Lance Corporal Matthew Snyder was laid to rest in March of 2006. Instead of the quiet, respectful burial his family and friends had planned, Fred Phelps and members of the Westboro Baptist Church arrived to protest the funeral. Carrying signs with messages like “Thank God for Dead soldiers” and “God Hates the USA”, the Phelps entourage made their message of hate known at Matthew Snyder’s funeral....

The Stir has waded through the muck to come up with a this Top 50 list of the most sexist quotes from the campaign trails of female political candidates over the years (though it really doesn’t go back very far except in a couple of cases). So sad that this is just from a short span of time – can’t imagine what they’d find if we’d had the Internet longer. For more, read the cross-post...

In a most powerful piece that should be read in its entirety by everyone who cares about artists and copyright, Cory Doctorow responds in the Guardian to a piece by Helienne Lindvall on the cost of free, in which she called it “ironic” that “advocates of free online content” (Doctorow included) “charge hefty fees to speak at events.” I understand perfectly well what you’re...

Recently there have been reports that thanks to the support of Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr – and the tacit consent of Iran and even the U.S. – Nouri Al-Maliki is close to being named for a second term as Iraq’s prime minister. According to this article by columnist Tariq Hamid of the Iraqi News Agency, this electoral outcome, which insults Iraqi voters who elected Ayad Alawi, calls into...

Dateline: L’Isle-Jourdain, France No, not much has happened or is happening in this tiny, sleepy, French town—some might call it a village—nestled in the Vienne River valley in central France that would warrant a “dateline.” L’Isle-Jourdain just happens to be our first sojourn after a long trans-Atlantic flight that originated at the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport,...

Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates delivered a lecture at Duke University last week on the all-volunteer force. The separation between the “narrow sliver of our population” that serves and the rest of us is growing: We should not ignore the broader, long-term consequences of waging these protracted military campaigns employing – and re-employing – such a small portion of our society...

Judging from the blog reactions I’m on the wrong side according my peers on the left but I don’t have a problem with this. Tennessee County’s Subscription-Based Firefighters Watch As Family Home Burns Down As ThinkProgress has noted, there are currently two competing visions of governance in the United States. One, the conservative vision, believes in the on-your-own society, and informs a policy...

Earlier today I was asked to write a 300 word oped on Ohio, our voters, our economy and what the heck do we want done with it all as part of the New York Times’ Room For Debate platform. You can see my thoughts next to those of five others here. Question for my fellow co-bloggers here and the community that reads us: What do you think about the Room For Debate format? Interesting, I think. Reminds me...

It’s the battle of the titans – but one that neither side wants to win. Who has more poor people: the United States or China? And who’s poor are worse off? For the state-controlled Global Times, columnist Chiang Meng writes that despite recent statistics from the Chinese themselves, China’s poor are more numerous and far worse off than their American counterparts. For the Global Times,...

Before this most recent spate of media attention to anti-gay bullying, Dan Savage set up a YouTube channel aimed at young lgbt people. The It Gets Better project invites anyone with a YouTube account who wants to share their experiences in order to give hope to teens facing discrimination and bullying. Dan and his husband shared their own experiences in the first video… Yesterday Savage posted a video...

by Walter Brasch America’s airlines—they’re the ones who have told passengers to take a flying leap—have wallpapered the country with ads focusing upon how inexpensive their basic airfares are. While I don’t enjoy flying, I recently had to get from here to there and back. A few of the details are hazy, but I’m sure this is how my conversation went with a ticket agent. “I’d...

Moments matter. That’s the first of many lessons we are likely to derive from the suicide of Rutgers student Tyler Clementi this past September 22. If allegations made by local law enforcement officials are correct, Clementi’s tragic death followed the filming and webcasting of a sexual encounter involving Clementi and another person in a college dorm room. It’s alleged that two Rutgers students,...

“The Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance, requires only that they who live under its protection, should demean themselves as good citizens.” – George Washington What’s happened to good citizenship lately? Andrew Shirvell, a paid state official during off hours, calls a gay student body president a racist elitist liar who is...

