THEY EMPTIED THEIR GUNS INTO HIM

Cops Kill People: Firing Squad Of 9 Nashville Cops Shoot Landon Eastep 30 Times, Widow Calls His Death An ‘Execution’

Posted on January 30, 2022 - By lexdirect

If they’ll shoot a White man 30 times in broad daylight, what are they doing to Black people in Tennessee when no one is looking?

Source: Spencer Platt / Getty

The Tennessean reports that nine law enforcement officers shot and killed Landon Eastep on a Tennessee highway on Thursday. In a statement released through attorney Joy Kimbrough, the victim’s widow Chelesy Eastep stated that his death was an “execution.” She said her “very loving” husband liked to go on long walks to clear his head and although he struggled with mental health problems for years, he was harmless.

“I want people to remember that Landon didn’t deserve this. Landon wasn’t a bad guy. He was crying out for help, and his cries went completely unanswered. We know, you know, everybody with eyes knows,” Kimbrough said at a press conference  on Friday. “He was not bothering anyone. He was not obstructing or impeding traffic.”

RELATED STORIES

• 

  9 Police Officers Shoot & Kill Tennessee Man With A ‘Shiny Object’ After Highway Standoff

Highway Patrol officers reported that they found Eastep on foot on highway I-65 and pulled out their weapons because he allegedly had a box-cutter. Even with the blade, it sounds like he was only a serious threat to himself and maybe some tires on that highway. Instead of subduing Eastep and getting him the mental health care he clearly needed, they shot him an estimated 30 times.

Nine members of law enforcement including Metro Nashville Police Department officers, Tennessee Highway Patrol troopers and an off-duty Mt. Juliet officer opened fire on Eastep.

On Friday, Nashville Police Chief John Drake announced that he ordered the department to strip Officer Brian Murphy of police authority while the shooting is reviewed by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, or TBI. Murphy is a 25-year veteran of the force who fired the final two shots at Eastep from a rifle. The remaining five Metro Nashville officers who opened fire are on administrative leave.

Drake also ordered the department’s training academy to “reconsider their current law enforcement response. thoroughly examine how our officers positioned themselves in this multi-agency response and as well review the tactics and procedures used in relation to those that we teach.”

District Attorney Glenn Funk said he reviewed footage of the shooting and will follow the case closely. He plans to take “any appropriate action” once the independent investigation wraps up and then release the full report from TBI.

“As the district attorney, I ended the practice of allowing MNPD to conduct their own investigations of officer-involved shootings. I immediately brought in the TBI and authorized them to conduct a full and impartial investigation of the entire incident,” he said.

The Nashville chapter of the NAACP showed their support for the Eastep family at the press conference, reminding everyone that they are not only fighting for Black people to get justice. Real justice would be having professionals to call for mental health emergencies who show up with de-escalation training instead of bullets.

“If you are here to protect and serve, that means that you go above and beyond to make sure that those people first are protected. When you are protecting first and you see someone who is actually struggling mentally, as Mr. Eastep was, you go above and beyond, Nashville NAACP President Sheryl Guinn said.

“That’s not what they did, and they do this over and over again. That’s the issue,” she said. “That’s why this is so heartbreaking.”

Our condolences go out to Landon Eastep’s family and loved ones.

IRAN

Orly Noy: Before the 1979 Revolution Jews and Muslims Lived Side by Side

Orly (Mojgan) Noy with her father Musa Abginehsaz, Isfahan



Noy (on the right) and her mother Parvaneh with women family members

 from four generations

Noy joined protests against the evacuation of Palestinians from East Jerusalem

Orly Noy says it’s important to inform Israelis about Iran’s rich culture and history

Monday, 24 January 2022MARYAM DEHKORDI

The Islamic Revolution of 1979 dealt a significant blow to religious minorities, severing their engagement in Iranian society on a catastrophic level.

According to information published by the Statistical Center of Iran, the Muslim population in Iran grew two and a half times between 1976 and 2016, while the number of religious minorities and those who refused to declare their religion has remained almost constant during this period. This indicates that a large number of non-Muslims that once lived in Iran have been forced out of their homes and communities.

