Ever since I first heard of Yousef Nadarkhani, the Iranian Christian pastor held captive in that horrible subnormal nation by its rulers for the crime of apostasy, I’ve had as my homepage at work the American Center for Law and Justice website which had been counting the days of his incarceration.

That count has ended.

While I was out of town this weekend with my partner and away from the news, Pastor Nadarkhani was released by the court that had originally sentenced him to death. The charge of apostasy has been reduced to that of evangelizing, and his punishment to time served.

There is so much to say that if I did would look like gift-horse material. For now, let’s all just say a prayer of thanksgiving that he has been delivered from these savages and is currently back in the embrace of his family.

Let’s also further pray that now that he’s out of jail he will find safety. All to often in places like Iran, prisoners of conscience are released from official bondage only to be torn apart by the mobs that populate such backward countries.

If you’d like to know more about Pastor Nadarkhani and his trials, check out the link to the ACLJ above.

-Nick (ColoradoPatriot, from HHQ)

Religion of Peace Alert! (via @BillyHallowell)

A disturbing trial came to a close this week in London, England, after three men were convicted of distributing pamphlets that called for gays and lesbians to be murdered. The hateful fliers were disturbing at best. One of them, titled, “Death Penalty?,” showed a mannequin that was hanging from a noose and said that gays should be sent to hell.

“The death sentence is the only way this immoral crime can be erased from corrupting society and act as a deterrent for any other ill person who is remotely inclined in this bent way.”

The leaflet continues: “The only dispute amongst the classical authorities was the method employed in carrying out the penal code.”

It goes on to offer burning, being flung from a high point such as a mountain or building, or being stoned to death as suitable methods.

It’s okay, the real threat to gays (according to American gay leftist/progressive types) is Rick Santorum. 

Move along, nothing to see here.  Except the truth.

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

YAY Arab Spring!!!!

Judges overseeing the vote count in Egypt’s parliamentary elections say Islamist parties have won a majority of the contested seats in the first round. The judges spoke on condition of anonymity because official results are expected to be released later Thursday.

They say the Muslim Brotherhood could take 45 percent of the seats up for grabs. The liberal Egyptian bloc coalition and the ultra-fundamentalist Nour party are competing for second place.

Together, Islamist parties are expected to control a majority of parliamentary seats by March. This week’s vote was the first of six stages of parliamentary elections that will last until then.

Obama = FAIL.

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

Today, ten years after the terror attacks on America, I once again dedicate this space to my lost friend, James Joe Ferguson, who was killed aboard American Airlines Flight 77 when that plane was used as a weapon and crashed into the Pentagon. This posting goes up at the exact time that plane was flown into the Pentagon ten years ago.

We miss you, Joe.
-Bruce and John

Addendum: Most folks on 9/11 naturally think of the thousands who died in the WTC, or in the Pentagon or on Flight 93. When I reflect on this day, I immediately think of Joe and his fellow passengers on Flight 77. In some ways, they are the forgotten victims. “Truthers” insist no plane hit the Pentagon. The families of those who died on Flight 77 would beg to differ. In any case, Flight 77 illustrates how ruthless Islamic terrorists are. Imagine sitting in your seat as your plane accelerates to 500 mph but you see the ground coming up fast and you know you are going to die. That folks, is the definition of “terror”.

********************

The last time we had dinner, Joe told my partner John and I about how much he was looking forward to being a part of the bicentennial of the Lewis & Clark Expedition. Typically, I found myself jealous of him. In his role as Director of Geographic Education at the National Geographic Society, Joe had one of the most unique and rewarding jobs I can ever imagine having.

He traveled around the world, bringing American school children face-to-face with the natural wonders of our Earth. He was not only a teacher but also provided a critical turning point for these kids, many of whom had never before left their own neighborhoods. Joe provided the path for these students to experience things that many of us never will in our entire lives.

In addition, he got to travel to the four corners of the globe. How rewarding that must have been. How do I sign up for that job?

I got an email from Joe on Thursday, September 6, 2001. “Hi cutie” it started — typical opening line for Joe to any of his friends. He had just returned from Alaska and wanted to tell show me all the pictures, but the following week he said he was headed to California for another work trip. I printed out and kept that email for many months in my briefcase as a way to keep Joe alive.

