Daily Kos

Reposted from Frederick Clarkson by Frederick Clarkson

Dr. Ergun Caner, the disgraced former Dean of Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary (affiliated with Liberty University, founded by Jerry Falwell), has sicked his lawyer on a blogger in an effort to hide a truth that has already been revealed.  

Investigative blogger Jason Smathers originally got the goods and broke the story back of how Caner was a prominent member of the fake ex-Muslim terrorist industry which has so infected our public life.  (Other notable fake ex-Muslim terrorists, who have been promoted by the Christian Right and who have been presented as authentic experts before military and law enforcement audiences, include Walid Shoebat and Kamal Saleem.)

Caner's lawyer is now trying to get You Tube to scrub videos Smathers obtained from the U.S. Marines. Smathers points out that Caner has no legitimate claim of ownership of material in a video produced by the federal government.

As kossack Lute would ask - " What's shaking? What's baking? What's going on?"

Hello, Happy Wednesday and welcome to today's Street Prophets.

Many are attending Netroots Nation 2013 this week. How about you?

If not, what are you doing this week?

This summer?

Vacation plans?

Staycation? Painting the house?

This is an open thread. All topics, photos, and videos welcome.

Reposted from National Atheist Party by NationalAtheistParty Scotland is a beautiful country, rich in heritage and culture. They have contributed everything from medical advancements to technological invention to the rest of the world. There is not a day goes by that most people worldwide do not make use of at least one Scottish innovation. The people are friendly and welcoming and let’s be honest, they speak with one of the warmest accents in the whole world.

However, there is part of their tradition that is holding them back in the way of societal advancement and includes something that here in the United States we don’t have to worry about. It’s called Religious Observance (R.O.) and it’s not just limited to private or denominational schools either. What this means is that every week of every school term children can be pulled from academic instruction to receive what amounts to religious indoctrination. Children generally attend holiday observances about six times a year, but it can vary by school. Now this is not a mandatory attendance, by any means. However generally speaking only about half of all parents are informed that their children don’t have to attend. The way it’s set up is what is referred to as “Opt-out” which means that as default every child attends unless otherwise specified.

Welcome to the Tuesday Coffee Hour here on Street Prophets. This is an open thread where we can hang out and talk about what’s going on in our worlds. Today I thought we’d start with a discussion of Cao Dai, a Vietnamese religion.

Reposted from Frank Cocozzelli by Frederick Clarkson

Originally posted at Talk to Action.

In the last several posts we have examined an element of the Catholic Right  comprised of neo-Confederate apologists who openly advocate both the state nullification of federal court decisions and statutes as well as secession.  The name that most commonly comes up when conservative Catholics discuss these things is Thomas E. Woods, Jr., who may be the leading modern confederate, intending to win what Jefferson Davis lost.  But a major difference today is that certain Catholic Right players would use the neo-confederate disruption of popular government to impose theocracy-even at the expense of national unity.

Reposted from Pink Clubhouse by BlueJessamine

We are now counting down the days to the Most EPIC Meet Up of all -  Glacier National Park babyyyyy!

June 27- June 30th
Glacier National Park Kossack EPIC Meetup!

TIME: 24/7
LOCATION: Glacier National Park
 402 9th St W • Columbia Falls, Montana

ORGANIZER: Send arizonablue a kosmail to attend

RSVPs:
  1. BlueJessamine
  2. arizonablue
  3. Mr.arizonablue
  4. Truman
  5. Ojibwa - arriving for the weekend
  6. MTmofo
  7. figbash!
  8. spottedbear
  9. jakedog42
  10. Oke
  11. cooltraveler
  12. Mr.cooltraveler
  13. state of confusion
  14. Lute the Norwegian
  15. Josh Blue
  16. Thinking Fella
  17. Blu Gal in DE
  18. NormAl1792
  19. winifred3
Maybees:
  Joan McCarter
  slksfca
  Ed in Montana
  BoiseBlue
  BoiseBlue GF
  Dave in Northridge
  Timmethy

What if I told you that the descendents of dinosaurs are still among us, and that they had super vision? Well it is true according to modern science. Birds have vision based on four colors rather the three humans have.
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Beyond fold, I’m serving up your favorite drinks, lots of cookies and a few comments about birds. This is an Open Thread / Coffee Hour and everyone is welcome to talk about anything they want to.

