"[The conduct of 'Pastor' Terry Jones, organizer of 'Burn-a-Koran Day'] is utterly irrational. It's pathological. There's a sickness... there's a sickness here."
"We thought about what would have to happen for us to call our event off. As we prayed about that, in the past we did have one idea.
"I am glad that Pastor Jones has decided not to burn any Qur'ans. However, I have not spoken to Pastor Jones or Imam [Muhammad] Musri [president of the Islamic Society of Central Florida, who counseled Jones]. I am surprised by their announcement. We are not going to toy with our religion or any other. Nor are we going to barter. We are here to extend our hands to build peace and harmony." (Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf)
"I am making this offer [to buy the 'Ground Zero mosque' property at a 25% more than the current owners paid for it] as a resident of New York and citizen of the United States, not because I think the location is a spectacular one (because it is not), but because it will end a very serious, inflammatory, and highly divisive situation that is destined, in my opinion, to only get worse." (Donald Trump)
Why? To send a clear message to radical Christian fundamentalists. I want every one of Jesus' wacko-warriors to know that I will not bow down to their intolerance, their phobias and the violence they do in the name of their god.
Jones has been all over the media the last few days -- have you seen this assclown try to defend his pyromania-for-Christ campaign? It's positively shameful (not that he and his brain-dead followers have shown the capacity for shame)."Let's just make one thing clear. A small church, in a small town, down a back road, burning copies of its own books, on its own property, is not responsible for the violent actions anyone may take in retaliation to our protest. Remember, Paul did not make the snake, the fire drove it out and he was bitten. If violence happens in reaction to this, the violence was not caused by us, it has just been exposed."That's narcissistic bullshit.
We haul our folding chairs to the curb on Memorial Day, Independence Day, the last day of the annual village festival and, finally, Labor Day. There's something about these humble processions -- with their marching bands and Boy Scout troops, firefighters and law-enforcement officers, businessmen and local officials -- that epitomizes small-town life here in the Midwest.
A Palm Pre Plus and a Victorinox Farmer are holdovers, for good reason -- they work. Another phone will replace the Pre in due course but the Farmer, which lives in a leather pocket sleeve, is a keeper.
When I got my concealed-carry license in April, I knew that my Glock 19 would become my EDC handgun. Just how I'd carry it was far less certain.
Ohio State's 2010 football season kicked off yesterday against Marshall -- on a Thursday night, of all things, which felt strange. It also was the first time in five years that my wife and I had been in The 'Shoe for a regular-season game and the first time in decades that I'd watched my Buckeyes from the thin air of "C Deck."
Gulp. I mean, airplanes fly at lower altitudes.
Shortly after Sarah Palin burst onto the national scene two years ago it became obvious that she's the latter, not the former. The ex-Mayor of Wasilla isn't merely a charlatan -- she symbolizes the gullibility of the American electorate."Warm and effusive in public, indifferent or angry in private: this is the pattern of Palin's behavior toward the people who make her life possible. A onetime gubernatorial aide to Palin says, 'The people who have worked for her -- they're broken, used, stepped on, down in the dust.' On the 2008 campaign trail, one close aide recalls, it was practically impossible to persuade Palin to take a moment to thank the kitchen workers at fund-raising dinners. During the campaign, Palin lashed out at the slightest provocation, sometimes screaming at staff members and throwing objects. Witnessing such behavior, one aide asked Todd Palin if it was typical of his wife. He answered, 'You just got to let her go through it... Half the stuff that comes out of her mouth she doesn't even mean.' When a campaign aide gingerly asked Todd whether Sarah should consider taking psychiatric medication to control her moods, Todd responded that she 'just needed to run and work out more.' Her anger kept boiling over, however, and eventually the fits of rage came every day. Then, just as suddenly, her temper would be gone. Palin would apologize and promise to be nicer. Within hours, she would be screaming again. At the end of one long day, when Palin was mid-tirade, a campaign aide remembers thinking, 'You were an angel all night. Now you’re a devil. Where did this come from?'"Because Palin wraps herself in faith and family, Gross isn't shy about giving us some intriguing peeks behind her carefully crafted facade.
"In whatever remains of Palin’s inner circle...most people are following orders. Some details of the Palins' private life, however, suggest a reality at odds with Sarah's image. In speeches, Palin pays tribute to the man she still calls 'the First Dude.' One of the strangest passages in Going Rogue concerns post-election rumors that the couple was considering a divorce. 'That day in sunny Texas when the divorce rumors were rampant in the tabloids, I watched Todd, tanned and shirtless, take the baby from my arms and walk him back to the ranch house,' she writes, like a frontier Barbara Cartland. 'Dang, I thought. Divorce Todd? Have you seen Todd?' Locally, much speculation surrounds the marriage. Some say Todd is henpecked, and others see him as the heavy. One person who has been a frequent houseguest of the Palins says that the couple began many mornings with screaming fights, a fusillade of curses: ''F*ck you,' 'F*ck this,' 'You lazy piece of shit.' 'You’re f*ckin' lucky to have me,' Sarah would always say.' (This person never saw Todd and Sarah sleep in the same bed, and recalls that Todd would often joke, 'I don't know how she ever gets pregnant.')"Gross exposes Palin's vitriol, her hypocrisy and her God complex. He largely avoids one particular topic -- her intellect or lack thereof -- but he does wonder aloud about a recurring theme in her speeches:
"('They talk down to us... They think that if we were just smart enough... ') To some, the message sounds like an affirmation. But is it really? Or does it seed self-doubt and rancor among her partisans, and encourage them to see everyone else as malign?"It's the latter, of course. Like Caribou Barbie herself, it's chicken shit.