As dawn broke on September 11, 2001, Joe called his Mom in Mississippi to give her a wake up call as he always did when he traveled. He said to her, “I’ll call you when I get to California. Have a good day.” He was that kind of person. The kind of person, who, no matter where he was and how busy he was, dropped a postcard to his friends so we could share a part of his experiences throughout the world.

At Dulles International Airport, Joe stood with his group traveling to California and took some last minute photos. He and another colleague were scheduled passengers on American Airlines Flight 77, accompanying three D.C. public school teachers and three students on a National Geographic-sponsored field trip to the Channel Islands off Santa Barbara, Calif. After the photos were taken, they bid farewell to the children’s parents and proceeded to their gate.

At 9:37AM, Joe lost his life at the young age of thirty-nine when terrorists slammed the plane into the side of the Pentagon at 500 mph. A teacher and positive role model to young Americans was taken from the world in an act of sheer violence and viciousness.

As I was dealing with the many emotions of the events of September 11, a thought crossed my mind the next day. Gosh, I thought, Joe had said he was traveling and now he’s stuck somewhere until the airlines are allowed to fly again. So I called his work number in DC and left a message. After I heard his voice for the last time, I said “Give me a call if you are checking messages.” “I hope you make it home soon,” I concluded. When I called that day, I had no idea.

It wasn’t until Friday, September 14 that I found out that one of my dearest friends had become a casualty of the attacks on America. Suddenly, this war was personal — it had hit home. I wasn’t expecting to have to go to two memorial services and walk around in a state of numbness for many weeks.

At Joe’s memorial service, there were lots of tears and lots of laughs as well. One of Joe’s friends told the gathering that Joe had this way of making you feel as if you were his best friend in the world. I knew exactly what he meant. I saw Joe every once in a while. We would have lunch, or more likely trade emails or phone calls. But every time we talked, I felt like Joe’s best friend. Joe still has a lot of best friends all around the world.

Perhaps Joe’s death hit me so hard because it was the first death of someone close to me that I had experienced as an adult. I am still surprised by the impact that his death has had, and in many ways continues to have, on my life.

In fact, I did a lot of personal reflecting in the months following 9/11. I questioned how important my job and even my life were in a time of war where terrorists could invade your workplace or your school and slaughter you with no remorse. I questioned what value and worth my own career had in comparison with a man who had chosen to teach and change the lives of young people. I felt trapped in a good job that was giving me no personal satisfaction.

All I could remember was how happy Joe always was and how that cheer was infectious to all of his friends and colleagues. I would miss that cheerful influence on me. Joe had made the choice to live life to the fullest extent possible. He was the model of the optimistic American who knows no frontiers and no bounds. He was doing more than his fair share of contributing to a better society.

My partner John and I took a trip to the American West in the summer of 2003 and followed some of the Lewis & Clark Trail. I know Joe would have loved the scenery and spirit of America that lives and breathes in the land of Montana and Wyoming. The IMAX film about the “Corps of Discovery” produced by the National Geographic Society — Lewis & Clark: The Great Journey West — was dedicated to the memory of Joe Ferguson. It is available on DVD and I strongly recommend watching it.

One day in early 2002, I heard a song on the radio that I don’t remember hearing before 9/11/2001. I didn’t even know it was LeeAnn Womack’s voice, because the words are the soul and essence of Joe Ferguson. The words are an expression of his personal passion and love of life. And the words are also an inspiration for all of us to get through the many trying days of our post-9/11 world.

I hope you never lose your sense of wonder.
Get your fill to eat, but always keep that hunger.
May you never take one single breath for granted.
God forbid love ever leave you empty-handed.
I hope you still feel small when you stand beside the ocean.
Whenever one door closes I hope one more opens.
Promise me that you’ll give faith a fighting chance.
And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance.
I hope you dance.

I hope you never fear those mountains in the distance.
Never settle for the path of least resistance.
Livin’ might mean takin’ chances, but they’re worth takin.
Lovin’ might be a mistake, but its worth makin.
Don’t let some hell bent heart leave you bitter.
When you come close to sellin’ out, reconsider.
Give the heavens above more than just a passing glance.
And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance.
I hope you dance.

It is pretty self-explanatory.

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

Open question for the evening:

How is a Florida church burning the Koran on 9/11 any different than an Islamist-inspired mosque being built in the Ground Zero debris zone?

My answer:  None. Both have the right to do it.  But it isn’t the right thing to do.

Your thoughts?

