Friday, March 21, 2014
Westboro church founder Fred Phelps dies
Fred Phelps -- the founding pastor of a Kansas church recognized for its virulently anti-gay protests at public occasions, including military funerals -- has died, the church stated Thursday.
Phelps founded Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kansas, in 1955 and molded it in his fire and brimstone picture. Many members of the tiny congregation are related to Phelps through blood or marriage.
In a statement Thursday, the church chided the "world-wide media" for "gleefully anticipating the departure."
"God forbid, if every small soul in the Westboro Baptist Church should happen to perish only at that instant, or to turn from serving the authentic and living God, it would not alter one thing regarding the judgments of God that await this greatly corrupted nation and globe."
According to Westboro, the church has picketed over 53,000 occasions, including Lady Ga Ga concerts to funerals for slain U.S. soldiers. Normally, a dozen or so churchgoers -- including little children -- will brandish signs that say "God Hates Fags" and "Thank God for Dead Soldiers."
Phelps was regularly called "the most hated man in The Us," a label he appeared to relish.
"Basically had no body mad at me," he advised the Wichita Eagle in 2006, "what correct would I have to assert that I was preaching the Gospel?"
Under Phelps' leadership, Westboro members have preached that every calamity, from natural disasters to the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Ct, is God's punishment for the nation's acceptance of homosexuality. Phelps had urged for homosexuals and lesbians to be put to death.
"Fred Phelps won't be missed by the LGBT neighborhood, individuals with HIV/AIDS/AIDS and also the numerous decent folks around the world who found what he and his followers do greatly hurtful and offensive," the Nationwide Gay and Lesbian Task-Force said in a statement.
"While it is hard to locate anything good to mention about his viewpoints or activities, we do give our condolences to his family members at what should be a painful time in their opinion."
Phelps began his anti-homosexual demonstrations in Wichita in 1991 after whining the city refused to discontinue homosexual actions in a public park. He climbed to nationwide notoriety in 1998, when Westboro members picketed in the funeral of Matthew Shepard, a Wyoming guy who was tortured and killed because he was gay. Phelps and his church carried signs that said Shepard was rotting in hell.
In 2011, the Highest Court upheld Westboro's correct to picket military funerals on free-speech reasons. Congress and many states, however, have passed laws aimed at keeping church members at a distance from funerals.
In 2013, over 367,000 petitioners called on the White House to legally acknowledge Westboro Baptist Church as a dislike group. The White House called Westboro's demonstrations "reprehensible" but stated that "as a matter of practice, the federal government does not maintain a listing of hate groups."
Anti-homosexual preacher once fought for civil rights
Produced in Meridian, Mississippi, on November 29, 1929, Phelps had his sights set on West Stage before he attended a Methodist resurrection.
Produced in Meridian, Mississippi, on November 29, 1929, Phelps had his sights set on West Stage before he attended a Methodist resurrection.
"I believed the call, as the saying goes, and it had been strong," Phelps advised the Topeka Capital-Journal in 1994. "The God of glory appeared."
He bounced around several Christian faculties as his theology and his sermon took a difficult right flip.
A Time journal article from 1951 describes Phelps as a "craggy-confronted engineering pupil" who harangued fellow students concerning the dangers of promiscuity and profanity.
Tim Miller, a professor of religious history at the University of Kansas who has analyzed Westboro Baptist Church, stated Phelps liked to consider himself a "primitive Baptist preacher who held to the outdated manners."
Phelps married his wife, Marge, who survives him, in 1952. The couple moved to Topeka on May 4, 1954, the day the High Court handed down its landmark decision Brown v. Board of Education, which desegregated community schools.
Phelps shortly started a law career that dedicated to civil rights, winning honours for his function and praise from neighborhood leaders and interpreted that as a sign.
"Most blacks -- that's who they went to," the Rev. Ben Scott, president of the NAACP's Topeka division, told CNN in 2010. "I don't know if he was cheaper or if he had that stick-to-it-ness, but Fred did not drop many back then."
