"Birthers" and other miscellaneous stuff

Lt. Col. Terrance Lakin, a decorated military flight surgeon, is undergoing a court-martial because he's a "birther," one of the folks who believes President Obama was not born in this country. He is refusing to deploy to Afghanistan because he thinks President Obama is not legitimately the President and therefore has no right to send him overseas. This is tragic -- because not only is an apparently good medical officer going to ruin his career over this nonsense, but because it proves that even someone who is an intelligent, upstanding citizen can be snowed by this right-wing crap. By the way, if he thinks the President is illegitimate, why does he stay in the military at all? Why doesn't he just refuse to get up and go to work??

Now, this same man didn't have any problem serving under "President" Bush, who really was serving illegitimately as President, for eight years! I don't think Bush won either one of his elections fair and square (I could tell you why but that would mean a really long post), but nobody on the right questioned it. And presumably this soldier wouldn't have had a problem deploying under a President McCain, who was born in Panama! I know, I know -- everyone assumes that if you're born on foreign soil but on a military base that you're a natural born citizen, but hey, it's never been tested in a court of law, has it? I heard nothing from the right asking whether or not John McCain was legitimately able to run for President. And yet here they are questioning Obama's eligibility -- would they be doing so if he were 100% white and his father was a Baptist or a Methodist? Of course not. So then this could only have something to do with his race and his father's religion. Sad.

I was thinking the other day about why the "birthers" are demanding that Obama produce the long form of his birth certificate (which the authorities in Hawaii have said numerous times exists and is kosher), and the only thing I can come up with is that they want that photo of the name Barack Obama listed with a birthplace of Kenya and the religion listed as Muslim. Of course, this refers to our President's father, but that won't stop them from cropping it out and mailing it around to all their friends as "proof" that President Obama isn't a American and isn't a Christian. Otherwise, they would just accept what the State Department does to get an American passport, the short form of the birth certificate. (Hasn't it occurred to them that you can't get the short form of a certificate if there's no long form for it to begin with? **Sigh**. I guess not.)

Anyway, it's a tragedy that this man is willing to throw away his military career for this made-up crazy bullshit. But that's what he's about to do. I hope he rethinks this.... our men and women in Afghanistan need good doctors.

I see that, unfortunately, SUVs are getting hot again. Do people never learn? Or do they just really not care?

Congratulations to Elena Kagan, who was confirmed to be the 4th woman to sit on the Supreme Court!

About the mosque that wants to open a couple of blocks from Ground Zero -- wouldn't the Christian thing to do be to let it open? Isn't Christianity supposed to be about loving one's neighbors and all that stuff? Frankly, I think they'd be nuts to open it because I can't imagine it would be very safe for them there... but let's face it, people, if all Muslims were terrorists then there would be a whole lot more attacks than there have been, common sense telling me that there are millions of Muslim faithful around the world.

What worries me about Afghanistan if we leave is the fate of the women there. Time has a disturbing cover photo this week that illustrates the tragedy better than any words I could say. An 18-year old girl had her nose and ears hacked off by her husband at the command of the Taliban. Her "crime?" Fleeing the abuse her husband and his family heaped on her. I'm glad she managed to escape and will undergo reconstructive surgery here... but how many more Afghan women are trapped in the same kind of horror?