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

QUESTION FROM DAN: Bruce, have you been advising Sarah Palin?  Catch this on her Facebook page:

Book burning is antithetical to American ideals. People have a constitutional right to burn a Koran if they want to, but doing so is insensitive and an unnecessary provocation – much like building a mosque at Ground Zero.

Or maybe, she just reads GayPatriot.

I’m not sure what is more disturbing.

This….

As part of “Inspire,” a 67-page English-language Al Qaeda magazine, Yemeni-American cleric Anwar al-Awlaki — who has been linked to the botched Times Square bombing and cited as inspiration for the Fort Hood massacre and the plot of two New Jersey men to kill U.S. soldiers — targeted the Seattle cartoonist for “assassination,” along with others who have participated in her campaign.

“The large number of participants makes it easier for us because there are more targets to choose from in addition to the difficulty of the government offering all of them special protection,” wrote al-Awlaki, who is an American citizen. “But even then our campaign should not be limited to only those who are active participants.”

He warned that “assassinations, bombings and acts of arson” are all legitimate forms of revenge against the creators of blasphemous depictions of Muhammad.

<…>

The woman created her version of “Everybody Draw Muhammad” in late April, days after a Seattle cartoonist launched the online campaign to protest Comedy Central’s censoring of an episode of “South Park,” in which the Prophet Muhammad was depicted wearing a bear costume. The Canadian woman said she will no longer act as the administrator of such a page.

“I just want to be quiet now,” she continued. “I wish I didn’t do this.”

or this…

The 27-year-old Facebook page creator — a Canadian woman who asked not to be identified due to fears of reprisal — told FoxNews.com that she was visited at her home last week by Royal Canadian Mounted Police officials who advised her to remove her page and not to talk to reporters.

Ah, the chilling effect of the death threat is alive and well here in The West… thanks to Islamists.  I think that’s their goal.  Oh yeah, and beheadings too.

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

I received a great phone call from Dan, who’s on the road today, and I am not sure if my signal was bad or if there was other interferance (it was beautiful in Colorado today, and I was driving with the windows down), but best I could tell, he was making this excellent point:

It’s curious that one of our more outlandish and childish commenters recommended the following (vis-a-vis Everybody Draw Muhammed Day):

[W]e target the evangelicals that don’t want gays to get married and stage a “Take Your Gay Partner to the Parking Lot of an Evangelical Church Just After Services are Letting Out and Make Out With Them Day.”

Oh, so bold. The point that (I think*) Dan was making was that, while there are thousands of people across America today who are actually putting their own safety at risk by drawing Muhammed, how far is the average gay Leftist willing to go to pull for his own issues? Which is to say, if our Leftist friends were, indeed, to make out with thier partners in the parking lot of a Christian church, at what risk would they be putting themselves?

Surely they risk looking stupid. But that’s never seemed to bother them. Likely they’d be ridiculed. But do they actually think that the “risks” they take by pulling such a stunt put them on the same level as Theo Van Gogh or Lars Vilks? Or for that matter, any of the “artists” participating today?

Tell you what, you’re so bold…take your make-out session to your local mosque, and we’ll talk about it.

* Seriously, I’m not sure…we had to cut our conversation short, so apologies to you, Dan, if this isn’t what you meant to say, but if not, thanks for the great idea

- Nick (ColoradoPatriot, from a Secret Undisclosed Alternate HQ

Good Lord. I thought today would never come. No, seriously, I actually believed the Apocalypse might occur before we chose, as a civilization, to rise up and together pronounce to those who would kill us for doing so, that we will, in fact, draw a picture of someone. And you wouldn’t believe what Bruce, Dan, and I went though to get here today (more on that after the jump)*.

Imagine: We’ve mapped the human genome. One dozen men have been on the moon. The 15,000 lines of the Iliad and the 12,000 lines of the Odyssey can fit onto a device as small as the palm of your hand. Gigantic metallic cylinders that weigh 300,000 pounds fly at tens of thousands of feet in the air, carrying 500 people at hundreds of miles per hour to cover continents in a matter of just a couple hours…and do so hundreds of times every day.

Oh, AND, by the way, if you draw a picture of Muhammed, someone will want to kill you.

Really? Seriously? In 2010? Yes.

