The Age
NEXT time you’re sick consider asking your loved ones not to pray for you.A study of more than 1800 patients who underwent heart bypass surgery has failed to show that prayers said for their recovery had any impact. In fact, some of the patients who knew they were being prayed for did worse than others who were only told they might be prayed for.
11 The Pharisees came out and began to argue with Him, seeking from Him a sign from heaven, to test Him.
12 Sighing deeply in His spirit, He said, “Why does this generation seek for a sign? Truly I say to you, no sign will be given to this generation.”
Borders and Waldenbooks stores will not stock the April-May issue of Free Inquiry magazine because it contains cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad that provoked deadly protests among Muslims in several countries.
“For us, the safety and security of our customers and employees is a top priority, and we believe that carrying this issue could challenge that priority,” Borders Group Inc. spokeswoman Beth Bingham said Wednesday.
I personally would handle things differently that Borders and Waldenbooks but I understand their right to not carry something that might, at least in their opinion, endanger folks. Were it me I would carry them and maybe have a little extra security in the stores. The point here is that it’s not me running things and these businesses, not owned by the government, have made a decision. If I don’t like that decision then I won’t shop there. In reality I don’t care whether they carry the magazine or not so it won’t slow any shopping I might do at those stores. We have a free market and we can really make a difference if companies will lose money with bad decisions.
I do apologize. That looks scattered. The problem is that the company made a pretty safe decision that most people don’t care one hill of beans about. Most people excluding the moonbats who publish the rag that Borders is not carrying.
The magazine, published by the Council for Secular Humanism in suburban Amherst, includes four of the drawings that originally appeared in a Danish newspaper in September, including one depicting Muhammad wearing a bomb-shaped turban with a lit fuse.
Islamic tradition bars depiction of Muhammad to prevent idol worship, which is strictly prohibited.
“What is at stake is the precious right of freedom of expression,” said Paul Kurtz, editor-in-chief of Free Inquiry. “Cartoons often provide an important form of political satire … To refuse to distribute a publication because of fear of vigilante violence is to undermine freedom of press — so vital for our democracy.”
Paul Kurtz is a moron. You cannot force a retailer to carry anything, except birth control pills but that’s another discussion. Borders cannot undermine freedom on the press as a private entity. The freedoms in the first amendment are freedoms the government cannot erode. They have nothing to do with corporations, persons, or any other private (read non-government) entity. I cannot violate your first amendment rights. I really and truly cannot. I can hit you over the head, bind you, gag you, and throw you into a closet and not be guilty of violating your freedom of speech. I would be guilty of assault and battery (possibly aggravated), kidnapping, and unlawful imprisonment right from the start but I would not be guilty of violating your first amendment freedom of speech. I could drive to each of the New York Times offices and printing facilities and burn them all down. I would be guilty of arson, attempted murder, possibly murder, and much more but I would not be guilty of violating the first amendment right of freedom of the press.
Borders and Waldenbooks, while nice stores, are in no way vital to our democracy. What is on their shelves has little if any effect on the electoral college. They are not bastions of first amendment rights. You have right to publish whatever you like. You have no right to have it distributed by any method. You are not gauranteed an audience for either freedom of press or speech. Heck you are not gauranteed and audience for freedom of religion either. Paul Kurtz, aside from the obvious mental defect of being a humanist, appears to also be totally ignorant of what our enumerated rights mean, what they stand for, or indeed how they even work. A bookstore cannot undermine freedom of the press by not carrying a book. If they could then they would be absolutely huge as they would have carry every book ever published. We have an entity for that and we call it the Library of Congress.
Bingham said the decision was made before the magazine arrived at the company’s stores. Borders Group, based in Ann Arbor, Mich., operates more than 475 Borders and 650 Waldenbooks stores in the United States, though not all regularly carry the magazine.
“We absolutely respect our customers’ right to choose what they wish to read and buy and we support the First Amendment,” Bingham said. “And we absolutely support the rights of Free Inquiry to publish the cartoons. We’ve just chosen not to carry this particular issue in our stores.”
