Pat Robertson, founder of the Christian Coalition, recently warned Orlando, Florida, that it was courting natural disaster by allowing gay pride flags to be flown along its streets. “A condition like this will bring about … earthquakes, tornadoes, and possibly a meteor,” he said, apparently referring to his belief that the presence of openly gay people incurs divine wrath and that God acts through geological and meteorological events to destroy municipalities that permit gay people the same civil liberties as others. (Robertson also warned Orlando about terrorist bombs, suggesting the possibility that God may also employ terrorists.)

Before Pat and his Christian cronies get too carried away promulgating the idea that people who displease God prompt natural disasters, they should take a hard look at the data. Take tornadoes. Every state (except Alaska) has them - some only one or two a year, dozens in others. Gay people are in every state (even Alaska). According to Pat’s hypothesis, there should be more gay people in states that have more tornadoes. But are there? Nope. In fact, there’s no correlation at all between the number of gay folks (as estimated by the number of gay political organizations, support groups, bookstores, radio programs, and circuit parties) and the annual tornado count (r = .04, p = .78 for you statisticians). So much for the “God hates gays” theory.

God seems almost neutral on the subject of sexual orientation. I say “almost” because if we look at the density of gay groups relative to the population as a whole, there is a small but statistically significant (p < .05) correlation with the occurrence of tornadoes. And it’s a negative correlation (r = -.28). For those of you who haven’t used statistics since 1973, that means that a high concentration of gay organizations actually protects against tornadoes. A state with the population of, say, Alabama could avert two tornadoes a year merely by doubling the number of gay organizations in the state. (Tough choice for Alabama’s civil defense strategists.)

Although God may not care about sexual orientation, the same cannot be said for religious affiliation. If the underlying tenet of Pat’s postulate is true - that God wipes out offensive folks via natural disasters - then perhaps we can find some evidence of who’s on God’s hit list. Jews are off the hook here: there’s no correlation between numbers of Jews and frequency of tornadoes. Ditto for Catholics. But when it comes to Protestants, there’s a highly significant correlation of .71.

This means that fully half the state-to-state variation in tornado frequency can be accounted for by the presence of Protestants. And the chance that this association is merely coincidental is only one in 10,000. Protestants, of course, come in many flavors-we were able to find statistics for Lutherans, Methodists, Baptists, and Other. Lutherans don’t seem to be a problem-no correlation with tornadoes. There’s a modest correlation (r = .52, p = .0001) between Methodists and tornadoes.

But Baptists and Others share the prize: both groups show a definite correlation with tornado frequency (r = .68, p = .0001). This means that Texas could cut its average of 139 tornadoes per year in half by sending a few hundred thousand Baptists elsewhere (Alaska maybe?).

What, you are probably asking yourself, about gay Protestants? An examination of the numbers of gay religious groups (mostly Protestant) reveals no significant relationship with tornadoes. Perhaps even Protestants are less repugnant to God if they’re gay. And that brings up another point - the futility of trying to save the world by getting gay people to accept Jesus. It looks from our numbers like encouraging Protestants to be gay could more effectively reduce the frequency of natural disasters.

Gay people have been falsely blamed for disasters ever since Sodom was destroyed by fire and brimstone (we have been unable to find any statistics on disasters involving brimstone). According to a reliable source, the destruction of Sodom was indeed an act of God (see Genesis 19:13) and was perpetrated because the citizens thereof were, according to the same source (see Ezekiel 16:49-50), “arrogant, overfed and unconcerned [and] did not help the poor and needy” - not because they were gay. Now Pat would have us believe that gays are the cause of tornadoes (as well as earthquakes, meteors, and even terrorist bombs) in utter disregard for evidence showing that Baptists are much more likely to cause them.

I say “Kudos!” to Orlando. Despite Robertson’s warning that Orlando is “right in the way of some serious hurricanes” (hardly a revelation), note that it was not struck by the very destructive Hurricane Andrew a few years ago. And amid the recent conflagrations (that’s fires) in central Florida, which occurred just after Pat sounded his alarm, Orlando was spared. Keep those flags waving!

