Serious Post

It seems that the Boy Scouts’ woes are not over. Yes, the supremes said they could discriminate against gays and atheists. But now, cities are taking steps to protect themselves.

The Cradle of Liberty den (of which Stinky is now a member) has its official HQ in a pretty building downtown. The building belongs to the city because it’s on city land. The scouts built the building in the 20’s. Since then, the city has demanded $1 per annum lease.

Now, as the city cannot show preferential treatment to organizations who openly discriminate, they are raising the rent to $200,000 per year.

I am certain that the Cradle of Liberty den couldn’t give a squat about gays or atheists being scouts. But the national charter is what governs them. So they are in a bind.

Give up the property? Or drop services?

My uneasy feeling is that about $200,000 worth of summer camp for needy kids is going to go missing this year.

So who pays in the end for this little stand? I am not a scout, so I can’t say what they should do. But I do think it’s a daggone shame.

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And for another political hullabaloo, let’s talk about “the war.”

I’ve noticed the old peace-nicks haunting the town square on Saturday mornings recently. “End The War”, “Impeach Bush”: the usual blazing placards. They don’t bother me except they entreat people to honk their horns, which I find a nuisance. However, they’ve been given a run for their money in local West Chester. It makes me wonder how people really feel about the war.

John’s been watching The War on TV. I look at “The War” and I look at our war, and I am stymied. The stuff we do now is NOTHING compared to what we did then. Nothing. And yet, we as a society, look back on that as the “greatest generation”. If they were measured by today’s ruler…

Saddam Hussein was One Evil Bastard. He put people in plastic shredders. He used CHEMICAL WEAPONS on his own people. And all the people on the corner can shout about is Abu Ghraib? Yes, that was bad. But comparing that to what we’ve uncovered over there? We've found dozens of MASS GRAVES for goodness sakes.

I simply cannot understand why people aren’t willing to remark that we are doing at least SOME good in this war.

A gentleman on the radio (Mark Steyn?) expressed it better than I ever could yesterday morning. What he said was basically this: When you’re at war, you have to be able to declare an enemy. In the progressive mind, people are not the enemy. Poverty, injustice, oppression: these are the enemy. Also, you have to have a hero. If you consistently point out the mote in your own eye, and compare it unfavorably to the beam in the eye of he who is truly the enemy (forgive me for borrowing a biblical analogy), you will never be able to call yourself the hero.

So, I guess our healthy self-deprication is what keeps us from supporting what is, I truly think, a good cause?

I wish I knew.

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