So far, the only responses I have seen in USA Today were two letters to the editor in the Thursday edition. One short letter supporting that bitch, and one even shorter letter (about three or four sentences) taking her to task. I found that dishertening since I know that many, many letters have been sent to USA Today.
But maybe there is a silver lining. Apparently atheists ARE speaking out now. Outraged atheists have absolutly taken over the Kathleen Parker “Chat Room” (actually message board). Tons of posts from Marines, other military atheists, mothers of atheists, a widow of an atheist. Lots of letters people have sent to USA Today as well.
Well, I’m pretty sure that USA Today got more than two letters on the subject, and they sure as hell got more than one letter disagreeing with the column.
Unfortunately, the role in the rant that the maritan wolves play (one might call it the zany hyperbole, or the creative absurdity, or possibly the jarbabyisms), does not lend itself well to thematic linking. A rant is certainly improved by having various themes, but the humorous departations from the realm of normality are primarily judged on creativity and novelty, so you’ll lose points if there’s too much of a theme there.
So this self-righteous woman knows what’s best for MY children, but she hasn’t been taking HERS to church? That’s what most of us who want our kids to have a working knowledge of our religions do. Maybe she should take a refresher course in Christianity before she starts preaching to what she thinks is the choir.
Beautiful rant, MEB, and you did a great job of distilling it into such a reasonable letter.
Update here- as of today, KP has closed her chatroom, saying:
**
I had actually been impressed by the generally high road taken- many posters disagreed with her, and disagreed strongly, but the verbiage was much less “colorful” than GD, for instance. I wonder how long it will be before she has a column about how the “filthy-mouthed” atheists “forced” her to shut down her chatroom.
Question: in the Army, do they still punish people by forcing them to do KP for a month? Seems cruel and inhuman to me… JDM
Ah, yes, I just went back for a visit to KP’s “chat room” (nevermind that it’s a message board - probably too much to expect her to be even moderately internet literate) and was greeted by her “Whine, whine, whine, I have to shut the board down, whine, whine” message.
It’s amazing how consistently the woman lies - first about atheists in foxholes, then about atheists in the WTC, then about the religious origin of our nation, and now about those “potty-mouthed” atheists who ruined her little site. I would hazard a guess that upwards of 90% of the posts were civil in their tone and merely strongly showed the poster was at odds with the ignorance Kathleen so proudly flaunted (and flaunts to this day) in her columns. Of course, the silent atheists showed her we can make a lot of noise if challenged, and poor little Kathy couldn’t take it.
MEB, we can worship you without being in a church! It’ll be a monastary, see? And now we shave our heads and bow down in thanks… Then burn effigies of this whore and kick puppies!
As if it isn’t obvious that everyone now worships MEB, I’ll throw my adoration in the mix. I was on the phone with ARose, and he read portions of the OP to me, while we laughed hysterically and decided to dedicate the rest of our lives to worshipping your awesomeness, memorizing the OP, and standing on street corners screaming it aloud to the passerby masses…
[sub]So maybe ARose didn’t agree with it, and it’s just me, but that’s just details and who needs details?
Thou shalt not kick puppies. (Or kittens, either.)
Also, the idea of a “monastery” is probably even less appealing to me than a “church”. A “nunnery” now–something along the lines of the one in Monty Python and the Holy Grail–would be an entirely different question. No shaven heads are required.
Here, Kathy explains why free speech is a Bad Thing.
I think I know her problem. Charley Reese retired from the Orlando Sentinel in July and now she has to be their High-Paid Nutjob Who Writes Offensive Columns in Order to Boost Circulation. It’s actually an easy gig because you don’t have to know much.
I’m afraid I must ask: why so much anger? The Christians are btohering you because they think that if you die, you’ll spend eternity in hell being tortured. They care about you, whether or not their beliefs are founded. In their minds, they’re trying to save you from eternal pain.