"Denial kills you twice. It kills you once, at your moment of truth when you are not physically prepared: You didn't bring your gun; you didn't train. Your only defense was wishful thinking. Hope is not a strategy. Denial kills you a second time because even if you do physically survive, you are psychologically shattered by fear, helplessness, horror and shame at your moment of truth."The other article is "The Constitutional Right and Social Obligation to Carry a Gun," from Living with Glocks by Robert H. Boatman. Not only does the author pull no punches -- he demands that we not flinch:
"Anti-freedom zealots see nothing wrong with leaning on their neighbors to provide them with personal protection even though they would never consider returning the favor. They worship their effeminate fantasy of an all-powerful government with true religious fanaticism. They believe all other humans are as mentally weak, irresponsible, incompetent and self-hating as they know themselves to be. And they encourage only civilization’s most self-destructive tendencies."I'd be doing KintlaLake Blog readers a disservice if I didn't include this gem in my preview of Boatman's article:
"The framers of the Constitution were under no pressure from the NRA when they wrote, '...the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.'"In the interest of allowing you to form independent opinions about these articles, I'm presenting them without comment, except to urge you to click on the links and read them -- and think.
His "America's Divine Destiny" shtick isn't one of them. Neither, for the most part, is the "Restoring Honor" rally he's hosting today at the Lincoln Memorial.
DO NOT BRING ANY SORT OF WEAPON,The list of "Prohibited Items" includes these five bullet points:
INCLUDING A POCKET KNIFE
• Firearms (real or simulated)Two things are clear. First, the list obviously was prepared by the Federal Department of Redundancy Department.
• Ammunition
• Explosives or incendiary devices of any kind (incl. fireworks)
• Knives, blades, or sharp objects of any length
• No firearms or explosive devices, no open fires
As Marc Cohn sang of his childhood he sang of mine, of growing up in northeast Ohio in the late 1950s and early 1960s. I walked through my youth 50 miles south of Cohn, who's two years (almost to the day) younger than me. For what it's worth, my dad drove an Olds.He got up every mornin'
While I was still asleep
And I remember the sound of him shufflin' around
Right before the crack of dawn
Is when I heard him turn the motor on
But when I got up they were goneDown the road in the rain and snow
The man and his machine would go
Oh, the secrets that old car would know
Sometimes I hear him sayin'Don'tcha gimme no Buick
Son, you must take my word
If there's a god in heaven
He's got a silver Thunderbird
You can keep your Eldorado
And the foreign car's absurd
Me, I wanna go down
In a silver Thunderbird
In closing, if you'll permit me, I'll offer a recommendation.
In other wingnut news, an April New York Times/CBS News poll found that 20% of those surveyed believe that Pres. Obama was born outside the U.S.
That was worth getting up for this morning."I lost count of the dead I flew to Balad for the last flight home. I hope, my only hope in life, is that people learn not to hate.
"Please everyone remember why the Constitution is so important. Do not abridge anyone's rights to freedom. This includes the right to worship any religion you may feel represents you. I, as many, have defended that right for years. I hope my son does not see the things I have seen in the name of religion.
"Take care of those who have served and those who are willing to serve. They are a rare breed and will protect you 'til they can no longer."
"As a citizen, and as President, I believe that Muslims have the same right to practice their religion as everyone else in this country. And that includes the right to build a place of worship and a community center on private property in Lower Manhattan, in accordance with local laws and ordinances. This is America. And our commitment to religious freedom must be unshakable. The principle that people of all faiths are welcome in this country and that they will not be treated differently by their government is essential to who we are. The writ of the Founders must endure."The same people who criticize the President for policies that run roughshod over certain constitutional principles should praise him for his defense of this one. They won't, of course, roundly (and rightly) accusing him of cherry-picking the Bill of Rights to serve his purpose.
For another perspective, check out columnist David Codrea's commentary on the Reid ad. He got it precisely right."...the Second Amendment is not about hunting. I get so frustrated when some candidates asked about the Second Amendment, they start telling me, 'Well, I have a hunting license, and I’m a member of the NRA.' Look, so do I. It's not about the Second Amendment.
"The Second Amendment is about freedom. It's about protecting ourselves, our families, our property, and ultimately, if necessary -- I know this sounds pretty bold -- but from our own government, when they get out of control. That's what it's all about."
Rep. Charles Rangel, who's served New York's 15th for 40 years, is under investigation by the House Ethics Committee for violating a truckload of rules. Even as a formal hearing looms, Rangel is also running for a 21st term representing his Harlem district.
Republican Rep. Louis Gohmert of Tyler, Texas is a looney with a different tune. This is the former judge who took to the House floor to praise columnist Thomas Sowell as "a brilliant man" for equating the policies of Pres. Barack Obama with those of Adolf Hitler."I talked to a retired FBI agent who said that one of the things they were looking at were terrorist cells overseas who had figured out how to game our system. And it appeared they would have young women, who became pregnant, would get them into the United States to have a baby. They wouldn't even have to pay anything for the baby. And then they would turn back where they could be raised and coddled as future terrorists. And then one day, twenty, thirty years down the road, they can be sent in to help destroy our way of life. 'Cause they figured out how stupid we are being in this country to allow our enemies to game our system, hurt our economy, get set up in a position to destroy our way of life."That's right -- according to Gohmert, an unnamed former FBI agent says that unnamed terrorists are executing an evil 30-year plot to raise as-yet-unnamed "terror babies" with U.S. citizenship.
"...nor shall any State...deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws."Marriage is a religious sacrament. A church which refuses to marry a same-sex couple is within its rights, but the state has no place prohibiting it.
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof...."No, those words don't guarantee the developer's right to build his mosque near Ground Zero. They simply preserve one of our nation's most precious principles.
