Reasons to move to France, Vol II or maybe III:
On Thurs., Sept 23 at 9:00 PM, the Commonwealth of Virginia proved once again that vengeance is alive and well in America. Teresa Lewis, judged barely mentally competent to stand trial for the contract murder of her husband and stepson, was executed by lethal injection. Republican Governor Bob McDonnell denied a plea for clemency. Shocking!
Teresa Lewis did the crime. She confessed to it. The actual murderers who were hired to do the deed testified against her. Both are serving life, having bargained their testimony to avoid the gurney. So the happy conclusion here is that the prosecutors in Richmond decided to allow the actual killers to live in return for a slam-dunk capital murder case against a woman with the IQ of a bag of Doritos. See, the way that works is, we here in Virginia are so tough on crime and criminals we'll execute feeble women, children (except the wussy Supreme Court says we can't) cute dogs, even people already dead. Naturally, the civilized world is outraged. Wimps!
Still, when you get a lesson in double standards from Iran you might want to pay attention. Everybody's favorite pain-in-the-ass Mahmoud Ahmadinejad compared the lack of Western outrage over the execution of Teresa Lewis to that of the possible stoning of an Iranian woman sentenced to death for adultery. Although it's hardly a parallel case, adultery isn't murder and stoning isn't lethal injection, he has a point. When the subject is state sponsored executions we have a serious blind spot. We kill our citizens for offenses deemed sufficient to warrant the punishment. Should we not also allow other countries the same latitude? As to the method of execution: beheading, electrocution, hanging, stoning; tomatoes-tomatos, right. Dead is dead. Face it, we have a lot more in common with Bedouin tribes and theocratic dictatorships than with civilized countries when the subject is law and order.
As to how the state-sponsored death of a mentally challenged woman glorifies any aspect of life in these United States or makes us better as a country, I'm at a loss to explain. Maybe Governor McDonnell knows. Tea-baggers want government to accept that America is a Christian country. Explain how being Christian squares with capital punishment.
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But all is not lost. Executions in Kentucky and Oklahoma have been postponed. Sadly, the reason for the stays is not compassion but a shortage of sodium thiopental, the anesthetic portion of the lethal cocktail. Considering the speed with which Southern States are ordering the drug, no one should be surprised. Hell, why not just bang the condemned over the head with a ball bat. That would really offend the Iranians.
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An American staff sergeant is accused of planning the killing Afghan civilians for no other reason than hating them. Staff Sergeant Calvin R. Gibbs supposedly led a team of five American soldiers including Specialist Jeremy Morlock in the random murder of people whose only crime was- wrong place, wrong time. Can't you just hear Lee Greenwood singing "I'm Proud to be an American"?
This story isn't fully written yet and trials are a long way off but, if true, America needs to forget our Status-of-Forces Agreement with Afghanistan and turn these fine examples of American manhood over to the Afghans for sentencing. If they wish to appeal, tell them to call Bob McDonnell.
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But enough about executions and murder, how about Bishop Eddie Long of New Birth Baptist in Atlanta? Having started with almost nothing, Bishop Long currently boasts a congregation of 25,000, up from 300 in 1987. On his way to celestial glory, (his followers believe he is "anointed". By whom, exactly, we're not sure) Bishop Long has offered spiritual guidance to famous athletes and a few politicians. Unfortunately he has also used his powers of persuasion to seduce four young men in his congregation. The four are suing Bishop Long for sexual abuse.
Naturally, Bishop Long has been a vocal opponent of gay marriage and the homosexual lifestyle. Note to self: When a preacher rails against promiscuity, check his car ashtrays for condom wrappers. When he cries to God about the evils of homosexuality, search his desk drawer for his La Cage aux Folles keepsakes.
This is just another chapter in the mega-church fraud game. Another talented carnival barker using religion to feed his own lusts and lifestyle. Bishop Long is a caricature writ large. He travels with an entourage. His car is a Bentley. His 230-acre Baptist complex is one of the largest and most powerful voices in the Black Christian universe. No one would normally care about another self-aggrandizing bible thumper getting caught not practicing what he preaches except that these charlatans have influence. It was the black Christians of California that denied the right of marriage to gays in the Golden State. Please, people, stop listening to these false prophets. Worship at Burger King. At least you'll get lunch.
