THOUGHT FOR TODAY

Reason obeys itself; and ignorance submits to whatever is dictated to it. - Thomas Paine

EVER THE SELF-PROMOTER, EDDIE LEE HAS PROMOTED HIMSELF STRAIGHT TO THE ATTENTION OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL'S OFFICE

Local racist Eddie Lee apparently has gained the notice of the land sharks in the Maryland Attorney General's office for the cavalier fashion in which he posted the Authority Line on those racist political mailings when he was running for a seat on the Democratic Central Committee of Worcester County. According to the state board of elections in Baltimore, a complaint was forwarded to the AG's office on Sept. 5.... no word yet on the possibile penalties. Meanwhile, there's still no word from the national office of the NAACP on a complaint that was sent to them regarding Lee's bigoted comments. .... Maybe the NAACP thinks racism is only a bad thing if a black person is targeted, and not a bad thing if the president of one of their local chapters is the one spewing the hatred.

THOUGHT FOR TODAY

You have to be realistic about terrorism. Certain groups of people, certain groups, Muslim fundamentalists, Christian fundamentalists, Jewish fundamentalists, and just plain guys from Montanta, are going to continue to make life in this country very interesting for a long, long time. - George Carlin

COPS, KIDS AND POLITICAL INTRIGUE IN SNOW HILL

We had a visit from the Snow Hill police last night, two in fact. The first came after our neighbor called us and said she had witnessed a carload of kids steal several political signs from our front yard. We called the police and made a report.
The second visit came less than 30 minutes later when there came a knock on the door with such force, you might have thought it was warrant service. Answering the door we met the police officers with two teenage girls from Snow Hill High School in tow. They were busted. And not only did they have ours signs, but the officer said a search of their car turned up 50-60 other political signs they had stolen from other yards. Their intent, they said, was to prank the high school by putting them in the front yard of the school. As it turned out, the trick was on them, as the officer forced the girls to return to every residence, knock on the doors tell the people they had stolen the signs, apologize and repost the signs. We don't know if the girls were charged, but the officer told us they could be under federal rules. "It's the same as stealing mail," he told us. Yikes.
We think this presents an excellent opportunity for educators to impart an object lesson. Specifically, this issue raises questions about political free speech and what law enforcement authorities might view as attempts to suppress that speech, and not to mention why laws forbid posting political signs on government property. In fact, there's a whole class period of lessons here on the Bill of Rights. Educators should seize the opportunity to teach it.

AND AS LONG AS WE'RE KIND OF IN THAT ARENA...

This is for Dick--no pun intended..... Can you tell me why there is such opposition on the right to gay marriage.... Okay, I admit the whole concept is a little bizarre, but so what? I mean, how does the fact that two same-sex people want to be married affect my marriage to my wife? That's the argument, from what I've been able to gather..... that allowing people of the same sex to marry will destroy the institution of marriage. How so?

ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST

Florida Rep. Mark Foley resigned in disgrace yesterday, a victim of his own twisted desire to bugger a teenage boy. But is this all the justice we can expect - to have him lose his job. Why hasn't he been arrested? Why isn't his name and photograph listed on the state's website of known pedophiles? Is there some tiny print in the state law that says rich and powerful are immune from prosecution?

REPUBLICANS GETTING TARRED WITH THE SAME BrUSH

Another political ad this week connecting Bob Ehrlich to George Bush. It was a weak connection, saying the two are alike in that they put business interests ahead those of the common man when making political decisions. ... Like I said, it was weak. But then, given the president's approval numbers , 34 percent in a recent Baltimore Sun poll, it's still like tossing a cinder block to a drowning man.
In fact, the Fearless Leader and head of the Republican party is looking more and more like the biggest impediment to republican candidates getting elected this year. And the second biggest obstacle may be their party affiliation as, for the first time in my life, I'm noticing that republican candidates are not mentioning their party membership in their advertising. To their credit, it may indicate they're smart enough to know a cinderblock when they see one. And if they are, then does that mean they were smart enough to know better when they supported the Bush administration's policies on secret prisons, torture, illegal wiretaps, domestic spying and gutting the Bill of Rights. If so, that could only mean they are malicious, power-hungry fascists who think the right of the government to exist under its own terms supersedes the right of the people to exist under the protections and liberties afforded by the Constitution.

EXCERPTS FROM "THE DOCTRINE OF FASCISM," BY BENITO MUSSOLINI (1932)

Anti-individualistic, the Fascist conception of life stresses the importance of the State and accepts the individual only in so far as his interests coincide with those of the State, which stands for the conscience and the universal, will of man as a historic entity (11). It is opposed to classical liberalism which arose as a reaction to absolutism and exhausted its historical function when the State became the expression of the conscience and will of the people. Liberalism denied the State in the name of the individual; Fascism reasserts the rights of the State as expressing the real essence of the individual (12). And if liberty is to he the attribute of living men and not of abstract dummies invented by individualistic liberalism, then Fascism stands for liberty, and for the only liberty worth having, the liberty of the State and of the individual within the State (13). The Fascist conception of the State is all embracing; outside of it no human or spiritual values can exist, much less have value. Thus understood, Fascism, is totalitarian, and the Fascist State - a synthesis and a unit inclusive of all values - interprets, develops, and potentates the whole life of a people (14).