HEAD TRIP. One hopes this official White House photo would finish off for good the idiotic Pelosi-in-terrorist-garb narrative advanced, as noted here by Brother Sam yesterday, by the hateful Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council (and further commented on here by Brother Bossman Tomasky).
At a recent religious-right conference I had the privilege of covering last month for Americans United for Separation of Church and State, Perkins went on a long riff deriding Islam, especially the Arabic saying that translates as "God is great." Bemoaning the fact that the Muslim call to prayer is now heard in American cities, Perkins noted that the call includes those words. "Allah akbar," he said, his voice dripping with contempt. "That's what Islamic terrorists say before they cut your head off." Of course, this whole riff hangs on the notion of "Allah" as an entity different from the G-d of Abraham, rather than a translation of the name given in Arabic to that same supreme being. From his tirade against Islam to his audience of foot soldiers, Perkins then called for a counterattack such as that modeled by Phineas, grandnephew of Moses. When Phineas saw a Hebrew man having sex with a lover who hailed from a rival tribe, he ran both lovers through. Phineas, Perkins, said approvingly, was a man of action. "Now, let me be clear, in case the media�s here,� he said, �I�m not advocating you go home and get a pitchfork out of your storage shed and run into your neighbor�s house.� Phineas, the Bible tells us, used a javelin.
--Adele M. Stan
