If a Leftist Screeches in D.C., Does It Matter?

We just can't get Cindy Sheehan out of the news. Her latest attempt to stretch the fifteen minutes bought with her son's life comes from wearing an anti-war slogan t-shirt to the State of the Union. Apparently, this is an extremely minor misdemeanor. Who knew you couldn't protest in the halls of Congress? Jokes aside, it was really a matter of decorum. Regardless of which president is in office, the office itself is still worthy of respect and someone like Sheehan is completely unwilling to give that respect. I'm awfully sorry she lost her son, but I'm even sorrier that she's shown herself to be such a pathetic human being in all this. This episode is just the latest in a string of ridiculous ventures by "Mother Sheehan".

Of course, the Left is lining up behind Sheehan to defend her against the heartless attacks of the Bushies and she's even blogging about it on Michael Moore's site. Note, the arrest was because she refused to leave the gallery, not because she wore the shirt.

I bring this up only to mention the hypocrisy that once again drips from this. Despite mentioning it on other sites, there is no leftist outrage that the wife of Congressman C.W. Bill Young (R-FL) was also asked to leave for wearing a pro-troops shirt. "Messages" like protests or policy statements on banners and shirts are not allowed during the State of the Union. It's not a place for everyone's pet causes, except perhaps the sitting President. Only he gets to talk about pet causes, but that's pretty much part of the job anymore, it would seem, like it or not. She wasn't arrested because she complied with the officers' request instead of choosing to make a scene like Sheehan.

As you're all aware, I hate hypocrisy in story coverage, especially when it's a story to make out of no story like this one.

Then There's the Thin-Skinned Religion Department

I must admit, I don't care for rampant Christian bashing in the media. Christians and white males are some of the last groups that anyone can make fun of or demean to whatever degree they like and get an overall pass from the mainstream. Probably because such groups were by and large on the wrong side of the PC wars, and by and large they lost them. To the victors go the right to be insensitive schmucks I suppose.

One could argue pretty easily that I and others in that field don't like anti-Christian bigotry. "The Last Temptation of Christ" and "The Book of Daniel" are just two examples of why I don't watch TV or rent as many movies as I used to. They're pretty pathetic and are written by people who, in my humble little opinion at least, don't seem to know much about the religion they're demeaning.

In the case of Christianity, though, and with notable exceptions like Pat Robertson saying someone's going to have a stroke because God said so, we don't in general advocate the death of individuals who poke a little satirical fun at the Church. That's the great thing about freedom of speech and expression. You have the right to say you don't like something, and others have the right to tell you you're full of it. We can write editorials or little blog pieces and all is past. Typically, even non civil discourse doesn't end between Christians and their detractors with "Now I KILL YOU!" Again, we're looking to trade the likes of Robertson for 3 players to be named later and 2 1st round draft picks, so I don't need to see the comment section peppered with him or his ilk as examples I'm wrong. I'm not wrong in this case.

That's why it saddens me and at the same time vindicates my overall opinion of the Left when a former President gets on to bad-mouth people who exercised their free speech to satirize a religion. I will never tire of the hypocrisy of a morally vacuous man such as Clinton lecturing people and wagging his finger at the citizenry for alleged moral deficiencies. The media has joined their favorite president in condeming the infamous 12 cartoons of Mohammed as well, as you can see courtesy of Michelle Malkin.

Apparently, when you do this about Christians, it's simple satire and we should just 'get over it'. Perhaps we should. But then to turn around and shake your head sadly that we're all a bunch of bigots for not condeming these 12 cartoons because they make fun of the Left's new favorite religion, Islam, goes beyond the hypocritical and into the surreal. They're cartoons! If followers of this religion have to issue bounties on the heads of the poor cartoonists and demand sensitivity training for the entire Western World to prostrate themselves before Islam, then they can just take the old wayback machine to the 8th Century and stay there, because they've obviously not evolved past that point as a religion, a people, or a political entity.

If you want to debate the cartoons, fine. We'll debate them all day. Issue death threats and demands that we accomodate your sensitivity or you'll kill us will just get you a funny look and a complete disregard for anything further you have to say because you've just jumped off the civilization trolley. The fare to get back on is at least a mild sense of humor or a degree of a little thing we in the West like to call self control.