Monday, October 20, 2008

Free Republic spins conspiracy theories about Obama's grandmother

The news that Barack Obama is taking time off from his campaign to visit his ailing grandmother doesn't really mean that much except for concern for his family.

But the members of the ultra, to-the-right of Atilla the Hun site Free Republic seem to know why Obama is really postponing his campaign.

I must apologize to my online buddy Pam Spaulding for copying her tactic. She is the one who usually posts the outrageous comments from Free Republic. This time, I thought I would save her the trip.

These folks are so crazy that I am almost hesistant to post some of these comments. I don't want them trying to "investigate" me:

I was under the impression that she was practically under house arrest ever since That One began his campaign.Curious that no one has so much as even seen her, much less get a few words from her.

He has no birth certificate. And his grandmother will mysteriously die while he is there. You know she holds secrets that cannot be revealed...... “Here, Grandma, let me put this pillow over your head. Nice grandma”

“Grandma, you F’n racist!”

Innocent people do not act this way.

Maybe he just needs desperately to get away from Michelle.
What guy wouldn’t?


Time for the Hillary hit.

Hillary is going and to pay off her campaign debts and to get the Supreme Court post she has to whack grandma.

He can work on his tan.

Oh Dear God...he’s not going there to kill her himself is he? I pray for the dear lady.

Could he have a condition which would be considered embarrassing? Sexually transmitted?

UPDATE: According to Americablog, the comments on Fox News website are equally nasty. What's wrong with these people?


A quick lie vs. slow truth - The Wirthlins case and Proposition 8

It has been said that a lie can travel around the world before the truth has time to put on its shoes.

How true it is even when supposed Christians play with the facts.

I have talked about the David Parker case in Massachusetts on many occasions. Parker was the parent who tried to make it seem that his son was "forced to learn about homosexuality" and he was arrested for simply trying to push an opt-out policy.

Well Parker's story was a lie of course but there was another component to the lawsuit he unsuccessfully brought against his son's Massachusetts school.

Another family, the Wirthlins, joined Parker's lawsuit after an incident where their second grade son was read a book in class, King and King, where a prince ended up marrying another prince.

Personally, as a young man who was read all versions of Little Red Riding Hood (including the one with the sad ending where the wolf ate everyone), Hansel and Gretel, The Three Little Pigs (the version where the wolf eats the two pigs and the third pig eats the wolf), and Jack and the Beanstalk before reaching first grade, I don't see anything wrong with a fairy tale as light as King and King.

But that is neither here nor there.

The Wirthlins claimed that reading the book, King and King, violated the opt-out policy where parents could opt out their children in the case of sex education.

The courts, as I have pointed out, ruled against Parker and as such ruled against the Wirthlins. Neither the Parker case nor the Wirthlins case had anything to do with sex education, but a simple acknowledgement of lgbt families.

Now here is where the lies start:

The Wirthlins have filmed a campaign ad pushing for the passage of Proposition 8 in California.

In this ad, which can be seen here, they claim that if Proposition 8 is not passed, then children will be "forced to learn about gay marriage."

The most pernicious part for me was when the father said:

"The courts said we had no right to object or pull him out of class."

Actually that is a clever misconception. Yes the courts did say that the reading of King and King was not an issue of human sexuality, therefore it had nothing to do with the opt-out policy.

But Mr. Wirthlin is clearly deceiving people when he said the courts said the parents could not pull their children out of class. The courts actually advised parents who object to do just that:

In the 38-page decision, Chief Judge Mark L. Wolf, of the U.S. District Court, said that families who don’t agree with the teachings of the public school, have the choice of private schools or homeschooling.

And like I said before, the reading of King and King had nothing to do with marriage equality in Massachusetts. It had to do with the fact that there were children who attended the school and lived in same-sex households.

People like Wirthlin, Parker and the rest of that bunch always seem to forget that despite the fact of whether or not gay marriage is legalized, children will still be brought up in same-sex households. And they should not have to feel like there is something wrong with their families, because there isn't.