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At least that’s what many of the residents of King, N.C. may as well be saying. They’re all in a huff over a Christian flag the city council decided to remove from a war memorial after an Afghanistan war veteran made a complaint.
“This monument stands as hallowed ground,” said Martini, a tall, trim man with a tattoo on his right arm commemorating the day in 1988 when he became a born-again Christian. “It kills me when I think people want to essentially desecrate it.”
It now appears that many of the Christians in this small town have replaced the flag with a replica and are now guarding it. (It’s unclear from the article if the new flag is in the same place as the old one.) It’s a great display of ignorance, really. Someone doesn’t want the government supporting religion? Well, that person must just be desecrating everything! Actually, that wouldn’t be so bad – we really should never hold any ideas sacred, sealed off in a box where it’s unthinkable that anyone should ever question them. But that isn’t what’s happening here.
Of course in all this, the ACLU, as usual, has taken the correct position. They’ve praised the town for taking down the flag while allowing these people to hold their silly vigils. It’s no surprise that the ACLU is holding to actual principle. But that isn’t so clear to the residents.
The protesters, though, aren’t satisfied with the vigil. They’re planning an Oct. 23 rally in support of their ultimate goal, which is for the city to restore the Christian flag to the permanent metal pole on the memorial.
At a recent public hearing, roughly 500 people packed the King Elementary School gymnasium, many waving Christian flags. Of more than 40 speakers, no one spoke in favor of removing it.
“We’ve let our religious freedoms and constitutional rights be stripped away one by one, and I think it’s time we took a stand,” King resident James Joyce said.
James Joyce is just being a mook. The separation of church and state is well established; no one’s rights have been taken away by the removal of an illegal display of government-supported religion.
Of course, if the flag was a Muslim or atheist symbol of any sort, there would be an immediate uproar, quick adherence to the constitution, and no one in that town would be holding any vigil of support. It isn’t about principle for the Christian majority in King, North Carolina anymore than it is in the rest of America.
Filed under: News, Religions | Tagged: ACLU, Christian flag, Christians, James Joyce, King, North Carolina, Separation of Church and State | 1 Comment »
Incidentally, this is the lighthouse (in Port Clyde, Maine) that can be seen in Forrest Gump, around 1:28 into this video.
Filed under: Misc | Tagged: Port Clyde Lighthouse, Thought of the day | Leave a comment »
More than 20 homosexuals have been attacked over the last year in Uganda, and an additional 17 have been arrested and are in prison, said Frank Mugisha, the chairman of Sexual Minorities Uganda. Those numbers are up from the same period two years ago, when about 10 homosexuals were attacked, he said.
This all has come after the introduction of an anti-gay bill that would have imposed the death penalty on gays. (The bill eventually died.) By attacking the basic rights of gays, the legislators in Uganda have incited an increasing uprising against them; pretend like gays should have fewer or different rights than heterosexuals and you’re asking for discrimination. We see it all the time in the United States; Uganda has taken it to the extreme.
But you say you aren’t convinced of the similarities between what happens here and what happens in Uganda? How about the perpetuation of myths, then?
The Oct. 9 article in a Ugandan newspaper called Rolling Stone – not the American magazine – came out five days before the one-year anniversary of the controversial legislation. The article claimed that an unknown but deadly disease was attacking homosexuals in Uganda, and said that gays were recruiting 1 million children by raiding schools, a common smear used in Uganda.
Sounds an awful lot like that dastardly HOMOSEXUAL AGENDA!!ONE1!!, doesn’t it? Oh, but maybe it’s just one of them there backward places, huh? Well…
Rolling Stone does not have a large following in Uganda, a country of 32 million where about 85 percent of people are Christian and 12 percent are Muslim.
They do have very strong backwards thinking, but it derives from the same place as much of the backwards thinking in the U.S.
Filed under: News, Religions, Rights | Tagged: Civil rights, evil, Gays, HOMOSEXUAL AGENDA, Uganda | Leave a comment »
I made an official complaint against Christopher Maloney some months ago. The jist of what I said was that he was claiming to be a doctor when Maine law is pretty clear about saying he needs to distinguish himself from real doctors (i.e., physicians), utilizing phrases like “naturopathic doctor” or “doctor of naturopathy”. Now, according to a letter I received today, his review has been scheduled.
The complaint filed by Michael L. Hawkins against your license will be reviewed by the Board of Complementary Health Care Providers on October 29, 2010. The meeting is scheduled to begin at 9:00 a.m. at the Department of Professional and Financial Regulation, 76 Northern Avenue, Gardiner, Maine.
(My middle initial still isn’t “L”.)
Unfortunately, I am unable to make the meeting. I would probably see what I could do to swing getting the time off from work if it was allowed that I might participate, but the session is observation only. However, if anyone from the central Maine area is interested in attending the meeting, that would be great; I would love to hear a first-hand account of everything. (On the off chance anyone does plan on attending, it is recommended to call Kelly McLaughlin at 207-624-8621 the day prior to the meeting to verify that the review will take place – from what I understand, these things have a habit of jumping around a bit.)
Also, as promised in an earlier post (see above link), I’m going to post the letter I wrote in response to Maloney’s response to my initial complaint. For the sake of blog aesthetics, see the comment section.
Filed under: Pure bullshit | Tagged: Christopher Maloney, Naturopathy, Quack quack quack | 7 Comments »
I’m almost certain I’ve said this before, but it bears repeating: In the same-sex marriage debate, it is often put forth that denying gays the right to marry is like when the majority was in the business of denying the right to interracial marriage. If that is true (and it is – it’s uncanny how much alike the arguments are), then we ought to find ourselves willing to commit to the terminology (or to like terminology) we would apply to anyone still against interracial marriage today. The most apt term is “bigot”. Let’s not shy from utilizing it.
Filed under: Misc | Tagged: Bigot, Thought of the day | 1 Comment »
As expected, a federal appeals court has issued a stay in regards to DADT.
A federal appeals court on Wednesday temporarily granted the U.S. government’s request for a freeze on a judge’s order requiring the military to allow openly gay troops.
A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals instructed lawyers for the gay rights group that brought the lawsuit successfully challenging the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy to file arguments in response by Monday.
This isn’t the worst setback in the world. It’s merely a matter of time before equality is granted to all U.S. citizens wishing to serve in the military. We’ll be a safer nation for it.
Filed under: News, Rights | Tagged: Don't Ask Don't Tell, Gays, Rights | 4 Comments »
The military is accepting openly gay recruits for the first time in the nation’s history, even as it tries in the courts to slow the movement to abolish its “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy.
At least two service members discharged for being gay began the process to re-enlist after the Pentagon’s Tuesday announcement.
Unfortunately, there still exists the possibility of this policy changing (though probably only temporarily), so many civil rights groups for gays are advising that people don’t come out of the closet just yet. It takes time to tear down blind bigotry.
Filed under: News, Rights | Tagged: Civil rights, Don't Ask Don't Tell, Gays | 1 Comment »
For the Sake of Science 