What is the Tea Party and where did it come from? This editorial from Switzerland’s Le Temps attempts to put things into context, describing the Tea Party as a ‘cry of agony’ that Europeans shouldn’t scoff at, but should recognize in their own right-wing upsurge. The Le Temps editorial says in part: There is drinking and eating in the Tea Party. As has happened before, it took time...

This is the 21st Century addition to the original eight beatitudes of Jesus Christ found in Matthew’s Gospel recounting the Sermon on the Mount. This new phrase probably turns Christianity and many other religions on their heads, but it may best describe humanity in its current worldview. One view of human history is a continuous war between those who have some sense of ethics and morality, and those individuals...

Lights Out by Michael Reagan It’s should be called the law of unintended consequences, and Congress should learn to abide by it, taking enough time to discover whether the road they choose to follow is smooth or filled with ruts. Back in 2007, the Congress in their wisdom ruled that starting in the year 2012 the ordinary incandescent light bulbs we’ve been using for ages must be phased out and completely...

Manchester, NEW HAMPSHIRE — What a difference a few hours make. I was out all day appearing at an event in my other incarnation and was struck by New Hampshire’s falling leaves. Then I came back and learned about a fallen cable news anchor: Rick Sanchez, one of CNN’s rising personalities whose show “Rick’s List” seemed to be getting better and better in terms of interview...

The trial has begun in the bombing of a Woodburn, OR bank in December, 2008. Prosecutors and defense attorneys present opening statements Wednesday in Marion County Circuit Court in the trials of father Bruce Turnidge and son Joshua Turnidge, accused in the Dec. 12, 2008, bombing at West Coast Bank in Woodburn. The Turnidges face 18 counts each of aggravated murder, attempted aggravated murder, assault and other...

Independent political blogger Nancy Hanks of The Hankster and NYC Independence Party chief organizer Cathy Stewart will host a New York City breakfast of coffee, bagels and political conversation – and a preview of raw video footage of Performing the World attendees answering the question: What does democracy mean to you? …in your life, in your city, your country, in the world? Video will be used in...

CHAMBLISS: “Joe, I don’t know if you’re Republican or Democrat, liberal or conservative, but none of that should matter. Because what was said on your blog by someone from my office is just not acceptable, no matter who is saying it and who it’s being said to. I just want to offer my sincerest apologies. There has been some talk about how long it’s taking to find the person behind...

Updated — In a correction we learn Shirvell was not suspended, rather, he’s taken a leave of absence. ====================== On Wednesday Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox defended Assistant AG Andrew Shirvell’s constitutional right to wage an Internet campaign against an openly gay college student, even though he admitted Shirvell was a “bully.” Yesterday he changed his tune....

Are biracial people too ambiguous to be identifiable? Or are they the greatest thing to happen to the human melting pot?

Over at Rolling Stone the great Matt Taibbi has a great article on an old fashion Tea Party revival in Kentucky. And what’s a revival without a goddess? It’s taken three trips to Kentucky, but I’m finally getting my Tea Party epiphany exactly where you’d expect: at a Sarah Palin rally. The red-hot mama of American exceptionalism has flown in to speak at something called the National Quartet...

A story from AP’s Hope Yen headlines, Census finds record gap between rich and poor. Well, actually, Timothy Noah explains, it doesn’t, “if you follow the standard measure of income inequality, Yen is incorrect. Income inequality in 2009 did not differ in any statistically significant way from income inequality in 2008.” Noah continues: What’s interesting about the alternative...

But only, says he, during his personal time… Washinton DC’s Metro Weekly quotes Michigan’s Assistant Attorney General Andrew Shirvell from the AC360 video interview above: “Long before I started the blog, a couple of weeks before that, the Alliance Defense Fund, a well-known legal Christian foundation put out an alert about Chris…. Chris Armstrong is a radical homosexual activist...