How Now, Clown Yow?

The local paper reports that incumbent Rep. Howard Coble (in whose district I currently reside) will face a GOP primary challenge from the delightfully named Billy Yow, currently a Guilford County Commissioner. As a relative newcomer to Greensboro, I was previously unfamiliar with Yow. He seems like a charming fellow:

In 2004, Yow sold shirts with a cartoon character urinating on the letters NAACP on one side and a Confederate battle flag emblazoned on the other.

Even reactionary loon Orson Scott Card has said he’s “a Democrat because of Billy Yow”. Thankfully, there is little prospect of this cracker jackass actually winning against Congressman-for-Life Coble (who leans much too far right for my taste, but at least has done a good job of bringing home the bacon serving his constituency).

Intercessionary Prayer as Hate Speech

This morning, I saw a car with two bumper stickers. One was a McCain 2008 campaign sticker. The other had a picture of President Obama and the message, “Pray for Obama Psalm 109:8″. I thought it was very nice that a McCain supporter would be urging prayer on behalf of Obama.

Then, out of curiosity (not being especially versed in biblical verses), I looked up Psalm 109:8. According to the King James translation (the one so beloved among book-burning fundamentalists), here’s what it says: “Let his days be few; and let another take his office.”

Lest anyone imagine or contend that the sentiment expressed is merely a benign wish that Obama not win a second term, consider what some biblical commentaries popular among Christian conservatives have to say about this particular verse:

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown (“Long considered one of the best conservative commentaries on the entire Bible“): “The opposite blessing is long life (Ps 91:16; Pr 3:2). The last clause is quoted as to Judas by Peter (Ac 1:20).”

Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary: ”The Lord Jesus may speak here as a Judge, denouncing sentence on some of his enemies, to warn others. When men reject the salvation of Christ, even their prayers are numbered among their sins. See what hurries some to shameful deaths, and brings the families and estates of others to ruin; makes them and theirs despicable and hateful, and brings poverty, shame, and misery upon their posterity: it is sin, that mischievous, destructive thing. And what will be the effect of the sentence, Go, ye cursed, upon the bodies and souls of the wicked! How it will affect the senses of the body, and the powers of the soul, with pain, anguish, horror, and despair! Think on these things, sinners, tremble and repent.”

So there you have it. Someone is distributing bumper stickers urging people to pray for the President of the United States to die an early and shameful death, and for his family to be met with poverty, shame and misery. And people–presumably people who believe themselves to be good, god-fearing, patriotic Americans–are putting these stickers on their cars to help spread the word.

Would you like some crackers with your soup?

This evening, while eating dinner at a local restaurant, I overheard a discussion among three men at the next table. The men appeared perfectly normal, and their conversation (about their respective past vacations in Las Vegas) was at first hardly noteworthy.

Then, all of a sudden, the topic shifted. One of the men said that he’d received an email saying that, in January, “they” would be “going after Obama for not being a citizen.” It wasn’t at all clear who “they” were: Congress? Orly Taitz? Interpol? The Knights Templar?

The man went to to explain that, “I used to think everything in email was true”, but acknowledged that this latest revelation might not be. Instead, he opined that “the Democrats” were pushing the birther rumors (or at least this latest iteration) as a way of getting Obama out of office and replacing him with Biden, “so they can stay in control”. The other two men nodded in agreement.

I repeat that these men did not appear obviously deranged. They sounded perfectly intelligent. None of them were drinking alcohol. Yet, there they were, calmly discussing, as a serious proposition, the notion that the President of the United States either is not a U.S. citizen or is the victim of a conspiracy by members of his own party to make it appear that he is not a U.S. citizen.

It would be comforting to believe that this sort of crackpottery is limited to a drooling, mouth-breathing, knuckle-dragging, know-nothing lunatic fringe. These three men, who probably live in my neighborhood and live respectable lives, stand as evidence that the dementia is more widespread.

Palin bailin’ on Todd?

The latest news from Alaska may reveal the real reason for Sarah Palin’s recent surprise resignation as Governor of Alaska. According to Alaska Report, the Palins are getting a divorce, and Sarah Palin will move with her children to Montana, where she recently purchased land.

