How Do You Curb Crime? Pray And Wear Burlap Sacks And Ashes

Okay, you know this country has gone completely insane when a mayor decides that the best way to curb crime is to pray and wear burlap sacks and ashes. What fucking planet is he living on?

Birmingham Mayor Suggests Prayer, Wearing Sacks to Curb Spate of Homicides

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Struggling to confront a worsening homicide rate, the mayor of Birmingham asked pastors and citizens Friday to don burlap sacks and ashes Friday in an Old Testament-style sign of biblical repentance.

Mayor Larry Langford said his "sackcloth and ashes" rally at Boutwell Auditorium was inspired by the Book of Jonah, where residents of the ancient city of Ninevah wore rough fabric and ashes as a sign of turning away from sin.

A pastor who helped organize the rally said Langford purchased 2,000 burlap bags that will be handed out at the event.

"We believe things begin to dramatically change when the mayor, or leader, calls for prayer. I don't think there's ever been a city called to sackcloth and ashes," Green said.

Since he took office last year, Langford has held three prayer rallies as a way of addressing crime and violence. Bibles were handed out at one of the events.

"This city needs to humble itself," said Langford, a professing Christian.

So far this year 27 people have been killed in Birmingham, compared to 19 at the same time last year.

The mayor's prayer rallies may run the potential of creating a dispute over church-state separation. Olivia Turner, director of the American Civil Liberties Union in Alabama, said the group has had complaints and is discussing the events.

"The worry I have is that there's a government endorsement of religion," said lawyer Bill Messer, a state ACLU board member. "Certainly, the mayor has a right like anyone else to express his personal religious beliefs. As mayor, acting on behalf of the city, religion should not become part of the government itself. If it's an official government event, that's troubling."

The Rev. Vernon Huguley, pastor of Our Lady Queen of the Universe Catholic Church, doesn't see a problem with a mayor calling for prayer.

"I believe they need to bring their faith into their profession," he said. "We've got to do something. What's been done in the past has not worked. This is something new."

Birmingham city officials have turned to prayer in the past to cope with the city's crime problems.

The former chief, Annetta Nunn, promoted the idea of turning people toward God to quell the violence in the city's neighborhoods, and she instituted a Bible-based plan of civic responsibility for cleaning up rundown neighborhoods.

The current police chief, Langford appointee A.C. Roper, has a lengthy resume that includes being an ordained minister. He was in the military and worked with the Hoover Police Department for nearly two decades.

Roper supports the repentance rally, but he said law enforcement cannot stop there.

Fuck the church/state issue!! This guy has lost his damn mind. Well, that is if he had a brain to begin with!! His idea of addressing the issue of crime is to hold prayer rallies? How exactly does that address the problems at hand? How exactly does that do anything to stop or prevent crime? Oh I get it now. If a criminal turns to JEEEESSSSSSUUUUUUUUUUSSSSSSS, he or she won't commit a crime. Yeah right!!

Remember people, if you're being robbed, raped, or about to be murdered, just hand a Bible to the person and JESUS will change their mind!!

P.S. THIS IS NOT BIBLICAL TIMES!! THIS IS THE YEAR 2008!!

Alabama Homeland Security Terror List

The Alabama Department of Homeland Security created a list of potential terrorists, and posted that list online. You might want to check that list to see if your name is on it.

MONTGOMERY, Ala. - The Alabama Department of Homeland Security has taken down a Web site it operated that included gay rights and anti-war organizations in a list of groups that could include terrorists.

Yeah, because we all know that gays and their supporters are terrorists. They're trying to destroy families, and are a threat to straight people. They must be labeled for what they are!! GET REAL!!

Those whacky, pot-smoking, bell bottom jeans wearing, anti-American, communist bastards who call themselves anti-war activists are a HUGE threat to America. They're the biggest terrorists of all!! You see, they hate America because they don't want people to die. They hate America because they hate war. They hate America because they exercise their Freedom of Speech rights. That is just completely unacceptable. I say, lock them up in Gitmo!! Oh the horror of it all!! Imagine, someone actually protesting death and destruction!! That's so...wrong!! Hey, where's John Boehner when we need a good cry? Oh, he's cried so much that he's been swept away by the flood!!

The Web site identified different types of terrorists, and included a list of groups it believed could spawn terrorists. The list also included environmentalists, animal rights advocates and abortion opponents.

The director of the department, Jim Walker, said his agency received a number of calls and e-mails from people who said they felt the site unfairly targeted certain people just because of their beliefs. He said he plans to put the Web site back on the Internet, but will no longer identify specific types of groups.

Howard Bayliss, chairman of the gay and lesbian advocacy group Equality Alabama, said he doesn't understand why gay rights advocates would be on the list.

"Our group has only had peaceful demonstrations. I'm deeply concerned we've been profiled in this discriminatory matter," Bayliss said.

The site included the groups under a description of what it called "single-issue" terrorists. That group includes people who feel they are trying to create a better world, the Web site said. It said that in some communities, law enforcement officers consider certain single issue groups to be a threat.

"Single-issue extremists often focus on issues that are important to all of us. However, they have no problem crossing the line between legal protest and ... illegal acts, to include even murder, to succeed in their goals," it read.

Walker said the site had been up since spring 2004, and had gotten a relatively small number of hits until it recently became the subject of blogs, he said.

Birmingham attorney Eric Johnston, president of the Alabama Pro Life Coalition, said he was concerned about any list that described people doing social justice work as terrorists.

"Our group's main mission is educational. The thought that we would somehow be harboring terrorists escapes me," he said.

I would agree that abortion opponents deserve to be on the list of potential terrorists. After all the anti-aborton (so-called Pro-Life) movement did produce Eric Rudolph, Mr. Terrorist himself!!

I had to laugh at the comment made by Eric Johnston who is the president of the Alabama Pro Life Coalition. He said that he was "concerned about any list that described people doing social justice work as terrorists." Social justice work? Is that what you call harassing women, and clinic workers? Is that what you call shooting abortion providers? Is that what you call bombing clinics? Social justice work!! We'll have to remember that the next time one of these "social justice workers" goes on a rampage at a clinic.