I can't believe Ms. Marcotte would cite here 'expose' on the Catholic Church's teaching on birth control as exculpatory evidence against the claims she is a bigot.

In that post, Ms. Marcotte states she received a two page sheet from a "friend" who was involved in a premarital class at a Catholic church. Ms. Marcotte does not scan and upload this sheet as most others in the left blogosphere do when discussing a document. (I guess this really was 'going undercover the lazy way' or she is not familar with the ubiquitous PDF)

In the lead up to the post Ms. Marcotte states that what she is about to expose is all true and widespread. "The critical issue here is understanding that this is not a fringe teaching. This is mainstream Catholicism. In fact, as my friend noted, since this is “liberal” Austin, this was a pretty mild version of what the church is pushing on people—friends of hers who are both medical professionals in the more conservative Colorado were required to go to three separate family planning sessions to be fed misinformation about contraception, which they also had little patience for since they also knew full well it was horse shit."

The fact that Ms. Marcotte thinks Catholic parishes are liberal or conservative based on the city they are in should tell you that she doesn't know much about Catholics or their churches.

So we have no document, hearsay evidence and then her post is directly refuted by the vast majority of self-identified Catholics leaving comments. One is left with the impression that instead of investigating the real world counseling Catholics are receiving before marriage, Ms. Marcotte decided to portray Catholic premarital teachings in as negative a way as possible.

Her writing is this way by design. Whether Ms. Marcotte is anti-Catholic only she really knows, but the post in question is not evidence against such a supposition.

Marcotte is an uneducated hick from Alpine in West Texas. She has cheated the people of Texas for years spewing her hate while on the taxpayers' dime working at the University of Texas McCombs School of Management.

It's encouraging to see that liberals as well as conservatives mostly agree and understand what a turd she truly is.

I have more respect than I can communicate for many Christians' contribution to a better world. Ministers in England and the U.S. spoke out loudly against the slave trade in the 19th century and gathered support to end it. Some churches in the antebellum South were stops along the Underground Railroad. African-American churches in the South served as rallying points againt Jim Crow laws, and succeeded through non-violence. Today, Christian charitable groups are active in Africa, offering immunizations and teaching farming skills, and on a smaller but significant scale, groups like Habitat for Humanity actively work to better people's lives. And the Pope publically condemned the invasion of Iraq. Not a small blow.

Is it possible that what some Christians sense as hostility towards their religion is instead a reaction to false Christians who believe that they should only be judged by their beliefs? (Was it Paul who said Christians would be known by their actions?)The reaction to false Christians may be regrettably harsh, but the Republican party decided around the time of Libby Dole's ascent to embrace the money-raising schemes of Pat Robertson and Ralph Reed. These people were loud supporters of the invasion of Iraq and other short-sighted blunders. Bush has responded by giving tax money to religious groups, and they remained silent when the voice of Christianity, if by that I can mean the voice calling for peace and humanity, was most needed.

We need to heal, to put our heads together, whether we are Christians or Muslims or only people, and work to support those who want peace and the common good. And oppose those who would pit us against each other.

Somebody over in the Joe Conason thread posted a link to researcher Bob Altemeyer's online published book "The Authoritarians." Altemeyer was a primary source for John Dean in his recent New York Times bestseller "Conservatives without Conscience" about authoritarian followers and their leaders in the US.

Altemeyer says something very interesting about authoritarian aggression that I think describes the people threatening Marcotte and McEwan:

"Authoritarian followers usually avoid anything approaching a fair fight. Instead they aggress when they believe right and might are on their side. “Right” for them means, more than anything else, that their hostility is (in their minds) endorsed by established authority, or supports such authority. “Might” means they have a huge physical advantage over their target, in weaponry say, or in numbers, as in a lynch mob. It’s striking how often authoritarian aggression happens in dark and cowardly ways, in the dark, by cowards who later will do everything they possibly can to avoid responsibility for what they did. Women, children, and others unable to defend themselves are typical victims. Even more striking, the attackers typically feel morally superior to the people they are assaulting in an unfair fight."

Does he describe to a tee the people who came after Marcotte or what? That's amazing to me...

If you've got enough time and interest to be following this Marcotte thread, then you ought to go peruse Altemeyer's online book:

http://home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~altemey/

He also describes Marcotte. Let's face it, the only reason she has her own blog is so she can practice the same authoritarian, bully techniques she claims to have been oppressed by all these years. There are idiots on all sides of this fight, jonny.

As a Black activist in the real world and in the blogsphere, I can dish it and take it... It is obvious Amanda was nothing more than a fictional warrior a white elitist blogivist who like most white liberals and white conservatives truly no nothing about the reality of power, politics and truth in this country. Life in this country when you are not a part of the ruling class is not a walk in the park or a slick and clever retort on a blog.

Amanda, you of course are no different than many so called activists when the shit it's the fan you fold up and call it a day. I hope you do not become any role model but an example of a quitter. The winner in this saga is Edwards who did not surrender or cut and run like you, that is a good thing for folks to witness and remember during this campaign run....