I don’t know if you’ve heard about Greenleaf, Idaho. It’s a town founded by pacifist Quakers. Recently, the City Council passed an ordinance that asks Greenleaf’s residents “to keep a gun at home in case they are overrun by refugees from the Gulf Coast (read-New Orleanians, or better yet-Black folks from New Orleans).”
First of all, WE are evacuees. Not refugees.
Second of all, feel free to come to our town if you ever have a disaster. We haven’t yet armed ourselves to protect against an onslaught of gun-toters from up north, so you’ll be as safe as the next guy. Chris Rose’s reply:
Alrighty then. There you have it; if the waters come rushing through Broadmoor and St. Roch again, just stay the hell away from Greenleaf, Idaho. Either that, or bring a gun if you go, because — unless I’m misinterpreting this thing — that’s the way they prefer things.
I don’t know. I’m at a loss myself as to how to respond to this. So, in case you have any ideas of your own, the City Hall address in Greenleaf is 20523 Whittier Drive, Greenleaf, ID, 83626 and the phone number is (208) 454-0552.
But be nice. Tell ‘em if they ever have an earthquake there or anything like that and they need shelter, they’re welcome to come on down to New Orleans and we’ll show them a thing or two about guns.
At Thanksgiving, I over-heard (a family member) someone under his breath mutter something about how he was sorry that New Orleans wasn’t totally destroyed. Thank God we are rebuilding! It’s going to make Americans all over feel safe!
Hey Nagin. Spin that dude. You’re not afraid of controversial comments. Get on the tube (If you’re still alive. Has anyone seen him lately?) and say the following:
“We know how much many of you fear and loathe our Chocolate City. Send money now so that we can rebuild our town and get the hell out your way.”
I’m just as shocked at how much the nation hates us as I was at how much the nation has embraced us. Unfortunately, we are a nation divided based on fear. This fear breeds hatred.
I pray that we as a nation would follow the example of the Quakers in Greenleaf and the Amish in Pennsylvania by chosing love over hate. The Amish, whose children had been brutally murdered by Charles Carl Roberts, showed up at his funeral to mourn with and comfort his family. The Quakers in Greenleaf are not forced to conform to the ordinance because of their stance against violence.
Pastor Alan Weinacht’s response:
“It made owning a gun a basis of good citizenship,” Weinacht said. “I don’t know. It just seems we’re slipping as a society into a culture of fear.”
Lord, help us to put our trust in you. Not ourselves. Help us to see our neighbors as children of God.
Says a lot about me. Explains why losing my job due to Katrina has been so devastating to me. Guess that’s why watching my neighbors wait for days to be rescued from the Superdome makes me so mad too.
Guess that’s why I’ve always identified with the outcasts. Anabaptists were always inspiring to me even when they were wrong.
Olbermann trashed Bush’s comments on the lessons learned from Viet Nam:
It is a shame — and it is embarrassing to us all — when President Bush travels 8,000 miles, only to wind up avoiding reality, again.
And it is pathetic to listen to the leader of the free world, talk so unrealistically about Vietnam, when it was he who permitted the “Swift-Boating” of not one but two American heroes of that war, in consecutive Presidential campaigns.
But most importantly — important, beyond measure — his avoidance of reality is going to wind up killing more Americans.
And that is indefensible — and fatal.
Asked if there were lessons about Iraq to be found in our experience in Vietnam, Mr. Bush said that there were — and he immediately proved he had no clue what they were.
“One lesson is,” he said, “that we tend to want there to be instant success in the world, and the task in Iraq is going to take a while.”
“We’ll succeed,” the President concluded, “unless we quit.”
If that’s the lesson about Iraq that Mr. Bush sees in Vietnam, then he needs a tutor. Or we need somebody else making the decisions about Iraq.
Mr. Bush, there are a dozen central lessons to be derived from our nightmare in Vietnam, but “we’ll succeed unless we quit” is not one of them.
Guess we should have stayed the course in Viet Nam!Unbelievable!
I got to see some of Comic Relief 2006 at Harrah’s in New Orleans Saturday. Not a lot of huge stars in New Orleans, but it was still fun. I was able to speak to Tom Arnold and get a few pics.
He is a super nice guy. Every time someone would ask him if they could get an autograph he would flash a huge smile and say, “Of course you can!” I don’t know if you could tell it on TV, but when Emeril Lagasse was introduced as “Mr. New Orleans” he was booed pretty loudly.
I think it is a bit unfair that he’s been labelled a traitor. I’ve said some pretty bad things about New Orleans lately. Of course, I’m not a public figure, but let’s give him a break.
But… He’s certainly not Mr. New Orleans. Hmmm. Mr. New Orleans. I nominate Frank Davis. He can cook, he can fish, and he’s certainly a native.
I guess you’ve heard all the hype about OJ Simpson’s latest book, “If I Did It.” Shirley was disgusted and outraged when she heard about it.
She suggested that I write a book about OJ. “How about “50 Ways to Kill OJ” she asked. I’d start with ‘run over him with a white Bronco’.” Man, she’s ruthless. It is so amazing how shameless the world has become. Fox will shamelessly air an interview soon.
It’s amazing that Fox’s exploitation is too tasteless even for Bill O’Reilly. At first he tried to distance himself from it falsely claiming that “For the record, Fox Broadcasting has nothing to do with the Fox News Channel.”
When that lie didn’t work, he went on a rampage vowing to boycott any company that advertises on Fox’s two-part special hyping Simpson’s “If I Did It.”