When I first heard about Everybody Draw Muhammed Day and blogged on it last month, I thought it was a brilliant idea. At the time, I considered “including a feather boa and fabulous shoes” in my depiction. The more I thought about it, and the more I read readers’ comments, and those of my colleague, Dan, I realized that such flamboyance might send the wrong signal: That I was deliberately and gratuitously trying to insult all Muslims. While some clearly are trying to do this, I think that’d be needlessly disrespectful, and definitely self-defeating. As I perused the Web and read others’ thoughts on the issue, what I came to realize was that any depiction of Muhammed would be considered a capital offense by an Islamist extremist. So, I figured, why purposefully alienate moderate Muslims, who, while they may be put off by such a display, are not the direct cause of trouble?

After all, it’s these sane and sober Muslims who must look at their coreligionists murder cartoonists, burn their houses down, stab film-makers to death in cold blood, cause authors to go underground indefinitely, OH, and fly planes into buildings, send women into busy marketplaces as suicide bombers, saw the heads off of Wall Street Journal journalists (I could go on…) and feel themselves hopeless that these are the only faces of Islam that most of the world sees. Why agitate them?

Why? Well, here’s why:

I’m a Roman Catholic. About a thousand years ago, my church engaged on a 200-year journey one might euphemistically call “proselytization”. This “evangelization” came down to this: Become Catholic or die (Sorry, no “cake” option). Standing up and saying that you didn’t agree with the Pope was, basically, grounds for death (please, by the way, repent as you expire…it’s good for our numbers). Now, certainly, many of my coreligionists at the time were aghast at such a display of naked aggression against blasphemers. How many of them stood up? Clearly not enough at the time. Now consider this (and yes, I’m well aware of the irony about to be displayed by virtue of the players involved in the following analogy): Perhaps there were Moors who looked at all of this and said, “Well, you know, what those Catholics are doing is pretty awful. We should stand up against their aggression and do all we have in our power to defeat them. Oh, but let’s not needlessly insult them in the process. After all, those sensible Catholics (who, surely represent the majority of that peaceful religion) are the allies we need. Pointing out and displaying the idiocy behind the “Blasphemy = Execution” policy will only provoke them and make our battle more difficult. Oh, and let’s also not say that we disagree with the dogma of Papal Infallibility. Let’s just play along as if that’s not nuts. After all, those hearts and minds—regardless of how warped they may be—are valuable to us in our struggle. Best to not rock that proverbial boat, and let those Catholics continue to believe they’re above any sort of criticism. If we only kill the really crazy ones, I’m sure the rest of them will agree with us that their getting so upset over minor things like doubting the Pope’s infallibility will never boil up as long as we kill just the ones who take it that far.”

The point behind Everybody Draw Muhammed Day is not about sensitivities. It’s not about recklessly and needlessly and unemotionally insulting someone. It’s about saying to Muslims: This is 2010. You’re entitled to be offended and even get angry if someone insults your religion. You’re entitled to call them terrible names and damn them to hell. You’re entitled to curse them and (if you feel it’s productive) take and eye for a metaphorical eye by similarly insulting their religion. But you’re NOT entitled to kill people because of that anger.

I’m a member of the US Military. My job is to defend others, if even with my life. Everybody Draw Muhammed Day is, in effect to a degree, similar. I will once again quote Mark Steyn and say that he put it better than I ever could have, regarding the original cartoons in the Danish newspaper:

The minute there were multimillion-dollar bounties on those cartoonists’ heads, The Times of London and Le Monde and The Washington Post and all the rest should have said “this Thursday we’re all publishing all the cartoons. If you want to put bounties on all our heads, you better have a great credit line at the Bank of Jihad. If you want to kill us, you’ll have to kill us all. You can kill ten who are stout-hearted men but you’ll have to kill ten thousand more. We’re standing shoulder to shoulder, and bolder and bolder.”

For me, drawing a picture of Muhammed today is not about poking a stick in the Muslim Community’s eye. It’s not about nakedly and gratuitously insulting people because I can. It’s about throwing oneself on a hand-grenade along with thousands (hopefully) of others so that the jihadists and radical Islamists see that they can’t kill us all. This is our chance to be Daniel Pearl, our chance to be Theo Van Gogh, our chance to be Lars Vilks. They cannot kill us all.

With all that said, here is a link to my drawing of Muhammed.
(more…)

Good morning.  There are a number of important things going on in the world today that warrant note as they all relate to an existential threat to the American Republic, its founding Principles & Documents, and the freedoms we take for granted.  I’m going to touch on a couple of them in this post and my fellow bloggers will hit the topic throughout the day as well.

