God hates fags.
This is the first thing that caught my eye on a fax my editor handed me.
God hates Georgia was the second.
Apparently this church from Topeka, KS — Westboro Baptist Church — is planning to picket the funerals of six civic leaders who died in a plane crash, in religious protest and warning. (Nothing better to do in Kansas, I guess) According to these folks, using an interesting thought process, since God hates fags and fag-enablers, then God hates the Peoples' Federal Republic of Sodom, which is apparently masquerading as the sovereign State of Georgia.
Could someone put a Chucky Cheese or movie theater in Kansas, please? These people seriously need something to do.
Throughout their hate-filled press release — which shows up at our office all too often — these border-line whack-jobs used various quotes from the old and new testament to "cement" their arguments.
How they use any of these teachings to preach hate is beyond me. I simply don't remember the "Davey and Goliath" object lesson ever being "God Hates Americans and is killing our troops with His wrath."
My point in bringing this up is that the Bible can be grossly misinterpreted to fit someone's personal biases and bigotries. It's unfortunate, but it happens.
Translate the idea to the Middle East and ask yourself this: is it possible that there are unusually nutty Muslims that are grossly misinterpreting the Koran for their own selfish and political ends?
Um, yep.
Are they representative of all Muslims?
Nope, no more than these Topeka Baptists are representative of all Christians.
Drastically switching gears to the presidential campaign, it looks like it's going to be McCain v. Obama.
While I'm disappointed that my own anti-war candidate, Ron Paul, didn't fare so well (though he did beat "front-runners" Giuliani and Thompson without any support from the mainstream media), a McCain resurgence is not really surprising.
If I honestly take a look at the Republican Party as a whole, regardless of conservative or religious principles, the core issue of the party is that the Muslims are coming to get us and that we need to "get them over there."
Who better exemplifies this position on the right than McCain? Why else would conservatives overlook his incredibly liberal stances on immigration, taxes and censorship?
In my humble opinion, for the Republicans come November, this spells trouble (and that starts with "T") .
Because people see McCain as the Republican establishment's candidate and Hillary as the Democratic one, this is why we're seeing such surging support for Barak Obama's campaign. Whether his rhetoric of change is something he actually believes or he's simply capitalizing on a growing sense of dissatisfaction with the status quo, it doesn't really matter. It's precisely because he's not a long-standing member of Congress that he is appealing to a larger and larger segment of the population.
And raising crazy amounts of money.
Bottom line, he's an appealing alternative to the increased divisiveness and contentiousness we see in America today.
But he's a raging liberal, rated by the National Journal as the most liberal Senator in 2007. So, what's fiscally conservative guy supposed to do come election day?
Well, this fiscally ultra-conservative, socially moderate Republican is going to continue to hope for something unusual: a brokered convention. With Romney out of the race now, this is much less likely to happen. But the fact that Huckabee and Paul are still in the race and offering an alternative to the "Islamo-facism is the most important issue in the history of man" candidate, there is still hope.
My dream situation: Republicans get to the convention in September and realize that McCain is going to cause conservatives to sit on their hands and watch the election from home. As a result, they try to find another candidate who has all the conservative credentials they need — smaller government, lower taxes, support for the second amendment, etc. — while at the same time he can outflank the Democrats on the war issue.
After all, a boy can dream.
Phil Boyum wants you to know that Rodney King is the original source for the title. He may be reached at 912-489-9454.
This is the first thing that caught my eye on a fax my editor handed me.
God hates Georgia was the second.
Apparently this church from Topeka, KS — Westboro Baptist Church — is planning to picket the funerals of six civic leaders who died in a plane crash, in religious protest and warning. (Nothing better to do in Kansas, I guess) According to these folks, using an interesting thought process, since God hates fags and fag-enablers, then God hates the Peoples' Federal Republic of Sodom, which is apparently masquerading as the sovereign State of Georgia.
Could someone put a Chucky Cheese or movie theater in Kansas, please? These people seriously need something to do.
Throughout their hate-filled press release — which shows up at our office all too often — these border-line whack-jobs used various quotes from the old and new testament to "cement" their arguments.
How they use any of these teachings to preach hate is beyond me. I simply don't remember the "Davey and Goliath" object lesson ever being "God Hates Americans and is killing our troops with His wrath."
My point in bringing this up is that the Bible can be grossly misinterpreted to fit someone's personal biases and bigotries. It's unfortunate, but it happens.
Translate the idea to the Middle East and ask yourself this: is it possible that there are unusually nutty Muslims that are grossly misinterpreting the Koran for their own selfish and political ends?
Um, yep.
Are they representative of all Muslims?
Nope, no more than these Topeka Baptists are representative of all Christians.
Drastically switching gears to the presidential campaign, it looks like it's going to be McCain v. Obama.
While I'm disappointed that my own anti-war candidate, Ron Paul, didn't fare so well (though he did beat "front-runners" Giuliani and Thompson without any support from the mainstream media), a McCain resurgence is not really surprising.
If I honestly take a look at the Republican Party as a whole, regardless of conservative or religious principles, the core issue of the party is that the Muslims are coming to get us and that we need to "get them over there."
Who better exemplifies this position on the right than McCain? Why else would conservatives overlook his incredibly liberal stances on immigration, taxes and censorship?
In my humble opinion, for the Republicans come November, this spells trouble (and that starts with "T") .
Because people see McCain as the Republican establishment's candidate and Hillary as the Democratic one, this is why we're seeing such surging support for Barak Obama's campaign. Whether his rhetoric of change is something he actually believes or he's simply capitalizing on a growing sense of dissatisfaction with the status quo, it doesn't really matter. It's precisely because he's not a long-standing member of Congress that he is appealing to a larger and larger segment of the population.
And raising crazy amounts of money.
Bottom line, he's an appealing alternative to the increased divisiveness and contentiousness we see in America today.
But he's a raging liberal, rated by the National Journal as the most liberal Senator in 2007. So, what's fiscally conservative guy supposed to do come election day?
Well, this fiscally ultra-conservative, socially moderate Republican is going to continue to hope for something unusual: a brokered convention. With Romney out of the race now, this is much less likely to happen. But the fact that Huckabee and Paul are still in the race and offering an alternative to the "Islamo-facism is the most important issue in the history of man" candidate, there is still hope.
My dream situation: Republicans get to the convention in September and realize that McCain is going to cause conservatives to sit on their hands and watch the election from home. As a result, they try to find another candidate who has all the conservative credentials they need — smaller government, lower taxes, support for the second amendment, etc. — while at the same time he can outflank the Democrats on the war issue.
After all, a boy can dream.
Phil Boyum wants you to know that Rodney King is the original source for the title. He may be reached at 912-489-9454.