Executive branch stages a political stunt (Take a knee)

All hail the masters of political stunts, smoke and mirrors, the mighty Trump administration.

Gregg Doyel, sports columnist for the Indianapolis Star, believes that Vice President Mike Pence purposely went to a football game just so that Pence could walk out in outrage.

"What, you think he didn't know the 49ers would kneel on Sunday? Pence knew. The 49ers are the one franchise, the only franchise, that have had at least one player kneel before every game since Colin Kaepernick was the first to do it in the 2016 preseason. Kaepernick played for the 49ers, of course."

And I think he is right. After all, the press pool was told to stay in the van because Pence wouldn't be there long. 

This whole football players are evil traitors for taking a knee during the National Anthem is just a way for President Donald Trump to say that #blacklivesmatter does not matter and is unAmerican (in other words, he is a white supremacist). And to distract us from all the other crap that his administration is doing.

When I swore my oath to protect this country and its Constitution, it wasn't just the Freedom of Speech for those people that the President liked that I was promising to protect--it was all speech (even that of f***ing Nazis and racists)--therefore, this protest, this taking of the knee, was part of what I was promising to protect. Just because the all-mighty Donald "Jesus" Trump and Mike "altar boy" Pence do not like the protest does not make it wrong. If we have to tolerate the hate speech of white supremacists, then we also have to tolerate this form of free speech.

And if you think that just because the President says it is wrong, that it is...well, you are being played. Either that or you are a racist Nazi. If you don't know which one you are, just ask yourself, "What if Hillary Clinton would have said this? Would you still be outraged? Or would you totally support the kneeling players because the devil said they were evil?"

What's next? Nuking a football game in the name of patriotism?

National Witch Trials Rembrance Day

Three hundred and twenty-four years ago, on March 1st, the Salem Witch Trials began....

....and today, someone thinks that we need a national holiday to remember this (and to teach people the truth about witches).

Seriously, someone has started a White House Petition petitioning Obama to create such a holiday.

And there is such a raging response to this petition.

Unfortunately, it is marred by bad spelling and grammar.

And Cthulhu hates bad spelling and grammar. 

And it overlooks the little fact that we already have a national holiday celebrating witches...

Full sized Baby Ruth and Butterfinger candy bars---you are awesome Mrs. Cleaver.

...and it is called bloody Halloween!

But anyways, I suppose that we should stop and give this petition some consideration.

B. W. of Litchfield, ME says that we can't express our religion without the influence of Hollywood's incorrect interpretation. Ok, fair enough. But does Hollywood show any religion, or any society, or culture correctly? And if so, maybe you want the White House to outlaw Hollywood instead.

They go on to add that our holy days can't be found on any calendar. Huh? Does this person not know of that remarkable book publisher called Llewellyn? I am quite sure that there are several calendars that not only list the Sabbats, but every moon phase.

B. W. whines that we have no national monuments paying respect to those who lost their lives in the name of religious persecution and bigotry (outside of the tourist attractions in Salem, Massachusetts). Uhhh....you do know that most of the witch trials was actually Christians claiming that other Christians were heretics and/or powerless people with land that some accuser wanted, right? And that most of these deaths happened in Europe? And that the numbers are sorely overstated by those who scream, "No more burning times!"? And that burning witches was not the normal punishment?

In fact, the Salem Witch Trials is more of a footnote than anything remarkable when compared to the European trials. Before the Salem Witch Trials, only a dozen witches were convicted and killed in North America. And only twenty-four executions occur at Salem. That is whooping thirty-six witches....and they were Christians and/or had beliefs that would not be classified as witchcraft by the modern witchcraft movement. Just because the term "witch" was used, it does not mean that they were members of our religion (in fact, modern witchcraft, more or less, starts in 1951---in England!).

And where other than Salem would you put a monument? Denver? Ohama? Seattle? Last time I checked, the only logical place for such a monument was....drumroll please...Salem!

So what is really going on here? What does B. W. really want? Well, I think that the most important sentence in the petition is "Our children do not learn about our history in school." So you want kids to be taught about witchcraft in schools, and that Christians are evil (I presume); but seriously, if schools did teach this part of history, they would be told that the Witch Trials actually have nothing to do with the modern witchcraft movement. Opps.

And the Boom Boom award goes to B. W. 

Yes, we are a "real people with rights!" And we have the right to harass the government for stupid things, including the right to insist that people believe our made-up history justifying the fact that we are a real threat to Christiantity, predating it and having been prosecuted for our beliefs, forcing the government to give us monuments and outlawing Hollywood portrayal of us.

And the government has the right, if it chooses to notice all our screaming, to tell teachers to teach our real history. Hmmm, maybe we don't actually want that.

Then again, what do I know---I am merely someone's mad uncle.

Dear Lover of the First Amendment

Dear Lover of the First Amendment,

Thank you for your recent comments to my blog. They will not be approved and published by me. And screaming that I am violating your First Amendment rights is not going to change my mind.

It is obvious that either you have not studied what the First Amendment and related court rulings say, or you are hoping that I am ignorant of my rights as a member of the media, or possibly both.

Arguing that I am curtailing your freedom of speech by not publishing your comments is rather pointless. The First Amendment guarantees the freedom of the press---it does not impose any responsibility on me to approve (and publish) any opinions that I disagree with.

Yes, as a journalist, I do have some responsibility under the law. For instance, there is some information and opinions that I am not allowed to print---most of them would be labeled under the terms "treason" or "harmfully to others." But the government cannot force me to publish information and opinions I disagree with. That includes your comments.

The First Amendment extends the freedom to the press, which one judge defined as "every sort of publication which affords a vehicle of information and opinion." The quickest way to get such freedom is to own such an outlet. May I suggest that you start a blog of your own---there you will be allowed to print all of your opinions---at least until you are taken to court for libel.

Moderating comments on my blog is not a violation of your free speech. I am not the government. I am a member of the New Media---there is a difference.

May you have a nice day,

Morgan Drake Eckstein