Thursday, July 19, 2012

Tennessee Ordered to Stop Blocking Muslims from Worshiping in Mosque

Ah Tennessee!  The state that gave us "Don't Say Gay" legislation has finally been bitch slapped by a federal judge and told to join the 21st century.

You wee the affluent suburb of  Murfreesboro is home to a new mosque.  The congregation of that mosque had hoped to worship there starting today at sundown, the beginning of the holy month of Ramadan. The problem is the good citizens of that town have long sought to prevent the opening of the Islamic Center.  The residents filed a lawsuit alleging that Islam was "not a real religion" back in 2010.  Failing that, they convinced a local judge that the mosque’s building permits were invalid because the congregation had not provided “adequate public notice”. 

That is where the Federal Judge stepped in.  He ruled that the county judge could not hold the Murfreesboro mosque to the separate standard he had created in his May ruling.  In other words, they deserved equal protection under the law.  That is a novel idea in Tennessee apparently.

The Mosque will open for it's congregation tonight as scheduled.  However, I suspect there will be a crowd of ignorant mean-spirited "hillbilly kristshuns" on had with offensive picket signs and perhapse worse.  I pray for the safety of everyone involved.

Full disclosure:  my grandfather was from Tennessee and I'm from Texas, where we have our own industrial strength rednecks and idiots, so don't go flaming me for my opinions as some kind of "northerner".

Sunday, July 15, 2012

Climate Change Story You Need to Watch

This in-depth report from Al Jazeera is the kind of news stories US networks should aspire to.  Great reporting and a story eveyone on earth needs to see.  I wish we had Al Jazeera on DirectTV in the US.  Hell, I wish we had Comedy Central on DirectTV!