By GottaLaff
This was tweeted to me in response to my previous post, Christians claim Matthew Shepard hate crimes law "criminalizes the Bible":
You can't "license persecution":
Alan Shore (James Spader) of Boston Legal argues to cut down on freedom of religion.H/t: Nanotyrnns
By GottaLaff
A Christian group in Michigan has filed a lawsuit alleging that a package of hate crimes laws named after murder victim Matthew Shepard is an affront to their religious freedom.
Filed by the Thomas More Law Center -- which bills itself as the religious answer to the American Civil Liberties Union -- the complaint claims that protecting gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people "is an effort to eradicate religious beliefs opposing the homosexual agenda from the marketplace of ideas by demonizing, vilifying, and criminalizing such beliefs as a matter of federal law and policy."Thomas More chief counsel Richard Thompson:
"Of the 1.38 million violent crimes reported in the U.S. by the FBI in 2008, only 243 were considered as motivated by the victim’s sexual orientation," he wrote on the group's Web site. "The sole purpose of this law is to criminalize the Bible and use the threat of federal prosecutions and long jail sentences to silence Christians from expressing their Biblically-based religious belief that homosexual conduct is a sin."
So... silencing a life because of sexual orientation is okay. Laws making that illegal aren't. .sdrawkcaB
However, the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act clearly stipulates that it does not apply to constitutionally protected speech.
See, what the actual act stipulates doesn't matter. Legalities don't matter. Justice doesn't matter. Bigotry, hatred, homophobia, and "belief" trumps law, decency, and ethics.
It's the naciremA yaw.
By GottaLaff
And what they will never tell you on Fox "News", and probably not even on CNN or MSNBC, etc. is contained in the following three emails sent to Mikey Weinstein of the Nobel Prize-nominated Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF), following an ABC News exposé last week on the bible versus that are encoded on the rifle scopes made by Trijicon, Inc., and used by our military serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.You'll have to follow the link to read the e-mails, but I'll give you some nasty, hate-filled, bigoted, startling little details from the weevils who need to be exposed right out loud:
The soldier shares an appalling alleged account of his superior officer's description [of the Jesus Gun] [...] All the better, said the officer according to the soldier, than what they might have received since "Uncle Sam had seen fit not to give us a "pussy 'Jewzzi' (combination of the word 'Jew' and Israeli made weapon 'Uzi')"."Jewzzi SIR! Yes SIR!
[T]he senior NCO said that the private's rifle was also something else; that because of the biblical quote on the ACOG gunsight it had been "spiritually transformed into the Fire Arm of Jesus Christ" and that we would be expected to kill every "haji" we could find with it.You can read the rest here.
He said that the enemy no doubt had quotes from the Koran on their guns but that "our Lord is bigger than theirs because theirs is a fraud and an idol". [...]Nope. Nothin' wrong with that. He was just bein' neighborly, doing unto others, and loving his fellow man.
This senior NCO was apparently also the head person of a conservative, crazy Christian group called the "Christian Military Fellowship" and made a big deal about the importance of joining to everyone. He told us all that we MUST read a book called "Under Orders" in order to make it through this combat deployment and said he had many copies for everyone.
By GottaLaff
"We are aware of the issue and are concerned with how this may be perceived," Capt. Geraldine Carey, a spokesperson for the Marine Corps, said in a statement to ABC News. "We will meet with the vendor to discuss future sight procurements." Carey said that when the initial deal was made in 2005 it was the only product that met the Corps needs.Now, now, what's wrong with militarizing religion... or religionizing the military?
However, a spokesperson for CentCom, the U.S. military's overall command in Iraq and Aghanistan, said he did not understand why the issue was any different from U.S. money with religious inscriptions on it.
Just FYI, Trijicon, who makes the sights, has a $660 million multi-year contract for up to 800,000 sights.... for the Marines and the Army.
U.S. military rules specifically prohibit the proselytizing of any religion in Iraq or Afghanistan and were drawn up in order to prevent criticism that the U.S. was embarked on a religious "Crusade" in its war against al Qaeda and Iraqi insurgents.Rules, schmules.
Maj. John Redfield, spokesperson for CentCom:
"This does not constitute proselytizing because this equipment is not issued beyond the U.S. Defense Department personnel. It's not something we're giving away to the local folks."Ohhhh, well then! Our bad.
But ABC News was able to find repeated references to the Biblical citations in on-line discussions of the gun sights.
Oops. What's the opposite of our bad? Our good?
Back in 2006, on a self-described "Armageddon Forum," a number of users discuss the Bible references. "Seems there's a different verse on each model," writes Mr45auto. "They chose some whoppers too!"
