Outrageous Religiously Prejudiced Morons... in a Public Office

I wanted to link to a post I made earlier about Lee County, Florida’s Sheriff John McDougall and his manifesto, which bashed gays, feminists, the United Nations, abortionists, and the ACLU. This document has been posted on a government-funded and operated web site (link below). Within it, he promotes his Christian views:

Here is the link to my original post:
http://www.straightdope.com/ubb/Forum5/HTML/000240.html

And the manifesto he wrote:
http://www.sheriffleefl.org/admin/resource/crimeprev/JUDICIAL.htm


“I like Florida; everything is in the eighties. The temperatures, the ages, and the IQs.”
– George Carlin

OMG!!!
Thanks for posting the link, SanibelMan. I heard on the news this morning that the sheriff had posted a manifesto and that he apparently slammed all sorts of groups and called for a return to Christian values, but I had no idea!
IMHO, this man is not fit for office. Does he even realize how offensive he is being? In the begining (no pun intended), he cites statistics about the rise in crime, drug use, etc. and blames this on people falling away from God. But IIRC, we recently had a thread going here in which someone cited the growth rates of various religions, and Christianity has been growing quite steadily in the US over the past 30 years. Maybe I should point that out to him.
UGH! I am absolutely sickened. Too bad he stopped reading at the preamble. Well, if ARG has heard of this, at least someone will be happy today!


“I think it would be a great idea” Mohandas Ghandi’s answer when asked what he thought of Western civilization

This is the e-mail i sent to them in reply:

“Since the first of those Supreme Court decisions, Juvenile crime has sky-rocketed, teen pregnancy and sexually
transmitted diseases have increased dramatically, over 400 %, violent crime (including Domestic violence) has
risen 600% over the last 30 years, teen suicide is up 300%, and depression among children is up 1000%.”

We also landed on the moon in that time, so I think the space program has something to do with it. Computers became
household items in that time, so I say we ban all computers. Microwave ovens are also responsible. And notice that
McDonalds has since introduced the McNugget. Those Goddless heathens! It’s all their fault… And you know what? There
was not a single “Bad News Bears” movie until WAY after these rulings came down. I think you’re on to something here,
fellas…

“Daily we learn of the mass killing of students in our schools, shootings taken place in day-care centers, and places
of worship.”

“Daily” we hear about them? Wow… That adds up to thousands of schools and churches shot up in a year!

“The
Gay and Lesbian coalitions, rabid feminist groups, United Nations one-world government radicals, and the
American Civil Liberties Union all competing for power, and many using their political action committee funds to
influence elected officials to represent these parasitic groups who proselytize and force us under the protection of
law to tolerate and accept their despicable conduct and agenda.”

To say NOTHING of the ultra-conservative groups who try and legislate morality.

“Planned Parenthood and the American Civil Liberties Union constantly use their influence to promote their own
self-centered philosophy.”

While anti-abortion people quietly sit back, eh? You’re absolutely correct - civil liberties are bad in a democracy, aren’t they.
Heaven forbid they promote such horrible things as free will, free speech and the like. They would even fight for you to have
the right to spew your bigotry and hatred under the guise of Christianity! How dare they…

“ll the while, these individuals make concerted efforts to ensure that any public reference
to God, prayer, or family values, remain relics of the past.”

Actually, I believe they say there’s a time and a place for such things, and a public school in a system where seperation of
church and state is guaranteed under it’s constitution is not among them. But I’m sure a good American such as yourself would
know this…

“Their members become upset when caring parents speak
out against the perversion of the Internet, cyber-porn and cyber-sex chat rooms, violent video games, wrestling
mania, and music videos, designed and targeted to compromise the morals of innocent children.”

Funny. I have yet to see an X-rated chat room marketed towards children. In fact, they are explicitely told to stay away from
them. And while I am not going to defend something as stupid as wrestling, except to say it’s been around since before 1962,
but I will say it’s the parents responsibility to keep their kids in check. Not yours. And the minute laws are made that infringe
upon the rights of adults who wish to partake in adult pleasures (or even wrestling), I’d say we’re not a country I want to belong
to. But, hey - You don’t want my kind here anyway…

“As concerned citizens and Christians, we need to display and read in our classrooms once again, and with pride, the
Ten Commandments - the Judeo-Christian foundation of our entire Constitutional system of law. We need to
display them in other public buildings with as much pride as they are in the Supreme Court of the United States.”

