Friday, September 17, 2010

Via JMG: DADT Action: GetEQUAL Delivers Signed Combat Boots To Sen. Jim Webb (D-VA)


AmericaBlog reports:
Senator Jim Webb (D-VA) voted against the compromise DADT amendment in the Senate Armed Services Committee on May 27th. He's getting a visit from GetEQUAL today, which you can follow on GetEQUAL's Facebook page and via Twitter.the 2006 campaign, Webb wore the combat boots of his son who was serving in Iraq. Servicemembers will be leaving their combat boots for Webb, which is a powerful symbol. During the 2006 campaign, Webb wore the combat boots of his son who was serving in Iraq.
Joe Sudbay notes that the following Senators are uncommitted to breaking a possible GOP filibuster:
--Susan Collins (R-ME)
--Olympia Snowe (R-ME)
--Mark Pryor (D-Ark.)
--Richard Lugar (R-IN)
--Judd Gregg (R-NH)
--Jim Webb (D-VA)
--George Voinovich (R-OH)
Have you called your Senators today? The vote is scheduled for Tuesday at 2:30pm.


reposted from Joe

Via JMG: CALIFORNIA: Denny's Waiter Stabbed For Being Gay, Cops Rule It A Hate Crime


A waiter at a Denny's restaurant in Santa Maria, California is hospitalized with neck and throat wounds after being attacked by a customer who first demanded to know, "Are you gay?" When the waiter replied that he was, the customer stabbed him with a knife. The 24 year-old assailant fled the scene but was later apprehended and charged with attempted murder as a hate crime. The waiter is expected to survive.


reposted from Joe

Via JMG: Catholic League Nutter Bill Donohue: Atheists Should Apologize For Adolf Hitler


"The pope cited Hitler today, asking everyone to 'reflect on the sobering lessons of atheist extremism of the 20th century.' Immediately, the British Humanist Association got its back up, accusing the pope of 'a terrible libel against those who do not believe in God.' The pope did not go far enough. Radical atheists like the British Humanist Association should apologize for Hitler. But they should not stop there. They also need to issue an apology for the 67 million innocent men, women and children murdered under Stalin, and the 77 million innocent Chinese killed by Mao. Hitler, Stalin and Mao were all driven by a radical atheism, a militant and fundamentally dogmatic brand of secular extremism. It was this anti-religious impulse that allowed them to become mass murderers. By contrast, a grand total of 1,394 were killed during the 250 years of the Inquisition, most all of whom were murdered by secular authorities." - Catholic League nutjob Bill Donohue.

FACT CHECK: As Donohue knows, Hitler was in fact a Catholic JUST LIKE BILL DONOHUE and sang in the choir at the Benedictine monastery he attended as a child.

Hitler publicly denounced atheism as inherently communist. "For eight months we have been waging a heroic battle against the Communist threat to our Volk, the decomposition of our culture, the subversion of our art, and the poisoning of our public morality. We have put an end to denial of God and abuse of religion. We owe Providence humble gratitude for not allowing us to lose our battle against the misery of unemployment and for the salvation of the German peasant."

The Catholic Hitler also denounced secular education. "Secular schools can never be tolerated because such schools have no religious instruction, and a general moral instruction without a religious foundation is built on air; consequently, all character training and religion must be derived from faith."
Here's your precious fucking Pope, Bill!


reposted from Joe

Via JMG: Andrew Sullivan On Christine O'Donnell


"A mischievous thought: when will someone ask O'Donnell, as a single woman, if, since her conversion to Catholicism, she has ever masturbated? She cannot have had any sex, right? And that includes sex alone. Since she has made this a public stance, and since, apparently, she cannot lie (even if it would mean handing over Jews to Nazis), she has made the question perfectly legit." - Andrew Sullivan on Christine O'Donnell, who has said if she knew where the Jews were hiding and the Nazis asked, she'd have to tell them because she cannot tell a lie.


Reposted from Joe

Via Tricycle: Earth-touching Buddha



One of the most recognizable and poignant images in Buddhist iconography is the "Earth-touching Buddha," the Buddha seated with the fingertips of his right hand gently touching the ground. At the moment of his enlightenment under the Bodhi Tree, the Buddha was challenged by the demon Mara to prove the claim that a human being could become an awakened one. In reply, the Buddha touched the ground and called the earth to be his witness.

Nepal, 13th century gilt copper alloy, 17.5 x 15 in. © 2010 Rubin Museum of Art (HAR 65687)

Via Utne: The Angry Monk


Shozan Jack Haubner shows that Zen practice stirs up energy and emotion, and it can be downright ugly.

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