As any statistician will tell you, of course, correlation doesn’t prove causation. Protestants causing tornadoes by angering God isn’t the only explanation for these data. It could be that Baptists and Other Protestants purposely flock to states that have lots of tornadoes (no, we haven’t checked for a correlation between IQ and religious affiliation). But if Pat and his Christian crew insist that natural disasters are brought on by people who offend God, let the data show who those people are.

Author Unknown

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I love going to Town Creek and watch the Bald Eagles. There are also several pairs at Paint Rock Bluff on the Tenesse River between Guntersville and Huntsville.  They are beautiful.  I have been honored to see then up close.

Check out this article (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070213/ap_on_sc/bald_eagle_3) that confirms that Eagles Are coming back to Alabama.

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Well it looks like Judge Roy Moore lost the Republican nomination for Govenor by a landslide. Bob Rilet recieved 64% of the vote. I guess Alabama says “NO” to Mr. Moores Religious crap. I for one am happpy. The best senario for me would be for Mr. Moore to run as an independent and split the Republican Party. Then Lucy Baxter would be a shoe in. I have hads enough of big business and republicans for a while, but then that’s just me.

Alabama also said “NO” to gay marriage. We will have a new admendment preventing same sex marriages. I personaly think that it is a mistake to have the state or any government body legislate this issue. I know many people have moral objections to same sex marriages and are satisfied with the new admendment. My thought on this is that we let the state lefislate morals like this then it opens up to more morals being legislated and who’s morals do we go by? I think some of these conservatives would be up in arms if thier was an amendment passed that limited their rights and theit beliefs. It may be only a matter of time when conservative fundamentalist try to pass more of their narrow beliefs on all of us through state admendments. I say let’s keep the state out of my house and especially my bedroom.

Just anothewr rant.

Loki

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Today I voted in my first Republican Primary for the privilage to vote against Judge Roy Moore.  I feel very strongly against Mr. Moore and his using Christianity to further his political ambition.  So instead of voting in the Democratic primary I voted for Bob Riley in the Republican primary.  I hope Alabama sends a clear message to Mr. Moore that we did not want his crap when he was judge and we sure don’t want it as Govenor.

I rant because I can, a clear free speach right and a clear understanding of the separation of Church and State that Mr. Moore seems to ignore.

Loki

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10 Reasons Why Gay Marriage is Wrong:

10) Legalizing gay marriage will open the door to all kinds of crazy behavior. People may even wish to marry their pets because a dog has legal standing and can sign a marriage contract.

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It looks like the Alabama Church Burnings have been solved. Turns out that it had nothing to do with hate crimes or hate groups.

The burnings started as the drunk prank of 3 college students. Then they burnt the second batch of churches to throw off the investigation. They used the same SUV and thier tires were matched at all churches. The second batch was a bad decision. It looks like they are going to prison for a very long time.

They were hunting and had the bright idea to burn churches. I am having a hard tim4 following why they would see this as a prank but alcohol kicks good sense out the window!

Read about it here and here.

Loki

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I love to walk around Lake Guntersville. I have seen several Bald Eagles at Lake Guntersville. It is an immpressive sight. There are many times you can see them circling over head. I have been  fortunate enough to see a nest and it was huge.

On day I  was walking on a bluff and came upon a young Eagle in a tree. He flew from the tree right over my head. I could feel the wind from his wings.

I found this article about the Eagles around Lake Guntersville.

Loki

From The Birmingham News

Family of bald eagles at Guntersville Dam is a sight to behold

Sunday, February 12, 2006

Telescopes and cameras on tripods are set up beside the river access road 100 yards north of Guntersville Dam. Cars are parked in the grass; men mill around, talking about equipment and sharing photos.

The men are oblivious to the spray that rises from the tumbling water at the dam’s spillway. They do not watch the swarm of gulls in the area, circling and diving for fish sucked through the dam’s openings by the water’s force. Instead, these men scan the sky as they talk.

