THE STORY SO FAR...

1. A forwarded email arrived, with all the markings of the usual right-wing propaganda, but...
2. The main body of the email contained a liberal message, yet...
3. The introduction and conclusion contained a standard conservative message, and...
4. The whole thing made no sense to me.

I was ready to give up, and leave the mystery unexplained, until it occurred to me that one way to figure out what a propagandist is up to is to check on what is changed or left out.

So was anything changed?

I compared the email to the transcript at CNN.

There were no significant changes to the Judge's comments.

Then I came across the transcript of the shoe bomber's statement: [read more]

LAST TIME I RECOUNTED MY INITIAL confusion over an email recounting the judge's sentencing in the shoe bomber case.

Of course it could be that conservatives forward more emails in general, and this time the email just happened to be liberal propaganda.

It was forwarded to me by a conservative friend, and certainly read like a standard piece of right-wing propaganda, but the judge's actual comments—in spite of the fact that he was a Reagan appointment—were a clear and compelling statement of the liberal position on the issues involved.

His points included the following: [read more]

AS MOST OF YOU ALREADY know, I post propaganda emails here from time to time, and often take them apart, line by line, to expose just what they are trying to do, and how they do it.

I have to admit, though, that this latest one had me stumped at first.

It was quite obviously intended to forward some agenda, but I couldn't see whose.

There were two quite different messages mixed in it, messages that normally come from different ends of the political spectrum.

First, the contents of the email:

THIS IS INTERESTING!!!!!

Remember the guy who got on a plane with a bomb built into his shoe and tried to light it?

Did you know his trial is over?
Did you know he was sentenced?
Did you see/hear any of the judge's comments on TV or Radio?

Didn't think so.!!!

Everyone should hear what the judge had to say.
_____ [read more]

ANOTHER POINT THAT CONFUSES people about me is the whole idea of the supernatural.

"The entire universe you live in: the world of basset hounds and couches and supernovas and praying mantises and chocolate ice cream"

Of course I'm not the only inhabitant of that realm, even in human imagination.

I share that distinction with angels, fairies, vampires, the devil, ghosts, leprechauns, and even Santa Claus.

I think this may be part of the confusion.

The problem is that there are not one, but two supernatural realms, and they often get confused.

Surprised you, didn't I?

You thought I was going to say there's no such thing.

Well, there are two such things, and it helps (or at least it helps you humans) to keep them separate in your minds. [read more]

THIS IS THE FINAL INSTALLMENT in a series about a propaganda email which claims that a good Muslim can't be a good American.

The email gives ten "reasons" for that very strange conclusion, all aimed at getting some good Americans to be fearful, suspicious, and even hateful toward other good Americans.

If you want to start at the beginning, read each of the ten reasons, and see how each of them would apply equally to a good Christian, go here.

That's not to say, of course, that they really apply to a good Christian (the title of this series is intended ironically), but that it would be just as silly to believe them of a Muslim as it is to believe them of a Christian.

After presenting the ten reasons, the email goes on to drive its conclusions home, and motivate readers to pass its poison on.

It concludes with four additional observations and exhortations: [read more]

SO FAR WE'VE EXAMINED seven of the the ten reasons that a good Muslim can't be a good American, listed by a recent propaganda email.

"So unless you think that a dictatorship or Communism are American ideals, it is impossible to be a good Christian and a good American."

In each case a little common sense makes it clear that the reason applies just as much to a good Christian as it does to a good Muslim.

And in each case a little more common sense makes it clear that the criticism doesn't really hold for either Christians or Muslims—that nothing about their religious faith actually keeps them from being good Americans.

Today we take up the last three "reasons", beginning with number eight: [read more]

LAST TIME WE LOOKED AT the first argument in the propaganda email titled "Can a Good Muslim be a Good American," and found, with the application of a little common sense, that it applied just as easily to a good Christian.

Today we take up the next six arguments in that email, starting with number two: [read more]