Get down on your knees and, uh, pray


The Reverend Ronnie Latham says he was set up.

Latham, 59, is a Tulsa, Oklahoma Baptist minister who reportedly tells his flock to befriend gays and lesbians to turn them away from sin.

Now Latham's gay-outreach efforts have taken on a whole new meaning, and Latham is charged with offering to engage in an act of lewdness:
OKLAHOMA CITY ? A pastor who has spoken out against homosexuality was arrested after propositioning a male undercover police officer outside a hotel, authorities said.

As the Rev. Lonnie Latham, 59, left jail Wednesday, he said "I was set up. I was in the area pastoring to police."

Latham, a member of the Southern Baptist Convention's executive committee, was arrested Tuesday and charged with offering to engage in an act of lewdness, Capt. Jeffrey Becker said.

Calls to Latham and his South Tulsa Baptist Church were not returned for comment.

Latham has supported a convention directive urging members to befriend gays and lesbians and try to convince them that they can become heterosexual "if they accept Jesus Christ as their savior and reject their 'sinful, destructive lifestyle.'"

The Southern Baptist Convention is the nation's largest Protestant denomination. Messages left for the convention were not returned.
Could be a misunderstanding, I suppose. Maybe Latham was looking for "moral sects".
6.1.06 18:40


When left meets right


Religious right hearthrob James Dobson on Republican sleaze:
"If the nation’s politicians don’t fix this national disaster, then the oceans of gambling money with which Jack Abramoff tried to buy influence on Capitol Hill will only be the beginning of the corruption we’ll see. Some religious leaders want new ethics rules for Congress, but that’s only a band-aid fix. Politicians need to root out this infection. Gambling – all types of gambling – is driven by greed and subsists on greed. That makes it morally bankrupt from its very foundation. Gambling creates addicts, breeds crime and destroys families. We need courageous office holders who will begin the process of shutting down lotteries, casinos and other gambling outlets."
I don't know how many Americans want to give up games of chance. They're awfully popular with seniors, from what I can tell, and the states are positively addicted to lottery profits. But Dobson knows what bleeding heart liberals and social engineering types have known for years - that there's a social price for gambling. Here's one more opening for the Democratics to start chipping away at the Republican base.
7.1.06 00:13


Ariel Sharon


JERUSALEM: Doctors rushed Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to the operating room on Friday for a third time after finding new bleeding in his brain. After five hours of surgery, the doctors said, he remained in critical but stable condition.

As Ariel Sharon remained in a medically induced coma, Israelis gathered at Judaism's holiest site of worship, the Wailing Wall.

THE AWAKENING

The scene is the surgical recovery room at David Ben Gurion Hospital in Jerusalem. Two surgeons are standing next to the hospital gurney, upon which rests Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. Suddenly, Condoleeza Rice enters the room.

Condi: How's he doing? Will he survive?

First Surgeon: We had to operate three times. He lost a lot of blood, and he lost part of his brain.

Second Surgeon: He won't be the same man, and we won't know for sure the extent of the damage until he wakes up.

Sharon (stirring): Uhhhggg, mmmmphhh.

Condi: Look he's waking up!

First surgeon: This is terrific news! I feel he may recover sooner than we thought!

Sharon: Frruumah zzepa tramarjj.

Condi: What's he trying to say?

Second surgeon: Take the breathing tube out of his throat. This could be important.

The doctors gently remove the tube, and give Sharon a glass of water.

Condi: How are you feeling, Ariel my dear friend? Are you OK?

Sharon: Freedom is on the march! Freedom is on the march!

Surgeon number two: He really should be resting. He's lost a good deal of his brain, you know.

Sharon: Invade Yemen! Fight the terrorists over there!

Condi: It's a miracle!

Sharon: Last throes! Last throes!

(curtain closes)
7.1.06 15:57


How do Republicans feel about wiretaps now?


Reports that disgraced congressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham wore a wire has Republicans sweating bullets. And now, there's speculation that dirtball lobbyist Jack Abramoff may have similarly helped prosecutors.

Of course, there's really no comparison between recording Jack Abramoff's conversations with congressmen, for which a warrant was obtained, and the Bush Administration's fishing expedition for which no warrants were issued. Still, Heraldblog predicts public grumbling about "overzealous prosecutors" by corrupt Republicans caught up in the scandals.
9.1.06 16:36


I'm shocked! Shocked I tell you!


Paul Bremer, who ran the Coaltion Provisional Authority in Iraq following the invasion, now says there were never enough troops in that country to provide security:
He also criticised President George Bush and Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, saying they had not listened to his concerns about the quality of Iraq's army, and that ultimately the White House bore responsibility for decisions that had led to the current violence.

Bremer, interviewed by the US television network NBC before the publication this week of his book on Iraq, recounted the decision to disband the Iraqi army quickly after arriving in Baghdad, a move many experts now consider was a major mistake.
So, to sums things up, Bush invaded Iraq because it's better to fight the terrorists over there, rather than over here, even though nobody in charge really thought there were terrorists in Iraq to begin with.

Glad I cleared that up.
9.1.06 17:27


Keep your shirt on, oh Martyrs of Islam!


An Egyptian cleric with a giant bug up his butt says married Muslim men and women must be partially clothed when they are having sex, otherwise their marriage is no longer valid:
According to the religious edict issued by Rashad Hassan Khalil, a former dean of Al-Azhar University's faculty of Sharia (or Islamic law), "being completely naked during the act of coitus annuls the marriage".

The religious decree sparked a hot debate on the private satellite network Dream's popular religious talk show and on the front page of today's Al-Masri Al-Yom, Egypt's leading independent daily newspaper.
Hey, it's a step up from wearing oven mitts and a beekeeper's helmet. That's what the last guy said.


Down the tubes

A great visual of President Bush's sinking poll numbers.

h/t Steve Brady
10.1.06 00:38


Everybody must get stoned


Freedom is on the march in Afghanistan, where Chief Justice Fazal Hadi Shinwari was ruled that adulterers will be stoned to death per Islamic law, and that thieves will have their hands cut off.
Mr Justice Shinwari told the Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) that the head of the post-Taliban interim government, Mr Hamid Karzai, had informed him that the Islamic laws were to remain in force in Afghanistan.

“Afghanistan is an Islamic country. The United Nations has recognised Afghanistan as an Islamic country and the head of Afghanistan’s new government has given the assurance that decisions would be made according to Islamic Sharia,’’ AIP quoted Mr Justice Shinwari as saying.
I'm still glad the US invaded and deposed the Taliban, but I think Shinwari's actions still say something about the folly of changing a nation's culture by force of arms.
10.1.06 17:49


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