Their scopes are pointed toward a tall, conspicuous snag of a tree standing in a pond across the narrow road. Sometimes, an eagle sails in and settles there, on the very tip-top. It’s his hangout; the nest he shares with his mate of several years is in a pine tree at the other end of the pond. Sixty feet off the ground, it is made of sticks and twigs and nestled where three limbs branch off the trunk. Braced by the limbs, the cone-shaped nest opens to a width of four or five feet.

One eagle sits in the nest now; her white head is easy to spot against blue sky and the brown and green foliage. I hear a bird call, a repeated hawk-like squeal.

“It might be the eagle,” I whisper.

“No,” says the photographer, looking through his lens. “She didn’t open her beak.”

“Ha!” I respond, “as if you could see her beak.”

“I can,” he says. “I can see her nostril.”

I accept his offer and step up to the tripod. Through the lens I see her big yellow beak, the upper part hooked over the lower. I see her nostril on the side of the beak, and I see the lid blink over her round, yellow eye. She remains on the nest, scanning her surroundings. Hours pass.

I’m intrigued by the hundreds of buzzards nearby. They roost on one of the electrical towers across the river. Like the gulls, they probably find plenty of food near the spillway and along the riverbank. The black buzzards fly in groups, not circling, but casually sailing around and about. Their behavior is leisurely and social.

Two weeks later, at mid-week, fewer watchers are waiting for the eagle show. Passers-by slow down or stop to inquire about their activity.

Both adult eagles are busy, and both look somewhat bedraggled. The neck feathers are not smooth and fluffy, but spiked. The heads seem slightly sunken into the body. The female, however, is sitting higher in the nest with much of her body exposed. She squirms and rearranges her wings. When the male brings food, she sits on the edge of her bed of sticks, her head thrust down, out of sight. She moves continuously. The eagle monitors believe the eggs have hatched. The birds’ behavior indicates this is true.

The male comes back twice in two hours. The last time is after sunset. After delivering dinner, dad sits on the branch of a nearby tree and preens; he appears to be cleaning his talons and his beak. Eventually he moves up and into the nest. As he settles in, his mate lifts from the nest and easily flaps off down river.

To monitor this nest: From Guntersville, take U.S. 431 North. Go out of town over the bridge and continue overland to the sign and turn left to the dam. Take a right toward the boat launch area. Nest is behind yellow police tape on the right; pond and snag are nearby. Brenda Cummings is an outdoors columnist and native of Goodsprings. She can be reached at bc7447@comcast.net.

You can read the original article here

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I thought this was a well written article concerning hate crimes and the recent church burnings in Alabama.-Loki

The flames of hate in Alabama

Feb 16, 2006
by Jeff Jacoby

Suppose that in 2005 unknown hoodlums had firebombed 10 gay bookstores and bars in San Francisco, reducing several of them to smoking rubble. It is not hard to imagine the alarm that would have spread through the Bay Area’s gay community or the manhunt that would have been launched to find the attackers. The blasts would have been described everywhere as “hate crimes,” editorial pages would have thundered with condemnation, and public officials would have vowed to crack down on crimes against gays with unprecedented severity.

Suppose that vandals last month had attacked 10 Detroit-area mosques and halal restaurants, leaving behind shattered windows, wrecked furniture, and walls defaced with graffiti. The violence would be national front-page news. On blogs and talk radio, the horrifying outbreak of anti-Muslim bigotry would be Topic No. 1. Bills would be introduced in Congress to increase the penalties for violent “hate crimes” — no one would hesitate to call them by that term — and millions of Americans would rally in solidarity with Detroit’s Islamic community.

Fortunately, those sickening scenarios are only hypothetical. Here is one that is not:

In the past two weeks, 10 Baptist churches have been burned in rural Alabama. Five churches in Bibb County — Ashby Baptist, Rehobeth Baptist, Antioch Baptist, Old Union Baptist, and Pleasant Sabine — were torched between midnight and 3 a.m. on Feb. 3. Four days later, arsonists destroyed or badly damaged Morning Star Missionary Baptist Church in Greene County, Dancy First Baptist Church in Pickens County, and two churches in Sumter County, Galilee Baptist and Spring Valley Baptist. On Saturday, Beaverton Freewill Baptist Church in northwest Alabama became the 10th house of worship to go up in flames.