The Kansas Supreme Court stated that Phelps "has little regard for the moral principles of his career."
Phelps surrendered his license to practice law in federal courts in 1989, as stated by the Topeka Capital-Journal, after nine U.S. District Court judges filed disciplinary complaints against him.
All the members of Phelps' Westboro Baptist Church are members of his large household. Phelps has 1-3 children; 11 are attorneys. One son, Nathan, is estranged from his dad and from organized religion. He's an atheist.
Nathan Phelps posted a Facebook message March 15 saying that his dad was excommunicated from your church. After, though, Nathan Phelps mentioned it was "uncertain" whether his dad were expelled from Westboro.
Westboro declined to say whether Phelps has been excommunicated. A church statement said March 1-6 that "membership dilemmas are personal" and that eight unnamed elders lead the congregation.
On Thursday, the church included, "Listen carefully; there are no power challenges in the Westboro Baptist Church, and there is no human intercessor -- we serve no guy, with no hierarchy, only the Lord Jesus Christ."
For decades, Phelps joked regarding the possibility that protests would be drawn by his own funeral. Throughout a sermon in 2006, he mentioned a CNN reporter once asked how he'd feel if that happened.
"I Would like it. I Had encourage them," Phelps advised the newsman, based on the Wichita Eagle. "I said: 'I'll put in my will to pay your method. But not first class.' "
But Shirley Phelps-Roper, Phelps' daughter, said Westboro won't hold a funeral.
"We do not worship the dead," Phelps-Roper told CNN.com
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Author: Daniel Burke, CNN
In Montana, some of the Democratic candidates on the primary ballot are really Right Wing extremist wolves in sheep's clothing.
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| Muppet hater Michael Comstock |
Democratic primary voters in some Montana legislative districts will see new and unfamiliar names on the ballot this year. That’s because at least eight Democratic candidates are actually far-right “constitutionalists” and Tea Party activists. One of them is the current Republican vice-chairman for Sanders County. Two of the others have turned out to be homeless.
Most of the activity has occurred in Gallatin County, where Bozeman is the main population center and county seat. The county is home not only to Montana State University but also a variety of extremist elements. Key members of the radical Montana Freemen group were active there in the 1990s.
Chief among the new crop of candidates is Michael Comstock, a well-known local Tea Party activist and antigovernment “Patriot” movement organizer who has run previously as a Republican. This year, he filed to run in the Democratic primary for the state Senate seat in District 24, a seat currently held by Republican incumbent Roger Webb, who is running for re-election.
Comstock claimed during an interview with KCFW-TV in Bozeman that he’s a mainstream Democrat in the tradition of John F. Kennedy and Montana icon Mike Mansfield, and more mainstream than his primary opponent, Democratic activist and educator April Buonamici. But as the blogger Montana Cowgirl observed in her posts calling out Comstock and the other candidates, no one in Bozeman who knows Comstock is fooled by this, since he has been a colorful figure on the local political scene for many years:
Comstock’s main focus is his concern about a possible takeover by ‘a one-world UN controlled government,’ the Bozeman Chronicle has reported. In his campaign literature and on Facebook, he says he is worried about the impending collapse of civilization. He proudly calls himself ‘a Tea Party extremist’ and believes the Muppets have ‘sold out to socialism and bad behavior.’
Yes, well everybody knows that the Muppets are tools of the radical Left Wing. Right?
So here's a question.
If the Democrats are in such trouble in 2014, and the Republicans have such clear sailing ahead, WHY are they resorting to all of these dirty tricks in order to sabotage the Democratic primary, and suppress turnout?
No everything indicates that they are the ones that are worried, and that we are the ones who need to recognize that we are the ones in the catbird's seat.
Of course if we don't have that confidence we could still shoot ourselves in the foot.
