In the latest skirmishes over the 39th City Council race, things have taken a somewhat bizarre and, to me, unexpected turn.

Recently, one candidate, probably the most conservative in the race, John Heyer, has come under attack from Gatemouth on Room 8, district leader Alan Fleishman, and others for his anti-choice and anti-marriage equality (though, often ignored, pro-civil union) stands. This should have come as no surprise to Heyer and his campaign since the district is overwhelmingly pro-choice and pro-marriage equality and in any circumstance when a candidate holds views distinctly different from that of the majority of voters in the district, that candidate HAS to be ready to address why, despite this difference of ideology, that candidate will still represent the voters in that district.  read more »

John Lavelle did not die in vain. A few hours before his death, while at Wednesday's Council candidate Manny Inamorato's Beekman Pub fundraiser, I learned Lavelle donated his organs, with one of his kidneys saving the recipient's life.

Unless prohibited by religious belief or medical condition, it's a no brainer to donate organs postmortem. The former Staten Island political boss and legislator positively impacted people, even in death. We all can do likewise by joining organ donor lists.

My favorite organ donor story is that of JJ Greenberg, the son of the former US Holocaust Memorial chair Yitz Greenberg. He died after being hit by a car while bicycling in Israel. His organs saved six people, including a Palestinian in need of a liver.

Well, I just keep finding more and more evidence that the Democratic Party is the Party of ALL Americans. Honestly, I'm not even looking for this info, I just keep coming across it.

Among religious Christians, there really is a bias towards Republicans, unlike the myths about Jewish voters, young voters and Asian-American voters. But the Republican bias is decreasing. From Street Prophets:

Dramatic shift of evangelical and Catholic votes

Catholic Shift - 16 point swing to Dems nationally since 2004

White Evangelical Shift - 16 point swing to Dems nationally since 2004.

10-point Dem gain among weekly chuchgoers up to near parity D46/R53

The Republicans are losing touch with their base. I am sure they are scratching their heads about why this is happening. Well, I can tell them: it's because the modern Republican Party has become a bunch of corrupt, right wing extremists with no real philosophical connection with real American values. No one likes Bush anymore.

Awhile back I wrote a couple of articles on the Pope's speech that seemed to be insulting to Islam, quoting a Byzantine Emperor's statement that Islam was wrong to use violence in the name of religion. This generated some discussion regarding what the Pope's intent was and whether Muslims should be angry or not. All agreed that the violence that the Pope's statement inspired among some Muslims was uncalled for and, quite honestly, a bit crazy. But I maintain that the Pope should have made it much clearer that he did not agree with the Byzantine Emperor's statement after he had quoted that Emperor.

However, we are finally coming to what we all knew would happen: Muslim newspapers around the world are blaming Jews for the Pope's statement. Yes... even though many Jews around the world condemned the Pope's statement as being anti-Islam and inflamatory, Muslims are blaming it on Jews. Even though my source for the controversy was a conservative Israeli news source that was critical of the Pope, clearly it is all the fault of the Jews.

From the Anti-Defamation League

Arab/Muslim Media Allege Jewish Conspiracy Behind Pope' Comments  read more »

Last week I reported an incident where it sounded a lot like the Pope was calling Islam "inhuman and diabolical" and comparing it unfavorably with the more reasoned and peaceful Christianity. My original source was an Israeli news source which interpreted the remarks of the Pope similar to the way many Muslims around the world were interpreting them.

Many wrote to defend the Pope's comments as quoting a Byzantine Emperor's remarks not as his own, as advocating reason, not violence, and not being hostile to Islam. The people who defended the Pope's comments are people I respect and in all honesty I tried seeing it their way. I couldn't. No matter how I read the Pope's comments I couldn't see them as being in any way disagreeing with the Byzantine Emperor's comments. That Emperor's comments were critical of Islam for spreading its faith by the sword and the Pope was arguing that religion should not be spread by the sword but rather by reason. This Jesuit-like argument is fine in itself, but my reading of the Pope's comments still sounded like he was saying Islam is a backwards, evil religion because it inherently spreads its faith by violence while the more enlightened Christianity doesn't. I still feel that the Pope's speech was insulting to Islam.  read more »