Reposted from doug snodgrass by Horace Boothroyd III

Note: Please donate to the E.A.S.E. Legal Fund. There are significant legal fees that have been spent to defend our son, and there will be additional legal fees incurred in the pursuit of justice for the him. This will help to defray these fees.

---

Two days ago, my wife and I were at a grocery store near our home, and we saw the deputy who interrogated our son. At this time, we are not sharing how we were able to know that it was him, but it was him, the guy who laughed at our son during his interrogation.

Standing a few feet from him, I got his attention, and he confirmed his name. Then I told him, calmly, what I wanted to say.

"My son is ----- Snodgrass."

He immediately knew who I was talking about, and his face fell dramatically, with a look that appeared to intersect at resignation and embarrassment. And he looked down at the floor for a moment, then lifted his eyes again to look at me.

"We are very upset about what happened to our son. I want to introduce myself to you. My name is Doug Snodgrass."

And I left.

Reposted from mommyof3 by mapamp

Father's Day is today... and for me it is one of those bittersweet kind of days.  My dad is still alive, and I've called him to say "Happy Father's Day!" I love him... but our relationship is... well, complicated.  He was a good dad for parts of my childhood, and then... he wasn't.  My younger brother knows a different man-- the man he and I both call dad was not a good parent for him.  Dad had a selfish spell... and boy, did it have consequences. A divorce from my mother, some pretty major health consequences (drug-induced heart attack), and finally hepatitis and a stroke.  It was needless to say, a really rough patch.  He straightened himself out, finally, and after the stroke I went to take care of him (oldest daughter in rural Appalachia-- what else was I supposed to do?)  I do love him, but it is hard to hear him talk through his realization of how much he missed out on with my brother...

But, man is he tough--he is still alive and kickin', as they say. With the opportunity to begin to make amends...

Father's Day means different things to different people-- based on family relationships and different traditions, and you name it.

Welcome to Brothers and Sisters, the weekly meetup for prayer* and community at Daily Kos.  We put an asterisk on pray* to acknowledge that not everyone uses conventional religious language, but may want to share joys and concerns, or simply take solace in a meditative atmosphere. Anyone who comes in the spirit of mutual respect, warmth and healing is welcome.

Reposted from Treats by Ojibwa

Well, well, as we read this morning, the Plan B emergency contraceptive is inching its tortured way towards being offered on drugstore shelves with no age restrictions.  Soon this will come to pass although I'm sure the self-appointed moral police of America are trying desperately to get some court somewhere to issue a stay while they fulminate and try to scare everybody as they plan their counterattack.

Why this furious response?  Although you'd never hear it from the fundamentalists, teen pregnancies have been declining for two decades.  You'd think that people so concerned with young people getting pregnant and with the abortion rate would cheer over a proven and safe tool to help further reduce those rates wouldn't you?

In a rational culture, of course.  In ours, not so fast.  Let's think about what's really going on here.

