Bush v. World

From a worldy man:

Today's Bangkok Post highlights the absolute fury Europeans are expressing towards the Bush Regime's foot dragging and sabotage. The E.U. has declared that if Bush and his lackeys don't shape up on climate issues immediately, they will boycott the face-saving environmental Bush is convening in Honolulu in January. Portugal holds the rotating E.U. presidency right now and Humberto Rosa, Portugal's chief environmental negotiator, spoke for all of Europe when he said, "If we would have a failure in Bali it would be meaningless to have a major economies' meeting [Bush's MEM] in the U.S... We're not blackmailing. If no Bali, no MEM."

The Bush Regime, which has been on the defensive all week and is severely alienated from the rest of the world, reacted predictably. A White House flack: "We don't feel that comments like that are very constructive when we are working so hard to find common ground on a way forward."

Anyone who has followed the Bush Regime's policies and tactics in the past 7 years well knows that "working so hard to find common ground" means threatening and bribing everyone else to accept its reactionary positions. The biggest applause at the Bali conference came when Nobel Peace Prize winner Al Gore stood up and said aloud what everyone has been whispering: that Bush is intentionally wrecking the conference's goals of capping greenhouse gas emissions.

The pompous, even contemptuous, Bush Regime response to the criticism is nothing short of galling to the rest of the world. "We will lead," Bush's delegate blustered, "we will continue to lead. But leadership also requires others to fall in line and follow." But following a self-proclaimed "leader" more concerned with the ideological imperative of massive profits for its campaign donors isn't something anyone else is buying right now.

"Leadership requires others to fall in line and follow" --- there we have the Bush philosophy on governing in one complete sentence that applies to torture, spying on Americans, going to war, natural disasters, economic malfeasance, and any number of failures of this administration.

Anyone who so much as gives George Bush the time of day is a coward.

For someone who rails against gays all the time....

...and who changed his name from Weiner to Savage, and whose supporters think is the toughest, baddest "guy" on the block, I sure was surprised to see this today:


And here's the man himself, who plays on AM740-KVOR weekdays and weekends, on one of his favorite subjects:

• Savage calls Retired Brig. Gen. Keith Kerr a "gay, phony general"
  Wednesday, December 5, 2007 11:45AM
• Savage: "[L]oving, kind lesbian" is "the type that stuffed ovens in Hitler's concentration camps"
  Friday, November 9, 2007 5:59PM
• Savage responds to "fascist, gay website named Media Matters"
  Wednesday, September 19, 2007 7:51PM
• Savage claimed "gay Mafioso" at Media Matters "made up" his attack on Sen. Clinton
  Wednesday, July 11, 2007 6:52PM
• Savage on same-sex marriage vote: "[G]ay mafia bought the votes ... like cheap tricks in a gay bathhouse"
  Monday, June 18, 2007 5:22PM
• Savage "agree[d] 100 percent" with caller who said that gay rabbis would likely "rap[e] teenage boys"
  Monday, April 2, 2007 6:28PM

I seem to remember another high-profile leader around here always complaining about Teh Gay:

CD-2: Polis is a policy powerhouse, Fitz-Gerald is hiding something

Just like our Senate race between the know-nothing, invisible Bob Schaffer and the hard-working Mark Udall, the race in CD-2 has one candidate who likes to hide her views and two that want voters to know exactly how they will govern in congress.

Jared Polis is my fave in that race, for exactly these reasons:

In yet another example of Polis’ commitment to running a serious, issue-based campaign, voters in the Second Congressional District wondering where Jared Polis stands on an issue need to look no further than his web site.

As of December 14, 2007, Joan Fitz-Gerald has not taken a stand on anything. This is also the same tactic that Republican Bob Schaffer is trying to use in his bid against Mark Udall. In contrast to Polis’ straightforward approach, Fitz-Gerald’s lack of any sort of issue stance on her web site or even a mention of what kind of leadership the voters of the Second Congressional District can expect, is concerning.In addition to Polis’ extensive writings on his recent trip to Iraq and his opposition to the war, he also provides voters with position statements on global climate change, health care, higher education, retirement security, immigration, ethics reform, ending poverty, jobs and the economy, human rights and equal rights.

