Sarah Palin today picked up a widely heard theme on the right, using the murder of abortion doctor George Tiller to call attention to the murder of an army recruiter in Arkansas, allegedly by a self-styled Islamic militant:
The stories of two very different lives with similar fates crossed through the media’s hands yesterday — both equally important but one lacked the proper attention. The death of 67-year old George Tiller was unacceptable, but equally disgusting was another death that police believe was politically and religiously motivated as well.
William Long died yesterday. The 23-year old Army Recruiter was gunned down by a fanatic; another fellow soldier was wounded in the ambush. The soldiers had just completed their basic training and were talking to potential recruits, just as my son, Track, once did.
Whatever titles we give these murderers, both deserve our attention. Violence like that is no way to solve a political dispute nor a religious one. And the fanatics on all sides do great disservice when they confuse dissention with rage and death
The title may sound a bit tongue in cheek, but it is serious.
In WW2 after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, we as a nation interned those whom we identified with the enemy. We had the best of intentions of course, but it was still wrong to preemptively act against those who had not acted against us.
So after 9/11, we didn’t round up all the Arabs or Muslims, and intern them We watched. And we got dinged by the ACLU and other groups for profiling
The argument was that just because we had been attacked by young male Muslims we had no right to be suspicious of other young male Muslims.
Perhaps they were right, though I think there are nuances to the discussion that bear further consideration.
But lately another group is under fire for being dangerous and is being watched closely: White supremacists.
It is really a no brainer. They are hostile to blacks, we just elected a black president, so there is no real surprise that they will be watched with the gimlet eye, waiting to see if their inherent hatred of non whites will spur them to try and take action.
I find the whole thing ludicrous really. A couple atheists led by a comedian decide to show some intolerance toward religion. So they advertise on the bus:
It’s real, it’s happening: you can sponsor the first atheist advert on a bus – and Richard Dawkins will match your money
The atheist bus campaign launches today thanks to Comment is free readers. Because of your enthusiastic response to the idea of a reassuring God-free advert being used to counter religious advertising, the slogan “There’s probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life” could now become an ad campaign on London buses – and leading secularists have jumped on board to help us raise the money.
Hey, being a free speech minded guy, more power to ya. If you want to waste you money trying to diss religion, I guess you have that right.
I do think it is disappointing that people cannot just live and let live, but oh well.
Penn says it all. He, as an atheist, he and I have a violent disagreement on the matter of faith, but as this video shows, he understands that not all have the same opinions, and that respectful disagreement and respect for each other is possible. My respect for him continues to grow.
I wish more enlightened atheists were as respectful.
For years the Washington State Capital has had a Christmas tree in the Capital rotunda. yes, they wimped out years ago and labeled it a “holiday tree”, but for all the political correctness, it is a friggin Christmas tree.
A Jewish group added a Menorah to the display, then another religious group petitioned to add a nativity scene, and won.
That brought us to the present debacle.
An atheist group placed a “winter solstice” sign that denounced all religion.
And the fun started, as local groups expressed outrage. The was transparently intended to be insulting and it worked.
It even made Bill O’Reilly’s show, featuring local horses ass David Goldstein (who also has a blog called horsesass)…
…twice, as it made his show again when he went head to head against Megyn Kelly of Fox News.
And the two latest news stories are that someone took the sign, it conveniently turned it in to a radio station, and it is back in place; and that a local pastor is seeking to place a clear anti atheism sign nearby
Alliance Defense Fund attorneys filed a federal lawsuit Friday against the Tomah Area School District over an unconstitutional policy that bars religious free speech. Citing a policy prohibiting depictions of “blood, violence, sexual connotations, [or] religious beliefs,” officials penalized a Christian student for his artwork depicting a Bible verse and a cross but did not penalize students who included demonic illustrations in their artwork.
This is a tribute to someone you may not have ever heard of but he had a much greater influence on music then you may know.
Back in the 60’s and 70’s there was a revolution in music that many people may have seen but they may not have understood it. Religion found its way into modern music and the Christian rock genre was born.
If you recall the 70’s group People, and their top 20 hit “I love you”, you knew this man.
If you have heard Amy Grant, Collective Soul or Jars of Clay, or the more recent offerings by Flyleaf and Fireflight you have heard music born of that era.
And the person who is generally considered the father of that era was Larry Norman.
Larry took the raw energy of Rock and Roll and fused it with the power of the Christian Gospel, and thus was a new kind of music born.
His work was not born quietly, he faced opposition in the Church by people who saw his music as ungodly and sinful. His strongest critics often enough were the people in his camp as it were.
It is a serious question and one I am admittedly bothered by. Let me explain, but first I want to make it clear that I abhor Phelps and his protests at Soldiers funerals, and his entire anti gay campaign.
To be double clear, Phelps and his church are among the most vile extremists to ever call themselves Christians. For those who are not in the loop, Phelps and his church are on a campaign against gay people. In their infinite insanity, they decided that God hates gays, and there for anything bad in American is God punishing America for tolerating gays. This includes the war in Iraq, so they put 2 and 2 together, split it 6 ways till Tuesday then multiply the result by the number reasons they think God hates fags, and they take to the streets. Their goal? Military funerals for soldiers killed in Iraq.
Now would someone tell me how it makes sense to protest a funeral of a dead straight Marine and claim that God hates fags, and that’s why the Marine died.
Ann Coulter versus Alan Colmes on her Comments about Jews. I post this not because Ann is a great theologian, but because Ann is a fighter.
Ann was pressed by Alan on her anti Semitic comments and he attempted to toss off a an underhanded insult about 4 minutes into this.
What I like is that Ann will have none of his condescension. About 1 minute left in the clips she reverses the attack, and pins him to the wall.
In other words, she fought back instead of accepting the insult.
Whether she is on sound doctrinal footing or not in the classic Christian v Judaism debate is not relevant, what is relevant is that she believes what she does and defends it.
In a world where many Christians defer to political correctness and soft sell, I find anyone who stands firm somewhat invigorating. I may not always agree with her, but I have to respect her passion.
And I wish more conservatives would take a page from her book (no pun intended) and stop making nice and fight for their beliefs. Too often the liberals win by default when the conservatives fall back on sensibility and politeness.
One of my all time favorite TV shows is the 80’s and 90’s sitcom Roseanne.
Roseanne when it came out could have been a portrait of my life. At the time I was not well off financially, and was dealing with a lot of stress and unhappiness with laughter and sarcasm.
It was one of the first sitcoms to portray what life for most working class people was like: A struggle with highs and lows. It also, as Roseanne Barr notes in her DVD commentary, clearly showcases the disconnect in class in America.
But. One of the things I do struggle with is Roseanne herself, the actress, the comedienne and the activist.
I perused her blog and was shocked at how she can flip from crazy to wacky in no time at all.
Here are some examples from Roseanne World. WARNING: EXTREME LANGUAGE AHEAD
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