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This just in...a man shot and killed himself on the sixth floor of the University of Texas Library in Austin. WOW. Who would have suspected that a library in Texas would actually have six floors?
What? Too soon?
Showing posts with label Bob McDonald. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bob McDonald. Show all posts
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Thursday, April 08, 2010
or does the small type hide the big stories?
America's fifty governors, in their capacity to create joy among their fixated constituents, declare commemorative days, weeks and months all the time. Several states have officially declared Dec. 7th as Pearl Harbor Day. In Illinois, September is Spinal Chord Injury Awareness Month. February is Sweet Potato Month in North Carolina and Fresh Tomato Month in Florida. State legislatures waste countless hours entertaining motions to declare Fluke Fishing Week, Kleptomaniac Awareness Month (Watch your wallet!) or, in places like Alaska, Don't Marry Your Sister Week. Governors sign this drivel to the great joy of the purveyors or fans of whatever is being proclaimed or honored.
If you take him at his word, the newly minted governor of Virginia, Bob McDonnell, was only trying to promote tourism and respect for the brave soldiers of the Commonwealth when he re-instituted Confederate History Month. Unfortunately, rather than appellations from the Sons of the Confederacy, Governor McDonnell has received a shower of righteous manure from every corner of America. It seems that in his desire to paint the Rebellion of thirteen southern states as the glorious response to Union tyranny, he omitted one teeny tiny aspect of the conflict, namely, the 400 year bondage of millions of black Africans. Slavery may have been an unpleasant, even inconvenient aspect of the Civil War but it is difficult to ignore.
The cynics among us might believe that this wholly unnecessary proclamation was issued entirely to remind Governor McDonnell's conservative base that, in spite of the ethnic circumstance of the current President, Virginia is still the good-ol-boy, red-neck, gun-loving backwater that it was before all those liberals in Fairfax County (Washington's tony suburb) started turning this red state purple. McDonnell has stopped short of declaring Jeff Davis' birthday a state holiday or adding the Stars and Bars of the Confederacy to the state flag but the message of this re-invigoration of honor for the rebellion is unmistakable: Virginia may look progressive and intelligent but we're still as backward as any Mississippi town sheriff.
Governor McDonnell's ham-handed attempt to paint Virginians as shoeless rubes notwithstanding, there remains the delicate issue of how to promote a healthy respect for the actors in the Civil War without glorifying their cause. How do you praise the character of Robert E. Lee and JEB Steuart without justifying the reason for the secession and subsequent conflict? Is it even possible to respect the courage and loyalty shown by thousands of fallen southern soldiers, most of whom never owned a slave? The rules for the conduct of the vanquished in the land of the victorious seem vague. It does, however, appear easy to determine when the rules are broken.
Although Civil War battles were fought from California to Florida to Pennsylvania, most of what Americans know of the Civil War took place in Virginia. The Confederacy established its Capital in Richmond. The first and last major land battles were fought there. Bull Run, Fredericksburg, the Wilderness, Petersburg, and The Crater all happened in The Old Dominion. Even Gettysburg and Antietam took place less than a hour's drive from the Potomac. Virginia was doing just fine as a tourist destination for Civil War enthusiasts before Governor McDonnell decided that, once again, the old wounds should be opened. In point of fact, Virginia was a reluctant partner in the rebellion. Virginia didn't actually secede until after Ft. Sumter and even then the Western counties remained loyal; hence the admission of West Virginia to the Union in June 1863. Virginia doesn't require a new Bill of Secession in order to persuade a few tourists to stop on their way down I-95 toward South of the Border.
Virginia was doing just fine as the neutral epicenter of a tragic episode in American history. The National Park Service maintains several of the battlefields without fanfare or flag-waving. The gift shops sell memorabilia from both sides. The heroism of Stonewall Jackson and the ineptitude of George McClellan are represented as equal parts of the history of America from 1861 -1865. No one needed to be reminded that there are still ignorant knotheads who harbor resentment over the war's outcome. No one with an IQ in two digits ever uttered the phrase "The South Will Rise Again".