Ten arson attacks against 10 churches — all of them Baptist, all in small Alabama towns, all in the space of eight days: If anything deserves the label of “hate crime,” obviously this does.

Or does it?

“We’re looking to make sure this is not a hate crime and that we do everything that we need to do,” FBI Special Agent Charles Regan told reporters in Birmingham. Make sure this is *not* a hate crime? If 10 Brooklyn synagogues went up in flames in a little over a week, wouldn’t investigators start from the assumption that the arson was motivated by hatred of Jews? If 10 Cuban-American shops and restaurants in Miami were deliberately burned to the ground, wouldn’t the obvious presumption be that anti-Cuban animus was involved?

Apparently Baptist churches are different.

“I don’t see any evidence that these fires are hate crimes,” Mark Potok, a director of the left-wing Southern Poverty Law Center, told the Los Angeles Times. “Anti-Christian crimes are exceedingly rare in the South.”

But are anti-Christian crimes really that rare? Or are they simply less interesting to the left, which prefers to cast Christians as victimizers, not victims?

A search of the Southern Poverty Law Center’s website, for example, turns up no references to Jay Scott Ballinger, a self-described Satan worshiper deeply hostile to Christianity, who was sentenced to life in prison for burning 26 churches between 1994 and 1999. The SPLC has claimed that the number of hate crimes in American is sharply underreported. Yet if Ballinger’s arsons weren’t “hate crimes,” what were they?

Running through the coverage of the latest church burnings is an almost palpable yearning to cast the story in racial terms. “Federal investigators are looking for two white men for questioning in connection with a string of church fires in central Alabama,” began a National Public Radio story on Friday. “Race may be a factor.” In fact, race seems not to be a factor at all — five of the churches had mostly white congregations, five were largely black. To a media ever ready to expose racism in American culture, the arsonists’ lack of regard for skin color must be maddening.

At times, the eagerness to make this a story about race is almost laughable. “The area is known as Alabama’s Black Belt because of its dark, rich soil and poor African American population,” the L.A. Times made a point of noting last week. On Monday, the Orlando Sentinel claimed that “some church members” think the fires are linked to the death and funeral of “civil-rights icon Coretta Scott King, whose late husband, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., was a Baptist minister.”

In 1996, a spate of fires in the South was widely and falsely trumpeted in the media as an eruption of racism. “We are facing an epidemic of terror,” declared Deval Patrick, the Clinton administration’s assistant attorney general for civil rights. But as it turned out, there was no racist conspiracy. More than a third of the arsonists arrested were black, and more than half the churches burned were white. So perhaps it is progress of a sort that, this time around, the media are keeping in check the urge to cry “Racism!”

But real progress will come only when we abandon the whole misguided notion of “hate crimes,” which deems certain crimes more deserving of outrage and punishment not because of what the criminal did, but because of the group to which the victim belonged. The burning of a church is a hateful act regardless of the congregants’ skin color. That some people bend over backward not to say so is a disgrace.

Jeff Jacoby is an Op-Ed writer for the Boston Globe, a radio political commentator, and a contributing columnist for Townhall.com.

To see the original article click here

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More Churches Burn in Alabama

There have been 4 more churches burned in Alabama. It looks the burnings are believed to be related. There are 9 Churches in all that have been burnt. Thefederal Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agency are now involved. There are more than 50 agents here in Alabama trying to solve these crimes. You can read about it here.

We send out our condolences to the victims of these hate crimes.

Hate and intolerance come from fearful people. When people are secure with themselves it does not matter how others worship or what they believe in. When we are secure with ourselves and our own beliefs we are not threatened and do not have to lash out either verbally or violently. We can live and let live. Whoever is burning these Churches may have an agenda or trying to prove a point. In reality the only point they are proving is giving us evidence of their small simple minded, fearful lives.

