Zeitgeist Zephyr

Spirit of the Westward Wind

Archive for February, 2009


Phoiled

Published February 17th, 2009 in Regional, Religion | No Comments »

For any who may still doubt that good can triumph over evil, I ask that you look at the audacious actions of the counter-protesters at two of Fred Phelp’s Westboro Baptist Church (WBC) protests in Wichita, Kansas today.

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The first protest was held at Wichita State University at 2:00 this afternoon.  WBC did not announce where it was going to protest, perhaps out of fear of being immediately outnumbered by the inevitable counter protesters (us).  That didn’t deter us though; we marched a mile along the busy 21st Street to greet them.  It really was a spectacular sight to see!  WBC situated itself on the southwest corner of 21st and Oliver and a group of what can be assumed was hundreds of counter protesters took position on the other three corners.  It’s not much of an exaggeration that for the next few days, every time I hear a car honk its horn, I’ll start hooting an hollering out of a pavlovian response I developed while standing on the corner.

The most awe inspiring sight the whole afternoon was at the second site near Southeast High School.  After seeing our counter protest pre-assembled at their original location, the Phelps Cult moved down a block and we had to go and bring the welcoming ceremony to that location.  They had their own corner for a while until a large group of the high school students and college students protesting on the other side of the street bum-rushed the 9 Cult members who were there.  This was probably illegal, but the dozen or so cops that were there couldn’t do much considering the hundreds of students that were there.

Good triumphed over evil today, and I’m truly proud of Wichita’s youth.  For the Bible-thumping town it can be, there is a semblance of sanity in the town, and it overwhelmed the WBC protesters so much, I doubt the drivers cruising by had any idea why we were really out there because they couldn’t distinguish the hate signs from the love signs on the street corner.  

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Try to find the signs of hate in this massive sea of love. 

Way to go Wichita!  You done made me proud. 

Phelps Counter-Protest at WSU: Info

Published February 15th, 2009 in Regional, Religion | No Comments »

It’s come to my attention that Fred Phelps and his Westboro Baptist Church from Topeka will be in Wichita this Tuesday to protest at Wichita State University and Southeast High School.  Here is some of the info for the SILENT counter-protests which will be held:

At Wichita State:

1:50-2:40 - Outside the Rhatigan Student Center most likely, no specifics on where they will be protesting, we’re assuming it will be there.

The Reasoning?

Unlike their staple protests against gays and so-called “fag enablers”, this one takes on the tone of accusing Wichita State students of not living in accordance with the will of God, as the Phelps website www.godhatesfags.com puts it:

“Wichita State University - Where they worship bails of hay?! N. Oliver St. & E. 21st St These are not the sharpest blades of grass on the prairie, you know. However, dumb or smart they still deserve to hear/see some truth. Here goes: Psalm 34:11 Come, ye children, hearken unto me: I will teach you the fear of the LORD. Deuteronomy 6:5 And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. 1John 5:3 For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous. Get that? You are to fear God, love God and the way you show this is by OBEYING GOD! Why do we go all that way to Wichita to tell you that? Because of this COMMANDMENT from God: Matthew 22:34 ¶ But when the Pharisees had heard that he had put the Sadducees to silence, they were gathered together. 35 Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying, 36 Master, which is the great commandment in the law? 37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. 38 This is the first and great commandment. 39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. 40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. AMEN!” 

I for one will not stand to have some racist and homophobic bigots tell me that I’m stupid and that I’m not living in accordance to God’s will.  I love the Lord our God with all my heart, and I love my neighbors as myself.  There’s a saying called “I’m Third,” meaning “God first, others second, I’m third.”  I’ve taken it upon myself to live to that standard so at this protest (rest assured I will be at both), my sign will say just that.  I won’t make any reference to the hateful fear-mongers that I’m counter-protesting - if they’re going to make sweeping assumptions about EVERYONE at WSU, then they do not even deserve recognition from my protest sign. 

At Southeast High School:

3:00-4:00

This protest is just rediculous.  If you have high blood pressure, are pregnant, or have back problems, we recommend you not read the following quote from www.godhatesfags.com:

“Wichita High School Southeast - Full of every filthy bird! 903 S. Edgemoor St We are coming to Bible-bleak Wichita, to picket you “WEST SIDE!” (that’s what your little brat gang bangers hollar) Perverts! All your ?choices? ? in the gutter All they taught you is how to screech and stutter Serve Obama ? in his army full of fags Try to make a living ? you?ll end up in rags Rebel child, God hates you These plain words, we?re here to tell Bible stupid ? makes God angry Read the words ? for riz-zle hell! We hear tell that this High School has both a fag club and a bible club. Tell me you are kidding. Please tell me that you dumb asses are not actually going to pretend that you have anyone at that school who ever cracks a Bible! Oh no you did NOT just confess your stark sins. Let me remind the readers that Wichita is the most violent, filthy, corrupt city in Western Kansas. And you know that famous city of Dodge is farther west - that was where Wyatt Earp was Sheriff. YES! Wichita is worse than old Dodge City. Here is the picture of Wichita: Revelation 18:2 And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird. You may be asking yourself, “Wichita is worse than New York?” YES! Wichita is worse because in New York they don’t claim to be God-fearing. Here you go, you bible-toting fag-enablers: Revelation 3:14 ¶ And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God; 15 I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. 16 So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth. Either open those Bibles, and do your Leviticus 19:17-18 duty to those fags in that school OR SHUT UP CALLING YOURSELVES BIBLE BELIEVERS - God will SPUE THEE OUT! AMEN!” 

