•Randy Henning, Mossy Head, on the Santa Rosa County school prayer controversy: “The Bill of Rights is a restriction on the federal government, not local or state.”
The Supreme Court has ruled that both the First and Fourth amendments are binding on the states (others too, I believe). And this is a good thing, because without the First Amendment, schools really could shut out prayer if they wanted to: No students allowed to say grace, or hold Bible study groups on school property, etc
•Allan Stearns, FWB: “I seriously doubt race is playing a part among those disappointed with the current administration … Race is not the issue. Can’t we agree to disagree without having to resort to the race card?”
Certainly not everyone who’s displeased with Obama is upset about race, but yes, race is definitely an issue: Just look at the racial imagery during the campaign, (Obama Waffles!), Limbaugh’s statement that liberals should find racism as acceptable as homosexuality or the whole birther mess. Sure, they’d have found some crazy rationale why Obama wasn’t a REAL president, just as they did with Clinton and Gore*, but if he’d been as white as McCain, I can’t see “Maybe he’s not a natural-born American!” being the issue.
*Remember when the letters page was always telling us that Clinton wasn’t elected with a majority of all American voters? Or pundits who’d explain that geographically, Bush won a much larger region of the country than Gore, or he won the votes of Real Americans instead of those evil liberals in the big cities (whose votes, the subtext seemed to be, shouldn’t have counted).
•Joe Les Fishback, of Crestview: “The number liberals keep tossing out there, 48 million without healthcare is ridiculous … 20 million people choose big-screen TVs, cell-phones, expensive cars, etc., instead of health care.”
I know this is a standard Republican theme—everyone who wants a government service is a lazy bum—but as I’ve noted in previous posts, a lot of people can’t afford health care and don’t have any of these things either. And trust me, going without cell-phone service isn’t going to bring in enough money to cover your premiums.
•Fishback again: “Racism is a two way street. There is just as much black acism as there is white racism. Liberals just choose to ignore it.”
Ooooh, poor discriminated-against Mr. Fishback. Let’s compare, shall we? White racism against blacks had led to slavery (OK, slavery was as much a cause of racism as a result, but I’m putting it in here), Jim Crow segregation, lynchings, the murder of Civil Rights workers, sundown towns and black people trying to walk out of New Orleans before Katrina getting turned back at gunpoint.
Racism of blacks against whites has generated what horrible consequences exactly?
•Harold Medlin, FWB, on the prayer issue: “If Christians and all God-loving people dont’ draw a line in the sand somewhere, the morals of our country will worsen.”
Yes, because prayer in schools was such a wonderful deterrent to Jim Crow, to treating rape victims like prostitutes, to the beatings and persecutions of gays … Such fine moral times.
I also wonder how many of these pro-prayer people would be screaming if the prayers were, say, to Allah, or to the Blessed Virgin.

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