Bingham says it all. They even support the right of their customers to read what they want even when it means they lose the business. This decision, while badly made in my mind, is entirely tenable and not even newsworthy. There is really nothing more to say about it. This is an open and shut case. A company made a decision, actually based on safety for once, and some whiney, spoiled rotten, moonbat with a fringe magazine doesn’t like it so he tries, and fails I might add, to invoke the first amendment. What a rube!
Cockroach - Smart Bombs and Apple Pie
I didn’t get back the rest fo the article the other night. Sorry for that. I don’t have an article in hand this time as I have been reading many since that time. It seems that some of our elected officials want to grant amnesty to ~12,000,000 so called undocumented workers. Let’s set the record straight, shall we? These are not undocumented workers any more than a husband who rapes his wife is giving here undocumented marital bliss (hat tip to Emperor Misha for the terms used). These people are criminals plain and simple. The MSM is too afraid to call them what they are because it might not be nice. They are aliens. They ARE here illegally. They are at the best illegal aliens and they are also criminals each and every one.
Our elected officials in the Senate are trying to take the teeth out of any bill that treats these people like criminals. Frist is going to stand up but a bunch of RINOs are bending over and taking it like Rock Hudson. These people are ignoring popular opinion which is their option but I have heard it’s bad for a political career. We had a biil. It was a good bill. It made crossing the border a felony with a five year prison term and deportation. Of course terrorists and racists like LULAC and La Raza protested as did thousands of people across the US. I don’t know why we didn’t send in the National Guard and start checking green cards at the protests. I bet we could have netted 10,000 or so illegal aliens.
It is also interesting that the Mexican goverment is against these laws. Why would they want to lose people to a different economic system? It makes no sense. It starts to make sense when you realize that a high percentage of the wages made here by these criminals is sent home to Mexico. Those dollars never see the US encomony as they go directly into the Mexican economy. It is good for Mexicon for people to come here and it is likely as good for them as it is bad for use.
We should make it a felony to come here illegally, to give aid to the felons here illegally, to house those here illegally, and so on. We need to cut off their reasons for being here and then they won’t come in the numbers that they come in right now. We need a double layer fence the length of the border patrolled by armed men and dogs. It needs to be your life on the line getting in here illlegally. Right now you can just walk across in many places and even contact groups who will help you traverse the desert to do so. It is sickening and out elected leaders seem all to eager to just add reasons to be here.
I was born an American by the grace of the Allmighty and I am thankful for that. I wish for everyone to have our freedoms. I do not want to pay out of my pocket for those not giving back to the economy to have the rights and freedoms we have. Freedom comes with rights and with rights comes responsibility. There is no getting around that. These people are leeching off the American teet and have been for far too long. It is time our elected leaders realized this and did something to stop it.
I will be frank about it. What Vincente Fox thinks about our immigration laws doesn’t make one little bit of difference. At least it shouldn’t. Our lawmakers have a responsibility to do what is best for the citizens of the United States and everyone else be damned. I know it sounds cold but it’s the God honest truth. We need to stop cuking up to Mexico and be done with playing nice with criminals.
At least the LAPD grew some nuts. Today they were arresting students who were skipping school to protest, slapping them with fines, and trying to find the adults who organized the walkouts so they could charge them as well. They could have gone farther and made sure every student they arrested was here legally and deported every last one that wasn’t but that would be mean and they won’t do that. God forbid we treat criminals like they are criminals.
Well our next door neighbor has complained so much that the landlord is planning to come over on Sunday. She is complaining about total crap. She told him there is garbage on the side of the house and that the dog bothers her. The dog is outside only to eat and go potty and nothing more. This is because she complained to us about the dog and we took care of it. The only trash on the side of the house are the bags of lawn clippings the landlord told us he would clear out when we moved in here and never did. I would normally not be worried about a thing but our little boys are destructive. The excuse he is using is because I asked him about painting the boys bedroom because they had colored on the walls. I guess that is a good reason to come over and look. But the problem is that there is other damage. They put their bedroom doorknob through the wall. It’s not that big of a deal and I am buying something to put over the hole. I should have done that much sooner. The other bit of damage is out three year old, Seamus, cut the strings on the blinds in the living room. If it were any other room I wouldn’t be worried but it’s right as you walk into the damn house. I had planned to replace them bu don’t know if I can before Sunday. He also asked that rocks not be strewn all over the backyard when we moved in. Of course they are. No Michelle says she can clean them up before Sunday but it’s gonna be a damn lot of work. In short we may well be on our way out of this house. Say a prayer for us because there is a lot of work to before Sunday.