I believe that we have churches for that. Now, if I were to say that religion has caused more death than any famine or plague in
the history of the world (and I would be right), and use that to justify the abolishment of religion in this country by closing all
places of worship and burning the bibles… Oh wait - That’s what you want to do to MY rights. Sorry… Got our ideologies
confused for a minute there.

“To our disgrace as a nation we have caved in to the wishes of the depraved, and have allowed them to
systematically excluded God from our midst. All at an incalculable cost to our very survival.”

Hmm… I look in the phone book under “churches” and I find quite a few. Of a lot of denominations, in fact. Gee, you’d think
they would know better than to ADVERTISE, what with being “systematically excluded” and all.

“They have legalized abortion and caused the deaths of 40 million children.”

Nope… 40 million fetuses. There’s a difference. When your fetus kicks, it’s a good thing. When your child kicks you, it needs
to be slapped.

“Are we so
blind to this insidious culture of death that we have completely lost sight of the basic fundamental relationship that
exists between God and ourselves?”

In this country we have the right to worship whatever God we wish, or to not worship any God at all. In fact, you cannot
factually prove that God - yours or otherwise - even exists. It’s faith. One you are certainly entitled to, but not one you should
force others into believing.

“If we fail as a nation to ask God’s mercy and forgiveness, take back our inheritance as a holy people of a loving
God, demand respect for God and His commandments, our nation as we know it will no longer receive His blessings
or protection.”

First of all, he ain’t doing a very good job at protecting. Secondly, your own book tells that he will stay with even the last
believer and take him under his wings. Doesn’t matter if that person is surrounded by heretics. You might want to actually read
that thing you thump.

“Planned Parenthood a worldwide organization dedicated to using abortions as a means of population control have
set up clinics throughout this country, supported by the courts and legislature.”

Actually, that group is what it says it is. They want to help and will help someone going to them with other methods, including
setting up adoptions and also help in education. Which leads us to…

“They are without the authority and
consent of parents distributing free condoms to our children, thereby encouraging dangerous pre-marital adolescent
sexuality under the pretense of “Safe Sex for minors”. Those of us in law enforcement, call this behavior
“pedophilia”.”

Yep, you don’t like education either! Look at it this way, closed minded jerk - We are taught to wear seat belts. In fact it is a
law. We do not subsequently teach prospective drivers to crash their cars around the nearest telephone pole. Think about it -
Oh wait - you can’t think about it. You have a book dictate your thought. Wish it would have been written with people like
you in mind so it could have been a little less open to interpretation.

“Did you know that Planned Parenthood has successfully lobbied and received legislative approval that justify giving
your children free condoms whether you approve it or not?”

They have lobbied to make condoms available to whomever wants them. To offer education on how to use them. This
education always says that abstinance is the only 100% effective way to npot get pregnant or get a STD.

“I cannot help but wonder: is there a correlation between the
sickening moral bankruptcy of today and the liberal court decisions that began in the 60-s?”

No! I told you - “Bad News Bears” movies!

“The Court interpreted acknowledging God, under whose protection we publicly place our nation, as a violation of
the First Amendment when it is recited in our public schools.”

The court was correct. Even the conservative courts have said this. Maybe you’re just wrong, pal…

In closing, Heil Hitler!


Yer pal,
Satan

…bbbbbbbbbbbbbb…

(sound of me flipping my finger between my lips)

All I can say is UN EFFEN BELIEVABLE! I never thought I would be saying this, but-

I’m with you, Satan!

It really gets on my nerves when these Christian fanatic types use the Bible as proof against anything they don’t like, agree with or understand. The worst is those holy rollers that quote the Bible but don’t even know in what context the quote was actually used. Then they conveniently leave out passages and quotes that don’t serve their purpose.

I actually read the Bible, not because I’m religious, but so that I know what I’m talking about when some Christian freak gets in my face. I just cannot walk away from a theological discussion, I know I should most times, but I can’t help myself. I seem to draw these types.

For instance, at work my screen wallpaper is Stonehenge. A Born Again manager in the office said, " That’s a neat picture, but it would make me uncomfortable looking at it all day". I ask him why and he says that people used it for rituals and they didn’t believe in Jesus Christ. I respond that since Stonehenge was built an estimated 3000 years before Christ was (alleged) to be born, I’m not surprised. What an idiot!! He just had this dumb look on his face and walked away. I was disappointed, I was really in the mood for a “discussion”.

http://www.msnbc.com/local/wbbh/173493.asp
The above is a link to the local news story about the controversy, along with a link to a MSNBC bulletin board about this topic. I also wanted to check an astronomy web site to make absolutely sure I am on the right planet…

Ugh. This sickens me to no end! And we can’t even get him out of office without a petition! I can’t wait until the elections - I hope that he makes a few other declarations too, so that everyone will see what an idiot he is.