Here, Fred Phelps is as is typical, making direct protest against the very fabric of this fine nation.  That people can believe and do as they please, and that if any facet of America is not believing in accordance to the ways of the WBC, then that’s reason to protest an entire group.  I may not be a native Wichitan, but as someone who is living there, I will not stand for this group to protest the city on the grounds of being God hating and liberal.  As a liberal, I’m shocked that even with Wichita being the most conservative town I’ve ever lived in that Phelps would still call it an Obama-serving town.  If Wichita is not conservative, then I fear what Phelps thinks is rightfully conservative.  

Either way, Phelps is protesting America in this one, so my sign will say something along the lines of “All are created equal” and I might just throw on an Obama-Biden bumper sticker for giggles. 

I’m With Stupid

Published February 11th, 2009 in Space Update | No Comments »

Okay, so this is a space update, but it’s just so stupid, a “Space Update” headline wouldn’t do this story a justice.

Yesterday, February 10, the defunct Russian Cosmos 2251 spy satellite and a U.S. commercial Iridium satellite collided in orbit above Siberia in a first-of-its-kind collision.  The Russian satellite was carrying a spent nuclear reactor.

The Pentagon and NASA, through their separate programs, the U.S. Space Surveillance Network and the Orbital Debris Program Office respectively, were both tracking the defunct Russian satellite.  Neither of them sent a warning to the operators of the Iridium satellite that they might want to move theirs out of harms way.

It gets better: the satellites were orbiting 500 miles above the Earth.  For those who may not know, the higher the orbit, the longer it is and the more space there is between satellites.  The odds of this happening are next to nothing. 

The two debris clouds formed from the collision represent the largest since the Chinese tested an anti-satellite weapon in 2007 which left around 2500 distinct pieces of debris in orbit.

NASA, however, had no problem in sending out an e-mail alert to operators of other satellites about the collision.

Both satellites were completely destroyed.

[duh]

We’re familiar with the moniker regarding the Russian space program named cleverly after their beleagured space station Mir (Many Incompetent Russians.)

Perhaps NASA stands for the Nincompoop Agency of Space Accidents?  

Can I emphasize how stupid this is anymore?  I think I can.

Over the last couple of weeks a string of satellite related incidents should have made NASA and the Pentagon more alert for satellite related trouble.  Perhaps they were distracted (and I hope to God that’s what happened, because this is so absurd.)  Let’s take a walk back in time:

15 January - the Astra 5A satellite suffers an onboard failure which causes it to drift out of its geostationary orbital slot.  Satellite owners in its vicinity are notified of the problem and the satellite is put on a trajectory to send it to a graveyard orbit.

15 January - NASA releases a report on the breakup of the Russian Cosmos 1818 satellite on July 4 of last year.  Cosmos 1818, also carrying an experimental nuclear reactor on board, is presumed to be leaking reactant fluid as the result of some sort of collision with that satellite.  The nature of that collision is unknown. 

28 January - Eutelsat W2M fails in orbit 5 weeks after being launched.  It was a power subsystem failure and thus did not affect its position in orbit in the near future.

This is eerily reminiscent of the Mars Climate Orbiter failure when NASA scientists failed to communicate which system of measurement they were using in making calculations for the spacecraft, one team using metric and the other using the cumbersome English system.

And to think this is the field I want to get involved in… ~sigh~. 

Phelps PWNED

Published February 5th, 2009 in Regional, Religion | No Comments »

310-protest2_me_tll_020509_329fstandaloneprod_affiliate81.jpgThe counter protest against Fred Phelps.  Image courtesy of TAMMY LJUNGBLAD - The Kansas City Star. 

I have to hand it to the Shawnee Mission East Lancers of Prairie Village, KS.  They stood up to the gay hating Fred Phelps in a tremendous show of force.  By some counts, as many as 450 people showed up to counter protest the dozen or so of Fred Phelps loyal followers that were protesting outside the high school.  As a high school graduate from the Kansas City area, I was privileged enough to receive an invite to this counter protest.  Unfortunately, distance and practicality kept me from going to an event I wish I could have gone to.

Phelps was protesting Shawnee Mission East for their election of a homecoming king last year who is openly gay.  Bless his heart, he came up to KC from school in Oklahoma to participate in the protest, effectively standing up for himself.  As a Christian, I’d like to apologize to him, Matt Pope, for the idiocy, bigotry, and hipocrosy exhibited by Fred Phelps.  In my “humble” opinion, Phelps is subhuman for his treatment and views of the LGBT community and, frankly, America in general.

To the world, I’m sorry that this kind of shameful ideology originated in America, but as the Constitution says, there’s really nothing illegal about what his church is doing.  It’s free speech and I respect his right to it.  But he’s insane.  The fact that 450 students held their candor in the face of such an enraging voice in America is a testament to the power of good to triumph over evil. 

I know that I’ll be picketing Fred Phelps funeral, and my sign will say, as one of the signs at the counter protest today did, “I Forgive Fred Phelps.”