WASHINGTON - The Senate Judiciary Committee approved sweeping election-year immigration legislation Monday that clears the way for 11 million illegal aliens to seek U.S. citizenship without having to first leave the country.
The republicans have caved to the already spineless democrats. This is full amnesty people. I do not give one rat’s ass about how they paint it up, put it in a nice dress, and take the whore to dinner party she’s still a whore. This is about allowing people who have already committed a civil offense under our law to go scott free. This does nothing to cure the problem and in fact only makes it worse. Anyone want to bet that if this passes that more illegal immigrants cross to get in on the freebies? I am also not going to fall prey to the MSM and call them undocumented workers. They are criminals who will never serve a day in jail under this bill and instead be rewarded for the very crime they committed. What a freakin’ joke.
After days of street demonstrations that stretched from California to the grounds of the U.S. Capitol, a coalition of Democrats and Republicans also agreed to strip out proposed criminal penalties for residents found to be in this country illegally. “All Americans wanted fairness and they got it this evening,” said Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, the Massachusetts Democrat who played a pivotal role in drafting the legislation.
Fairness? FAIRNESS? Fairness! This is not fairness. This is unfair to everyone who has already gone through the process of immigrating. This is unfair the everyone that has ever been deported. This is unfair to the US citizens who by and large oppose full amnesty. This is not fairness Mr. Kennedy this is a slap in the face to our existing laws and the every American who breathes the air of freedom.
What they stripped out was part of the bill making it a felony to be in this country illegally and thereby actually giving some teeth to the laws that are in place. Currently it’s a civil offense and most police departments won’t even bother picking up someone on a federal civil offense. In fact many are under orders not to do so. We are becoming a nation of wimps. This is not the last rollover the we-used-to-be-GOP will be doing either. Mark my words.
The rest of the article pisses me off even more. I don’t have time at the moment to comment on the whole thing but suffice it to say that it’s all crap. There’s much more to comment on and I will get to it after dinner hopefully.
I know I have too many blogs. I am going to consolidate here. I love my friends on myspace. I like my moblog. Both present problems and not everyone goes to both of them. I will likely lose some readers by doing this but I think in the long run it’s better. I have pretty much stopped the social commentary since I started posting on myspace and I want to start that again. I want to be able to talk about work and hide the entries from everyone except close friends and family. I want to start doing social/religious commentary again.
A lot of my friends on myspace probably couldn’t even tell you if I am liberal or conservative because I don’t think I have ever posted anything that would let anyone know for sure. In fact it’s the first time in my life that I have refrained from soci-political commentary. I doubt anyone would be shocked if I said I was a conservative but some might be shocked by the truth. I am neither conservative nor liberal. I am a fine mix of both. When it comes to social issues I am pretty hardcore conservative. When it comes to other things such as the environment I am very liberal. I am not registered with either major party.
If you choose to sign up here you need to know that I will likely piss you off. That goes for my conservative friends as well. All I ask is that you are respectful of the fact this is my site and you are a guest here. I do not pull punches and I do speak my mind. If you choose to argue or debate me stick to the facts. I will do the same. That is not to say I will not berate those who are stupid but I will do so with facts and will not stoop to personal insults. I honestly would like some heated exchanges with people I have met over the net. I also can only assume that some of the people I have met will likely not care for me as much as they do now. But I am tired of sanitizing and worrying about how I look to others.
All posts about work will be private and available only to a select few. You won’t even see them if you are not in the group.
Well that’s about all there is to it so far. I need to install plugins and get a theme up and going but there you have it. Do with it as you will.
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