Sometimes people have a representative but its in name only.  Perhaps this blog can get the attention of Rep. Connolly.  There is nothing like a little embarrassment to bring everyone front and center. 

Colonel Morris Davis, better known to all of us at Moonhowlings as Moe Davis, once again attempts to get hold of his Congressman for some assistance with his on-going problem–that problem being he was denied his first amendment rights by his government.   You don’t have to agree with Moe, but damn he does have a right to his opinion. 

Here is his correspondence, again, to his congressman, Gerry Connolly, who is pretending Moe does not exist. 

Dear Rep. Connolly,

 

I have tried several times over the past two years to contact you by email and regular mail to request your assistance.  To date, I have not received so much as a form letter reply.  [Although I did get an out-of-office email response once in Dec. 2009 from Mr. Fields.]  Copied below is an article published earlier today on CBSNews.com that explains why I have tried to contact you repeatedly the past two years.  As one of your constituents, I again ask for your assistance.

 

Best regards,

–

Morris D. “Moe” Davis

No free speech at Mr. Jefferson’s library

By

Peter Van Buren

Yesterday Hank Williams Jr. appeared on The View, sporting a Mickey Mantle baseball shirt. He made an even bigger fool of himself and showed little class. He did explain that he didn’t think of Obama as Hitler, he was making an analogy. He has another analogy about ‘kicking cow turds.”

He now is blaming ESPN and Fox News for his troubles and feels he was set up. He is calling for a boycot  of ESPN and Fox News in his new song that came out at 3 pm 10/10/11,” Keep The Change.”

You know, I never ever thought I would be in the position of defending Fox News.  I guess this is just one of those times.  Williams might as well be saying the Devil Made Me Do It.

I am also getting over the gross out of Williams wearing the shirt of St. Mickey Mantle.  Some things are sacred!  The Mick wouldn’t like this.

Longer version:

Gretchen disavows his remarks about the president.

Hank Williams Junior mouth flashed on Fox and Friends. He compared President Obama to Hitler. In addition, he said that Obama and Biden were the enemy. His bosses at ESPN didn’t like it and they fired him from singing “Are You Ready for Some Football,” his Monday night theme song.

Read more…

Rewind back to last summer.  The local uproar was over the new kids in town, KK’s Temptations  adult boutique, that was to open in October.  Some of the City folks had a fit because the shop was in Old Town Manassas.  People envisioned hordes of perverts lining up to see the bustiers and nighties.  It didn’t matter that the City also has Fashion Fantasy over on route 28 and at least one adult movie store over near the library, within blocks of Kindercare and Parkside Middle School on Mathis Avenue.  This new store was going to be in Old Town near the Candy Factory.  Each and every person I talked to who was opposed to the opening of KK’s used the location as the main, if not only reason for objection. 

Fast forward back to the present.  In the past couple of weeks, I have heard some mumblings and grumblings over KKs from two friends who I can clearly say are on different ends of this argument.   KK”s had planned to do some events for  Susan G. Komen for the cure to raise money.  Their  first plan had been a wet tee shirt contest.  Elena and I spoke briefly but negatively about this plan and basically backed off.  Because of issues with the City, KK’s plans changed to a bikini contest at Backyard Grill at the corner of Sudley Road and Williamson Blvd.  We didn’t like that idea either because of the objectification of women but kept our mouths shut.  It was Kim’s business.  In other words, do no harm.  We didn’t. Read more…

Its pretty bad when an organization makes even the KKK look decent.  It appears that the KKK even came out to protest Westboro Baptist Church’s intrusion into the Memorial Day observance at Arlington National Cemetery. 

Westboro has even grossed out the KKK. That’s when you know you are just VILE. 

The KKK was cordoned off from the other protesters who were there to support the troops on this Memorial Day.

Full story at CNN.com

School officials in Prince William County were blindsided on Monday with a letter from the ACLU threatening a lawsuit over Internet filters on gay and lesbian sites.  According to the Gainesville Times:

The letter, signed by Rebecca Glenberg and Joshua Block of the ACLU of Virginia, states that the school system is blocking gay support group sites in violation of students’ First Amendment rights.

The issue is filtering software that blocks access to, among other sites, the Gay Student Alliance Network, Day of Silence and It Gets Better.

“The Prince William County Public Schools do not have a legitimate pedagogical basis for censoring students’ access to these websites, which provide support and resources for LGBT students and gay-straight alliances,” states the letter.

PWC Spokesman Ken Blackstone had the following to say on the subject, in the same article:

“The ACLU is making some claims and we’re reviewing them to see if they’re accurate and to see how we can respond to that,” he said. “They bring up important points.”

Blackstone said the school system is required by federal law to use Internet filtering software to keep students and staffers from looking at inappropriate content at school.