There is nothing more sinister in American politics than pandering to the evil angels of our nature cloaked in the high-minded innocence of a well-intentioned mistake. Governor McDonnell knew exactly whose ass he was kissing when he issued his proclamation on Confederacy Month and it wasn't the hot dog vendor at the Bull Run Battlefield. McDonnell was reminding Virginians and the rest of the South that the days of Democratic Governors and blue state flirtations are over. Virginia is a Southern State, with all the racist, backward, tea-party assumptions that entails. Virginia may have elected the first black governor in 1990 but damn it, it's still the capital of the Confederacy...and we're not just whisltin' Dixie.
If you take him at his word, the newly minted governor of Virginia, Bob McDonnell, was only trying to promote tourism and respect for the brave soldiers of the Commonwealth when he re-instituted Confederate History Month. Unfortunately, rather than appellations from the Sons of the Confederacy, Governor McDonnell has received a shower of righteous manure from every corner of America. It seems that in his desire to paint the Rebellion of thirteen southern states as the glorious response to Union tyranny, he omitted one teeny tiny aspect of the conflict, namely, the 400 year bondage of millions of black Africans. Slavery may have been an unpleasant, even inconvenient aspect of the Civil War but it is difficult to ignore.
The cynics among us might believe that this wholly unnecessary proclamation was issued entirely to remind Governor McDonnell's conservative base that, in spite of the ethnic circumstance of the current President, Virginia is still the good-ol-boy, red-neck, gun-loving backwater that it was before all those liberals in Fairfax County (Washington's tony suburb) started turning this red state purple. McDonnell has stopped short of declaring Jeff Davis' birthday a state holiday or adding the Stars and Bars of the Confederacy to the state flag but the message of this re-invigoration of honor for the rebellion is unmistakable: Virginia may look progressive and intelligent but we're still as backward as any Mississippi town sheriff.
Governor McDonnell's ham-handed attempt to paint Virginians as shoeless rubes notwithstanding, there remains the delicate issue of how to promote a healthy respect for the actors in the Civil War without glorifying their cause. How do you praise the character of Robert E. Lee and JEB Steuart without justifying the reason for the secession and subsequent conflict? Is it even possible to respect the courage and loyalty shown by thousands of fallen southern soldiers, most of whom never owned a slave? The rules for the conduct of the vanquished in the land of the victorious seem vague. It does, however, appear easy to determine when the rules are broken.
Although Civil War battles were fought from California to Florida to Pennsylvania, most of what Americans know of the Civil War took place in Virginia. The Confederacy established its Capital in Richmond. The first and last major land battles were fought there. Bull Run, Fredericksburg, the Wilderness, Petersburg, and The Crater all happened in The Old Dominion. Even Gettysburg and Antietam took place less than a hour's drive from the Potomac. Virginia was doing just fine as a tourist destination for Civil War enthusiasts before Governor McDonnell decided that, once again, the old wounds should be opened. In point of fact, Virginia was a reluctant partner in the rebellion. Virginia didn't actually secede until after Ft. Sumter and even then the Western counties remained loyal; hence the admission of West Virginia to the Union in June 1863. Virginia doesn't require a new Bill of Secession in order to persuade a few tourists to stop on their way down I-95 toward South of the Border.
Virginia was doing just fine as the neutral epicenter of a tragic episode in American history. The National Park Service maintains several of the battlefields without fanfare or flag-waving. The gift shops sell memorabilia from both sides. The heroism of Stonewall Jackson and the ineptitude of George McClellan are represented as equal parts of the history of America from 1861 -1865. No one needed to be reminded that there are still ignorant knotheads who harbor resentment over the war's outcome. No one with an IQ in two digits ever uttered the phrase "The South Will Rise Again".
There is nothing more sinister in American politics than pandering to the evil angels of our nature cloaked in the high-minded innocence of a well-intentioned mistake. Governor McDonnell knew exactly whose ass he was kissing when he issued his proclamation on Confederacy Month and it wasn't the hot dog vendor at the Bull Run Battlefield. McDonnell was reminding Virginians and the rest of the South that the days of Democratic Governors and blue state flirtations are over. Virginia is a Southern State, with all the racist, backward, tea-party assumptions that entails. Virginia may have elected the first black governor in 1990 but damn it, it's still the capital of the Confederacy...and we're not just whisltin' Dixie.
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