As sad as this is, the one thing I am glad of is that it took this long for such a horrible thing to happen.

National parks for enjoying the beauty of creation, not to “git yer gun hard on on”.

It is going to be hard to top this “No shit!” moment.

I mean this with all sincerity, if I ever do something so monumentally evil as stupid as these brothers, I insist a family member would get in front of a camera and call me a loser. Not to mention he makes the best case for America I’ve heard in a long, long time.

I was raised not to speak ill of the dead.

So, here’s Morrissey.

Preach it, Brother Penn!

Actually, as anyone who has spoken with me on this subject knows, I am likely not an atheist in any form. That said, I have very, very little use for most organized religion given how it exists today.

Just in the Protestant camp, the hateful things so-called religious leaders promote strikes me as anathema to anything in the Bible. As for the Catholic Church? A Hitler Youth leading a pack of unprosecuted pedophiles with the rest of them looking the other way? Nah, I may be baptized in the Church, but I’m not signing up for that.

Other religions? Honestly not much better.

So while I feel more comfortable in the camp that just chooses to do away with religion as it exists, it is nice to have hope for an afterlife. Just not with most of those currently making the case for it.

Comedy Central video

Humans are fallible. Sometimes horribly so. Thomas Jefferson is no exception.

That said, considering one of our major political parties just finished running a candidate for president who believed African-Americans were undeserving of salvation for most of his life and that 47% of his fellow citizens were beneath his contempt, we sure the hell haven’t improved from the slave owning creator of the Declaration of Independence.

This is a very, very good writeup about this state’s fight against the marriage amendment defeated last week.

Minnesota Public Radio goes WAY out of its way to not appear partisan, to the point of giving credibility to crazy people and their crazy ideas, but they really put on their common sense hats when it came to covering this issue. They deserve credit for it, if not for other things.

Give it a listen.

But also check out the video of the story. An interesting slideshow of the key players and those invested in defeating bigotry.

I think this is way too optimistic of an article, but one hopes the GOP stops embracing racism as a central core of their platform.

Do not get me wrong, that bridge is well burnt to a toast for me. I remember the slights and will not ever turn to them as an option. I know that sounds a bit hidebound, but I seriously do not see them turning this page in the remaining span of years I have left. Oh sure, overtures will finally be made – and soon – but the party that welcomed in southern racists before I was born, embraced them during the Nixon years, and became them fully from 2008 to today just is not going to change from that course overnight.

So, yes, please do this as a necessary move to improve our nation. Just don’t count on me – or tens of millions of others – to believe, much less endorse, the party of David Duke, Trent Lott, Jan Brewer, et al. Do it because it is the right thing to do. Just understand why it will never be enough.