Iran’s Jewish community was among them. Before the revolution, Iranian Jews played an active role in the social, political and economic life of the country. According to the census conducted in 1956, about 65,000 Jews lived in Iran at the time. Today, Jewish people in Iran number less than 20,000. Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic, made his anti-Semitism clear from the start, expressing his views in speeches as early as the 1960s.

After the events of 1979, many Jewish people were forced to emigrate, but accusations that Jewish people were engaged in "espionage for Israel and Mossad" sparked fear even before the revolution, prompting some families to leave even before the consequences of the revolution became clear.

IranWire spoke with Orly Noy, an Iranian-Israeli journalist and translator, about the peaceful life Jewish and other minority religious communities enjoyed in pre-revolutionary Iran.

***

"My parents were Jews originally from Isfahan; my family name is Abginehsaz. I was nine years old when I left Iran with my father, mother and brother. It was before the revolution. In fact, I left Iran on January 16, 1979. But I have many memories of Iran. I remember we went to Isfahan on summer vacations. I remember the winters on Shemiran ski slopes and our trips to Shiraz very well."

Asked why she changed her last name, Orly Noy said: "Noy is my husband's surname; it also means ‘beautiful.’ I changed my last name to my husband's name after marriage, because Abginehsaz [‘glassmaker’], although having a very beautiful meaning, was very difficult to pronounce and write in Hebrew."

She recalled that after leaving Iran and arriving in Israel, she and her brother were alone for a period while their parents returned to Iran to wrap up their affairs. "The Iran-Iraq war had not started yet. The borders were open and the pressure on Jews to leave Iran was not yet at its peak. My parents returned to Iran for three or four months to sell their house and so on because we had gone to Israel empty-handed."

Mixed Schools Where Muslims and Jews Learned Together

"We were a middle-class family. Our lives were comfortable. My father was the manager for a branch of Bank Saderat and my mother was a housewife. There was a Jewish quarter in Tehran, but we lived in another neighborhood. We were surrounded by Muslim, Baha'i and Armenian neighbors. My brother and I attended the Kourosh school, a school for Jewish children; we had Hebrew and Torah lessons. But non-Jewish children from Christian and Zoroastrian minorities also went to our school.

"My closest friends as a child in Tehran were an Armenian girl and a Zoroastrian girl. I also had a Muslim friend; she was a neighbor and a classmate. My friend's mother would not offer me bread or sweets when I went to their house during the Pesach holiday, when we don’t eat bread. That’s how well her family knew us.”

Orly Noy, who is also sometimes known as Mojgan Noy, says in the days of her childhood, there was a strong respect for freedom of opinion.”I am not saying that everything was great at that time; that much I know from my time as a peace activist and a critical journalist. As much as I criticize the regime of the Islamic Republic for its political behavior and treatment of its citizens, I am also a serious critic of the Israeli government. But my observations of my own life and that of those around me in the pre-revolutionary period show that people lived together freely and enjoyed civil rights, despite not having the full right to freedom of expression.”

She remembers how Jews and Muslims lived side by side in pre-revolutionary Iran: "A close relative of my mother married a Muslim man. I was a child, but I have such a vivid memory of socializing with them, and after all these years, I still remember the name of the ‘rebellious’ Muslim family. The groom was close friends with my father. They lived in Bandar Abbas and I visited them many times with my family. Our family did not reject our relative because she married a Muslim, and the Muslim family didn’t try wanted to change the bride's opinions or make her cut off her relationship with her family. This may not have been the norm, but it certainly wasn’t a crisis for people to marry outside of Judaism."

Musa Abginehsaz, ​​Orly's father, died a few years ago. She says her mother, Parvaneh Farhadian, is quite ill and suffering from complications from a stroke, so she is not able to talk about the past.