The school software, Blue Coat Filtering, filters 32 different categories.  It doesn’t distinguish between appropriate and inappropriate.  Generally, if students or staff believe something is being filtered that is acceptable for use, there is a process by which the site can be reviewed and unlocked.  Mr. Blackstone said that no such request, to his knowledge, has been submitted for  review  of the sites for student appropriateness. 

Read more…

The Public Employees Unions have conceded the pension and health care contributions to Governor Walker. What remains on the table is collective bargaining. To give this up would be total loss of power.

Link to Wisconsin Education Association. (WEAC)

Nurses, firefighters, EMTs, doctors, are all in here with the teachers, security personnel, bus drivers etc.
Listen to their point of view. It has changed my mind.  I had to step out of my own regional ethnocentrism for a minute since I am not of a union mind set.  If I were, I would definitely want collective bargaining.  Otherwise, I would not have a union.  Collective bargaining is what really defines a union.  Otherwise, you are just another group of employees with a wish list. Collective bargaining gives that wish list some teeth and some nads.

Washingtonpost.com

PEARISBURG, VA. – Nearly 12 years ago, in the aftermath of the shootings at Columbine High School, officials quietly posted the Ten Commandments on the walls of Giles County public schools. It was a natural reaction, said residents of this rural county peppered with churches, to such an alarming moral breakdown.

There the commandments stayed, within nondescript frames that also featured the first page of the U.S. Constitution, stirring little controversy until December. That’s when an anonymous complaint prompted the superintendent to order the removal of the displays. The decision sparked such passionate community backlash that the county school board voted to post them again in January.

I can tell you, on many occasion I saw this very quiet peaceful protester on 234 throughout the past several years. All he did, was stand in the grass, next to his signs. I don’t recall it saying anything incendiary, but he was definitely against the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. He never shouted, he never waved his arms crazily,he just stood there, like a man on his own private mission to make his voice heard.

I was very surprised to read in the paper, the thuggish behavior of a young person in “uniform”. This “teenager” exited his van, kicked Mr. Hersch’s poster and then got back into his van.

He said that about 12:30 p.m. a green van with an advertisement on the side that read “1-800-Marines” drove up to the intersection and a teenaged passenger got out and kicked down one of his signs.

That’s when the act of civil disobedience or disorderly conduct came into play.

Hersch said he stepped out in front of the van to prevent the driver — who he said was in uniform — from driving away.

Read more…

It looks like everyone is going by the rules….but is there more to it?

Nativity Scene (And More) At Leesburg Courthouse: MyFoxDC.com

I find it odd that they continue to allow any displays at all.  On the other hand, is a Christmas tree a religious symbol? I have always thought of Christmas trees as a symbol of the season.  Its origins were pagan and at least in America, Christmas is a national holiday.  The tree is its symbol.  Christians do more and have their own special relics and artifacts of the season.  And that’s a good thing.  But for right now, I like the tree being neutral, like wreaths and candy canes.  Anyone who objects to Christmas trees, wreaths and candy canes is just a grinch and trying to make an issue.

The Leesburg Courthouse is always a place to look for some good old Christmas spirit and good old controversy.   Every year it seems warring factions go up against each other over the right to display Christmas decorations on the Courthouse lawn.  This year some decisions were made early–back in September even. 

A little refresher course is provided:

According to TDB (September):

The policy that the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors voted to maintain provides equal access for unattended, semi-permanent displays on the grounds of the historic courthouse in Leesburg.

Displays are open to all who apply, but the number of displays is limited to the ten locations on the grounds that have been designated as display sites. The Board also voted to limit the period of time for filing a display application to no earlier than one year before the date the display would begin.

The Office of the County Administrator has received six applications to date for displays, five of which are for the 2010 holiday season. Information about how to apply for a display on the courthouse grounds is online at www.loudoun.gov/courthousegrounds.

Read more…

Five members of the extremist group from Westboro Baptist Church out of Topeka, Kansas showed up on Old Bridge Road to protest at Woodbridge Senior High School.  The Westboros were greeted by about 200 counter-demonstrators waving flags, signs with positive messages  and singing “God Bless America.”  The principal of WSHS had asked the school community to ignore Westboro.  Apparently he was ignored also.  Westboro was greatly outnumbered.

The message was clearly sent:  Don’t Mess with Woodbridge.

Apparently the activities stirred up quite a traffic jam and one can only imagine the sights the students coming in on buses got to enjoy.   

UPDATE:  Westboro did not make it to the Coast Guard Recruiting Center.  There were plenty of folks out on Smoketown Road for the counter-demonstration there also.

Insidenova.com  will have continuing coverage.