I found another interesting article from Witchvox, on the burnings that was printed in the UK. This article is a prime example of sensationalism and poor journalism. It uses the racism of Alabama’s past, the KKK, and fear to these Church burnings. This article has little to with the truth and has no facts to back it up. The writer has taken these crimes and interwoven them with his own agenda. He has done the good people of Alabama a disservice. We know that the Alabama we know today is not the Alabama that this writer wrote about. It is sad how the media milks these events.

I hope that we can learn, Christians and Pagans alike, that it is ok to disagree but when it comes down to the law we all have the right to practice our religion in this country free from fear and violence. More and more of us from all religions need to learn that we can learn to disagree agreeably. Freedom of Religion means Freedom for all Religions and equal rights means that if it is ok for one person it should be ok for all persons. Hate only brings more hate.

Loki

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Our condolences to all affected by the Church fires in Bibb County.

Since I have been out of pocket the last few days I have not been keeping up with Alabama news.  Today I learned about the five church fires in Bibb County.

Faith and I want to express our sympathies to all that have been affected by this act of violence and hate.  We are grateful that there were no casualties and pray for the two injured firemen and their families.

It is unfortunate that some do not understand the right of Freedom of Religion for all.  Our brave Warriors are fighting for this right, in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the many other rights that we have guaranteed to us by our constitution.

 Loki

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This was sent to me by Indigo Moonstar. For the life of me I don’t understand why people can’t understand that freedom of religion means all religions. The article shows just how scary some people can be when they believe that thier way is the only way.-Loki

This is something that was sent to me that I thought might make a great entry for the blog. This man is running for Lt governor of Georgia and was one of the men from there who helped stop Alabama from getting the lottery and casinos here. Hes on a new rampage against witches and pagans now. Heres the article

RALPH REED AND THE SIX MIND-TOOLS by Rev. Ed Hubbard

Ralph Reed is the most dedicated Christian Strategist in the country, working closely with the Religious Right and the current elections. He writes and formulates policies on elections and issues for Christian Organizations and Government Officials. And his decisions come with millions of dollars of Christian Coalition Special Interest Dollars.

Who is Ralph Reed? Ralph Reed is the protege of Pat Robertson. Brought on as a director of the Christian Coalition, being a position nominally abandoned by Pat Robertson during his presidential campaign, Ralph Reed has become the chief advocate of the Religious Christian Community. Currently, he is a campaign consultant to George W. Bush, and openly speaks out about the need to be a religious advocate. Ralph has moved out of pure religious organizations to become director of Century Strategies http://www.censstrat.com, which allows him to work fully in the political field without constraints.

Why am I mentioning Ralph Reed? Because he allegedly commissioned a report recently, on laws pertaining to Witchcraft throughout the United States for the purpose of incremental enforcement of laws on the federal basis. Further, according to sources seeks to denounce Witchcraft as a legal religion through the courts if necessary. He is a long term strategist, and he is only 38 years old. And he sees the pagans-are-nature-oriented/">Pagan Community as a potential voting issue and media attention attractor. He is just waiting for the right moment and then he will use us to further his cause. Never forget, George Bush Jr. has made promises to eliminate wiccan-or-witch/">Wicca from the Military, as President. Mr. Reed would assure Bush carries out that promise. I mention him [so you will] know those who would take from you your rights in the name of God.

How will he do it? Here are the six mind-tools used by social propagandists, political consultants, and governmental officials to incite the public.

These are the tools of the Media War.

Mind-tool One is Atrocity Allegations. In it’s most common form, it is the accusal of ritual murder, infanticide, rape, sexual depravity, mass murder and so on. This can go deeper, with unfounded and untrue statements as well as true statements of small numbers of people, left to fester. Remember, an Atrocity accusation can even be as simple as they wear black because they are afraid of the light, as long as it isolates the community member.