IranWire asked Noy if she had any unpleasant memories, any memories of having to deal with racism or discrimination. "To be honest, not so much that it had a big impact on our lives. For example, my father worked as a bank manager for many years and held a very good position. He also served in the Iranian army, and on my mother's table there is even a photograph of him receiving a gold watch, a gift from the Shah. But I remember when we went to my grandparents' house in Isfahan, there was a very religious Muslim man who lived in their neighborhood and was not willing to walk

behind a Jew in the alley at any cost. When we saw him, he would begin to walking faster to get ahead of us. It was a kind of game for us. I posted on Twitter a few days ago saying I never heard from my parents that the Iranian people used the word ‘johud’ [Persian for ‘Jew’] to their faces, but I have seen on Twitter many times that the word had been used as a term of humiliation against Jews."

Keeping Iranian Culture and Art Alive

Orly Noy spent her early childhood in Iran, but then when she was nine, they left for Israel, a land that has always been in conflict with her home. She says she has tried to keep Iranian culture and art alive in her life, and in her family’s lives. "My husband is European-Israeli. I have two daughters who unfortunately do not speak Persian. But despite all this, I celebrate Nowruz every year with a Haft Sin table and a big feast. I invite non-Iranian friends over. I explain to them what everything on the Haft Sin means. Although we are vegetarians and Iranian food often includes meat, we cook our Iranian food without meat. My children love fesenjan and ghormeh sabzi and listen to Iranian music, although they do not know the meaning of the lyrics of Sima Bina and Shajarian."

She has worked as a translator, and she has made sure to keep speaking Persian. In 2012, she translated one of the most important Iranian satirical novels, "Daei Jan Napoleon [Uncle Napolean]” by Iraj Pezeshkzad into Hebrew. Pezeshkzad died in Los Angeles at the age of 94 a few days before IranWire's conversation with Orly Noy. "I remember very well how my fingers trembled when I dialed Mr. Pezeshkzad to tell him the Hebrew translation of Uncle Napoleon had been published," she said.

Just after the book was published, Orly Noy told Radio Farda she had translated it "to help the Israelis get to know Iran and Iranian society. The book prevents them from having a one-sided perspective arising from enmity and hostility, which might portray Iranians as not having a culture, past, or history, when we are talking about a nation and a country with a history, culture and rich civilization."

Ex-UN chief Ban says 'sorry' to see politics interfering in sports

SPORTS IS POLITICS, 

POLITICS IS A SPORT

Dong Xue

Former United Nations secretary-general Ban Ki-moon will soon arrive in Beijing to attend the upcoming Winter Olympics. Serving now as the chair of the International Olympic Committee's (IOC) Ethics Commission, he spoke to CGTN about the code of ethics in sports and what he expects from the Games.

CGTN: The Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics is just around the corner. What do you think of the preparations so far? What are your expectations and hopes for the Games?

Ban Ki-moon: I'd like to congratulate wholeheartedly for all the excellent preparations and arrangements made so far by the Chinese government for the successful Winter Olympic Games. I am confident that the Beijing Olympic Games will be one of the most successful and grand occasions to promote peace, friendship, partnership, unity and harmony among the people around the world (and) will be an opportunity to elevate the motivation of those goals among the ambitious young sports professionals.

CGTN: Chinese President Xi Jinping talks about building a shared future for mankind. In PyeongChang in 2018, we saw how the Olympic spirit brought the ROK and the DPRK to march under one flag together, despite all their differences. Do you think sport--and the ethics and spirit of the Olympic Games in particular--can play a role in President Xi's vision?

Ban Ki-moon: This is a very good vision of building a shared future for mankind and was very much inspiring and very much well received by all delegations by thunderous applause by the people. We are all human beings whose future is closely interconnected. And that means we have to build a shared future, big or small, rich or poor, men or women, young and old. We are all human beings who must work together with the unity and a sense of solidarity and partnership. Sport is an area in which we can promote mutual understanding, friendship and cooperation. I'm a strong believer in the powers of sports as a former secretary-general.

CGTN: One of your legacies as UN secretary-general was the Paris Climate Agreement.... and you're still active in this area. However, research suggests that the very future of the Winter Olympics is being threatened by climate change. Is this something the IOC is concerned about?

