Thinking about extremists close to home

I've been offline for several days. Some gremlin in my Charter cable service. I called for assistance. The woman at Charter was very nice. She promised to send a repair crew to my house sometime in 2016.

During my down time, magazine cartoonists and editors at a satiric journal in Paris were massacred by jihadis. A liberal blogger was flogged in Saudi Arabia for "insulting Islam." A bomb went off outside NAACP headquarters in Colorado Springs. 

Just another eventful few days on Planet Earth.

Hard to tell who planted the NAACP bomb. The FBI is offering a $10,000 award for information on a guy seen lurking around the building prior to the explosion. If it was 50 years ago, I would guess the KKK or similar racist organization was behind it. The Klan has a long history in Colorado, mostly in Denver. Ben Stapleton was the successful KKK candidate for mayor in 1923 and stacked city offices with Klan members. When I lived in Denver in the 1980s, it was a pleasure to drive down Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard into Stapleton International Airport. 

The Klan still exists. In June 2013, KKK recruitment flyers were distributed in Colorado Springs. Voters in the Springs recently elected a right-winger to the legislature, Gordon Klingenschmitt. He's the head of the Pray in Jesus Name Project, listed as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. Known mostly for his anti-LGBT screeds, he's also an Obama hater - he once wrote that Pres. Obama was ruled by at least 50 evil spirits. Just 50? He's a hater of Democrats in general. Here's a Klingenschmitt quote:

“Democrats like [openly gay Colorado congressman Jared] Polis want to bankrupt Christians who refuse to worship and endorse his sodomy. Next he’ll join ISIS in beheading Christians, but not just in Syria, right here in America.” 

There's no shortage of loonies right here in the U.S. We may have inept bombers, but at least we don't have France's problems -- not yet, anyway. 

And we're not flogging liberal bloggers, not even in Wyoming.

I have a right to speak my mind. Jihadis have a right to speak their minds, but not execute those who do likewise. Klingenschmitt has a right to speak his mind.

I have a right to ridicule your writings and utterings. You have a right to ridicule my attempts at satire, lampooning and humor.

#JeSuisCharlie.

And so are you.