“I like Florida; everything is in the eighties. The temperatures, the ages, and the IQs.”
– George Carlin

I’m so sick of bigots disguising as Christians and/or (insert your favourite religion here, don’t want to leave anybody out now, do we?). Who the hell said you had to be a bigot to be a good Christian? Why is it that the more religious one is, the more intolerant one becomes? Kind of defeats the purpose, doesn’t it?

Nobody will ever convince me that one religion is better than another. If that were the case, there would only be one religion, as opposed to kajillions. Look at all the wars that have been caused by religious freaks who didn’t have anything better to do than kill others who didn’t share their beliefs.

I’m also sick of people telling “heathens” they’ll go to hell if they don’t do such and such a thing. What’s it to you, you fucking busybodies? Why the hell are you so concerned about that? Do you think the “heathens” give a shit about your opinions? Nope. So mind your own business. Live and let live…if you know what that means, of course…but of course you probably don’t, do you? Presumably it isn’t written in your precious bible or whatever the hell it is you’re thumping.


The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts.

  • Bertrand Russel

Roman Catholic priests read the bible every day and we all know that they never break the law, especially the ones concerning pedophilia…

He fails to mention that in the past 20 years the number of violations of Jim Crow laws, miscegination laws, women attempting to vote illegally, etc… have dropped to 0%

The thing that makes me want to go knock some righteous fundamentalist heads together just to hear the hollow “thoonk” noises is not so much the fact that they pick on gays, feminists, liberals, and the ACLU, nor is it the fact that they want me to be just like them. To be sure, these two thins piss me off plenty, but what really gets me is the fact that they believe that if you don’t believe in their god, you are automatically an evil person. I don’t just mean evil as in “going to hell when you die”, but as in “murdering, raping desecrator of all that is good and beautiful in this world”. Seriously, they seem to believe that all goodness flows from their god and his love, and if you don’t have that, you can’t be a good person.

Well, I have news for you! I, personally, am a devout atheist (did you read that? Atheist. No god. Completely and totally godless.), but do I go around causing pain and suffering just for the hell of it? No, I do not. I know many people who are not of the Christian religion who show more compassion toward other human beings, animals, and the state of the world itself than many Christians I know. A "good Christian" child is just as likely to stick a firecracker up a cat's ass as a nonreligious one. So don't tell me that I can't be a good person without God. Being a good person requires work, no matter what you believe in. If you believe that God is all it takes, then I hope for your sake that there really is a God, so that he can see through your belief, and give you the reward you deserve when you die.

I want to know what in the Wide Wide World of Sports a candidate for sherriff was doing “running on an anti-abortion platform.” Did he feel the voters into thinking he had anything to do with this, when running for a law-enforcement position and not a legislative position? What the fuck is wrong with people? Shouldn’t he have maybe campaigned on a platform of, oh, I don’t know, catching criminals and patrolling neighborhoods to prevent crimes, rather than harassing women engaged in a legal activity?

When the hell was prayer or Bible reading banned in public schools? My high school, like probably any other across the country, had several different versions of the Bible in the 200 section of the school library. Any student was and is still free to take a copy if it, read it and pray silently to his or herself. It’s a disgrace the way people have to keep using this “prayer in public school” banter as if our public schools were mandating atheism. None of this should be an issue. What do these people want? Do they want public schools to FORCE children to pray to Jesus Christ? As for the media, what I find funny is that no-one blamed the Bible for the Waco incident. Dave Koresh thought he was Jesus Christ, and led scores of people to their demise. That’s fine, the Bible played no part in the situation. “He was just crazy.” is the general consensus people seem to have. Conversely, two kids go shoot up their school and everyone thinks there must have been a song or video game that drove them to it.

Does anyone know how we, the people of Lee County that oppose what Sheriff McDougall is doing, could throw him out of office? The news article calims that a petition would work, but my World History teacher says that the state Attorney General could do something about it… could s/he?
Oh, and by the way, don’t ever move here unless you are prepared to deal with this. Save yourselves! Please, be on the lookout for people like this sheriff in positions of power in your community!
This gets even more sick… there doesn’t seem to be any easy way to get rid of him. He has some kind of constitutional power that prevents him from any type of impeachment. The state Ethics Board will start an investigation if someone files a complaint, but all they can do is send their final conclusions to the gevernor, Jeb Bush, and who knows if he’ll decide to take action… probably not, the conservative that he is. Sheesh, I wish I lived elsewhere. Anyone know a good, democratic, liberal state to move to?
Lucky, did you hear about this on the Today Show? Anyone who saw it: what did he say to defend himself?