Ban Ki-moon: As the biggest greenhouse gas emitting country, China has a special role to play and responsibility, in this regard. I really appreciate President Xi Jinping's leadership working together with the United States to help enable the Paris climate change agreement to come into force. The U.S. and China combining together can really expedite the process of climate change agreement coming into effect. This is the area which is largely approved by the people in Glasgow; they made a very good agreement to mutually cooperate; this is the area where China and the United States can fully cooperate. IOC also has a very important role in making sure that all the games, all the sport should be conducted in a carbon free way. I appreciated Chinese government to make Beijing Winter Olympics as much carbon free as possible.

CGTN: Some countries have announced a diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Games, over what they cite as human rights concerns in China. With respect to the IOC Code of Ethics, have they a case?

Ban Ki-moon: It's very unfortunate to see that some countries are boycotting the Beijing Winter Olympic Games on political considerations. Sports do not have any boundaries; sports does not care where you are coming from, whether coming from big country or small country; sports is sports. We've been working very hard to use the power of sports to promote reconciliation and peace. When it comes to sports, there should be no discrimination whether you're coming from European countries or Asian countries or whatever political systems you may have. This is a sport and, therefore, should differentiate political issues from sports. This is my firm belief, and I am very much sorry to see this kind of critical situation where the sport is now being influenced by politics.

Poll: Americans Fear Coronavirus Is Forever


TEHRAN (FNA)- An overwhelming majority of Americans surveyed by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research believe they’ll be “stuck with” the novel coronavirus “forever” – or at least for a long time.

The 83% of respondents who responded along those lines said they will consider the pandemic “over” when the virus has mutated into a “mild illness", RT reported.

Individual replies to the survey reflected a sense of resignation, or learned helplessness, with one couple reporting letting their guard down following vaccination only to batten down the hatches again with the arrival of the Delta variant.

“I hardly go out at all anymore,” public health researcher Colin Planalp told The AP, adding that his family had “canceled travel plans” and taken his son out of school for over a week with no return date in sight.

“We’re not going to be done with this,” he said, predicting that while the virus would “change over time”, it was impossible to say in which direction.

Viruses typically mutate to maximize their own survival, which sometimes – but not always – means becoming less virulent in order not to kill their hosts before they’ve had a chance to reproduce.

Only 15% of poll respondents believe the virus will ultimately be “eliminated like polio”. A growing number said they are more likely to wear masks and avoid crowds compared with last month. Respondents cited reports of increasing numbers of cases and hospitalizations to explain their newfound caution.

Paradoxically, vaccinated individuals are more likely to take precautions like masking and avoiding crowds, with 73% reporting they “frequently wear a mask around others”. Just 37% of the unvaccinated report frequently wearing masks. A growing number of Americans are also avoiding non-essential travel, with three out of five – a 7% increase from last month – reporting an aversion to the practice.

Some 65% of all Americans polled regardless of vaccination status report wearing face coverings around others, while 64% say they avoid large groups of people – both figures reflecting an increase from the 57% who said yes to both questions last month.

While initial scientific reports on the Omicron variant suggested it was precisely the “mild” – or at least milder – mutation Americans were waiting for, governments around the world quickly shifted the narrative to reflect a need for more mandates, more booster shots, and more controls, and overall fear levels have ratcheted up accordingly.

Nearly three in five (59%) Americans now reportedly believe vaccination is essential to participation in public activities, though only 37% hold the same belief regarding their children.

Lawmaker Tells Florida Mom 'No Book' Made Him Gay as State Debates LGBT Topics in Schools

BY KATHERINE FUNG ON 1/26/22 

Amid Florida's debate over the discussion of LGBT-related topics and teaching materials in schools, one lawmaker called out remarks from a parental rights advocate for claiming that books in school libraries are convincing children to become gay or transgender.

"As a gay man, to sit here in committee, to hear that—There was no book that I read that brought me to who I am," state Senator Shevirn Jones said during Tuesday's education committee hearing. "And even your children—I don't care what you may try to do to think that you are protecting them...the one thing you are obligated to do, like my father and mother did, is to love them for who they are.

