Category Archives: Politics

Subversion in Montana

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My shirt from this post arrived today. (You can get yours by going here.)Â? Now if only I didn’t live in a place that was crawling with Border Patrol and Homeland Security peeps…

(I live near the Canadian border.)

I also know that I’ll probably be shot if I wear it in the state of Montana since we’ve got a BIG military presence (helloooooo Malmstrom) and we have kids from the Guards in every community who are over in the Middle East. As much as I oppose the war, it’s kind of hard when you are separated from a soldier in the war by 3 degrees or less.

*must get to California soon*

They’re Winning

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Apparently, wearing a t-shirt with Arabic writing will cause you to have problems flying.

One of the two men who approached me first, Inspector Harris, asked for my id card and boarding pass. I gave him my boarding pass and driver’s license. He said “people are feeling offended because of your t-shirt”. I looked at my t-shirt: I was wearing my shirt which states in both Arabic and English “we will not be silent”. You can take a look at it in this picture taken during our Jordan meetings with Iraqi MPs. I said “I am very sorry if I offended anyone, I didnt know that this t-shirt will be offensive”. He asked me if I had any other T-shirts to put on, and I told him that I had checked in all of my bags and I asked him “why do you want me to take off my t-shirt? Isn’t it my constitutional right to express myself in this way?” The second man in a greenish suit interfered and said “people here in the US don’t understand these things about constitutional rights”. So I answered him “I live in the US, and I understand it is my right to wear this t-shirt”.

Then I once again asked the three of them : “How come you are asking me to change my t-shirt? Isn’t this my constitutional right to wear it? I am ready to change it if you tell me why I should. Do you have an order against Arabic t-shirts? Is there such a law against Arabic script?” so inspector Harris answered “you can’t wear a t-shirt with Arabic script and come to an airport. It is like wearing a t-shirt that reads “I am a robber” and going to a bank”. I said “but the message on my t-shirt is not offensive, it just says “we will not be silent”. I got this t-shirt from Washington DC. There are more than a 1000 t-shirts printed with the same slogan, you can google them or email them at wewillnotbesilent@gmail.com . It is printed in many other languages: Arabic, Farsi, Spanish, English, etc.” Inspector Harris said: “We cant make sure that your t-shirt means we will not be silent, we don’t have a translator. Maybe it means something else”. I said: “But as you can see, the statement is in both Arabic and English”. He said “maybe it is not the same message”. So based on the fact that Jet Blue doesn’t have a translator, anything in Arabic is suspicious because maybe it’ll mean something bad!

Umm… y’all: they’re winning! Am I the only one (besides Dave who provided me with the links) that sees a problem with this?

Update: I ordered one of the shirts.

Grace Abounds

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I occasionally proofread articles for Pravmir.Com, a Russian Orthodox site that seeks to evangelize young people on behalf of the Orthodox Church.Â? It gives me a chance to hone my theology skills as well as my grammar ones while doing something to help the mission of the Church.

Today, I found an email from one of the webguru’s in my e-mail.Â? It was the story of a young woman who had an abortion in 1989.Â? In the next few years, she divorced, remarried, joined the church, and had children; but her soul still felt stained by her sin.Â? Finally during the Great Lent, she confessed to her priest, thinking that he would upbraid her and deny her communion.Â? Her priest’s response:

Go take communion.Â? Such wounds need to be healed.

Yeah… that is such an amazing show of grace.Â? If only more Christians were to show God’s grace like that…

Let’s Get Some Things Straight Here

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CNN.Com: Plan B advocates seek access for all

Since one of the idiot LCMS seminarians on LJ has proclaimed that “now you don’t even need a doctor to murder children” and I’ve heard others refer to it as “candy for sluts”, I think we need to get some things straight:

  • This is not an abortion pill. It creates conditions in which the fetus is unlikely to form. (It causes the endometrium to change.)Â? If the fetus doesn’t form, you don’t have a living being and thus cannot be killing. I’m not sure what’s so difficult about the idea of not being able to kill something that isn’t alive. The abortion pill is RU-486. That one *is* actually dangerous and there have been women who have died while using it. Go rip that drug company a new one!
  • This is simply a more concentrated dose of birth control. It’s the equivalent of taking 2 doses of 4 birth control pills at 12-hour intervals. How do I know this? I’ve lived in a part of the country where they don’t dispense it and so doctors will prescribe birth control pills and give specific dosing instructions.
  • It will not cause a rise in promiscuity. Ironically, the group that would be most promiscuous in this circumstance is the “under 17” group who still needs a prescription to obtain the medication. The 18+ crowd would either remain constant or drop due to correct contraceptive usage.
  • It will not cause a rise in teen pregnancy. OK… if the under-17 crowd can’t get their hands on it, exactly how will its OTC status raise the teen pregnancy rate? Most 18 year olds are at least smart enough to use contraception if they are going be sexually active.
  • It will not be taken like candy. OK… this is emergency contraception. One does not take it unless… it’s an emergency!!!! Those who have taken it report moderate to severe nausea and cramping being among the side effects. If a medication is going to make you severely nauseous, why would you be taking it on a regular basis?!?!?!?

I hate to break it to those in the pro-life community but… you either need to be pro-choice or pro-contraception. You can’t have it both ways because morality cannot be legislated. While I am pro-life in that I do not believe that abortion should be a viable form of birth control, I also believe that we live in a fallen world and if people are going to be engaging in sexual relationships outside of the context of marriage, there needs to be adequate contraception.