Tuesday, May 05, 2015

Quick Hits: Volume CXII

- Pamela Geller, a prolific critic of radical Islam, put on an a Free Speech Conference in Garland, TX this past weekend. The event was essentially an art exhibit consisting of paintings of the prophet Muhammad. As we saw with Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten or French satire magazine Charlie Hebdo, pretty much any depictions of the Muhammad results in radical Islamists looking to avenge the denigration of their prophet.

Despite those high profile incidents, Geller et al refused to kowtow to political correctness and thus stand up for their inalienable First Amendment rights. As such, there was an attempted response by two of Muhammad's faithful.

A quick-thinking Garland police officer shot and killed two gunmen who opened fire at a controversial art exhibit featuring cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammad, police said Monday.

Police say the two gunmen were armed with assault rifles and wearing body armor when they pulled up to the Curtis Culwell Center shortly before 7 p.m. Sunday. They began shooting almost immediately and wounded an unarmed Garland ISD security guard who was with the officer. The officer returned fire and killed the gunmen.

"Under the fire that he was put under, he did a very good job and probably saved lives," said police spokesman Joe Harn. “We had a SWAT react team in the back that very quickly responded within seconds and helped secure the scene.”

Sure enough, ISIS has claimed responsibility for the attack.

Naturally the response from a lot of leftists seemed to indicate that the participants in this exhibit had it coming to them for having the audacity to mock another's faith. I guess I'd be curious to know how many of these libs were just as indignant when Christianity was denigrated with the "Piss Christ" display or how Mormonism was crudely skewered in the musical The Book of Mormon

As a Christian, I will never be shy about professing my personal faith but I also have no interest in marginalizing others' religious beliefs. However, in the eyes of radical Islam, my unapologetic devotion to the Christian faith is about as egregious an offense as mocking their prophet.


- In my time being a fan of Minnesota pro sports teams, there are a handful events that have occurred which still make me physically ill when recounting them.


  1. The Minnesota Vikings losing the 1998 NFC Championship Game. 
  2. The Minnesota Vikings losing the 2009 NFC Championship Game. 
  3. The North Stars' Neal Broten whiffing on a shot in front of a wide open net that would have tied Game 4 of the 1991 Stanley Cup Finals against Pittsburgh. The Stars lost that game, thus blowing a golden opportunity to go up 3 games to 1 in the series. 
  4. The Minnesota Timberwolves had the 5th and 6th overall picks in the 2009 NBA Draft. They selected point guard Ricky Rubio at #5 (good), so the conventional wisdom suggested the would take guard Stephen Curry at #6. They didn't. 

Yes, the fourth horrific event listed continues to haunt my favorite NBA squad

Golden State Warriors point guard Stephen Curry won the NBA's MVP award Monday, beating out Houston's James Harden in a race that turned out to be not that close.

Curry received 100 of 130 first-place votes for a total of 1,198 points from a panel of 129 writers and broadcasters, along with the fan vote on the NBA's website.

Who did the Wolves select #6 overall that year? That would be guard Jonny Flynn, who hasn't played in the NBA since 2012. I couldn't tell ya where he is today.


- I've always liked Guy Benson, who is a frequent political commentator on Fox News, as well as a conservative radio host and Political Editor of Townhall.com. Pretty accomplished for a young man who just turned 30 years of age.

In a recent interview with Buzzfeed, Benson decided to give a glimpse of his private life.

“Guy here,” he writes in his forthcoming book. “So, I’m gay.”

This is not the main point of the book, however, not at all. Benson’s sexual orientation is given little fanfare — “a footnote in a 316-page book,” as he put it — in End of Discussion: How the Left’s Outrage Industry Shuts Down Debate, Manipulates Voters, and Makes America Less Free (and Fun), which Benson co-authored with Mary Katharine Ham, a fellow Fox contributor.

If his book and job titles don’t make things absolutely clear, Benson is a gay conservative. He’s also someone who says he cares much more about “a nuclearized Iran” and “the failures of Obamacare” than most gay issues. And while he said he doesn’t think it especially matters that he’s coming out, Benson was sitting down for an interview on precisely that topic. Rather than wait for the book’s release, he decided to come out publicly before then, sitting down with BuzzFeed News recently to discuss the book, the Republican Party, and his life.

“Gay rights is not something that dominates my attentions — or my passions — and that may seem incongruous, that may seem counterintuitive to a lot of people,” he said, “but the issues that I care about most undergird the reasons why I’m a conservative and have been forever and will be a conservative moving forward.”

Benson laid out some very salient points on how the GOP needs to strike that perfect balance of being open to same-sex marriage while also being sensitive to the one's religious liberty.

“I’m for civil marriage, I’m for nondiscrimination laws — but I think there should be broad carve-outs for religious organizations, in particular, and narrow carve-outs for closely held businesses that serve the wedding industry,” he said.

I'm not sure which had certain leftists more in a twist. The fact a prominent gay conservative doesn't view lack of support for gay marriage as "hate speech" or that most Townhall readers & Fox News viewers didn't react with calls for Benson to be ostracized from the GOP.

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