1. Pupil defends teacher in Muhammad teddy furore

Comment #91662 by Coral76 on November 28, 2007 at 11:10 pm

"Everyone supporting this teacher should be immediately naming their Teddy bears Muhammad. Hords of people should pack plans and fly to Sudan and declare their Teddy Muhammad at immigration. Toys manufacturers should be making Teddy bear toys with little t-shirts on that have "My name is Muhammad" stitched to them. Every newspaper in the world that supports her should be printing full front page pictures of Teddy bears wearing Muhammad name tags. Just out and out overrun their entire delusion. I'm going to go get some t-shirt iron-ons and start printing my own shirts that show Teddy bears named Muhammad."


Just found a Mohammed teddy bear on cafepress.com . Can't seem to figure out how to post the link though...
Just type "Hello My Name Is Mohammed" into the search bar. It should be under "fun stuff".
I say we all buy one and have it sent to the Sudanese embassies in NYC and London.

2. Jury Awards Father $11M in Funeral Case

Comment #84297 by Coral76 on November 1, 2007 at 4:38 pm

Not sure how I feel about this.

On the one hand, I think that Fred Phelps & his slime are the living embodiment of everything I hate about religious fundamentalism. I consider them to be the scum of the earth. However, they have the right to say whatever the hell they want, much as I dislike their message. I trample on their liberty at peril to my own.

On the other hand, a funeral or memorial service is a sacred event, even for most of us secularists. The remembrance of someone's life is a unique, and therefore profoundly human, ritual. It brings closure to the living, and therefore comfort and healing. To interrupt an event which has the potential to bring such psychological and emotional healing to the survivors seem to me akin to bursting into a surgical suite and distracting a surgeon during a critical operation. It seems to me to be a form of assault. At the very least, it is the cruel act of kicking someone while they are down.

It's a captive audience, you see. The family is there to grieve and attempt to achieve some sort of closure. You can turn off the radio, not attend his church, not look at his sign. But you can't avoid them at a funeral. And that's what makes their tactic so insidious. Those grieving can choose not to attend, but they also have the right to grieve without being assaulted. And to attend a funeral with the express purpose of disturbing the attendees is, in my not so humble opinion, assault.