Today — May 20 — was first mentioned as “Everyone Draw Muhammad Day” (EDMD) to protest and challenge the terroristic treatment of Swedish political cartoonist Lars Vilks.

Vilks, 53, recently was the target of an alleged murder plot that led to the arrests of two American women. He has faced death threats from Islamic extremists since depicting the Muslim prophet Muhammad as a dog in a series of 2007 illustrations. That same year, a bounty was placed on Vilks’s head.

Well, Vilks continues to be targeted by fanatics and his house was torched last week.

The southern Sweden home of Vilks was hit by a suspected arson attack last Friday night, according to the Associated Press. Vilks, who sparked a violent protest Tuesday while speaking at Stockholm’s Uppsala University, was not home at the time of Friday’s attack.

UPDATE: Police have arrested two men in the fire-bomb attack, according to AFP. The suspects, 21 and 19, are Swedish nationals of Kosovar origin who were arrested after personal items were found near the scene, Swedish police said.

Since the attack, Vilks now says he is sleeping elsewhere. “During the day I don’t think it is dangerous because I can keep watch over myself,” Vilks told the Associated Press. “But I have to realize that I can’t be there during the night.”

There are a number of bloggers on the left and the right marking today with various iterations of “Draw Muhammad Day”.  My co-bloggers will cover those activities in other posts here today in their own style.

In the same spirit of celebrating the First Amendment and the valued tradition in America of debating right vs. wrong — I would like to bring to your attention this controversy:  A Mosque Is Planned At The Site of the 9/11 Attacks in NYC.

A group called “ACT for America” is sponsoring this petition drive:

We the undersigned join with millions of Americans who are opposed to the founding of a mosque at the very site where Islamist jihadists destroyed the World Trade Center and took the lives of nearly 3,000 people.

We are opposed to the grotesque symbolism represented by the building of this mosque at “ground zero.” We are especially appalled that those pushing for this mosque have designated its grand opening date for September 11, 2011 – the ten year anniversary of the worst terrorist attack in U.S. history.

We are deeply disturbed by the insensitivity to the families of the victims of the 9/11 jihadist attack exhibited by Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf and his supporters. We find it grossly hypocritical that Islamists and their allies repeatedly lecture Americans about the need to be “sensitive” to Muslims while Imam Rauf and his allies practice the height of intolerance and insensitivity through the blatant act of building a mosque at “ground zero.”

We are offended by the views Imam Rauf has expressed about 9/11, such as his conspiratorial theory that Muslims did not perpetrate the 9/11 attack and that America’s policies were partly to blame for the attack. Such views are a slap in the face of the victims and families of 9/11.

We find it repulsive that Imam Rauf and his followers and supporters would seek to build a mosque near ground zero promoting the same Sharia ideology that the 9/11 hijackers used as the justification for their act of unconscionable murder.

Therefore, in deference to the families of the 9/11 victims and their memory, we call upon the elected officials of New York to oppose the building of this mosque near ground zero and for them to urge Feisal Abdul Rauf and his followers to find another location for it.

I encourage everyone to sign the petition and prevent this insult-upon-injury to the victims’ families from 9/11/2001.

So there you go — two hot button topics.  Please debate with civility and keep the vile personal attacks over at the DailyKos and Joe.My.God.

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

Here’s something that fell into my lap this morning, thanks to Jonah over at NRO. It’s a video of David Horowitz taking a question from Jumanah Imad Albahri, a student at the University of California in San Diego, and a member of the Muslim Student Association. It’s quite striking:

Toward the end of the video, Horowitz asks the student: “I am a Jew. The head of Hizbulah has said that he hopes that we will gather in Israel so he doesn’t have to hunt us down globally. For it, or against it?”

Her response is chilling in its simplicity and the conviction with which it’s delivered.

-Nick (ColoradoPatriot, from HQ)

I highly recommend Mark Steyn’s Washington Times column this weekend.  He lays out a chilling case that those interested in advancing Political Islam are winning the ideological struggle hands-down.

Islam smells weakness at the heart of the West. The post-World War II order is dying: The European Union’s decision to toss a trillion dollars to prop up a Greek economic model that guarantees terminal insolvency is merely the latest manifestation of the chronic combination of fiscal profligacy and demographic decline in the West at twilight. Islam is already the biggest supplier of new Europeans and new Canadians, and the fastest-growing demographic in the western world. Therefore, it thinks it not unreasonable to shape the character of those societies – not by blowing up buildings and airplanes, but by determining the nature of their relationship to Islam.