“I don’t believe in politics as usual,” said Polis, “including when a candidate hides behind negative attacks in order to distract voters from their stance on the issues that really matter. That’s not the kind of leader I am nor is it the kind of campaign I will run.”

“Looking at Fitz-Gerald in this race, the way she runs her campaign, and where she chooses to expend her energy, it would appear that her only newsworthy statements involve issuing negative comments about positive events, such as Jared’s recent trip to Iraq. She is producing an empty shell of a campaign that appears to be Bob Schaffer-like,” added Polis campaign manager Wanda James.

It takes guts to go to Iraq and find out for yourself what's going on. It takes someone of superb intelligence to provide the kind of reports Jared did all across the internets. You can find them at DailyKos, SquareState, Colorado Confidential, in internet ads, and at Jared's own campaign site.

And Joan's views on Iraq? She voted with John "America - Love it or leave it!" Andrews.

Need I say more?

It's going to take someone outside the current power structure to break down some walls and open up our government again after so many years of Bush secrecy. We need leaders who didn't give George Bush everything he didn't steal from our Constitution.

I don't think Joan has the guts..........Jared does.

Have a nice day!

Who does the clergy support for president?

The marketplace of ideas seems to have compelled clergy to give more to Democrats than Republicans, with Barack Obama leading the pack:

As for the specific candidates receiving checks from the clergy, the race isn’t even close:

1. Barack Obama: $110,000

2. Mitt Romney: $39,000

3. Mike Huckabee: $23,000

Though I'm sure our own local heroes like Bishop Sheridan will make clear what political actions their parishioners should take...

Doug Bruce still trying to destroy local government in Colorado

Another stupid Bruce proposal:

County Commissioner Douglas Bruce's struggle to get an initiative on the 2008 ballot hit yet another wall earlier this week.

A district judge threw out the measure, which aims to stifle the ability of Colorado Springs' Stormwater Enterprise to collect fees. (Bruce calls the fees an illegal tax.)

The measure has other implications. It would make all fees for city enterprises voluntary, and eventually eliminate the exchange of money between the city and its enterprises.

Judge David Gilbert ruled the initiative violated the single-subject rule and used language that could confuse voters. The Title Board has rejected the measure twice, and an appeal to City Council failed.

In response to the latest ruling, Bruce is planning to ask for a rehearing and may split his initiative into two separate measures.

A coward on the climate

Our Big-Strong Commander-in-Chief Decider-Guy can't stand to be proven wrong about the gathering threat of global climate change:

BALI, Indonesia — Nobel laureate Al Gore accused the United States on Thursday of blocking progress at the U.N. climate conference, and European nations threatened to boycott U.S.-led climate talks next month unless Washington compromises on emissions reductions.

The former vice president urged delegates to take urgent action to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases blamed for global warming, and told them that the next U.S. president will likely be more supportive of international caps on polluting gases.

"My own country, the United States, is principally responsible for obstructing progress here in Bali," said Gore, who flew to Bali from Oslo, Norway, where he received the Nobel Peace Prize for helping alert the world to the danger of climate change.

Asked about Gore's charge, Kristen Hellmer, a member of the American delegation in Bali, said: "The U.S. is being open and working very constructively with the other countries that are here.

The inconvenient proof that she is lying:

• European nations at the U.N. conference in Bali, yesterday “threatened to boycott U.S.-led climate talks next month unless Washington accepts” a draft document “suggesting that industrialized nations consider cutting emissions by 25 percent to 40 percent by 2020.”
• The Bush Administration has been caught censoring government scientists on global warming, according to a new U.S. House committee report released Monday, while State says: "President Bush is firmly committed to taking action on climate change at home and abroad."
• The Bush administration's political interference with climate scientists has done lasting damage to the nation's ability to prepare for the challenges of global warming, a former senior associate with the federal climate research program told a Senate panel today.

Let me just give my non-scientific opinion on a couple things:

• It's not the specific temperature of Anchorage or Denver or Honolulu that will affect us, it's the hundreds of years of rainfall patterns that farmers rely on, it's the migration and breeding grounds in nature that will be damaged, it's the loss of life and money that will occur as coastal plains are swept under water.
• Our nation has always met the increasing demands of the future with technological advances. We sent men to the moon, cured cancer, and built faster, more reliable computer chips. Why does anyone think we couldn't make similar advances in the climate and energy fields with brave leaders who encouraged us to have equally bold goals?
  

