Another viral right-wing e-mail.

[arbusto_baboso]

I won't bother dignifying the thing by posting it in its entirety.

Let's just say, that the jist of it is that due to an ACLU lawsuit, military headstones can no longer be in the form of a cross or other religious symbol, and that Navy chaplains are now banned from mentioning Jesus during funeral services.

Okay, first of all, military headstones for some time have not been in the shape of religious symbols. They DO have a small circle at the top with the religious symbol within it. And recently, pagans won the right to have their symbols on their headstones at military cemetaries, probably with ACLU help.

So that's a load of crap.

Since I know the chaplain one is a crock of shit, I'm not even going to attempt a debunking.

I'm sorry, but the ACLU has more to do with the few freedoms we still have than does any other organization, even the military. And I say that as a veteran, so don't you dare blast me for that statement. If there were one thing I could change about the right, it would their unreasoning ACLU hatred.

[haifa lootin]

1. Snopes has heard about it

http://www.snopes.com/politics/religion/cemetery.asp

[Ian David]

6. Right-wingers refuse to believe Snopes anymore.

You have to stand in front of them and call these dudes and make them speak on the phone to them:

http://www.chapnet.army.mil/

[HughBeaumont]

8. That's because Snopes has the audacity to call them on their hyperbole-drenched bullshit.

Many . . . MANY times over . . .

[elfin]

9. You are right

My own wingnut mailer responded to my sending a snopes documented rebuttal that "I never pay attention to Snopes because it is a Mom and Pop liberal organization." The new winger party line.

[Warpy]

2. Oh, just change their unreasoning hatred, period

or maybe just their lack of reasoning or even their ability to hate.

[BlueState]

4. At what point do these morans...

...realize that 90% of what they believe is predicated on bullshit and reassess their ideology?

[Warpy]

7. They don't under normal circumstances

It's at the very core of their being, much like religion. Being forced to reassess that stuff creates a personal identity crisis that some might not emerge from whole. They are rigid personalities that resist change.

Only when circumstances become so bad that they are forced to reexamine their funny equations do they do so.

Remember, it took Europe 2 world wars fought on their soil with a Depression between them to examine their sillier beliefs. Likely it will take the same here to get through to the rigid personalities on the right.

[gratuitous]

3. Do "respond all", link to the Snopes site

And idly ponder whether bearing false witness isn't still in violation of the Ten Commandments. Or has the Family Research Council or some other false prophet decided now that lying to score a political point is acceptable?

I have assiduously cut these kinds of nitwits out of my life. I know my blood pressure is down. I believe I'm a happier person because of it.

[RaleighNCDUer]

5. Actually, the Dominionists have stated that lying in the cause of God

is not a sin. Just as murdering doctors to stop abortions is a holy act.

These are not nitwits. They are theocratic fuckwits.

[gratuitous]

10. Could start an interesting conversation

How does such a pointless lie serve the cause of God, and if God's causes need to be served, can they not stand on their own without lying? Okay, maybe an interesting conversation might not likely ensue, but it's in the universe of possible outcomes.

On a totally unrelated note RaleighNCDUer, don't you owe DU $10 in my name?

[RaleighNCDUer]

11. Reimind me. I didn't bookmark the conversation.

Was that on betting we'd not lose the House?

[gratuitous]

12. My reminder said I bet Democrats wouldn't lose the Senate

As my swiss cheese memory recalls, I started off with some rash statement that Democrats wouldn't lose either the House or the Senate. Apparently you agreed with me that the Democratic majority in the House was safe, but you didn't think Democrats would hold the Senate.

[musette_sf]

13. Other religions have this practice:

In Mormonism, it's called Lying for the Lord. http://www.mormonwiki.org/Lying_for_the_Lord

In some sects of Islam, it's called Taqqiyah. http://wikiislam.net/wiki/Lying_for_Islam_(taqiyya)