From the WaPo, 11/2/1991: “Jo Ellen Murphy, art director of the Weekend section, said that ‘[Juan Williams] was obsessed with my sex life and that’s all he wanted to talk to me about . . . . I raised my voice at him and said, “Just don’t talk to me again.” ‘ ”

Sometimes it worthwhile to examine the language we use and what it really means. English, as it is spoken in the United States, is wonderfully malleable and thus common words can be open to interpretation. However there are some words that should be clear in their meaning, bigotry being one.

My parents were Liberals with a capital L. They both came from places and times when the N word could be used and nothing would be thought of it. This was anathema to them, and they were not going to pass this kind of thing down to their children. The rule in our house was that you could hate someone, but you could only do it if you knew them personally and they had done you wrong. There would be no painting with a broad brush, no assumptions put on one person because of the actions of another person like them.

Bigotry is doing exactly that, assuming that there is a monolithic set of actions or attribute to a large group of people. It does not matter if the set is wrapped around sexuality or religion or ethnicity, if you assume that all of group X does action Y because one or some of them does action Y then you are bigoted in your opinion.

If you are a pastor, please encourage your congregation to be tolerant and respectful of Muslims. If you are a church member, please encourage your pastor to speak boldly about these things. A lot of Christians are confused and are looking to their trusted leaders for guidance. If the reasonable clergy stays silent, the only message people will hear from Christians will be the ones promoting hate and bigotry.

As the sky is my witness, there’s very little I love more than rhetorically batting around those pieces of human catnip known as conservative shills. And lookie here, we’ve got one called Gerard Alexander, smack-dab in the pages of Kaplan Test Prep (aka the Washington Post)!

Other Religions are Dumb, Wrong, Bad, and Strange: YouTube Inspires Reinstatement of Spanish Inquisition — by NormanB (“Deviations from the Norm”)

The anti-Muslim whirlwind continues to be reaped in the United States. For all that the Sarah Palins and Rudy Giuliani’s of the world think that the fight over the Park51 Islamic Center is confined to Manhattan the reality is that it is spreading and getting more and more violent, evident in the bombing of a mosque under construction in Tennessee.

With the growing anti-Islam fervor that has been ratcheting up as a result of people trying to stop a “Ground Zero Mosque” from being built, I wanted to address the people who are trying to confront those who are making this country more dangerous and who are endangering this country’s national security by writing a recruiting script for right wing fundamentalists or Islamists.

GOP, you wanted to gin up the bigot base of your party? Well, you got your wish. A man hailed cab at 24th Street in Manhattan and asked the cabby if he was a Muslim. When the cabby responded in the affirmative, the man slashed him in the throat, hand, upper arm and lips.

The issue of the Park51 community center is about more than just this one religious affiliated building. It would be one thing if it were just at this one place, where there is some heartfelt if misguided feelings about the site of a national tragedy a few blocks away. Sadly this is just the most visible of fights about the construction of Islamic religious buildings, whether they be mosques (which in the Islamic faith must be reserved for prayer alone) or community centers there is a push nation wide to prevent them from being built. Take a look at what they are saying in Temecula CA or in Tennessee.

“Originally posted at Squarestate.net“

Gov. Dean has taken a lot of heat from the Left for his idea that there can be come kind of dialog with the families of the 9/11 victims who object to the Park51 community center. He is making a stand on ideals, though not the ideals that many of us would like. It is a good idea to reach out and find common ground, but we can not do so with those who want it all their own way. This is exactly the same kind of situation the Democrats in Congress find themselves in. They want to find common ground with Congressional Republicans, but the Republicans insist on it being all there own way or nothing. There is no way to compromises with those who won’t bend.

Amid the Islamophobia fanned by demagogues like Newt Gingrich, we need another Joseph Welch to stand up to him and say: Have you no sense of decency?