Reposted from Elders of Zion by Navy Vet Terp

Street Prophets is the forum that mobilizes progressive people of faith to name, discuss and take action on critical political and religious issues. So come on in and make yourself at home. We believe that most, if not all topics touching on faith and politics are appropriate on Street Prophets. While this forum represents people of widely differing (and often directly conflicting) theologies, our goal here is to focus on forwarding the progressive political discussion that our shared values make possible. The Street Prophets blog was originally founded by Daniel Schultz, a ordained minister in the United Church of Christ, and Markos Moulitsas, as an offspring of Daily Kos. Street Prophets seeks to change the "moral values" conversation by fostering community; promoting informed opinion and moving its members to action. We are believers in "justice, freedom, compassion and love," in the words of Rita Nakashima Brock. We are progressive, Democratic-leaning and vitally concerned with those whom Jesus called "the least of these." We are the faithful for whom the religious right emphatically does not speak. Its vibrant community of netroots faithful includes a broad range of faiths, including devout Buddhists, Christians, Hindus, Jews, Mormons, Muslims, Atheists, Animists, and Neo-pagans. All who seek to promote a new conversation about the role of religion in America's public life are welcome here.

I discovered Daily Kos during the Kerry-Dean-Edwards Democratic primaries early in 2004, and Daily Kos has been part of my life ever since.  One thing  that attracted me to this website was that, while the diarists were primarily focused on getting Howard Dean, and then John Kerry elected President, diaries covered a wide range of subjects, one of which, promoted by Rev. Dan Schultz and others, focused on the need to revive and grow progressive causes within our nation's religious communities.  Reverend Schultz and others, such as Ramara and myself, recognized that faith inspired so many of the 20th Century's leading activists - Dr. Martin Luther King, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel and Dorothy Day, to name a few.

About a year after that depressing election, Markos announced that he was creating a new website, Street Prophets, which is described above.  I eagerly sought out Street Prophets and joined that as well.  I found a small but friendly group of "Buddhists, Christians, Hindus, Jews, Mormons, Muslims, Atheists, Animists and Neo-Pagans" who "sought to promote a new conversation about the role of religion in America's public life."  I eagerly shared my knowledge of Judaism and Talmud, describing how the Torah and the wisdom of the rabbis could guide us as we strive to build a better America and a better world.  The audience at Street Prophets, compared to Daily Kos, was small but receptive, open, and friendly.  I wrote a 6 part diary on the historical development of the Talmud and a 3 part diary on the Jewish calendar - the folks at Street Prophets, most of whom were not Jewish, appreciated learning about such matters. Later, Ramara began her weekly D'var Torah series, a project to which I regularly contributed.  During this time, I separated politics from religion - religion at Street Prophets, politics at Daily Kos.

Reposted from LSalzillo by Leslie Salzillo

A five-year old little girl named Jayden, after finding out about the concept of the Westboro Baptist Church, decided she wanted to offset their hate by raising money for peace. The daughter of Jon Sink (founder of FRESHCASSETE) set up her lemonade stand across the street from the Westboro compound, at the LGBT Equality House, which was purchased by the founder of Planting Peace, and intentionally painted with the Pride rainbow colors. Jayden raised $400 on June 14, and she has raised over $1000 with an online campaign.

Her 'Pink Lemonade For Peace' sign, suggested a $1 donation for a cool drink of lemonade, and was embraced by many supporters driving by. One person contributed $230.

Westboro reportedly tried intervene by calling the police and failed. Thankfully, these days, we're seeing more and more individuals, small groups and large organizations standing up to Westboro. This past year a whole California community came out to physically block a planned Westboro protest against a pro-LGBT high school. The community formed a human chain, until the Westboro gang finally gave up and left. Anonymous has been known to mess with Westboro, and in May, internet h'activist upset the Westboro hate website, 'GodHatesOklahoma.com,' to damn Oklahoma tornado victims. Viewers who went to the site were redirected to a Red Crossdonation center, which helped raise thousands for tornado victims.  And now we have a precious little girl objecting to Westboro's hate, and sending a message of peace with a simply summer lemonade stand.

This is what the loving innocence of a child and the good in humanity can do to counter the hate - smother it with love. Having this experience at only five years of age, one can only wonder what kind of beauty Jayden is going bring into this world during her life.

Update: June 17, 5:42 pm EDT - Here is the online campaign link for donating to Jayden's Pink Lemonade Stand For Peace.  Her original goal was $500. She has now has raised close to $15,000. This is most enjoyable.