For example, the very same day that Mr. Holder was doing his “Islam? What Islam?” routine at the Capitol, the Organization of the Islamic Conference was tightening its hold on the United Nations Human Rights Council - actually, make that the U.N. “Human Rights” Council. The OIC is the biggest voting bloc at the U.N. and it succeeded in getting its slate of candidates elected to the so-called “human rights” body – among them the Maldives, Qatar, Malaysia, Mauritania and Libya.

But along with the big headline victories go smaller ones. These days, Islam doesn’t even have to show up. The Metropolitan Museum of Art has quietly pulled representations of Muhammad from its Islamic collection. With the Danish cartoons, violent mobs actually had to kill large numbers of people before Kurt Westegaard was sent into involuntary “retirement.” Even with “South Park,” the thugs still had to threaten murder. But the Metropolitan Museum caved pre-emptively – no murders, no threats, but best to crawl into a fetal position, anyway.

Last week, the American Association of Pediatricians (AAP) noted that certain, ahem, “immigrant communities” were shipping their daughters overseas to undergo female genital mutilation FGM). So, in a spirit of multicultural compromise, they decided to amend their previous opposition to the practice: They’re not (for the moment) advocating full-scale clitoridectomies, but they are suggesting federal and state laws be changed to permit them to give a “ritual nick” to young girls.

So, our own Attorney General couldn’t even utter the words “Radical Islam” last week during a Congressional hearing.  And liberals/feminists are silent about the chilling of free speech and mutilation of young women due to the PC-handling of Islam.

Enough said.  Read the whole thing.

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

Okay. Check out this video:

(From VerumSerum by way of NRO)

It’s the aftermath of somebody attacking the Swedish artist who drew this picture. (Natch, I use the term “artist” loosely. No, I couldn’t do better—we’ll see in nine days—but you don’t have to be good to have your own opinion. After all, look at Keith Olbermann.)

What we have here is an observant of the Religion of Peace attacking somone for having drawn a (crappy, albeit) picture of the Prophet Muhammed. I echo blogger John Sexton’s characterization of the audience’s reaction as being a good source for the “creeps”: Chants of “Allahu Ackbar”.

While I understand and respect that my Occidental colleague and many commenters passionately disagree with Bruce and me about the event (and they have a very good argument), this sort of nonesense demonstrates precisely why I support it.

That the offense of a religion (in the year 2010, need I remind you?) results in physical violence is the clearest sign that this sect needs to be dragged, kicking and screaming (and apparently head-butting) if necessary, into the 21st Century (or at least the 19th). That may sound insensitive of me to say, but I’d rank it below heat-butting somebody, and definitely not even in the same solar system as a suicide bomber.

-Nick (ColoradoPatriot, from HQ)

Sure sounds like it… (h/t – Riehl World View)

BRIDGEPORT, Conn. (AP) — A real estate broker says the Times Square bombing suspect told him years ago he disliked President George W. Bush and the Iraq war.

Igor Djuric  represented Faisal Shahzad when he was buying a home in 2004.  Djuric says he could not remember the exact words but said Shahzad made clear he didn’t like Bush or his policy in Iraq. He says the comments were not hateful, but he was surprised to hear them because they hardly knew each other.

Announcing your anti-Bush political views in someone’s face without them asking…. sure sounds like an American Liberal to me.

Dan Riehl has a hilarious commentary that I have to post as well:

Wow! It’s a wonder the guy wasn’t co-anchoring at MSNBC. Maybe he didn’t have the right skin color for that gig? They pretty much have a white only policy over there, as I recall.

Yep, we’ve covered that ground before here at GayPatriot.  MSNBC: The Home Of Angry Liberal Whites Who Call Everyone Else a RACIST.

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

Molly Norris, the cartoonist whose poster promoting “Everybody Draw Muhammed Day” on May 20th caused such a stir, has called it quits.

Her home page today shows the following statement:

I make cartoons about current, cultural events. I made a cartoon of a fictional ’poster’ entitled “Everybody Draw Mohammed Day!” with a nonexistent group’s name — Citizens Against Citizens Against Humor — drawn on the cartoon. It was in specific response to the recent censoring of a South Park episode, a desire to bring home the importance of the first amendment. I did not intend for my cartoon to go viral. I did not intend to be the focus of any ’group’. This particular cartoon has struck a gigantic nerve, something I was totally unprepared for.