Have a nice day!

Bob Schaffer - The (Other) Invisible Man

Bob Schaffer's going to play it safe and try not commit to any of the big issues facing us. And he's going to let the NRSC do his dirty work for him. Great vid from the DSCC:



Here are the details of the invisible man's bold stances on the issues:

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee today released a new web ad reminding voters that Bob Schaffer is trying to hide his extreme record by ducking and running from the major issues of the day. From children's healthcare to drilling on the Roan Plateau to expansion of Piñon Canyon, Bob Schaffer is bluntly refusing to say where he stands. Last month, the DSCC launched a website, www.BobSchafferOnTheIssues.com, so voters could find out where Schaffer stands on various issues, but there are still many questions surrounding his positions.

"Bob Schaffer must know that Coloradans won't embrace his brand of extremism, so he's decided to try and hide his positions on major issues instead," DSCC spokesman Matthew Miller said. "When your record is more extreme than even Tom Tancredo's it might be sound political strategy to hope voters won't figure that out, but it's not the kind of courageous leadership Coloradans want from their next Senator."

The web video can be viewed HERE.

Schaffer Acknowledged His Silence On Essential Issues. [ Denver Post, 10/18/07]

Schaffer Refused to Take a Stance on Children's Health Care. [ Denver Post, 10/18/07; Vote 982, 10/18/07]

Schaffer Says He Won't Take a Stand on Piñon Canyon Expansion Until Sometime Next Year. [ Pueblo Chieftain, 8/22/07]

The last thing Colorado needs is another Wayne Allard representing us in the United States Senate.

Leave Jesus Out of It

With recent bouts of violence in the news, many of us talk to each other in order to make sense of it all. Rather simplistically, I admit, in the conversations I’ve had with others, we’ve identified the causes of such tragedies as either the result of bad parenting or the absence of Jesus in people’s lives.

(Guess which theory I *didn't* come up with.)

Co-Worker #1 disagreed with my assessment that bad parenting leads to angry young men. He thinks good people can end up with bad kids.

Perhaps.

But just because someone is a good person, doesn’t mean he or she is a good parent. Unnecessary divorce (read: almost all of them), neglect, lack of discipline, and abuse are just a few of the many ways parents, well-intentioned or not, fail their children.

And society will continue to pay a price until such parents are held accountable.

Those who claim “Christ” is “The Way” – explain this one: the shooter at New Life Church was raised in a religious household. His family was so super duper Christian that he couldn’t attend public schools and his brother goes to Oral Roberts University.

I submit the home-schooling and Oral Roberts as evidence of a troubled upbringing. Obviously.

I’ve often said that Christianity does compel some people to do good who might otherwise not. An “attaboy” from The Creator or some kind of heavenly afterlife might be an incentive for some folks. But when I look at a list of people who’ve committed violent crimes against others, most of whom self-identify as Christians, I can’t help but wonder if maybe Christianity is part of the problem.

A popular bumper sticker comes to mind, “Christians aren’t perfect, just forgiven.” The ecclesiastical white-out makes even the most egregious sin forgivable. This is why so many criminals find Jesus in jail.

Which brings me to my next point.

There is one rather significant group of guys who most certainly don’t have Jesus in their lives and yet, they don’t commit acts of violence in high numbers.

Jewish men.

The U.S. data is pretty clear. Of 200 of the most violent U.S. criminals, six are identified as Jews.

Why? Can it be attributed to a more sincere focus on the family? A historic propensity to solve problems intellectually rather than with brute force? Too busy running the government, the media, and all domestic banking institutions to bother?

Rabbi Telushkin once said that he thought the reason for low incidents of violence among Jews is because of our kosher laws. Such laws took into account a concern for animals and, over the centuries, grew into a more-accepted culture of personal nonviolence.

Gandhi once said, “The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.”

Years later, noted Jewish comedian Groucho Marx said, "I'm not a vegetarian, but I eat animals who are."

Where was I?

Oh yeah.

Kids commit violent acts for many reasons. But the source of their problems can be traced back home.

Plus Jewish men rock.

***cross-posted at Out in Left Field***

What the American people don't know can't hurt them

And certainly this president feels they shouldn't know anything he doesn't want them to know.

