right to choose" brigade.

However, I can vote for an extremist like Atanus in the privacy of the voting booth, and heave a sigh of relief that I've done something to counter the unreasonable elements of the gay and feminist lobbies. Those unreasonable elements are therefore reaping what the've sown when Atanus, Bachmann and their ilk start to win elections.

[thecrashingisles]

But there is a reason why the word "buggered" is in widespread use as a colloquialism to mean "broken", "destroyed", "in trouble", etc. etc., and the left is not going to change that belief by imposing political correctness. At most it'll succeed in driving it underground.

And the reason why "******ed", "screwed", "shafted" mean exactly the same?