What Would Jack Do

(via Ginger Snaps In The Morning)

Last Friday, remarks emerged from an appearance the Delaware Republican made during a 1999 taping of “Politically Incorrect,” in which she acknowledged that she had “dabbled into witchcraft” but “never joined a coven.” O’Donnell immediately distanced herself from the quote, asking whether it was fair to hold candidates responsible for the “questionable folks” they hung out with in high school. The clarification may have been the only sane political move for O’Donnell to make. But it had the side effect of angering an already politically sensitive pagan community.

I’ve promised that I wasn’t going to obsess over Christine O’Donnell..and I really meant it. Honest. I really, really did. It’s just that the silliness and the embarrassing details from O’Donnell’s past just keeping oozing out of the muck. While Bill Maher claims O’Donnell as a personal friend and claims that she doesn’t have a mean bone in her body, it’s clear that her views are painting a very different picture. If you ask Wiccans, O’Donnell displays a willingness to defame pagans…and perhaps engage in something close to persecution and oppression.

Yes, her comments took place in 1996, and if I had to be held accountable for something I said 14 years ago…well, Lord only knows what the consequences would be. (Of course, I’m not running for public office….) Still, for someone who purports to love the Constitution, O’Donnell’s comments display a disturbing hypocrisy still reflected in her public statements today. Freedom of religion, something guaranteed by the Constitution, also happens to apply to Wiccans. While you and I may not understand much about Wicca as a religion, those who practice it are held by the Constitution to have the same rights and freedoms to practice their religion as holier-than-thou Christians of O’Donnell’s ilk. In fact, freedom of religion is even more important when it applies to a small minority, because otherwise it might be all too easy for a powerful, intolerant majority to oppress a small group without the resources to defend themselves.

I’m not a fan of digging way back into someone’s past in order to discredit someone, but there are cases when it may be appropriate and an true indication of the totality of a person’s belief system. Something said in 1996 is hardly an indication of what will be said today, but in O’Donnell’s case it helps to flesh out her well-out-of-the-mainstream religious views. While she’s certainly free to hold what beliefs add meaning and purpose to her life, voters should also be free to know the truth about the person who wants to represent them in the US Senate.

Freedom of religion applies to ALL Americans, not merely those who think their religious beliefs vastly superior to any other belief system. O’Donnell’s job as a US Senator would be to protect all Delaware residents, and by extension ALL Americans. Her comments and her religious views raise a legitimate concern: Will she be up to the task? Judging by what I’ve seen and heard thus far, I’d have to say the answer is a resounding “NO!”

Christine O’Donnell may see herself as a culture warrior, but warriors generally engage in behavior that means winner takes all and losers get what’s left. The US Senate is no place for a culture warrior. Period. I hope the voters of Delaware will send that message in a convincing manner that leaves no room for doubt.

(Shamelessly liberated from mi compadre Harold Cook)

Man Busted For Masturbating Near Public Beach! Sometimes the jokes…well, they just write themselves, don’t they?? And there’s no truth to the rumor that he once worked for Christine O’Donnell’s campaign.

Jimmy Carter: Ted Kennedy Cost America National Health Insurance Decades Ago. Really? Is it really necessary to dance on Kennedy’s grave? I’ve never been a huge fan of Jimmy Carter, but this is lower than I would have ever expected a former President to sink.

Trace Adkins: Tea Partiers “Don’t Want Their Conservative Leaders To Reach Across The Aisle;” But Rather “Leer Across The Aisle And Give Them The Finger”. It’s a pretty sad commentary when your party’s political philosophy can be succinctly summed up in two words: “F—k you”.

Arthur Sulzberger: ‘We Will Stop Printing The New York Times Sometime In The Future’. They’ll just start sending iPads to their subscribers.

Miami-Dade Unemployment Rates Rises to 14.4 Percent. Remind me again why Florida votes Republican??

Free Bacon! OMG!! The only thing that could possibly be better would be a contest offering FREE SEX!!