Personally I can feel afraid of Muslims because I really have no idea if in their hearts they hate non-Muslims. There are so many interpretations of the religion that I hear told — sometimes it is a very extreme translation (that’s the scary part, the radicals that believe that Westerners should die), then at other times it sounds more peaceful.

I hope for the sake of this country that moderate Muslims will speak out with everyone else against any violent members of that or any other religion. That way I would know that there is a difference. Maybe this cartoon I made, this fictional poster of “Everybody Draw Mohammed Day!” had such a wildfire effect because it is finally time for Muslims and non-Muslims to understand one another more.

I am going back to the drawing table now!

Thanks,
Molly

I feel for Molly. She clearly wasn’t ready for all the fame and noteriety that her seemingly (to her) innocuous move made for herself. But there’s something disturbing about her tone here. Unlike many people, including my fellow bloggers and many commenters, sensitivity to cultural differences doesn’t seem to be Molly’s reason for pulling back.

There is clearly a tone of fear in what she’s done. Perhaps she’s simply an introvert and publicity gives her the creeps. Many artists are like that. But my instincts tell me that she’s actually caved because she fears genuinely for her safety.

It’s ironic, and a shame, for this to be the case. Those of us who have taken up this cause did so to mitigate such threats. As Mark Steyn so aptly put it:

If you want to put bounties on all our heads, you better have a great credit line at the Bank of Jihad. If you want to kill us, you’ll have to kill us all.

Fortunately for the First Amendment and other American values, the cause presses on, even without Molly: Citizens Against Citizens Against Humor.

Sometimes you choose to be an icon for unapologietic defense of Free Speech. Sometimes you have it thurst upon you.

-Nick (ColoradoPatriot, from HQ)

After having dilligently scrubbed through all the posts here in the past three days so as to not run afoul of our intrepid readers , I submit likely one of the most useful things to come from Dan Savage in about a decade. (Not that I don’t like his stuff, but rarely is he this good.)

Over at The Stranger, Dan asks his readers (and I ask ours) to join him for “Everybody Draw Mohammed Day” on May 20th in support of my fellow Centennial StatesmenTrey Parker and Matt Stone: (more…)

Despite the Obama Administration’s efforts to cover up the ongoing war against America by Islamists, the Muslim terrorists are obviously undeterred in their plans to carry out war against our homeland.

Airliner attack fails over Detroit; Northwest Ohioans on board witness incident - T0ledo Blade (h/t – Amanda Carpenter)

A Northwest Airlines passenger from Nigeria who said he was acting on al-Qaeda’s instructions set off an explosive device Friday in a failed terrorist attack on the plane as it was preparing to land in Detroit, federal officials said.

 Flight 253 had 278 passengers aboard, including northwest Ohio residents who saw the incident.

The flight was 20 minutes from the airport when what sounded like a firecracker exploded, witnesses said.  One passenger jumped over others and tried to subdue the man. Shortly afterward, the suspect was taken to a front-row seat with leg burns.  One U.S. intelligence official said the explosive device was a mix of powder and liquid that failed to fully detonate.

The White House said it believed it was an attempted act of terrorism, and stricter security measures were imposed on airline travel. Those measures were not specified.  A Northwest Airlines passenger from Nigeria who said he was acting on al-Qaeda’s instructions set off an explosive device Friday in a failed terrorist attack on the plane as it was preparing to land in Detroit, federal officials said.

 Flight 253 had 278 passengers aboard, including northwest Ohio residents who saw the incident.

 The flight was 20 minutes from the airport when what sounded like a firecracker exploded, witnesses said.

One passenger jumped over others and tried to subdue the man. Shortly afterward, the suspect was taken to a front-row seat with leg burns.

One U.S. intelligence official said the explosive device was a mix of powder and liquid that failed to fully detonate.

The White House said it believed it was an attempted act of terrorism, and stricter security measures were imposed on airline travel. Those measures were not specified.

First let me point out one simple fact:  While nearly all levels of the US government seem paralyzed to do anything lately, we have more evidence of the American public — specifically this one passenger — who will do what it takes to protect his nation. 