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The Washington Times gushes over Palin's new show on the Sportsman Channel, seems impressed that she could get a reality show while somebody like Harry Reid could not.
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| The picture that has the Sea O'Pee wetting their panties. |
Sarah Palin is hitting the road with her guns, fishing rods and “Mama Grizzly” persona.
The former Alaska governor is returning to reality TV as host of “Amazing America,” a weekly series on the Sportsman Channel set to begin in April.
According to its billing, Mrs. Palin “takes viewers coast-to-coast where the American spirit and the great outdoors are celebrated in equal measure.”
“It takes a certain kind of pizzazz for a politician to make the move into reality television,” said Jeffrey McCall, professor of communication at DePauw University. “Harry Reid, for example, could never find a reality television platform that would catch on. The Sportsman Channel, however, has found a great fit with Sarah Palin. Palin has a special attraction for her fans, many of whom are likely viewers for Sportsman Channel.”
Okay let's stop right there.
These people DO realize that the goal of most politicians is not to move from public service into a realm of entertainment dominated by the likes of Honey Boo Boo and the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills right?
Since when does anybody believe that successful politicians are actually jealous of a half term governor, who has lost all political credibility, and is now appearing at the opening of carpet stores and calling into low rated radio talks shows in a desperate attempt to stay relevant?
Answer: Never.
At least the Washington Times got this part right:
The show is Mrs. Palin’s second direct attempt at reality television. In 2010, she and her family were the focus of TLC’s “Sarah Palin’s Alaska.” The series premiere was the network’s most-watched with nearly 5 million viewers, though the show lost roughly half of that audience after four episodes.
Yep, much like everything Plain does the curious showed up to check the show out and then were driven away by the inherent stupidity and lack of entertainment value.
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Founder of the Westboro Church, Fred Phelps, has died.
Fred Phelps Sr., the former head of the Westboro Baptist Church, died late Wednesday night, according to a family member.
Phelps' son, Timothy told 13 News that his father died just before midnight. Timothy Phelps works at the Shawnee Co. Jail.
Ironically, another son who is a member of the church, attorney Jonathan Phelps told us Thursday morning, "Pastor Phelps is doing just fine." That, of course, could have been a spiritual reference.
Margie Phelps, Phleps daughter, told WIBW-AM that there will be no funeral for him.
This is not exactly news as we had already been made aware that he was on death's door.
What is interesting is that there will be no funeral. Possibly due to fear that there would be protests or some kind of insensitive disturbance that would embarrass or upset his family members.
And we all know how hateful people can be, right?
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Wisconsin State Senator, who is a Republican is no longer willing to defend the GOP.
WI GOP State Senator Dale Schultz was on on The Devil’s Advocates radio show discussing voter suppression, specifically bills that cut back on early voting. Schultz's own party, the party o' dirty tricks, has been doing whatever it can to make voting harder, because when turnout is high, it usually translates into Democratic wins.
So of course, rather than fighting for victories in the good old fashioned, all-American, patriotic, apple pie honest way, Republicans resort to cheating, because they know they'd never win by approaching elections, you know, fairly.
Schultz:
“I began this session thinking that there was some lack of faith in our voting process and we maybe needed to address it. But I have come to the conclusion that this is far less noble...
"We are not encouraging voting, we are not making voting easier in any way shape or form by these bills...
"I don't see how you can claim to be improving things by actually reducing hours... but maybe this is Never Never Land, who knows?
"It’s just, I think, sad when a political party — my political party — has so lost faith in its ideas that it’s pouring all of its energy into election mechanics. And again, I’m a guy who understands and appreciates what we should be doing in order to make sure every vote counts, every vote is legitimate. But that fact is, it ought to be abundantly clear to everybody in this state that there is no massive voter fraud.
