Tuesday, January 5, 2016

News Tidbits

NPR: Mormon Faith Serves As Powerful Symbol For Oregon Protesters

Associated Press: ACLU to school: No 'God bless America' after pledge

Religion News Service: Supreme Court Justice Scalia: Constitution says government can favor religion 

Washington Post: 2015 was deadliest year for domestic extremist violence in two decades, report says

Washington Post: Donald Trump will speak at Liberty University, where he finds a friend in Jerry Falwell Jr.

The Local: Spanish Archbishop blames domestic violence on 'disobedient wives'


4 comments:

  1. Why do the idiots always get the attention?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Jono -- Because they're amusing, and so the rest of us know to avoid them.

      Delete
  2. The Oregon "standoff" makes absolutely no sense, even for a Mormon extremist like Bundy.

    He and his none-too-bright recruits showed up in a small town in one of the most obscure and isolated parts of the country to "protest" the punishment of two ranchers who want nothing to do with them, then "took over" an abandoned bird refuge that most people have never heard of in what they're calling "an armed standoff" with the feds (who were long gone for the winter, so … remind me, where was the standoff?). Clearly, they did not want a real confrontation.

    Now they refuse to leave until their "unspecified demands" are met … and the press trips over themselves to shove a microphone in Bundy's face every time he calls a press conference, which he does with clockwork precision after clearly prepping in front of a mirror to make sure his beard is trimmed and his Stetson is sitting at the right angle.

    If Bundy's goal is to wrest public lands away from the feds, none of this makes any sense (not that I'm accusing him of having any sense). There are plenty of other much higher profile and hotly disputed options than an obscure refuge in southeastern Oregon. For example, lots of federally-protected areas in south central Utah are much closer to Bundy's home and are rich in natural resources; and federal control of those lands is an ongoing source of conflict between the feds and the various private interests that would like to exploit the land for their own use (including and especially Big Oil, whose interests the unsophisticated Bundy-ites are inadvertently promoting when they protest against the feds … because in the unlikely even that the feds relinquish control, those lands sure as hell are not going to be turned over to a ragtag bunch of farmers and ranchers for their personal ATV use and cattle grazing; they'll be sold to the highest bidders (i.e. Kochs) who will block public access and start drilling).

    In fact, Utah's governor has wasted millions of tax dollars bringing lawsuits against the federal government in a futile effort to "take back our public lands" (that never belonged to the state to begin with … but why mention facts that are inconvenient?).

    As for the Bundy-ites, what I want to know is who called the first press conference? And how far in advance before the supposed standoff? Because as awkward and strange as Bundy is, he's been playing to and manipulating the press from the beginning.

    I saw this quote yesterday and it seems to fit: "Never trust anything that can think for itself if you can’t see where it keeps its brain." -- J. K. Rowling

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Agi Tater -- The occupation of the bird refuge was ill-planned and hopelessly misguided from the beginning. They fail to grasp even basic ideas about PR, public land use, or the needs of the people they're championing. I'm concerned about the ecological impact that these rebel-wannabes will have on the refuge.

      http://progressiveerupts.blogspot.com/2016/01/the-occupation-of-malheur-by-armed-out.html

      If you need a chuckle, the staff at Gawker sent these buffoons a care package.

      http://gawker.com/we-sent-the-oregon-militia-idiots-a-care-package-1751223009

      Delete

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