Simple Post

What Digby said ... All of it.  With regard to this new meme that we should never allow a Mosque to be built --

Permits should not be granted to build even one more mosque in the United States of America, let alone the monstrosity planned for Ground Zero. This is for one simple reason: each Islamic mosque is dedicated to the overthrow of the American government.

Each one is a potential jihadist recruitment and training center, and determined to implement the “Grand Jihad”

(I'm not linking to that crap.  You can find it.)

Digby says:

Normally I would think we could ride out this latest wave of nativism and racism, but there are two factors that make it more dangerous than usual. The first, of course, is the economy which looks like it's not going to recover smartly thus giving this impulse more oxygen than it might otherwise have. The second is that the right wing demagogues have an entire industry now devoted to creating and nurturing these wedge issues for political and financial gain. The culture warriors have just shifted their strategy away from "family values" to their other stand-by, "stop the boogeyman." It's all part of the same throwback tapestry, but different times require difference emphasis. We're officially in the "the foreigners and blacks are ruining everything" portion of the show.

 And it gets worse every day.

With Apologies To My Jesus-Believing Friends

and I'm Sorry About The Picture But You Need To Understand What I'm Talking About

Today I was driving home from a difficult day at the office, wending my way through an area which is largely devoid of power thanks to an amazing storm on Sunday.  I found myself barely into Maryland in bumper-to-bumper barely moving traffic when I was faced with, standing/sitting in the easement between the sidewalk and street, a seemingly endless review of people wearing "pro-life" shirts and propping up pictures of aborted fetuses.  They were seated/standing maybe every thirty feet for about a mile.  We, those in vehicles, were trapped, waiting for many turnings of a traffic light ahead. You can get the flavor of the posters and their size from the example on the right which is an exact duplicate of the most frequently occurring one.

These people were not subtle. Being the excellent researcher that I am I have found them on the web and even identified this particular gathering. Here is their flyer (PDF) in case you wish to attend a showing. I am told that they have a right to demonstrate in the easement. I am told they do not need a permit to demonstrate in the easement, although I will check that with the County Executive.

They surely did tick me off. But then one got her ass off of the easement and approached my car. Her breath touched my right passenger's window. I slid the windown down -- surely she saw my beet red face and the steam coming out of my ears -- and she began to move a flyer toward me. I'm afraid I hissed that she should get her fucking bullshit Jesus crap away from my car. She didn't have a heart attack but I think she swallowed her tongue as my window closed.

These people claim that showing these images to children isn't their fault. They blackmail us. Their web site (which I won't link further to) tells me "The images themselves don't harm children, particularly when they have parents who take the time to answer their questions. in fact, we have had parents bring their children to participate in showing the images to the public! And the children do so with pride."

This is obscene by any standard I know. So my mission will be to (1) do everything I know how to do to have these materials declared legally obscene and off limits to anybody under 13 and (2) have anybody who uses their children to engage in these protests declared an unfit parent.

Sorry about the rant, but stay out of my face and you won't force me there.