I thought it would never happen, but pure evil has come to my town.  Well, realistically, it's my county, but I actually know the people that Fred Phelps has drawn a bead on and count them as close personal friends.

Here is Fred Phelps's schedule for Martinez, California, in Conta Costa County:

See here's the deal: when someone criticizes a person with whom I have affiliated myself, I try to accept it with some sort of grace and move on.  When it goes on for an extended period, and the person, and or people, move from criticizing the person with whom I have affiliated myself, to criticizing me for having affiliated myself with that person, how can I not take that personally?

How many times have I read, in the last six months, "I'll vote for McCain before I'll vote for candidate X!"  It makes me wonder whether the person making that statement has any idea what John McCain actually stands for.  Well, allow me to give you a guided tour through Senator McCain's "Issues" section of his website:

I spent the even debating with a friend's 15 year old.  If that won't keep you on your toes, nothing will.  Is there ever a time in your life when everything is more black and white?

It started out as an action diary.  Heather, also known as Chacounne here at DKos, stated we have 5 days to change Dianne Feinstein's and Chuck Schumer's minds.  

As some of you know, I come from a very small rural town in California.  

I returned there last weekend to celebrate my grandmother's 90th birthday.  As I was checking into the motel, I noticed that there were several military guys in BDUs also checking in.

 

I’ve always been "out."  That is, ever since I became aware of the word "lesbian," I've identified with it.  

I grew up in a small rural town.  When I (finally) went away to college, I discovered "lesbians" and sort of thought, "Oh, well that explains that."  My lover and I met about six months later and we’ve been together ever since.  Coming out to myself wasn’t a giant struggle for me, even though it was the 70’s.  

This isn’t my coming out story.

It is the story of some friends who chose not to come out and the impact it has had on their lives and the lives of their family.

We've done it every year that we've had a house, fly the flag on the Fourth of July, I mean.  It's just something that we've never really thought about.  My family is a military family.  My wife's family is also "patriotic."  Flying the flag on national holidays is a given.

When I brought you home, you were a white ball of fluff not much bigger than a football.  You were a rolly polly, rambunctious puppy that terrified my cats, chewed on my shoes, peed on the carpet and stole my heart.  

Let’s talk for a moment about "those" words.  The ones that are warm and fuzzy like a nice, soft brown teddy bear; the ones that you are the fondest of and which are used in your vocabulary to denigrate others.  For example:  faggot, bitch, or cunt.  If those words aren't your favorites how about "Mann Coulter"? There are a lot more of these types of words out there, so use your imagination.  Do you notice anything about those words that is similar?  Is there anything that binds them all together?

It is my hypothesis (1)that these terms are uniformly used in the DKos vernacular to denigrate the "esteemed" opposition, and (2) that the user clings to the terms because they are comfortable with these put-downs (initially learned in adolescence) which subconsciously make the user feel superior to the individual human being who happens to fall within the category named. (e.g., the bitch, faggot, cunt or transexual.)

Every year, since my son was born, we have taken a picture of him next to the flag on July 4th.  Since he was able to walk, we have taken a picture of him "hanging" "Old Glory" on the 4th of July.  It's a rite of passage for him.  We put the photograph in his scrapbook.  It shows how much he's grown each year.  For the last couple of years he's been able to hang the flag all by himself.

Of course, for the last couple of years, flying the flag has been a bittersweet experience for our household.

You see, we have a beloved, but little understood, family member who serves in the military and who has been called to serve in Iraq.