But that is a failure of our leaders and our democracy

SD-10: Diane Whitley throws her hat in the ring!

Will we get another Dem from EPC in the Senate? Diane Whitley certainly hopes so:

An editorial writer for eastern El Paso County’s Ranchland News said Monday she intends to seek the Senate District 10 seat, one day before her likely 2008 opponent is sworn into the office.

Diane Whitley, 48, will run as a Democrat in the overwhelmingly Republican district but says she thinks her issues cross party lines. The married mother of two grown sons will emphasize the need to fight for veterans’ programs and to stop the Legislature from passing laws that restrict people from using their property to make money, she said.

One law that put such a restriction in place was the 2006 statewide indoor smoking ban — backed largely by Democrats — which Whitley said is responsible for closing two businesses in Calhan. She would like to require the state to compensate any business that is forced to close by such a restrictive-use ban.

“The kind of laws that they’re passing now are destroying rural America,” the Calhan-area resident said.

State Rep. Bill Cadman will be sworn in today to replace recently retired GOP Sen. Ron May in the seat that represents northeast Colorado Springs and eastern El Paso County.

Whitley said Cadman’s past votes are one reason she decided to run. She pointed especially to his vote for a failed 2005 measure that would have cleared the way for a private company to build the “Super Slab” toll road through eastern El Paso County.

Whitley’s formal announcement is scheduled for 11:30 a.m. Saturday at Frankies Too, 7376 McLaughlin Road in Falcon.

What will people say? Will voters continue to support Colorado's version of the modern Republican Party?

Assbag of the Week - Laura Hagan

Some animal-rights activists give the rest of us a bad name.

Rolo, a German Shepherd who spends most days terrorizing his suburban Denver neighborhood, recently attacked a woman who was outside walking with her baby. After carefully considering the evidence and listening to many neighbors who reported the dog aggressive and feared for their safety, Arvada Municipal Judge George W. Boyle ordered the dog euthanized.

That’s when motherf*ckers lost their minds.

Read this article or visit this website and try not to throw up.

DISCLOSURE: I like animals. In fact, I like them so much, I don’t eat or wear them. I also don’t like to touch or kiss them. But that’s another post entirely.

Laura Hagan, dog owner from Loo-Loo Land, is an assbag. Of the highest order.

Hagan shouted, "Oh no. It's my baby, it's my child."

Rolo is not a child. Rolo is not a baby. Rolo is not a human being.

Rolo is a dog.

According to Hagan, Rolo attacked Kathy Hardin “only because she was screaming loudly” as Rolo charged Hardin’s baby.

What mother wouldn’t scream at such a sight?

Instead of remembering that we are made in God’s image, not Fido’s, and taking painful but necessary measures to make sure no one is ever harmed again – Laura Hagan is blaming the victim.

Meanwhile, Kathy Hardin, who’s been harmed physically as well as mentally thanks to death threats from crazy-ass fools who believe an animal is more important than a human being, has decided to move away from Arvada .

She can’t take the hate anymore.

But Laura Hagan, with misplaced priorities and twisted values, feels perfectly safe rallying against a judge who is trying to protect the people.

Hagan and her crew of Dog-Loving Dunces have been holding rallies, gathering petitions, and protesting the courthouse as well.

Here’s what the rest of us can do:

Side with innocent children over aggressive dogs.

Call the good judge and tell him that you support his decision to put people first.

Phone: (720) 898-7150
Fax: (720) 898-7164 (available 24 hours a day)

One of Hagan’s frightened neighbors made a great point: "We have to ask ourselves very, very carefully if one of the children in this neighborhood has to die to save a dog."

***cross-posted at Out in Left Field***

RIP Evel Knievel

He's on that final jump, no worries about a hard fall.....

Huckabee's history

Or, things that make you go hmmmmm:

In the wake of revelations that Mike Huckabee pushed for the parole of a convicted rapist who went on to rape and murder two other women, the former Arkansas governor has sought to distance himself from the story and questioned the legitimacy of the relevant documents.

Murray Waas reported last week for the Huffington Post that Huckabee received (and subsequently tried to keep secret) letters from victims of rapist Wayne Dumond and their family members, imploring the state not to grant his parole.

When first informed of our story last Tuesday, Huckabee spokesperson Alice Stewart said, "There were no letters sent to the governor's office from any rape victims." Later on Tuesday, Huckabee's campaign acknowledged that his office had received at least one letter from another Dumond victim.

