Some of you may remember a couple of years back, when Massachusettes was the first state to attempt to legalize gay marriage, there was a big rally in Cambridge where the first marriage licenses where being given out at midnight. There was also a bunch of insane protestors from Kansas. Well, I guess they're still at it, only this time they are protesting at the funerals of soldiers killed in Iraq. I guess they claim that god hates and is punishing the US (by killing soldiers, among others) because the US condones homosexuality. This time, however, politicians are getting outraged, saying it's disrespectful and trying to ban protests at funerals.

Granted these people are batshit insane, but it seems funny to me that it's not so disrespectful when they're just going around the country publicly preaching death to gays, but when it's at a funeral, of a soldier no less, then it's crossed a line. Maybe we should start by making it a priority to respect the living, then worry about respecting the dead.

the Atlanta Journal Constitution has an article (registration required; temporary free link here) about how the Dekalb County Homeland Security department (formed in the wake of 9/11, natch) has been targetting those most wiley of domestic terrorists: vegans!

Where are all the conservatives who say that big government isn't the answer? i suppose now that they are no longer worried about Eric Rudolph, they feel they can go after the really big terrorists.

The New York Times and others are reporting that Newsweek is retracting a story they wrote on Koran abuse by U.S. Military after the story supposedly caused riots in Afghanistan and condemnation and demands of retraction by the Administration.

Am I the only one who is terrified by this precedent? Is the governement actually explicitly saying that newspapers better watch what they write? Although I find it hard to believe that the handlers at Guantanamo didn't desecrate the Koran in an attempt to fuck with their prisoners, I guess it's possible, and I guess it's possible that the allegations were misreported. If not, though, we have officially entered free fall.

Some choice quotes:

Scott McClellan, the White House press secretary:
"Our image abroad has been damaged."

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice:
"It's appalling that this story got out there..."

There was another I read yesterday from Rumsfeld that I can't find right now that was something to the effect of "They better watch what they write."