And here's one from a 2006 thread on a gaming forum:
"DoD contractor puts bible verses on it's (sic) products."
There were more like this, even on YouTube, where a video about the verses got nearly 20,000 hits. Here are a couple of comments from that very page:
"I love it. I love it. Yes, Trijicon, those guys are Christians. On all of their different sights they have verses on there."
"For those of you who aren't Christians, well, you know, get over it."
It's good to know how concerned everyone is. I feel somehow comforted and no longer feel the need to worry one whit about the separation of church and state.
By GottaLaff
Coded references to New Testament Bible passages about Jesus Christ are inscribed on high-powered rifle sights provided to the United States military by a Michigan company, an ABC News investigation has found.
The sights are used by U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan and in the training of Iraqi and Afghan soldiers. The maker of the sights, Trijicon, has a $660 million multi-year contract to provide up to 800,000 sights to the Marine Corps, and additional contracts to provide sights to the U.S. Army.U.S. military rules specifically prohibit the proselytizing of any religion in Iraq or Afghanistan and were drawn up in order to prevent criticism that the U.S. was embarked on a religious "Crusade" in its war against al Qaeda and Iraqi insurgents.
One of the citations on the gun sights, 2COR4:6, is an apparent reference to Second Corinthians 4:6 of the New Testament, which reads: "For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ."
There are more references cited here.
Whatever happened to separation of church and state? Remember that?
According to "Mikey" Weinstein of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, an advocacy group that seeks to preserve the separation of church and state in the military, this violates the Constitution.
Weinstein, an attorney and former Air Force officer, said many members of his group who currently serve in the military have complained about the markings on the sights. He also claims they've told him that commanders have referred to weapons with the sights as "spiritually transformed firearm[s] of Jesus Christ."
He said coded biblical inscriptions play into the hands of "those who are calling this a Crusade."
That should go over well.
By GottaLaff
Via the wonderful Celtic Diva:
By GottaLaff
A must-read GQ piece reveals never-before-seen cover sheets from former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld's top-secret intelligence briefings, which feature Bible passages thematically selected to correspond with war events. Despite objections within the Pentagon to the cover sheets, these reports were distributed daily to a limited group, including the president.Who wants to throw Rummy into a not-so-padded cell at Gitmo? Hands? It's unanimous.
Frank Rich: "They are seriously creepy."
Other key tidbits from the piece:
Rumsfeld played a significant role in delaying parts of the administration's response to the Hurricane Katrina disaster areas.
Rumsfeld was among a group within the administration who successfully fought a recommendation to award the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA).
President Bush was hesitant and slow to act on the dismissal of Rumsfeld even when counseled to do so by his close advisers.
Obviously because there is nothing more important in America right now. All our troops are home safe, trading flowers and off color jokes with our friends the Mexicans at the border, children dance and sing in the street (when they're not getting straight A's in Math and Science in our state of the art schools) and all of us live to be 100 under our everyone is equal health system. Amiright?
Rep. Paul Broun [R-GA] has introduced a resolution to encourage Obama to declare that 2010 is The Year Of The Bible. Now, excuse me if I'm wrong about this, but I thought 2010 was going to be the Year of the Tiger.
(snip)
Rep. Lynn Westmoreland [R-GA]
Rep. John Carter [R-TX]
Rep. James Forbes [R-VA]
Rep. John Gingrey [R-GA]
Rep. Zach Wamp [R-TN]
Rep. Todd Akin [R-MO]
Rep. Thaddeus McCotter [R-MI]
Rep. Mike Pence [R-IN]
Rep. Louis Gohmert [R-TX]
Rep. Trent Franks [R-AZ]
Rep. Jim Jordan [R-OH]
Rep. Doug Lamborn [R-CO]
Rep. Kenny Marchant [R-TX]
Let the screeching begin!! I'm going to have to truck in the popcorn for this one.
A gay version of the Bible, in which God says it is better to be gay than straight, is to be published by an American film producer.
New Mexico-based Revision Studios will publish The Princess Diana Bible – so named because of Diana's "many good works", it says – online at princessdianabible.com in spring 2009. A preview of Genesis is already available, in which instead of creating Adam and Eve, God creates Aida and Eve.
(snip)
The film studio said it would also adapt and direct the revised Bible as a two-part mini-series, The Gay Old Testament and The Gay New Testament, once it is completed.
"There are many different versions of the Bible; I don't see why we can't have one," said Max Mitchell, who directed the science fiction comedy Horror in the Wind, in which an airborne formula invented by two biogeneticists reverses the world's sexual orientation.
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