“I like Florida; everything is in the eighties. The temperatures, the ages, and the IQs.”
– George Carlin

Sheriff spewed forth:

I’ve heard this ridiculous statement before, usually from the same types who band together into neo-Militia groups and claim that paying income taxes is voluntary.

Assuming for the moment that Sheriff Pat Buchanan here isn’t SO stupid he thinks a representative democracy is mentioned in the bible someplace, I have to guess that he’s confusing the Ten Commandments with the Ten Amendments.

Either that, or we’ve been misreading the ten commandments all this time; the first commandment really says “Thou shalt have no other commanders-in-chief before the President” and the ninth commandment says “Thou shalt not be compelled to bear witness against thyself in a criminal case”.


Visit the Internet Stellar Database at www.stellar-database.com

You’ll never believe the latest from CNN…this guy is making a run for the presidency! But he’s changed the moniker…(drum roll please)…
It’s Pat Buchanan!

[sigh] I only wish he were, so that he couldn’t be sheriff anymore…

And if you think THIS guy is good, look at what Republican candidate Steve Forbes had to say recently:

http://www.atheists.org/flash.line/elec2.htm

Some highlights (with editorial comments):

. . . Forbes came out in support of displaying the Ten Commandments, insisting that the Decalogue was a central theme in American political life and are “how we got to where we are today.” (Gee, and I thought it was a revolution and a representative democratic government. Silly me.)

“It’s the basis of Western civilization. The Ten Commandments gave us Judaism (Um,no, Steve, that’s exactly backwards), from which flowed Christianity, from which flowed the rise of Europe, from which we had our origins. It’s the foundation of civilization.”(He misspelled “agriculture.”)

“If you went to, say, a country that has the Muslim religion, and you go to a school, you might expect to see the Koran there.(Yes, by all means let’s base social policy on what the Iranians do..) You wouldn’t be surprised … it’s part of their culture. It the same thing here.”

He dismissed complaints that displaying sectarian religious documents in school classrooms was an unconstitutional entanglement between government and religion.(Is this guy even remotely qualified to be President?)

In response to a question asking if he would tolerate the display of non-Christian religious symbols, Forbes opined that the Koran was not the basis of American civilization, and that the Commandments were.(There you have it, folks–he wants Christianity to be our official religion.)

pl-
Just goes to show you don’t need any real qualifications to run for president- just enough money to get your name out. Sheesh! Don’t these people even bother to do research? Very scary…


Some mornings it just doesn’t seem worth it to gnaw through the leather straps.
Emo Philips (stolen from matt’s webpage)

I love that line! ::cleaning Coke spew from monitor:: Here’s my vote for “Best Retort of the Day”.

In light of these responses, no. But if you take all his prior stances and accomplishments into account and completely ignore this particular interview…well, the answer is still “no”. Just thought I’d try.


The overwhelming majority of people have more than the average (mean) number of legs. – E. Grebenik

I was under the impression that Steve Forbes’ greatest virtue was making J. Danforth look good by comparison! :smiley:

But the man should be retained by whoever does win the race, simply because he can set excellent domestic and foreign policy, simply by getting Forbes’ advice and then doing the opposite.

People seem to have captured how I feel about this insult to humanity, so I won’t duplicate.

But I will pontificate.

Why do I get the uneasy feeling that in about 2020, progressives will be sorry they advocated gun control from the 1960’s to about 2010?

It seems that as time goes on, more and more assholes like this Sheriff are coming to be in charge of the constabulary, school boards, major cities (oy!) and the like.

I worry that someday the wackadoos in Idaho in their shelters and camouflage , currently watching for black helicoptors, will be able to come out of the hills and celebrate the return of God’s America.

And people like me will be scrambling. Cuz you can bet that the bad guys won’t fall for the whole peaceful resistance thing twice.

Does anybody know of a progressive group that opposes gun control? I want my gun for the same reason that the militias want theirs (well OK, hunting and home protection, too). Donation season is coming, and I’d just love to send a few bucks over to a pro-gun organization that isn’t dominated by people whose politics make me sick.