1. The Pilgrims were not the Founding Fathers. America’s founders explicitly and emphatically rejected the Pilgrims’ crooked, self-serving notion of religious liberty for me but not for thee. The Pilgrims didn’t come to the New World to establish religious liberty, they came here to escape the establishment of another sect so that they could establish their sect in its place — expelling (and executing) Quakers, Baptists, dissenters, free-thinkers and “witches.” The Constitution is one big “No” to that Pilgrim idea.
The Liar Tony Perkins doesn’t understand this. Or maybe he understands it, but is pretending he doesn’t because he wants to shred the Constitution and go back to Pilgrim theocracy.
2. “Oh Look, Y’All, It’s a Wee Winkle Parade” Juanita Jean writes at Crooks & Liars, drawing our attention to a rally of insecure gun enthusiasts in Texas. I like Juanita Jean, and I like Atrios too, who also sometimes vents his frustration with the gun-nut enablers of gun violence by referring to their “giant external penises.”
I try to refrain from “big gun, small penis” jokes — not because I think they’re unfair or untrue, but because I think they’re absolutely accurate. Too accurate. When people seem to be driven by their overwhelming anxiety that others may laugh at them for their perceived inadequacies, I suspect that actually laughing at them over those shortcomings will only make their insecurities — and their resulting behavior — worse.
3. That story is from Texas, which remains in a state of dismay: Texas. Texas. Texas. Texas. Texas. Texas. Texas. Texas. Texas. Texas. Texas.
4. James McGrath shares a video from vocal coach Justin Stoney on “How to Roll Your R’s and Tongue Trills.” Stoney offers lots of good advice and exercises, but he doesn’t mention the one that was taught to me: Sing the theme from The Lone Ranger. Da-da dum, da-da dum, da-da dum dum dum. Now sing it faster, and faster. Again, faster.
Keep practicing, keep singing it until you can sing it triple-time for ten minutes straight.
At that point, you should be able to roll your R’s.
But that’s just a bonus. Once you can sing the theme from The Lone Ranger, triple time, for ten minutes straight, you’ll also never again need to worry about carrying a big gun to compensate for any perceived inadequacies.
5. “Veterans Hit Hard by Cuts to SNAP”
This year, Veterans Day comes a little more than a week after an $11 billion cut in food stamp benefits went into effect. Millions of Americans, including many veterans, will see their grocery budgets shrink because of this change.
According to Census figures, roughly 900,000 veterans, in any given month, lived in households that relied on SNAP in 2011. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, in a recent study on how the Nov. 1 cut will impact veterans , found that thousands of vets in every state will be affected. “For low-income veterans, who may be unemployed, working in low-wage jobs, or disabled, SNAP provides an essential support that enables them to purchase nutritious food for their families,” the study found.
Yes, easy to despair, were it not for the remarkable example set by an imam and pastor in Nigeria, an oil-producing country on the West African coast whose population is evenly split between Muslims and Christians. The two men are former militia leaders whose forces directly fought each other, yet they reconciled after each was moved by a sermon on forgiveness – one preached in a mosque, and one in a church. They have been spreading the practice of tolerance and reconciliation for nearly two decades since forming the Interfaith Mediation Center here in Kaduna, in northern Nigeria.
7. Interesting look at “8 Brands With Religious Affiliation” (via Republic of Gilead). Some of these I knew — Hobby Lobby and Chick-fil-A are run by evangelicals, Marriott by Mormons — but some were news to me (Forever 21?). So since I just learned that Little Debbie is run by Seventh Day Adventists, here’s a classic from Southern Culture on the Skids:
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