On Wednesday, Huckabee campaign research director Joe Carter claimed in a statement that "the authenticity of the letters [posted by the Huffington Post] is questionable." Yet, in an interview with ABC News aired on Wednesday evening, Huckabee personally acknowledged receiving one of these letters from a previous victim of Dumond, and said he had also "encountered" the rape victim.

Since the Huckabee campaign has questioned the validity of the original report, the Huffington Post has decided to release additional documents from Huckabee's file on Dumond.

[Read the new documents in full here.]

The file, which was provided by a staffer to then-governor Huckabee who was concerned about his handling of the case, includes 12 separate letters written by eight different women. (This includes the three documents posted for the original story). Three of the women reported being raped or sexually assaulted by Dumond. One, whose writings have not been made public up to this point, wrote about her harrowing assault at Dumond's hands.

Standing there yielding a butcher knife above his head, was the shadow of a man. I asked "Who is it?" and he immediately burst on to my side of the bed, put his hands over my mouth and stuck the knife in my throat, whispering, "Don't say a word or I'll cut your goddamned throat." I froze and adhered to his request...

Also included in the file is an officially marked and dated Arkansas State Police affidavit, given to Huckabee prior to his decision to support parole, in which Dumond confessed to having raped another woman. Dumond was never charged for the crime.

The document provides a clear indication that Huckabee had evidence from state officials concerning Dumond's long history of violent behavior. While on the presidential campaign trail, Huckabee has stated that no one could have anticipated that Dumond would strike again after being set free.

Yet the warnings were apparent. A lieutenant within the department detailed how Dumond stalked and raped a woman in 1976:

On [Date], someone entered [Name]'s bedroom and raped her. [Name] did not report the rape because she was going through a divorce at that time and was afraid that it would affect the custody proceedings of her minor child. On [Date], there was again a commotion... Subsequently on [Date]... Wayne Dumond was seen approaching the apartment of [Name] from the rear. When Wayne Dumond became aware that he was being observed, he turned and ran. He was followed home where he was arrested. He now claims that the first assault on [Name] was a sex for drugs transaction. If so, he also needs to come up with an explanation for the later two visits.

In an accompanying criminal investigation file, Dumond confessed to the rape, only to later refuse to sign any statement admitting guilt. He was never charged. Six years later Dumond was arrested following the rape of Ashley Stevens, a 17-year-old high school student and distant cousin of Bill Clinton.

Even with these documents at hand, Huckabee supported the release of Dumond from prison, backed by fervent anti-Clinton activists. According to several parole board members, he even lobbied the board on Dumond's behalf. The frighteningly prescient warnings of Dumond's victims were seemingly left ignored.

Mike Huckabee is running for the REPUBLICAN nomination to be President of the United States. Many support him because he's a Baptist minister. Will this former Arkansas governor be treated the same as our previous Arkansas governor who became president?

There's more original reporting at the Huffington Post on all the presidential candidates.

Gang rape in Iraq? It's OK if you're Halliburton

Waiting for accountability..................

Former Halliburton/KBR employee Jamie Leigh Jones has revealed that she was gang-raped by her co-workers while working in Baghdad, and then left by the company in a “shipping container for at least 24 hours without food or water.” ABC News reports:

Jamie Leigh Jones, now 22, says that after she was raped by multiple men at a KBR camp in the Green Zone, the company put her under guard in a shipping container with a bed and warned her that if she left Iraq for medical treatment, she’d be out of a job. […]

Over two years later, the Justice Department has brought no criminal charges in the matter. In fact, ABC News could not confirm any federal agency was investigating the case.

Legal experts say Jones’ alleged assailants will likely never face a judge and jury, due to an enormous loophole that has effectively left contractors in Iraq beyond the reach of United States law.

Jones is now trying to proceed with the case in civil court, but KBR is pushing for it to be heard in “private arbitration,” without a “public record or transcript.”

Frankly, Feingold and Dodd

are the only 2 Dems I would support for President right now:

December 10, 2007

Michael B. Mukasey
Attorney General
Department of Justice
Washington, D.C.