"The only thing that we do have in this state is we have long lines of people who want to vote. And it seems to me that we should be doing everything we can to make it easier, to help these people get their votes counted. And that we should be pitching as political parties our ideas for improving things in the future, rather than mucking around in the mechanics and making it more confrontational at our voting sites and trying to suppress the vote...
“I am not willing to defend them [his colleagues] anymore. I’m just not and I’m embarrassed by this...
"[Voter suppression is] plain wrong...
"It is all predicated on some belief there is a massive fraud or irregularities, something my colleagues have been hot on the trail of for three years and have failed miserably at demonstrating.”
This kind of internal turmoil is happening all over the Republican party, in state after state, and yet there are numerous reports that Democrats are feeling insecure about our chances in 2014.
I just don't get it. This is our chance to take advantage of real dissension among the conservatives, and if we do not get motivated to mobilize now and get out the vote before they work out their differences then when will we?
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Believing that story of the White House chef resigning negatively reflects on the First Lady, and her focus on healthy eating, Sarah Palin tries to get a few licks in herself.
“W.H. pastry chef quits: ‘I don’t want to demonize cream, butter, sugar and eggs’” I love this person.
Palin then offers a link to a Washington Times article with the above headline.
Oooh, bitchy! Right?
Of course if she had bothered to read the article, she would have read this:
“[She’s] definitely an inspiring boss,” he said, to The New York Times. “She has done [her campaign] with humor and good will, without preaching, just the way you would hope.”
Not exactly a slam on the First Lady now is it?
The chef, Bill Yosses, is also going to move to New York to teach people some "healthy eating tactics." So clearly he was incredibly upset about Michelle Obama's focus on healthy eating, don'tcha know?
So ridiculous is the assertion, that Yosses is leaving due to a conflict with Michelle Obama, that even Glenn Beck's media outlet, The Blaze, could not let it stand:
The quote he gave the Times about not wanting to “demonize” sugary foods appears to have been said more in good humor instead of as a scathing remark against Obama’s healthy foods campaign.
As for Michelle Obama being “partly to blame” for Yosses leaving? That was simply a clever opening lede to the Times’ story.
Technically, the Times said the first lady is partly to blame — but that’s because it said she inspired him to teach others about healthy foods, not because Yosses was unhappy working under her.
If evidence exists that Yosses left for other reasons, none has been presented thus far.
You know when you are so wrong that The Blaze feels the need to correct you, you KNOW you have gone off the deep end.
By the by Palin also uses this middle school girl attack to congratulate Piper on her birthday. You know, why not?
And HAPPY, HAPPY BIRTHDAY PIPER INDI GRACE! We love you!
Nothing like having your happy birthday wishes wrapped in a giant fuck you to the First Lady, isn't it Piper?
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America only highly developed nation that thinks belief in God is essential for morality.
America is the only highly developed country where a majority of citizens think you have to believe in God in order to live a moral life.
Here’s a portion of the international breakdown in response to the question, “is belief in God essential to morality?”
China: 14%
France: 15%
Spain: 19%
Australia: 23%
Britain: 20%
Italy: 27%
Canada: 31%
Germany 33%
Israel: 37%
Japan: 42%
America: 53%
As many of you know the name of this blog is essentially to spit in the eye of those who claim that only those who embrace a certain religious belief are capable of being moral people.
It has always been my position that Steven Weinberg was right when he said:
“With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion.”
Besides it is incredibly arrogant to suggest that any one group have the market cornered on morality, and in fact morality itself is a rather mercurial concept, that shifts and changes based on circumstances and needs.
Are Christians. Jews, or Muslims willing to say that they are the moral superior to the Hindus? The Buddhists? The Sikhs? The Jains?
What incredible egos it must take to believe that out of all of the thousands of religions and gods that mankind has worshiped throughout our history that you have figured out the one true religion, and the one true God.
And how convenient that it is, more than likely, the most readily accessible religion for you to access in your community.
In so many ways our country is a shining example of progress, tolerance, and acceptance. But in other ways it is anything but.
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