What if they were just thinking of moving to her district and wanted to see if the elected official was a bigot?

On the flip side, Texas Muslim Capitol Day?

My reaction if Massachusetts were to declare a Boston Muslim Capitol Day or a Boston Catholic Capitol Day or a Boston Wiccan Capitol Day

We see the Jews being used again under the guise of Israel, and this asshole is doing the same thing that many far right-wingers and more than few on the left do to Jews.

Those are some of the specific illustrations of the stereotyping and broad brush evils you and I posted about on the anti-Semitism thread.

The other problem, though, is which is more roundly condemned (or used) when it comes to our side of the aisle. This type of story is roundly condemned, and rightly so. However, when it comes to Jews, even those of us on the left, we are routinely accused of having dual loyalties or flat out being "Israel firsters." A Jewish congressperson who is involved in any way with a story about Israel is routinely accused of being a traitor. If anyone dared to make such an assertion about Keith Ellison and his support of the Palestinian cause, all hell would break loose. It is an issue our side refuses to address and anyone that does is shouted down, accused of being "Likud" or "playing the anti-Semitism card" (which was actually written to a Jewish poster here!). Normally, in stories like this, I just bookmark hem and move on, because I don't like to 'distract' from the topic, but this was just too blatant to pass up.

experienced what you describe as much as you probably have. However, I have seen some of it, in GD (not good).

One of the reasons I keep my distance from the groups is the emotion. What I encounter in GD over differences of political opinion is generally more than I want; and it seems to get worse by the day.

The other reason I keep out of them is that I don't have enough specialized knowledge to participate in most groups even semi-intelligently, and I am not usually interested in just "K & R!" ing all day, especially if I don't know much about what I am cheering for or against.

That said, I am not surprised that a Muslim might be more empathetic to Palestine than to Israel than most or that a Jew (observant or not) might be more empathetic to Israel than most. Would either scenario be a surprise to the people who elected them?

On the other hand, I can see where my prior paragraph sentences might work against people from different groups because people from various groups might not be trusted to make a neutral decision and then people would vote for or against them simply because they are a member of a particular group. "I am not going to vote for a Catholic because I fear s/he would be too pro-life (or too anti-Jew, or whatever)." JFK experienced a form of that.

On another board, a American born poster who posted every day like it was still the Sixties in Haight Ashbury once posted that he had voted for Bush twice because he (the poster) trusted Bush to take care of Israel and he (the poster) had been right and would do it again. And my knee jerk was to flush with anger. But, that is no different from Italians in Boston who voted for Menino again and again because they thought he'd take care of Boston's Italians. (He was a good Mayor for everyone, though.)

Bottom line, I don't know the solution.

were you busy moderating another forum, perhaps? An undercover one?

was simply "Cool." Not all that excited, yet certainly not against it.

I guess it's because I see so many people from around the world here (Houston) and plenty that are likely Muslims without needing to ask. And they're getting around town, shopping, eating out, and so forth, without extremists hassling them.

DU knows how "liberal" Austin is (even though that part of it has been devolving for years) so it's not that surprising, really.

Now, why would it be so unheard of if Boston did the same?

IMO. I don't see it as liberal, AT ALL.

Also, IMO, some of the evils in this country have derived from failure to observe strict separation of church (or mosque or temple or Deity) and state. Especially for Democrats, as the Republicans have embraced all kinds of mixing of church and state..

Boston has great celebrations of various ethnicities all the time. I love them and applaud them. I would not have had a problem with an Arab American Texas Capitol Day because that raises no constitutional issues. Muslim Arabs, atheist Arabs, Coptic and other Christian Arabs, Jewish Arabs, etc.

then at least do the same for Boston and St. Patrick's Day

(And why do you hate green beer, anyway?)

But, it is a little suspect that, in Boston and only in Boston, the killing of 5 people by a redcoat (allegedly), aka the Boston Massacre, is still a city holiday, when government shuts down.

Same thing with Patriots' Day (Paul Revere's Ride), but the Boston Marathon raises no issue of separation of government and religion, even though it does sometimes gives Bostonians an extra day or more to file federal income tax returns.

Saint Patrick's Day is a religious holiday, though. It's not strictly about historical significance with this country's beginnings. It is a holiday ("holy day&quot for a Christian saint, especially in the county seat of Boston, where it's a full government holiday.

And really, we're just getting into minutia here. The Texas Muslim Capitol Day is not about establishing a religion. It's more of an acknowledgement that they even exist, which I wholeheartedly support. It gives them an opportunity to speak with representatives (or, as all are out of town, their secretaries) about whatever they want, religiously based or not. Also, it was an event, not even a day officially designated as such by the Texas government. Here's what I finally found after slogging through all the news items about yesterday's event:



I don't see anything in that statement that this was a special day set aside directly by the government of Texas. More like they got permission to hold their event on the Capitol steps, same as many other groups, religious or not.

