Soccer Mom: Unplugged

Last night I was up late gunning for some outrageous bloggers and aiming at some outrageous issues.  Some writers are nuts and some issues are nuts.  And last night I wrote about a little of both.  Drawing fire is always fun but I didn't expect to find the gold mine that I did when I ran into Ginny.  (Let me make it clear that I am not calling Ginny outrageous or nutty - in deed, it is the issue we conversed about that is nuts!)

Ginny is clearly a woman who has had a hard life and her views are colored by her experiences.  The same could be said for all of us.  In my honest and most respectful opinion, Ginny's emotions seem to have clouded her judgement on the Free Speech issue.  Here is one of her comments:

"Let me explain one of my problems with public prayer that has a little too much ‘flavor’ to it. I had Seasonal Affective Disorder for 11 years when I lived near Elmendorf AFB in AK. I wasn’t diagnosed until 5 years into it. In spite of a multifaceted, intense treatment protocol, every year it would get worse. I contemplated suicide for years and would not do it because I knew the kids could not be ‘left behind’ in this miserable world if I wasn’t staying. And I wasn’t going to do it if either of them would know for a nanosecond what was coming. Every year I asked, I pleaded. I never rejected Jesus, he never accepted me that I was aware of. The last year when I figured out how to do it, I was going to get the guns and was able to stop myself 1 more time - because of my medical knowledge. That summer I moved and have been fine since. Except when some public prayer reminds me of those awful days and nights, waiting and hoping for an answer that never came.
So, forgive me, I’ve been through hell, and I’m a born again Secular Humanist."

According to Ginny's logic, military chaplains should not be able to invoke the name of Jesus because she has Seasonal Affective Disorder?  Okay, that's an oversimplistic interpretation.  Is it then, that because Ginny has felt disillusioned with her Christian faith and now feels uncomfortable with preachers of a belief she does not espouse that she refuses to allow them first amendment rights? 

Is there a clearer example out there of the philosophy "Free speech sould be protected... as long as it is speech I like"? 

In Ginny's defense, she also makes the following statement:

"All I, and most of the rest of us, ask: is that SOME Christians turn the volume down on their public comments"

I can respect that sentiment but that goes both ways.  When are television shows and movies going to stop denegrating people of faith?  When does that broad brush that you detest going to stop painting me as an abortion clinic bomber?  When will people stop assuming that I am a homophobic bigot because I believe that God ordained a pattern for families?  Tell, me Ginny, when?  If you've traveled in academic circles, you know just how browbeaten believers are.  You can't mention any allegiance to faith without a caveat or disclaimer so that people think you aren't too serious about it. 

Let me propose a truce.  You say what you like and I'll say what I like and as long as neither of us is calling for violence or a violation of the other's pursuit of life, liberty and property, we let it go. We'll call it the First Amendment.

"You may want to look fast, but the Democratic National Committee’s website still has a “Republican Culture of Corruption” page, implying that by installing the Democrats back in the congressional majority, we’ll have a virtual monastery of ethical restraint in Washington – with leaders like Patrick Kennedy setting the example."

Brent Bozell blasts Democrats who are desperately trying to foster an image of Mother Theresa like moral superiority.  Only one problem.  You can't claim the high ground when you're too drunk to make it past the barricade at the bottom of the hill.  The Dems are quick to point out, with the help of the liberal media, every infraction, real or perceived of GOP corruption.  In fact,  the "culture of corruption" is at the top of Howard Dean's list of talking points.  Unfortunately for Howie, his partymates are undermining his credibility.  When you have campaign aids serving time for slashing tires and lawmakers under investigation for illegally seeking an opponent's credit report, well, let's just say there is a believability factor here that isn't working in the Dems favor.

Check out Bozell's writeup for a full lineup of Capitol Hill chicanery where the Dems are taking center stage.

   Atwar Bahjat:  Another voice silenced by the darkness and depravity

A true daughter of Iraq, Atwar Bahjat inspired her friends as well as her opponents by her ability to see past any conflict into the eyes of the men and women caught up in the struggle.  Atwar loved her country more than anything and as she reported on the hardships of living in a nation, first at war, and then struggling to evolve into something radically different, she became an Iraqi "everyman".

Adherents of the ROP are making a quick buck in the marketplace.  No.  Not that marketplace. The open air markets on the streets of Pakistan. From Reuters:

"The movie salesman was selling jihad to the converted.

The buyers thronging his stall on the sidelines of a late-night rally in the Pakistani capital belonged to a crowd organized by a sectarian Sunni Muslim group.

'This is the latest video of the beheadings,' he told his customers, as they pored over titles including 'Slaughter of Americans in Iraq,'  'Slaughter of Traitors in Afghanistan' and 'Taliban Celebrations.'"

Not exactly what you'd call peaceful but I suppose if there's nothing else on t.v. and you aren't running low enough the handouts (I mean, humanitarian aid) that the American soldiers have given you in the wake of a natural disaster, what are you going to do on a Saturday night?

"Three weeks ago, a suicide bomber killed at least 57 people at a prayer meeting in Karachi celebrating the birth of the Prophet Mohammad.

At the other end of the country, in the Waziristan tribal area bordering Afghanistan, the toll from weeks of fighting between security forces and pro-Taliban and al Qaeda tribesmen pushed toward 300.

The video seller didn't have the latest action from the conflict on the Afghan border, but he had something just as gruesome.

'This one is about the activities of mujahideen in Waziristan and Afghanistan,' the seller said.

Dated in December, and supposedly shot in Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan, it had footage of hangings ordered by influential militant clerics.

The bodies of the hanged men, described as criminals and bandits, were then dragged through the streets by pick-up trucks, in a grisly demonstration of rough justice in an area where the civil administration has, according to tribesmen, collapsed."

I wonder if he sells popcorn, too.

Men having babies - wrong!

Paying a man to speak seditious words and undermine the very government that writes his paycheck - wrong again!

Freedom of speech, particularly the political and religious speech that we prize so highly, should be afforded every human being.  With only minor exceptions for inciteful speech, people ought to be able to speak their minds freely and without fear.  That includes condemning America and her government's policies.  It includes speech expressing anger and hate for the military and the commander in chief.  It even includes waging a personal war against this nation.  What is does not include is a government funded platform or an institutional endorsement, implied, if not explicitly stated,  through silent tolerance. 

If you feel that Americans should not pay a salary to people who declare themselves threats to national security,  please take a stand and read about one way you can announce to our institutions of higher education that you are tired of being taxed to subsidize terrorist rhetoric.

From this week's blogburst for academic accountability:

Lover of Angels, apparently known to some as Dr. Julio C. Pino of Kent State University has attracted the gaze of anti-terrorist activists.  While LOA hasn't shown anything but reasonable deference in his comments on this blog, (much obliged, Dr.)  he has definitely used his own blog, global-war, as a stump for pro-islamofascism.  His anti-American writings have many readers incensed and determined to see him removed from his post as a professor at a public university in Ohio.  For a look at the petition making its way around the country, click here

One must wonder if Kent State University intentionally fosters an atmosphere for terrorist rhetoric to flourish or if the good Dr. is just another crazed liberal with tenure.  Here's the story again.  Check the bottom of the post for the latest bloggers to join the effort.