Alaskan GOP Death Match: Lisa Murkowski vs. Joe Miller. Wherein Lisa Murkowski attempts to put the lie to the rumor that “Moderate Republican” is an oxymoron.

Shareholders Say “Voltron Unite!” To United-Continental Merger. Before long, there will be only one airline, we will pay whatever inflated prices they ask for miserable, dismissive service…and we’ll damned grateful for the privilege of flying Continental-United-American-Delta-Northwest-Southwest-JetBlue Airlines.

The Definitive Guide to What to Do If Your Eyeball Pops Out. Somehow, if your eyeball pops out, I doubt you’re going to be thinking about reading the instructions for putting it back in.

The most important race you don’t know about — yet. This might just be the year when Governor Goodhair gets taken down. The thought of a Democrat as Governor of Texas is almost too much to hope for…but it just might happen.

The Secret Gay Loved Ones of Homophobic Politicians. And you thought it was easier being a hateful bigot.

Man Files Suit Alleging Sam’s Club Ruined His Love Life. Hmm…I shudder to think what the claim might be….

Most Americans have no idea what [Sharia] really means or stands for. But the deeds and rhetoric of some have produced a similar effect: shariah has come to constitute a red flag, even without the misrepresentations of so-called Islamophobes…. At the most basic level, shariah is the Muslim universe of ideals. It is the result of their collective effort to understand and apply the Quran and supplementary teachings of the Prophet Muhammad (called Sunna) in order to earn God’s pleasure and secure human welfare in this life and attain human salvation in the life to come. While the Quran and Sunna are transcendent and unchangeable, shariah itself is the negotiated result of competing interpretations. In fact, most Muslims tend to speak not of shariah but of fiqh, which literally means “understanding” and underscores the distinction between God’s prescriptions on the one hand and the human attempt to understand these on the other…. In short, shariah includes the attempt to proffer God-conscious responses to an ever-changing reality.

One of the things about the anti-Islam rallies in lower Manhattan that have made an impression of me is the number of signs condemning Sharia. The signs, usually painted in blood red with symbolic blood dripping ominously from the letters, seem to clearly be presenting the idea that Sharia is evil. Sharia, which can be (very incompletely) incompletely described as “Islamic law”, seems to have become the focus of hatred for those who oppose the Park 51 community center and have convinced themselves that Islam is of the Devil. Hey, if you don’t understand something, why not demonize it, eh?

While these folks are certainly free to their opinion, I wonder what percentage of these conviction are actually the result of an informed opinion. I’d love to talk to some of the protesters, and I really just have one very simple question for them:

“What exactly IS Sharia??”

Call me cynical, but I have a sneaking suspicion that if you pressed some of the protesters, you’d get the deer-in-the-headlights blank stare. Sure, they know Sharia is bad, in the same way that sexually molesting your six-year-old daughter is bad…but what is it that makes it bad? What is it about Sharia that has so many of the haters convinced that it’s Evil and worthy only of scorn and destruction?

Indeed, what is Sharia? Well, I’ve studied a lit bit of the Koran, but being by no means an expert on the subject, I went to the source of All Wisdom and Knowledge: da Interwebs. Not surprisingly, you can learn an awful lot about Sharia by beginning with a simple Google search.

I’m not going to go into a dissertation about the history, evolution, and meaning of Sharia. I’d like to think that if you’re interested you can do the same thing I did. I will say, though, that whatever you may think, there’s a pretty good chance that you’re wrong. I’ve spent some time in the Middle East, I’ve read parts of the Koran…and I’ll have to confess that my understanding of Sharia didn’t really closely mesh with the reality of Islamic law. Sometimes learning can be a good thing, no??

This is a free country, of course, and you’re free to oppose Sharia…or anything else for that matter. But don’t you think that your argument would be more credible and carry more weight if you actually knew something factual about what you so vehemently oppose? Or is that just too damn much work for you?