Dear Attorney General Mukasey:

During the hearing on your nomination to be Attorney General and in your answers to questions submitted for the record, you repeatedly refused to answer questions related to interrogation techniques on the grounds that you had not yet been briefed on the CIA's interrogation and detention program. I was disappointed with these responses. Familiarity with the CIA program should have been irrelevant to a legal opinion about practices such as waterboarding, which have been employed by dictatorships for generations and historically condemned by our own government.

Nonetheless, now that you have been sworn in as our nation's Attorney General and presumably have been briefed on the program, I urge you to provide your views on its legality to Congress at the earliest possible date. As a member of the Senate Intelligence and Judiciary Committees, I believe that a full and informed exchange between yourself and Congress is critically important if our intelligence activities are to be conducted consistent with our laws and Constitution and subject to appropriate congressional oversight. Such transparency would also be long overdue, given the refusal of the Department of Justice to provide to Congress any legal opinions on the program.

I oppose any interrogation techniques not authorized by the Army Field Manual, as do majorities of the Senate and House Intelligence Committees. I do not believe that their use is legally or morally defensible or that it makes our nation safer. It is my hope that, under your leadership, the Department of Justice will take a fresh look at the CIA's program, and that you will urge the President not to veto legislation that would end the use of so-called "alternative interrogation techniques." I request that you provide current and any past Department legal analyses to Congress, and that you provide your views on the program to Congress at the earliest possible date.

Sincerely,

Russell D. Feingold
UNITED STATES SENATOR

Just thought you'd like to know....

Just like Jesus...

...turned away at the door.....given no love.....given no shelter from the cold.

Yet many will cheer the bullet hole in his head.

UPDATE: Wow, some anonymous commenters can sure infer a lot from that 24 word post you can see above. I don't usually explain myself, but for anonymous, I will....

"turned away at the door":

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) — The gunman believed to have killed four people at a megachurch and a missionary training school had been thrown out of the school about three years ago and had been sending the place hate mail, police said in court papers Monday.

The gunman was identified as Matthew Murray, 24, who was home-schooled by his family and raised in what a friend said was a deeply religious Christian household. Murray's father is a neurologist and a leading multiple-sclerosis researcher.

And:

[T]he training center said health problems kept Murray from finishing the program. It did not elaborate. Murray did not complete the lecture phase or a field assignment as part of a 12-week program, Youth With A Mission said.

"The program directors felt that issues with his health made it inappropriate for him to" finish, it said.

Sounds like a very noisy cry for help. No one helped. Maybe some love, understanding and empathy from one of these leaders could have changed the outcome of this sad boy's life.

"It was obvious that he was in some sort of pain and going through a lot," Gibbs told NBC's Today show. "I just prayed God would bring him peace."

Someone saw the life in there somewhere.......

Have I ever written one word of hate towards Christians? No, never. I have written to urge those who claim to follow Christ's word to do it in deed - and not just on Sunday.

And to those disgusting souls who would be glad this boy was killed? I guess this could be interpreted differently, but the sentiment of our neighbors never surprises me:

carthage wrote:

"A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed."

God bless Jeanne Assam.

12/10/2007 5:34 PM MST

And:

To: nicmarlo

"...shot by a security guard...

"When I read that I thought it was a wishful thinking pseudo news report.

Sad.

And who's trying to politicize this terrible tragedy? Tony Perkins of Family Research Council:

In its Action Update today, the Family Research Council (FRC) partially cast blame for the tragic shooting at a megachurch in Colorado yesterday on “the secular media.” In the e-mail, which was sent under the name of FRC Action President Tony Perkins, the group says it’s “hard not to draw a line between” the shooting and “hostility” by “some in the secular media toward Christians”:

It is hard not to draw a line between the hostility that is being fomented in our culture from some in the secular media toward Christians and evangelicals in particular and the acts of violence that took place in Colorado yesterday. But I will say no more for now other than that our friends at New Life Church and YWAM are in our thoughts and prayers.

How is it possible that Christians can feel persecuted in a state where church life and churches are thriving?

And is Zappatero a spokesman for the El Paso County Democratic Party? No, and if they offered me the non-paying job for the minority party I'd turn it down.

Go to bed anonymous, and think about the true meaning of Jesus. Would he build a 15,000 seat temple? Would he reject an aching soul from his community? Would he cheer the death of a young man with so much to live for, yet so little to look forward to?

I doubt it.