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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
During the Hillary/Obama debacle, I was one of those arguing that gender was a greater obstacle than race to high political office. I think now I was wrong.
Remember Alan Keyes, the African American right-winger who coincidentally was the fellow Obama beat for Senate in 2004 (and who now is running a little vanity Pres. campaign of his own)? Well, think about Mr. Keyes for a minute and the times you've seen him mouthing off on the teevee. He's smart, well-spoken, and wacky as the day is long.
Yet he's no wackier in his right-wing religiosity than Gov. Palin. And can anyone even remotely imagine him on the GOP ticket right now?
Not a point that's all that central to the discussion at hand. But funny how Mr. Keyes comes to my mind every time I hear more about Gov. Palin and her God-given plans for America.
Poster TXLogic hit an important nail. "Evangelical" is not bad. I call the bad ones fundamentalists, but even that is not necessarily bad.
"Christianist" is like "islamist," and it probably is the best term. By definition, christianists are dangerous. Evangelicals, in contrast, often are progressive humans, friendly, sympathetic helpers, real Christians.
P.S. Suarez, I will look at your Ayers controversy, but if the guy really were bad, he would be in jail. Are you in jail? Please let us know.
I have been reading here and you have been employing your usual method of demanding proof and then nitpicking the information provided.
No, Palin did not specifically ban books but that she even asked about the possibility of removing books from the library makes her a rather suspect character. Or maybe I should say that it makes her character suspect.
Let's just lay our cards on the table shall we?
Do you support Sarah Palin's election to the vice presidency? If so, why?
Moreover, why do you think some of the authoritarian behaviors that she displayed as mayor are irrelevant to whether those of us who are prochoice, who abhor censorship, who believe that power does not give one carte blanche to start firing people one disagrees with should in anyway soften our objections to her?
Allow me to be a bit personal. What is your religion?
Sarah did inquire into banning books. Just that www list was bogus, not the inquiry. And then Sarah fired the librarian, but the town gave her back her job the next day.
Yes. And republicans try to gloss over this as though it's a little nothing, but it is not for librarians. People who advocate an extremist branch of fundamentalism don't go around asking librarians about banning books just for the opportunity to make casual conversation.
For a librarian, such a question would set off red flags whether that person were a liberal or a conservative. Liberals have tried to ban books for other reasons (Huck Finn, for example, b/c of the language) and if a liberal came to a librarian and asked how that person felt about banning books, the red flag would be the same.
If the person is a political figure with a right wing agenda, then it would be against the history of censorship to assume she did not want an opportunity to pander to the religious right... if she wanted to ban this man's book for personal reasons, that would seem to fit in with many of her other actions as both mayor and gov. She has shown she is vindictive with many personal moments she chooses to politicize.
My opposition to Palin is grounded in my life-long knowledge of Pentacostals, other fundamentalists, evangelicals, and the most dangerous christian cult at this time: Dominionists. While I understand that it is offensive to pentacostals to hear them dismissed, the fact is that the radical Christian right has become a danger to democracy in the eyes of those who honor democracy and our tradition of secular government.
As a mother, I do not want any woman in office who wants to be able to deny my 12 y/o daughter a morning after pill if she were raped. If Palin wants to force such a horror story on her child, that's her family's life... sadly. These religious extremists want to deny morning-after pills because they *might* cause a female to expel a blastocyte.. an undifferentiated mass of cells.
this is a heretical position too... the idea that a one-day old fertilized egg has the same rights as a 12 y/o human.
Palin's positions on cultural issues make it impossible for this woman to EVER support her. In additionk, she showed she was too ignorant about the most imp. foreign policy issue of the last 8 years.
She is frightening because, yes, she is attractive and personable and has great stories to tell and calls people "guys and gals," and all of this has NOTHING to do with the ability to serve as vp/president. She's frightening because more Americans pay attention to American Idol than they do to policy issues.
She and McCain are trying to run on the SAME ideas as those that are now in place while arguing that they are "mavericks" -- this is simply bullshit. They are running against their own platform. How many Americans are stupid enough to fall for this?
Has anyone noticed that today amazon.com is asking an incredible $500.00 for a copy of Bess' book, "Pastor I Am Gay"? Visit their bookstore and enter "Howard Bess" into their search box.
It's not Amazon.com that is asking that price, it is one of the independent sellers that has a partnership with Amazon.com to sell out-of-print, used, and remaindered books. Most often those sell at a considerable discount, but when something becomes collectible, as the seller (Bennet Books, Ltd.) apparently figures this one has, they can command a considerable premium. Could be some copies offered on eBay have sold for something like that.
Amazon doesn't actually say that book is out of print, but it's not available through Amazon.com itself, and it looks like it's only the one independent seller that is offering it. If there were more of them, you could possibly see the asking price come down.
And for another commenter who asked: No, he's not a Southern Baptist; that is not the only Baptist convention in the U.S. If you read the article more closely, you will see that he is part of the *American* Baptist church.
Much of the initial coverage about Fort Hood turned out to be wrong. Is there anything wrong with that?
The accountability imposed by another country for the CIA's kidnapping and torture reveals much about our own.
Fox News' morning show plays to type, talking about whether Muslims in the Army should face "special debriefings"
219 Democrats and one Republican join in favor of the legislation, which passed by a narrow margin
The survivor and author is upset about comparisons some on the right are making to genocide
Salon headlines in your mailbox
