7 AUG 05: GRAVE SITUATIONS

It's a weekend with "graves" on many people's minds. There was debate over how to remember a dead soldier's grave in East Alabama. A monster truck named "Grave Digger" was at the Columbus Civic Center. And how many local doctors treat Graves' Disease, anyway?

We'll start with the dueling demonstrations in Lee County, outside Saturday's funeral for Sergeant Christopher Taylor. As promised, a group of protesters from a Topeka, Kansas church showed up outside the Opelika service. If they show up in Columbus in November, they might get discounted motel rooms.

The Westboro Baptist Church protesters say God has killed not only Christopher Taylor, but countless other soldiers in Iraq. Attention, all radical Islamic preachers in Britain: the closest major airport to Topeka is Kansas City International....

The protesters from Fred Phelps's controversial church obviously wanted to provoke people in some way. Did you see their signs?

+ "God Blew Up the Soldiers." Then why hasn't He struck down the crew which removed the Ten Commandments monument from the Alabama Judicial Building?

+ "Opelika is Doomed." If they leave that one outside Smiths Station High School, it can be used again during football season.

+ "Don't Worship the Dead." They must be as stunned as I am, to see Halloween stuff already on sale in stores.

One of the protesters even walked on a U.S. flag during the demonstration. Yet for some strange reason, I didn't see any antiwar activists from Auburn University in their group....

The point of the Westboro Baptist protesters is that soldiers will keep dying in Iraq until homosexual people are removed from the military. In fact, their web site suggests all homosexual people should be executed -- which proves even people in Topeka, Kansas can sound like rednecks.

But on this day, the Westboro Baptist group found itself outnumbered. A larger group showed up to wave U.S. flags, and show support for the military. In effect, they said "God bless America" - and considering no terrorists have nuclear bombs yet, maybe He still has.

The pro-military group lined a road leading to Greater Peace Baptist Church, so Christopher Taylor's family could not see the protesters as they arrived. Thus a new phrase enters the military vocabulary - HUMANE shields.

The Westboro Baptist protesters tried to get a "conversation" started with the pro-military group - but the other side decided to say nothing. I'm not sure why they said nothing. If you can explain why you're right on radio talk shows, why can't you in person?

As the funeral for Christopher Taylor began, the Westboro Baptist protesters received an escort by law officers out to Interstate 85. Perhaps they're heading to another soldier's funeral -- looking for other groups of heartbroken people who deserve to be slapped in the faces with Bibles while they're down.

But for all we know, the protesters from Topeka might have been ready for some wholesome entertainment after their protest. The Columbus Civic Center offered them monster trucks Saturday night - and "Grave Digger" might have inspired all sorts of prophetic messages.

The Columbus Civic Center finished two nights of monster truck "summer heat" Saturday night. These are vehicles which are more likely to figure gallons per mile, instead of the other way around....

Hot on the heels of "summer heat," Hilary Duff performs at the Civic Center this evening - which for some teenage boys might be cause for heat exhaustion.

Did you hear the commercial on 107-Q FM promoting the Hilary Duff concert? It encouraged mothers to buy tickets, to be the "coolest mom on the block." Aw c'mon - if mom has to buy the ticket, the daughter looks bad for not having a big enough allowance.

This would normally be the weekend when the Civic Center hosts the "Columbus International Festival." But apparently because of the monster trucks and mega-star concert, this year's event has been postponed to October - so promoters should require Hilary Duff to make up for this, by singing a song in Spanish.

E-MAIL UPDATE: The InBox title had "fixation" in it - but no, we don't have a hopeless crush on Hilary Duff. It said "Fixation With WRBL":

How do you know so much about WRBL's legal situations? Do you have a contact on the inside, or do you actually work for them? It's interesting you should know about these legal matters. In fact, the only people I could see being interested in them are MG employees.

I have a question for you: why is your "blog" not in the tradition of most blogs, in that, people get a chance to respond to each other without first having to email the blog-master the message, have it censored and edited, then post it? I find that most of my arguments on here have been whittled away, leaving myself not much of a foundation to base my arguments on, when it's those foundations which give my arguments at least some legitimacy. Just an observation.

How's that God thing working out for you? Get you off the couch yet and encourage you to walk a couple miles down the Riverwalk? Get you a little mobile, eh? Making you realize life's worth living?? Goooooooooood.

AR

Noooooooo, AR -- I do NOT work for WRBL. Ask any of the staff members, especially the ones I've mentioned here in negative terms from time to time. It's a wonder they haven't sent beggars to my door to harass me.

The update we posted Friday on the WRBL pregnancy discrimination case came from documents we reviewed at the U.S. courthouse downtown. We were first tipped off to the lawsuit last year by someone close to the case. The fact no one told us about the appeal for two months may show THEIR fixation with WRBL is gone.

Apparently there was an interest in Melissa Schultz Miller's lawsuit beyond Media General. The verdict was mentioned at web sites dealing with workplace issues, and in Atlanta's weekly "Creative Loafing." Unlike some web sites, they didn't loaf enough to copy and paste what WE wrote....

As for leaving comments on the blog - as best I recall, that option wasn't available to me when I started this two-and-a-half years ago. An adjustment now might require changing other things. And I don't dare upset the people who like the colors on our blog so much.

But what's this stuff about being "censored?" Almost everything AR has sent this blog has been posted verbatim. If I took out profane language, it probably did AR a favor - because I'd imagine he wants people to accept what he has to say.

(If any e-mails to the blog get censored, it's because I don't like to get sued. Take the one I received, making fun of part of AR's anatomy....)

And that "God thing?" Yeah, that's going OK. In fact, Thursday morning I actually RAN a couple of miles nonstop on the Riverwalk. It was more than twice as far as I jogged last year on my birthday. Thank God for morning cloud cover, to keep the sun from overheating me.

Now let's cool down with other items from the weekend:

+ Georgia Lieutenant Governor Mark Taylor visited Columbus, meeting political supporters for breakfast at Golden Corral. He doesn't call himself "The Big Guy" for nothing, you know....

+ Habitat for Humanity revealed it's thinking about moving its headquarters from Americus to Atlanta. Wow -- this board wants to get as far away from Millard Fuller as it can....

(There would be several advantages to having Habitat's headquarters in Atlanta. For one thing, Home Depot's headquarters is there. For another thing, the ride to the airport would be shorter - allowing less time to make sexy comments.)

+ Meanwhile, Harris County hosted a fund-raising equestrian event for Habitat for Humanity. This would have been fun to see - with volunteers racing out with hammers and nails, to repair any hurdle a horse knocked over.

+ The Ledger-Enquirer reported Callaway Gardens officials want a financial bailout from Harris County, because the complex is losing money. Well, Jeff Foxworthy owns all that land now - so why not give in, and open a "Redneck Dinner Theater?"

+ Beacon University's radio station WBUE-FM remained off the air, as it has been for more than a week. Maybe when fall registration begins, someone there will notice.

+ The Atlanta Falcons opened preseason play by edging Indianapolis 27-21. The game was played in Japan at 5:00 a.m. ET - proving you've got to get up pretty early in the morning to outmaneuver Michael Vick.

+ Instant Message to Muggs on Veterans Parkway: Thanks for updating the sign we noted several weeks ago - that you have 44-ounce drinks for 99 cents. That IS "really big." But why don't you outdo the convenience stores, and have a "jumbo?"

COMING MONDAY: Muscogee County goes back to school.... and we're getting complaints already....

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