Beginning of the end for Phelps & Westboro?

We can only hope. There are two separate legal issues in this article:

1. Property taxes on a truck, which apparently had signs of a political nature displayed on it (in the context of their usual charming demonstrations, of course). Apparently this hate group is still considered a “church,” and is therefore tax-exempt.

2. The $5 million judgment against Phelps and Westboro in Maryland, levied as a result of Phelps’ protest at the funeral of a Marine killed in Iraq.
   

   A jury awarded Albert Snyder, father of the Marine, compensatory damage of $2.9 million and punitive damage of $8 million. But on Feb. 4, U.S. District Court Judge Richard D. Bennett reduced the punitive damage to $2.1 million, for a total judgment of $5 million.

   The church and the Phelpses filed a petition seeking a stay on the collection on that penalty. They also filed an appeal of the verdict.

   If the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Maryland upholds the lower court decision, property owned by the three named Phelps family members and the church itself would be confiscated.

   The appeals court there issued an order Monday denying the church’s request for a stay in the execution of the lower court’s ruling. No date has been set for the hearing on the appeal itself.

   Sean Summers, a York, Pa., attorney representing Snyder, said rejection of the stay allows the court to proceed to collection of the church’s property even though the ruling has been appealed.

   The issue of the property tax on the pickup truck was heard Tuesday in Topeka before the Kansas Court of Appeals. Margie Phelps, an attorney and member of the church, argued that all of the church’s messages are representations of what the church considers to be its religious purpose.

   But Shawn Leisinger, assistant Shawnee County counselor, noted that Kansas law requires that a property must be used exclusively for religious purposes to be exempt from taxation. He noted the Kansas Board of Tax Appeals ruled the truck was subject to taxation because of evidence presented that there was at least some political content in the messages.

   Someday soon, Phelps and Westboro may be bankrupt and out of business.

Divine mercy? Not so much.

It will never cease to amaze me how people insist on looking for the hand of an Invisible Magical Entity in everything that happens, no matter how senseless or horrific. From the “horrific” category, get a load of this:

Telling yourself to play dead if you’re ever attacked by a grizzly bear is easy. Actually doing it with a 900-pound monster chewing on your head until you think your brains are falling out is a lot harder.

Just ask Brent Case, the 53-year-old surveyor from Vancouver Island in Canada whose ability not to move while he was being shredded alive saved his life earlier this month. Just how did he manage to play dead when every nerve in his body was screaming in pain?

[...]

The bear grabbed one arm and tore into it, then took Case’s head in its mouth and shook him, tearing gaping wounds that left his scalp hanging in bloody flaps.

Case related his thought processes to Canadian reporters when he was well enough to talk: “ ‘He’s eating my brains. I know it, I can feel it. I hope he gets over it soon.’ I was hurting so bad and I was bleeding all over, I said, ‘I’m going to die.’ ”

[...]

“Here again, your will to live and your life force and what drives you — your will to live is important,” Case said. “What’s important is, I said I don’t want to die and I want to get to safety. Whether that was going to happen or not — it was a gamble — for whatever reason, God was on my side that day.” [Emphasis added]

Wouldn’t divine favor have been better demonstrated by there not being a grizzly attack in the first place? Clearly this guy’s problem was that there weren’t 42 children available for the bear to maul instead of him. Reading the above article reminded me of this one from 2007’s “senseless” category. It’s an older but no less irrational example of the mental gymnastics that belief in Invisible Magical Entities can make people perform:

In July of 2001, [Rev. Dr. Johannes] Christian’s life was forever changed when a 7-pound rock crashed through the windshield of his car while driving on Interstate 70 in Clark County. The rock, hurled by Jacob McNary, a young, troubled boy standing on an overpass, crushed Christian’s face and caused him to be permanently blind.

[...]

“I do this not to glorify what Jacob did, but to understand the miracle of God,” he said.

Dr. Steven Schmidt of Kettering Medical Center has performed more than 30 surgeries on Christian, “In the midst of tragedy, God raised up Dr. Steven Schmidt,” Christian said. “He assured me I would look just like Denzel Washington!”

[...]

Christian admitted that the road to forgiveness was not easily traveled.

“I was mad,” he said. “I couldn’t understand why God let this happen.”

He later realized that some things happen so that “the Son of God may be glorified.”

To sum up: the teenager’s act of heaving a rock off the overpass was a “miracle,” the doctor needed to be divinely “raised up” (rather insultingly implying that his training in medical science wasn’t good enough on its own) and the whole incident was for the glory of the Invisible Magical Entity’s alleged son (who is also invisible and magical). Irrational? You bet. Let’s consider the religious references from the above articles after some minor alterations:

• For whatever reason, Amon-Ra was on my side that day.
• I do this not to glorify what Jacob did, but to understand the miracle of Olodumare.
• In the midst of tragedy, Odin raised up Dr. Steven Schmidt.
• I couldn’t understand why the Jade Emperor let this happen.
• Some things happen so that “the Son of Zeus may be glorified.”

Do those seem silly, bizarre or crazy to you where the original remarks don’t, and if so, why?

Tell Senator McCain to support the Webb-Hagel GI Bill

The phone number in the last frame is obscured by the YouTube interface: 202-224-2235. For more info: http://www.votevets.org/

Ancient bust of Julius Caesar found in French river

Via Yahoo:

PARIS - Divers trained in archaeology discovered a marble bust of an aging Caesar in the Rhone River that France’s Culture Ministry said Tuesday could be the oldest known.

The life-sized bust showing the Roman ruler with wrinkles and hollows in his face is tentatively dated to 46 B.C. Divers uncovered the Caesar bust and a collection of other finds in the Rhone near the town of Arles — founded by Caesar.

[...]

[French Culture Minister Christine] Albanel called the find “exceptional” and said that the Caesar bust is “the oldest representation known today” of the emperor.

Divers also found a huge marble statue of Neptune, dated from the third century.

For comparison, here’s a few other representations of Caesar, depicted at various ages:

Minister: ‘I’m not gonna pee sitting down!’

That’s just one of the many entertaining moments in this highly amusing sermon about, yes, pissing.

Comedy gold.

Spongebob vandalism

I can’t think why someone would do this:

MONUMENT, Colo. — The U.S. Forest Service is looking for the “SpongeBob fanatics” who painted the cartoon character on the chimney of a historic building.

The 10-foot tall painting of Nickelodeon character SpongeBob SquarePants is on a cabin in the Pike National Forest that used to be the Forest Service’s tree nursery until it was abandoned in the 1930s. Forest Service law enforcement officer Tom Healy says the incident is part of an increase in vandalism in the area.

Officials say whoever painted the cartoon on the chimney brought four colors of paint and that it was a time-consuming venture.

Healy says it will cost several thousand dollars to wipe the animated yellow sea sponge’s image from the site.

I think it would be a good PR move if Nickelodeon offered to pay for the clean-up, on the grounds of not wanting their character to be associated with vandalism. They don’t have to, of course, but I still think it would be a nice gesture.

Respect

I’m not sure when this toon by the St. Pete Times’ now-retired Don Addis was first published, but it’s new to me and I like it.