In the months and years following 9/11, there were many claims that the Bush administration was lying about various things. Some were valid (torture, weapons of mass destruction in Iraq) and others that were out-right crazy (the "truther" movement, for one.) Thousands of so-called "patriots" from the Tea Party movement and other disgruntled protesters descended on Washington D.C. Many, I'm sure, have legitimate gripes. They don't like the cap & trade plan, for example. But from the TV coverage (of which I watched A LOT today) and the pictures I saw from the event, it seems to me that there was a huge contingent of ridiculously uninformed, dangerous and out-right hateful people out there. Today I watched Glenn Beck carry on for 20 minutes about how the government is corrupt. All the while, pictures from the today’s rally on the Mall flashed behind him. There were images of speakers of protestors, some showing people with pictures of Obama dressed as Hitler and signs calling the health care reform bills eugenics. Now I know what you’re thinking, was Glenn Beck cleverly using these pictures to illustrate some of the corruption he was ranting about? Of course not. The images were from a grassroots* rally opposed to ...

Dear Religious Right, I saw one of your billboards the other day, it said "All life is sacred, from conception to death." It was a nice billboard, the typography was clear and easy to read from my car. Well done. Oh, except for one thing: the message you were trying to portray, that we should all be pro-life and anti-euthanasia, is just a tad contradictory to the battle you are currently waging against health care reform. You see, there are 43 million uninsured people in this country, give or take. You may have insurance, so you don't really think about it too much if you get the flu or break your leg. You just go see your doctor or head to the emergency room and it's all taken care of. Your 43 million fellow citizens, however, can't go to the doctor if they get the flu. While you may pay $10 or $20 dollars per office visit, these people are responsible for the entire cost. Trust me, when you're struggling to make ends meet, you don't have a couple hundred bucks laying around to go see the doctor, and don't even get me started on how much the prescription would cost with no insurance. So you ...