A small town in Minnesota put up an exclusively Christian memorial to veterans in a city park — only Christians have fought in our military, apparently. The FFRF got on their case, and they initially backed off, but then under local pressure they decided to put it back up, but with a new compromise. They decided to call the park a free speech zone where anyone can put up a monument, just so they could allow this one religious symbol to stand in a civic space.
And somewhere, a Satanist’s eyes glittered with joy and anticipation.
Belle Plaine is now getting a lovely black steel cube with inverted pentagrams on it for their park. Good choice. Some of the citizens don’t seem to understand the first amendment and have defaced secular signs before, so it’s going to be tough for them to do much of anything to a heavy, squat, metal block.
I kinda want one for my lawn now.
[meta]
I found the newsreaders’ pronunciation a bit odd but it’s probably me.
.
I pronounce Satan
say’ tn
.
satanism
say’ tn izm
.
satanic
sa tan’ ik
.
say’ tan’ ik
just sounds odd
I say “saytun”, more or less.
I want a Hindu group to sponsor a lingam now.
http://freethoughtblogs.com/cuttlefish/2013/06/05/predictable-reaction-to-atheist-monument/
Uh, that reminds quite strongly of the Kaba…heh.
It does to me, too, but the Oxford English Dictionary on-line gives it as the second (of two) American English pronunciations—and presumably they’ve got the statistics to back it up.
Needz moar Cthuloid tentacles, if you’re going to put it in your front yard.
Free Speech ‘ZONE’???
indianajones #7
well, you wouldn’t want that stuff just … anywhere
@Snarki, what do you think is inside the box?
@Artor: an iron meteorite is said to be in the Kaba, but considering this steel box already has plenty of iron it would be redundant. If it isn’t hollow a 2^3 foot cube of solid steel would weigh about 1780 kg (about 3900 pounds). It wouldn’t be easy to move – a vintage 1965 Volkswagen beetle weighed at most only 840 kg (1850 pounds).
I’ll bet the pentagram gets graffitied with a spray painted “letter t” over it in bright white to mask the evil pentagram. Mustn’t let kids see that magic symbol, overlay it with the “good” magic.
*shiver*
That cube looks pretty cool. I like it.
Nice to know that there is at least one zone somewhere where speech is free.
re 12:
yeah Free speech in a barricaded square in the far corner of the park. so free. ;-(
Oh goodie! Can I put up a statue of a suicide bomber as a memorial to honor that other war veteran, Osama Bin Laden?
All Satanism aside, I think their memorial is really nice. I prefer solemn veterans’ memorials over celebratory ones.