Journalist and author Juan Williams has been fired from NPR ostensibly for a response he gave to Bill O’Reilly following  The View incident where 2 of the hosts walked off stage.  Williams agreed with O’Reilly about attitudes about Muslims, for the most part.  According to the New York Times:

The move came after Mr. Williams, who is also a Fox News political analyst, appeared on the “The O’Reilly Factor” on Monday. On the show, the host, Bill O’Reilly, asked him to respond to the notion that the United States was facing a “Muslim dilemma.” Mr. O’Reilly said, “The cold truth is that in the world today jihad, aided and abetted by some Muslim nations, is the biggest threat on the planet.”

Mr. Williams said he concurred with Mr. O’Reilly.

He continued: “I mean, look, Bill, I’m not a bigot. You know the kind of books I’ve written about the civil rights movement in this country. But when I get on the plane, I got to tell you, if I see people who are in Muslim garb and I think, you know, they are identifying themselves first and foremost as Muslims, I get worried. I get nervous.”

Mr. Williams also made reference to the Pakistani immigrant who pleaded guilty this month to trying to plant a car bomb in Times Square. “He said the war with Muslims, America’s war is just beginning, first drop of blood. I don’t think there’s any way to get away from these facts,” Mr. Williams said.

NPR said in its statement that the remarks “were inconsistent with our editorial standards and practices, and undermined his credibility as a news analyst with NPR.”

Spokespeople for NPR have said in the past that they are uncomfortable because Williams speaks one way on NPR and another way on Fox News.  On the other hand, is what Williams said offensive or honest?  What if he, as a black man, had said he gets nervous in some parts of town when he has to walk past a group of street wise black youth with their pants on the ground?  Would he have been fired? 

At what point must Americans simply not be allowed to  be honest?  How many of us remember exactly where we were and what we were doing when we first learned of 9/11?  How many of us would be nervous getting on a plane with Muslims heading to first class dressed in full dress? 

I can tell you I sure was the day I took one of the moon cabs across the Dulles lot with a lady in a burka or near burka pushing a baby stroller with packages in it.  NO baby, just packages.  I wouldn’t have gotten on a plane with her.  If that makes me a bigot, so be it.  I often disagree with Juan Williams but how soon can we count on all opinion being squelched?  I don’t want to live in a country where people can’t ever express their opinions.  I am afraid this latest move by NPR will be seen as a declaration of war.  The timing is very bad.

Christine O’Donnell really needs to do better than this.  Part of going to Washington must include basic understanding of what’s makes our government work.  She really isn’t prepared on the most basic of levels.  Ms. ODonnell is correct.  Senators don’t have to memorize the Constitution, but they should have some basic knowledge of key ideas.

Christine O’Donnell really needs study harder.  According to the Wall Street Journal:

Ms. O’Donnell attacked her Democratic opponent, Chris Coons, for insisting that public schools teach evolution but not “intelligent design,” which posits that life forms are too complex to have evolved through natural processes and must have been created by a conscious being such as God. Mr. Coons, the New Castle County executive, said that public schools could not teach intelligent design or similar theories, like creationism and creation science, because they were “religious doctrine” rather than science.

“That is a blatant violation of our Constitution,” Ms. O’Donnell said. “The Supreme Court has always said it is up to the local communities to decide their standards.”

That’s generally true–except when it comes to teaching religion-based nonscientific theories of human origin. In 1968, the high court struck down an Arkansas law prohibiting instruction in evolution. In 1987, the court invalidated a Louisiana statute requiring that “creation science,” an antecedent to intelligent design, be taught alongside evolution.

Ms. O’Donnell likened Mr. Coons’s position on evolution to those of “our so-called leaders in Washington” who have rejected the “indispensible principles of our founding.”

She lacks facts on such a basic level, it makes her unqualified for office.  I felt sorry for her watching the video.  We are aware that the words in the Constitution do not say ‘separation of church and state.’  However the courts have continued to reaffirm this interpretation.  Jefferson’s writings also support separation. 

PBS is running a great documentary series 6 hours long that investigates religion in the United states, from its very beginnings until, I assume, the present. So far the documentary, God in America,  is excellent. My favorite part so far has been religion during colonial times. The show also explain the split from the established church. I had no idea that Anglican Church was the official church of Colonial Virginia and that taxes supported it. Night one was full of information I had no idea about.  Much detail was given about Thomas Jefferson and the establishment clause. 

Night 2 part 1 mainly centered on Abraham Lincoln as a spiritual being. Ho hum. Night 2 part 2 was about Judaism in the United States. Fascinating. Lots of new material in that segment. There was a part 3, involving the Scopes Trial. I haven’t finished watching yet. More on that later. I need to think about that part. We haven’t even gotten close to finishing that debate that took place 85 years ago.

Tonight wraps up the series. In watching this show, I saw how we haven’t really evolved all that much as a nation. Religious ideas are still center stage in our political arena, much the way they have been throughout our history.

Who else is watching this series and do you find it worthwhile?