Moving forward I believe Congress should look into our Homeland Security practices immediately.  There are many questions that Gestapo Janet has to answer for.  Is she too consumed on cracking down on “right-wing extremists” that she dropped the ball on a worldwide war declared on this nation?  Did the Obama Adminstration take its eye off the ball in 2009 while trying to ram healthcare reform down our throats?  Has Obama spent too much time focusing on Afghanistan, and not enough time on Yemen — where there increasing reports of Iran-sponsored al-Qaeda groups gaining strength?

We all know that Senator Obama would have asked Congress to investigate the Bush Administration under reverse circumstances had this airline attack happened two years ago.  So I hope Barry’s 2008 so-far empty pledge of transparency will at least be honored when it comes to protecting American citizens.

We stayed safe on our homeland for seven years after the 9/11 attacks.  The American public demands to know why there has been one successful terror attack (Ft. Hood), and one that nearly happened yesterday under the watch of our new President.

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

Here is the photo of a true American hero.  It isn’t a photo that is being run 24/7 on NBC, CNN, CBS or even FOX News.

This is a man who, along with this family, volunteered to serve his nation in a time of war and paid the ultimate price on his nation’s own soil.  It is believed to be the first Islamist terror attack on US soil since 9/11.  And so far, President Obama has had nothing to say about the death of Pvt. Long and the shooting at the recruiting center.

Those who are honoring a doctor who aborted 60,000 fetuses need to see what a real hero looks like. 

The American Liberal mouthpieces on TV and the internet have not only ignored the Islamist’s terror attack in Little Rock, but they seem more upset about the murder of Dr. Tiller than they did about the attacks of 9/11/2001.

Army Pvt. William Long – RIP

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

Perhaps American Liberals will rally to the cause of another Islamic country making life for gays and lesbians more difficult, and perhaps more deadly….. (h/t – Infidels Are Cool)

MADRID, MARCH 24 – Morocco announces the end of tolerance with regard to homosexuality, is the title of the full page article in today’s El Pais, referring to the initiative which the Ministry for the interior in Morocco is using to ‘confront all actions which go against religious and moral values, within the framework of the law”.

An article with the headline in red on the front page of magazine Al Michaal triggered the reaction by the government in Rabat; in it a gay Moroccan couple tell the story of their wedding, reciting a prayer which comes before the reading from the Koran. The formula is very common in Morocco, between heterosexual couples as well, but it does not mean that the union is legal.

In a message quoted by El Pais, the Ministry for the interior registered “voices in the media which are trying to make a case for ignoble behaviour which is a provocation to national public opinion and which are against the moral values and teachings of our society”.  The government will carry act against these people “within the framework of current laws”.

Homosexuality is punishable in Morocco from six months to three years imprisonment, even though courts do not usually pass sentences for this kind of crime.  Nevertheless arrests of gays are commonly made as a ‘deterrent”.

Where is the Human Rights Campaign?  (*crickets chirping*)

Maybe they will only get involved when things in Morocco get REALLY serious.  You know like in Iran — where gays hang by ropes.

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

This is awesome.  While the Left is fawning over the change of policy regarding the UN Declaration (good move, Obama — truly), some promininent gay Republicans are noting the vicious irony.

From a press release yesterday: [GP Ed. Note: This press release did NOT come from Log Cabin Republicans-- the "official" gay Republican organization.  Rather it is a statement from two former LCR staffers.]

“It smacks of tokenism to sign a U.N. resolution on the treatment of gays and lesbians, while opening the door to closer relations with the brutally anti-gay regime in Iran,” said Jimmy LaSalvia, a Republican activist and former Policy Director for Log Cabin Republicans.  “While the Obama administration should be applauded for signing this resolution, the resolution is meaningless if they pursue a foreign policy that appeases tyrants like Ahmadinejad.”

According to the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission, the crime of homosexuality is punishable by death in Iran.  “If the Obama administration is serious about stopping the persecution of gays and lesbians across the globe, then they will make it clear that they will not deal with states like Iran where the penalty for being gay is death,” said Christopher Barron, the President of CapSouth Consulting and the former Political Director for Log Cabin Republicans.  “If the U.S. is going to be a leader in defending human rights, it’s going to take much more than a toothless U.N. resolution.”

Now here are my two cents:

Obama also wants to engage with the Taliban, Hamas, Hezbollah…. shall I go on?

It is important that the US join the world bodies in such action.  But it is MORE IMPORTANT that gays are not left hanging (pun intended) as Obama begins his campaign of appeasing the Islamists around the world.

-Bruce (GayPatriot)