so much for those Christian principles of peace, love and understanding . . .

Disturbing news from artist friend Lynn Perkins:

I just wanted to warn you there is a message going around the Internet (I just got one) showing the front of a shop in Texas that is closed for Eid, the celebration of the end of Ramadan (which fell on Sept 11 this year). The sign says that it is closed to honor the martyrdom of the Imam Ali.

The email says that Imam Ali was one of the 9/11 hijackers.

This is a total lie. (He died in 600 or so, and is revered by the Shia muslims.) Now the shop owner was a moron not to say that he was just closed for the end of Ramadan, and left well enough alone, but I am terrified that people are taking these things and trying to stir up hate, because then people (our fellow American citizens) die.

Please be aware and if you see the email, *tell the sender who Imam (Priest) Ali was*. He's in Wikipedia. You can look him up. Thanks for using the Internet for good.

LATER: I didn't want to send the original message that tripped this -- the address of the store was added, pure bait for a lynching. It made me sick to my stomach, the pure malice of sending around such an email to start with, depending on people not to check.



 

state-sanctioned murder

I see they've murdered Teresa Lewis.

Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell, who facilitated this state-sanctioned murder of a mentally retarded woman, has a lot to answer for. One can only assume he regards his political career as more important than another human being's life.

And that, if he were confronted by the same situation in Iran, he'd cast the first stone.