My prediction for the next chapter in this never-ending saga: hundreds of Palin believers move to her new Montana compound, where they form a messianic cult, The Church of Christ Ubetcha. Repeated confrontations with federal tax authorities lead to a Ruby Ridge-like stand-off. After a tense week, President Obama offers to have the Palin cultists over to the White House for a beer. Attempting to show empathy with the Montana cultists, Obama chooses a Moose Drool. The cultists, in a nod to birther conspiracy theories, all choose Tusker.

They’re all as mad as hatters

By way of Ed Cone, I learn that the “tea-party movement” — which is a movement in precisely the same sense as a bowel movement, being likewise full of shit — is coming to Greensboro next month. Amusingly enough, the organizers have had to move the event from Center City Park (which is on private property) to the public plaza outside of City Hall. The irony is, no doubt, entirely lost on the tax-hatin’ party-goers.

There Ain’t No Sanity Claus

Supremacy Claus, a blog by someone who obviously suffers the lingering psycho-emotional effects of some awful experience with law school or the legal system, deserves a prize for one of the most (unintentionally?) hysterical (in both senses) statements ever about legal education:

The IRAC is from Peter Abelard and Alexander of Hales, monks of the High Middle Ages. Worst, they were French.

The rest of Supremacy Claus consists largely of similar “gibberish in massive quantity” (a description the blog applies, perhaps not unfairly, to legal education). Perhaps the whole site is some kind of clever satire. Or perhaps not.

Satire or serious? You decide!

Today appears to be imbecile day at the Greensboro News & Record.

First there is this letter to the editor:

Why does Greensboro tolerate baggy pants?

ABC News reports that Atlanta’s city council is considering an amendment to ban baggy pants. Critics argue that this legislation is a crackdown on culture, not clothes. Can Greensboro’s government do the same crack down?

Couldn’t existing indecent exposure laws address the baggy pants issue? What about N.C. 14-190.9, which states that any person at least 18 years of age “who shall willfully expose the private parts of his or her person in any public place in the presence of any other person less than 16 years of age for the purpose of arousing or gratifying sexual desire shall be guilty of a Class H felony”? Isn’t one’s derriere a private part, covered by boxer shorts though it may be?

It is frowned on when women breast-feed in public. Why is it not frowned on to insult taxpaying citizens in public places with this outrageous form of dressing? People should have the right to wear what they want in the privacy of their own home, but not in a public place. Culture used to dictate that it was OK to spit in public, but laws were adopted to ban spitting because it became offensive.

This is my opinion and I’m sticking to it!

Barbara Brimmage
Greensboro

Heh-heh, she said “crack down”.

Then, there’s this “Counterpoint” piece:

Don’t waste school time on Spanish

By Donald M. Miller

With the restricted educational resources available for our elementary education system, why are we wasting these resources teaching Spanish, the knowledge of which will be of no value to students? When millions of people worldwide are learning English, which most of us speak natively, it is questionable whether any of our children’s school time should be spent learning foreign languages at all, particularly when the language they are being taught is Spanish.

While Spanish is widely spoken, it is of little commercial importance and has even less cultural value. When and with whom will our kids use this language?

If it is necessary (not just “nice”) that our schools teach a foreign language, then that language should be one that will be of use and value to children when they move into higher education or business. Chinese comes to mind and possibly Japanese. Certainly Arabic is important, and Vietnamese will be. All of those languages are of significance right now and will be in the foreseeable future. Further, there are very few U.S. speakers of these languages, which is added incentive for teaching them.

We must not let political correctness dictate something as important as our educational curricula. If something is of value to our students, then teach it. We have neither the time nor the resources to waste teaching subjects that have no value other than making an ethnic minority feel good. Knowledge of a foreign language is a tool that must have a practical use.

Children once studied ancient Greek and Latin as mental exercises and as keys to studying the classic works of our civilization. Today our kids should study languages that will serve as commercial and cultural tools and that will enhance their earning potential.

Forget Spanish: It is a waste of educational time. Spanish is by far the easiest language for an American to learn, and anyone needing to know it for professional reasons can get reasonably fluent with a few weeks of Berlitz or something similar. There is no need to tie up years of educational time on this. It is of far greater value that our students be capable and fluent in their own English (which so many, sadly, are not) and that they be exposed to the art and music of our culture rather than an unimportant foreign language.

“[L]a más discreta figura de la comedia es la del bobo, porque no lo ha de ser el que quiere dar a entender que es simple.” Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, El Ingenioso Hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha, Segunda Parte, Capítulo III.