Mind-tool Two is Hyperbolic Inflation of the Stakes. This recently took form in Bosnia when NATO stated if we do not stop Serbia we will have another Hitler, and fight a larger war. For us, If children are allowed to wear Pentagrams soon all our children will be. Further, If children are allowed to practice wiccan-or-witch/">Wicca then they will become involved with *put you own derogatory here*.

These first two mind-tools create a powerful argument, no matter how true or false. Simply put, atrocity and Hyperbolic inflation assures that even if you are not sure it is true, you don’t dare defend them in case it is true, and you certainly don’t become involved.

The Third mind-tool is Demonetization and Dehumanization. In every conflict, the enemy must not have a human face. Broad brushes are used to slander and deprive human feelings for the attacked, otherwise one would have to consider them as individuals. For Wiccans it was Satan Worship, but lately we are all said to be nudists and we do not believe in God or State.

The fourth is Polarization, “Those not for us are against Us.” Simple and is the basis for all manner of fights. The Fifth is the Claim of Divine Sanction, which frames all arguments, out of the human context and instead places it on God, Allah, or some other authority in charge of the action. Further the power to forgive for any excess of zeal is gained. This assures no matter how much one would feel the action is wrong, the person committing it is secure because God told them to do it.

The Sixth mind-tool is Meta-propaganda, and the most powerful. This discredits the other sides propaganda not by challenging the veracity of a single story, but by repeating holes and mistakes on the whole argument and discredit everything coming from the enemy. The aim is to produce wholesale disbelief and close doors to redress.

Being aware of the tools being used by Ralph Reed and other consultants, “Spiritual Warriors”, and “Prayer Soldiers”, we will be able to understand how they reached their world-view and prepare our statements accordingly. After all, Ralph Reed has already begun.

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I came across this article and found it very interesting. You can read it here. There seems to be a little controversy in Dekalb County.

Is selling County property to a Church a violation of the separation of church and state? Personally, I think the County should have the right to sell property to who they want. But on the other hand to sell the property for less to a Church when they could get a larger amount from a private individual is showing a type of favoritism and to me could cross that Church/State line. The County is responsible to its citizens and that means to do what is best for the County. Catering to a Church shows affiliation to the Church. If they opened the land up to the highest bidder and the Church chose to buy the land at the fair market price shows no affiliation or favoritism.

The Minister involved, Don White, said: “[Church and state] law isn’t worth two cents when it comes to jobs that have been lost and taken by illegals who have come here.” I am wondering what exactly his point is? Maybe it is that he believes that when unfortunate events happen to a community these events justify throwing out the Constitution. But in reality, I think he was trying to manipulate his agenda by bringing in a subject that concerns local citizens but has nothing to do with the problem at hand.

Preachers are not the only ones that are known do this. This has been a tool of Politicians, since there were Politicians, especially during election campaigns. In school I was taught to call this a “Red Hearing.” Compare a subject to the problem at hand that people have strong feelings about and they will attach those feelings to the problem even though the subject has nothing to do with the problem.

What I want to know is what does illegal aliens taking jobs have to do with the separation of church and state. The answer is “nothing.” It is just a red herring. I wonder what Thomas Jefferson would of thought about Don White’s statement?

I question this comment also made by Don White “God wants this land to build this facility. I want this for DeKalb County” How does he know God wants this land to build this facility? I think it is more the latter that he wants this land and that he is willing to hide behind his claims of God’s will. This seems more his will than God’s.

Don White’s last comment says it all for me. “I’m not asking for the county to give me the land. I am willing to give fair market value [for the land] but keep in mind, it is for the county. I won’t pay prime rate for a hole in the ground.” I understand that Don White is telling us it is not really about helping the convicts at all, it is about the money, his ego or both. If this was really God’ will is God going to ask for a handout? I believe if this was God’s will that God would have no problem providing the funds to purchase the land. If Don White is so concerned about helping Convicts maybe he should look for financial backing from the community.

I believe that Dekalb County made the right decision by denying the sale of this land at a discounted price and would have been a clear violation of the separation of church and state.

Loki

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