Lower Standards, Less Freedom

"There should be no mosque near Ground Zero in New York so long as there are no churches or synagogues in Saudi Arabia." - Newt Gingrich

No, Newt, you fucking idiot.

See, here's the problem. You and those who think like you seem to think it's good enough for America to be as free as countries like Saudia Arabia.

Fuck you.

That's not good enough.

Our standards are higher than that.

We believe in absolute freedom of religion and if you want to lower our standards to the level so that we are on an equal plane to countries like Saudi Arabia as far as our freedoms go, then thank Christ you no longer have any power.

CODEPINK : Women Say No To War

CODEPINK : Women Say No To War

Dr. Laura - Racist, Not Martyr

When Jade called Dr. Laura, she was asking for advice how, as a black woman, she could handle repeated racist comments from her white husband’s friends. When Dr. Laura concluded, 46 seconds into the call, that her husband’s friends were not racists, the nature of the call quickly turned from that of a woman asking for help to a debate about racial sensitivity.

Less than a minute later, in making a philosophical point, Dr. Laura was repeatedly using the ‘N’ word before abruptly going to break.

After the commercial break, Dr. Laura used the racial slur several more times, accused Jade of having a chip on her shoulder when she said she did not appreciate hearing the word and abruptly ended the call all in under two minutes.

After disconnecting, Dr. Laura indicated that if Jade did not like hearing white people say the ‘N’ word and was not going to have a sense of humor about racism, she should not have married outside of her race.

The call has created an outcry across the country, not only about the racial slur but about the ideas that Dr. Laura expressed along with them. At one point, she said that, “blacks voted for Obama simply 'cause he was half-black. Didn't matter what he was gonna do in office, it was a black thing.”

Also disturbing was the implication that any black person who was offended by racial slurs was too sensitive and that the caller should not have married a white man.

After coming under intense fire, Dr. Laura posted an apology on her website.

Civil rights leader Al Sharpton, however, isn’t buying it. He claimed that her rant would have been offensive even without the racial slurs and that she did not apologize until there was a public outcry.

“Not only the caller was right that she said the word over and over and in a very animated way, I might add, but that she actually, if you listen carefully to the logic of what she was saying was saying that the n-word was not offensive,” said Sharpton during an interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper. “Her first reaction was that people use the n-word all along and you are being too sensitive or something to that effect, and at no point until after the outrage that followed did she come back today and say it was wrong."

More than 9 million Americans listen to Dr. Laura’s show every week.

The media was waaaay to easy on Dr. Laura on this one, even though she's acting like a martyr.

Here's the thing that nobody seems to pointing out, though Reverend Sharpton touched on it.

The n-word wasn't the worst of Dr. Laura's offenses here. In fact, it wasn't even the most racist thing to come out of her mouth.

The attitudes behind her rant were far worse than the word itself. Particularly the part about how Jade shouldn't have married a white guy if she wasn't going to have a sense of humor about racism.

I am sad that Dr. Laura is running off and quitting her radio show, though. I like people like her out in the open where we can see them, not lurking in the shadows.

So nobody really called her on her shit and she gets to go off and pretend she's a free-speech martyr. It's a goddamn pity all around.

But let's be clear. Let's put the n-word aside and pretend she never said it. Dr. Laura is not being chased off the airwaves, in fact, I would love to have her stay on.

And let's be clear on something else. Yes, there's room for disagreement and debate, even about the use of the n-word and all kinds of race-related issues. But Dr. Laura is not a voice of dissent. She is a racist.

Just to be clear.

Stop Throwing Around The Word "Freedom" If You Don't Understand It

I don't have a whole lot to add to the argument about the flap about the Islamic Cultural Center they want to build a couple of blocks from the World Trade Center site.

Just a couple of things.

How far away do you want this thing? Eight blocks? A couple of miles?

Are you actually suggesting we start zoning religious sites?

Yes, the people who attacked us on 9/11 were Muslims.

And on April 19, 1995, in Oklahoma City, we were attacked by white Christians. So let's agree, no Protestant churches within two blocks of the Murrow Building?

Fuck, Scott Roeder gave his life to Jesus on his knees in front of the TV because Pat Robertson told him to. How about we not allow the 700 Club to be broadcast in the Wichita area?

Let's go all the way. Anywhere there are victims of religious violence, let's pick a radius and ban that religion out of respect for the dead.

Maybe if the same people who were saying "Let them build the Islamic Center farther away," weren't also protesting the erection of Mosques in Tennessee, Wisconsin, California and, well, anywhere in America, they wouldn't sound so goddamn silly.

So please stop saying that the terrorists hate our freedom. Because you have already given them that.

You throw the word "freedom" around, but you either do not believe in it or you just don't understand it.

Either way, when you say it, it sounds hollow and I don't believe you.

U.S. attends Hiroshima ceremonies for the first time

Hundreds attended a ceremony commemorating the 65th anniversary of the first atomic bomb attack on Hiroshima.
Children sang songs and bells rang to mark the moment the bomb was dropped.
74 nations were present to honor those killed. The date is remembered every year with a somber ceremony, but this year, for the first time, representatives from the U.S., Great Britain and France were in attendance.
The ceremony focused on moving toward a goal of a nuclear-free world."A world free of weapons of mass destruction - that is the only safe path to a safer world," said Ban Ki-Moon, the UN Secretary General.
This is a shift from the normal argument of whether the use of the atomic bomb was justified to end the Pacific front of World War II.
Both arguments have raged back to the moment the bomb was dropped in August of 1945. One of the first articles to predict the fear that would dominate the public consciousness in the decades following appeared just 12 days after the bombing of Hiroshima.
The memorials and ceremonies are over for another year, but the debates over proliferation and the justification of the use of nuclear force will be with us as long as the memory of the more than 140,000 killed in the blast 65 years ago today.