I found this campaign sign for Vinny Mendoza pretty funny. I think if you listen closely you can hear Lee Greenwood singing “Proud to Be an American.” In fact, if you go to his website you’ll hear “Amazing Grace.”
Vinny didn’t do too well in the congressional race. Seems folks from Louisiana are more interested in letting a crook represent them (See NPR’s story on William “Dollar Bill” Jefferson) than a God-fearing Patriot like Vinny.
Vinny’s got a good idea though. I’m going to continue to pray for my country. Hope you will too!
My friend B wrote a tribute to America Gonzales. It’s amazing how little things can remind of us how things used to be. There are quite a few folks I know that have moved on. I’m blessed that none of my friends perished as a result of Katrina.
When I read B’s tribute, I was reminded of how many of the Katrina survivors that I meet in my job that have lost family members since Katrina. The real death toll will never be known.
It’s our responsibility to make sure that they are not forgotten and that they did not die in vain.
Thanks B.
If you know of any others lost after the storm. Feel free to share them here.
Mississippi Sen. Trent Lott, ousted from the top Senate Republican leadership job four years ago because of these remarks about Strom Thurman who supported racial segregation:
“I want to say this about my state: When Strom Thurmond ran for president, we voted for him. We’re proud of it. And if the rest of the country had followed our lead, we wouldn’t have had all these problems over all these years, either.”
was elected to the No. 2 post Wednesday for the minority GOP in the next Congress. The position, minority whip, is a very ironic title wouldn’t you say?
John McCain spoke these words today:
“Americans had elected us to change government, and they rejected us because they believed government had changed us,” he said in a speech in which he cited Reagan, Abraham Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt. “We must spend the next two years reacquainting the public and ourselves with the reason we came to office in the first place: to serve a cause greater than our self-interest.”
He argued that after a dozen years of GOP rule on Capitol Hill, voters felt Republicans cared more about protecting their incumbency than they did about staying true to core conservative principles such as limited government, fiscal discipline, a strong defense, low taxes, free trade and family values. He urged a return to those tenets.
WOW! The straight talk express is back! (Except for pandoring to the extreme right.) Why wasn’t anyone in the party saying this before the election? Poor Rush! (See Limbaugh Greets Dems as Liberators) Why didn’t he speak up?
Is it possible that “limited government, fiscal discipline, a strong defense, low taxes, free trade and family values” never really were core conservative principles?
Matt. 7:15–You will know them by their fruits. (Insert your own joke here.)
It would be great if these values were “resurrected.” To bad they didn’t use them when they could!
Just a quick observation today. I’m feeling pretty sick.
Sunday morning, as I was flipping through the channels, I saw some sort of panel discussion show on the local Fox channel. Brit Hume, and a couple of other guys were talking about how great Rumsfeld was (go figure) and the following phrase was repeated twice.
“Our current military is fat and slow.” Could that phrase be used to encourage our enemies? Wonder what would have happened if Kerry said that too. He’d still probably not apologize correctly for the offence, but I’m sure he’d be called out for it.
It really didn’t matter that their argument didn’t show how their view of how the military ought to be might have helped make for a better situation in Iraq. In fact, their arguments didn’t really make sense to me at all.
Note to self. 1. Don’t skip church. 2. Stay away from Fox
My friend D.R.’s reflections on the election has caused me to reflect on what the Dem “takeover” means to me. My thoughts on the elections:
Pros: It means that Americans are tired of the corruption and abuse of power that has been rampant these past few years. That being said, I’m sure that the corruption and abuse of power by Republicans is not due to their being Republicans. Given the same chance, I think Dems would do the same thing. Sure, the Dem majority of the past did not have the same level of corruption, but I think it’s because of a huge culture change in Washington.
It means that Americans are fed up with the Bush administration’s flat out lies and incompetence about the War in Iraq. We are tired of Rove and Bush playing on our fears. No one really believes that some politicians want us to lose in Iraq. We’re not that stupid.
It means that everything that Bush wants to do will not be rubber-stamped by a Republican Congress or lazy Dems who don’t have the fortitude to stand up against torture and other abuses.
Maybe the poor will get help from the richest nation in the world. Maybe my parents will be able to afford their medication again. Maybe all children will have access to healthcare. Maybe some folks will be able to support themselves by working hard for 40-60 hours a week.
Maybe there will be less rhetoric about homosexuals and undocumented workers. It’s obvious that these issues were used to manipulate voters and have been very divisive.
Cons: Gas prices will rise again. Trust me. The only reason gas prices have been low is so that Republicans could take credit for it. Now that the Dems have won, the gas companies will screw us again. I will never forgive EXXON for what it did after Katrina.
The economy will suffer. There’s now an excuse for corporations to lay off folks so that they can “maintain” their profitability and I’m sure they will. Let’s be honest. Our “booming economy” hasn’t helped the poor. There are more poor than ever and the richest Americans are now more wealthy.
The Dems won’t be able to solve all of the problems either. Pretty pessimistic I know, but they won’t fix the way our politicians use their offices for personal gain. They’re just as greedy as Republicans, but they are a lot less hypocritical.
BTW–William Jefferson got 30% of the vote. This vote, and the fact that C Ray Nagin was re-elected causes me great sorrow. $90,000 in a refrigerator. Innocent until proven guilty? Come on.
I don’t know if you’ve heard about Greenleaf, Idaho. It’s a town founded by pacifist Quakers. Recently, the 
I guess you’ve heard all the hype about OJ Simpson’s latest book, “If I Did It.” Shirley was disgusted and outraged when she heard about it.
