I have very little interest in what Bin Laden says on the tape. I would just like to point out that five years is a long time for a mass murderer and chief propogandist to be allowed to run free.
If the originalists are indeed correct, since the Constitution doesn’t explicitly protect personal autonomy from government intrusion, it therefore doesn’t afford any protection thereof. If that’s true, then the states can violate your personal autonomy however the hell they want, and you have no federal recourse. And if that’s true, then I’d argue that the Constitution is a piece of shit, not worth the parchment it was lettered onto.
Discuss.
SaveDarfur.org is trying:
Million Voices for Darfur
The Save Darfur Coalition, in cooperation with over 150 faith-based, advocacy, and humanitarian aid organizations, is proud to announce the launching of the Million Voices for Darfur campaign, an unprecedented effort to raise awareness of the genocide taking place in Darfur and promote the actions necessary to end it. The goal of the Million Voices for Darfur campaign is to generate one million hand-written and electronic postcards from Americans demanding a stronger and more effective U.S. response. Specifically, the campaign calls on the United States government to support a stronger multinational force to protect the civilians of Darfur. Click here to visit the Million Voices site and learn more.
Click here for the Million Voices press releaseCall the President and Ask him make Darfur a priority in 2006
As the President puts the finishing touches on both his State of the Union address and the FY07 budget, please take a moment to remind him that ending the genocide in Darfur must be a priority in 2006. The White House comments line is 202-456-1111.
This could be interesting:
More than 100 gay families have signed up to attend the White House’s annual Easter egg roll in April.
“It will help Americans see real gay, lesbian and transgender headed families,” said Jennifer Chrisler, executive director of Family Pride, one of the groups spearheading the event.
This is the first year Family Pride has organized gay families to participate in the event.
Chrisler said some “fringe groups” have attacked them. “The right always gets very concerned when LGBT parents show up with their children,” she said. “The more we are the same, the less potent the arguments are for discriminating against us.”
Does the White House tick off the James Dobsons of the world, or does it publicaly tell the children of gay couples that they are unclean and unworthy of being treated like other children?
As an aisde, who asked this and what organization does he work for?
The only response from the White House was in Press Secretary Scott McClellan’s briefing on Wednesday. A reporter asked McClellan about a gay rights group attending the Easter event “as a way to show the nation their so-called families.”
The reporter inquired, “Will the president take any measures to prevent these activists from using this non-political event as a way to push their agenda on the rest of us?”
Ocean County Freeholders (the government of the County) have rejected the plea of a Gay police officer dying of cancer. She wanted her partner to receive her pension upon her death, as state law allows and common human decency demands:
Although the freeholders appeared moved by the three-minute video, they were not budging from their decision to not extend Hester’s pension benefits to her life partner, Stacie Andree. At least one freeholder said the board would not change its mind before Hester’s death.
“The board has said so far it is a legitimate and reasonable position we’ve taken,” Freeholder John Bartlett Jr. said after the meeting. “In my opinion, I don’t see any need to change it.”
… After nearly two hours of hearing from the public, Freeholder Director Gerry Little, who often interrupted speakers to interject comments or explanations, would not answer direct questions from Hester’s former colleague, Dane Wells.
Hester worked as a police officer for twenty-four years. She literally put her life on the line to protect people like the freeholders. She built a long lasting, stable household with another hard working member of the community. She has done everything our society asks of its members and she has played by all the rules. If it wasn’t for a quirk of biology, the freeholders would be falling over themselves to help her. But that quirk of biology is enough for the freeholders of Ocean Country to turn their backs on a dying woman. What she is matters more to them than who she is. She is not of the right kind, so they will punish her and the people she loves for having the temerity to be different than them.
And please save the arguments about what God wants. The Biblical case for singling out homosexuality, for making sure homosexuals can never, ever think of themselves as real human beings is pathetically weak. It is based on ignoring what the Bible says about Sodom, a book filled with rules that Paul says no longer have to be obeyed, and a couple of other ambiguous references to things that might be homosexuality in general but are almost certainly references to certain acts in contexts specific to Hellenic culture and religion. Scraps of paper, barely noticeable among the width and breadth of the Bible. And against those scraps stand the Gospels, pages and pages reinforcing the message of Jesus: love and respect your neighbors, treat all men with justice and mercy, worry about the state of your own soul and leave the state of your neighbors’ souls to God. If you truly believe that those scrapes are more important than the mountain of Jesus’ message then close your Bibles and lock them in your desk drawers, for they have done you no good.
Links via Pandagon
Royalty was like dandelions. No matter how many heads you chopped off, the roots were still there underground, waiting to spring up again.
It seemed to be a chronic disease. It was as if even the most intelligent person had this little blank spot in their heads where someone had written: "Kings. What a good idea." Whoever had created humanity had left in a major design flaw. It was its tendency to bend at the knees.
-- Terry Pratchett, Feet of Clay