Really now, I'm far more concerned that that my "fellow" Texans elected evangelical Dan Patrick to the most powerful position in the state as Lt. Governor, than I am about any minimally-perceived violation of church and state with an exceptionally minor "lip service" day bringing attention to Texas Muslims. Patrick will do more evangelical-"Christian" based harm to this state than any single (or even grouped) Muslim in this state could even imagine attempting.

I usually don't drink any beer, unless I am in a place in Mexico where I want to avoid the water, including ice cubes. Once every few years, I might have a nice stout, though.

I had assumed the same thing, until I both read closely, and went looking it up

I'm the way with stout as well. It's just so strong that I kind of need to amp myself up for it!

And now, I'm going to have one of these lagers:

except that the way some legislators are, they would probable demand that I pledge allegiance to the Christian flag (yes, there really are such things, both Christian pledge to and a Christian flag) and renounce my ties to Hathor and Re in order to visit their offices.

elected official is...and an extremely ignorant one too.

who fantasize daily with secession.

Then, I remember the wonderful Texan DUers.

Which reminds me I should point out that I certainly wasn't referring to all, or even most, Southerners - just the walking embarrassment described in the article above, and her ilk.

There really is good and bad everywhere.

the bluest city in the bluest state in the nation.

(I think Mass. may have gotten that rep after McGovern election carried only Massachusetts, but things are changing. Still very blue, but red streaks have been appearing here and there and I don't mean only in the Governor's office. )

Never underestimate a good fish story, right?

Brahmin Governors, too. But, our legislature is more than sufficiently Democratic to overturn every gubernatorial veto it wishes to overturn, so we don't suffer from a Republican Governor the way that other states might, esp. if the (R) Governor had coattails.

Romney vetoed over 300 bills a year on average (amazing accomplishment, since he was out of state so much, making him self known for his Presidential runs). The legislature overrode most of them. However, our Democratic legislators may not be as liberal as they used to be.

Honestly, I got a bad feeling as soon as they picked Coakley. (If you poke around in the Mass. Group here, you might find my post from the day after she became the candidate.) She did a much, much better job against Baker than she did against Brown, but.... sigh.

A Democratic Governor - and every elected, statewide office held by a Democrat - but a hopelessly gerrymandered (Republican) Assembly map that has left the Commonwealth practically running on auto-pilot. And these are Republicans of the really extreme, medieval kind.

To better days, eh?

on those places where our voices have a better chance of being heard: our own neighborhood, our own city or town and then our own state.

We need to stop obsessing so much over Presidentials and pay more attention to who is on the city council.

So far, that's all I've managed to come up with.

Which not only make some individual states impossible to govern (unless one's idea of state governance is the passage of ghost-written ALEC bills), but are also the places from which many of tomorrow's right-wing monsters will most likely emerge.

(God forbid)

and on that note, Merrily, I bid you a good night and pleasant dreams. Really good chat; let's keep in touch.

Just curious.

How insulting.

That would be like requiring all Hispanic visitors to renounce drug cartels and pledge to learn English.

-----

secret weapon.

From another article:

An elected politician openly discriminating against a minority group is really ugly and dangerous. I hope she's forced to resign. And not only has she discriminated against Muslims, she's used the Israeli flag as a banner for her hatred and bigotry. I suspect given what I've read of her craziness that she'd not be too fond of Israel if she ever finds out that Israel has things like universal health care, religious courts for civil matters (Rabbinical and Sharia), and strict gun control laws. Forcing individual American Muslims to swear allegiance to the US using an Israeli flag is just bizarre. Apart from the nasty discrimination against Muslims, shouldn't swearing allegiance to the US be done using an American flag and not a foreign one?

I just got through reading lots of comments on her FB page and it's good to see so many Americans posting there telling her how vile she's being. I saw American Muslims and Jews amongst the commenters banding together and speaking out against her. While she showed the ugly side of the US, those commenters showed the good side. Molly wasn't getting the memo, though. I saw her threaten to delete the posts of 'anti-American extremists' who were supposedly throwing hatred and insults at her. So much for freedom of speech. What an idiot...

with regard to their "support" of Israel. That is, they truly do not support Israel. They are only doing that now because they believe they can manipulate Israel into doing the things necessary to bring about the "End Times."

She probably does know all about the government perks Israel's citizens enjoy, but just doesn't care. Getting them into a war with Iran, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Egypt, and so forth, is of far more immediate importance.

And they can't just kill themselves to get to Heaven now, because that's a sin. I guess they also think that starting wars in the Middle East to foment the end of the world won't also be noticed by an entity that can see directly into their emotional heart.

All citizen visitors declare their alligence to the U.S. AND RENOUNCE all religious-terrorist groups including CHRISTIAN ones!

Did anybody ever ask them to renounce "terrorist Christian groups"?

What about all the White Supremacist "Christian" groups? Does anybody ever ask them to renounce anything?

It's so offensive that these ass hats just assume that if somebody is Muslim, they automatically support terrorist plots.

And fringe groups in Texas? WTF??? Isn't that all they have in Texas?

suspect no one would do anything