Jones' remarks came in response to the claims of several parents at the hearing, like Karen Moran, who was with a group called BEST SOS America.

On Tuesday, Moran read from a book titled It Feels Good to Be Yourself: A Book About Gender Identity, which she claimed there are 112 copies of at Palm Beach County Libraries. Newsweek's search on the library system turned up no results.

"It's causing gender confusion with our kids and it should not be in our libraries and we should not be funding this and we should get all these books out," Moran told the committee, of which Jones is the vice-chair.

"This bill is a great method to get these books out and make people aware of what's going on," she said about Senate Bill 1300, which the hearing centered on.

"The one thing you are obligated to do, like my father and mother did, is to love them for who they are," Jones told parents at the January 25, 2022 hearing (seen above).

THE FLORIDA SENATE

While the bill would mandate a review process of teaching materials, it is aimed at capping the salaries of local school board members so that those figures don't exceed what state lawmakers make.

Addressing the room, Jones, who is the first openly gay Black person elected to the state legislature, said he did not want to wade into the politics of the issue but simply wanted to remind those at the hearing to "lead and speak with love."

"I'm not going to speak about the politics of this because all of that is going to go out the window eventually," he said. "My ask is that, as you all speak, just realize there are individuals who hear you and might be in the shoe of someone that your words are hurtful towards."

"It's not me because I'll be fine," he added. "I'm a grown man and can take care of myself and my colleagues love me and such but I want to just put it out there to you all that as you go and you advocate—please do advocate for your children, I support that—but be careful in how you advocate to make sure you're not harming anyone."

Although Jones stopped short of instructing parents to move their kids out of public schools as a solution to their unhappiness with the books available in their districts, some of his colleagues, like Democratic state Senator Tina Polsky, did not hold back.

"You have a choice. If you don't like what you see in the schools... then don't go. Then homeschool your kid," she said at the hearing. "If you want them insulated so much that they shouldn't learn about the outside world, you can homeschool or you can send them to a religious private school with voucher money. We have made that immensely available."

Relative to other states, Florida has a wide range of school choice programs, including vouchers, tax-credit scholarships and education savings accounts for students to use at a private school in the state.

At the end of the hearing, SB 1300 advanced on a party-line vote

READ MORE
Chasten Buttigieg Says Florida 'Don't Say Gay' Bill Not for Parental Rights
Bill Could Block Kids With LGBTQ Parents From Class Discussions, Some Fear
Appeals Court Says Teacher Fired for Same-Sex Marriage Can Continue Lawsuit
Indiana School District Sued Over Transgender Restroom Access

GOP bill in Arizona would force teachers to out LGBTQ students to parents

Jerod Macdonald-Evoy,

 Arizona Mirror
January 27, 2022

LGBT rights demonstrators (Shutterstock.com)

Arizona Republicans this week lined up behind a measure that would discipline teachers and open them up to lawsuits if they don’t tell parents everything a student tells them — even if the student confides that he or she is gay or transgender.

The legislation, House Bill 2161, would make it illegal for a government employee to withhold information that is “relevant to the physical, emotional or mental health of the parent’s child,” and specifically prevents teachers from withholding information about a student’s “purported gender identity” or a request to transition to a gender other than the “student’s biological sex.”

The bill would allow parents to sue school districts if teachers don’t comply.

Rep. Steve Kaiser, R-Phoenix, the bill’s sponsor, argued in the House Education Committee on Jan. 25 that the aim of the legislation is to reign in surveys sent out by schools that have made headlines in a number of states and locally. The bill also aims to allow parents additional access to certain medical records.

“I still feel this bill is not ready for prime time,” Rep. Daniel Hernandez, D-Tucson, said, adding that he felt there was some merit to schools surveying students. “This bill could’ve been done without this inclusion or without the trivialization of transgender children.”

Far-right groups

Kaiser initially said the bill was created via a “stakeholder group” and his “own inherent passion” for the issue. But when Hernandez pressed him on which stakeholders were involved in drafting the bill, Kaiser admitted he didn’t work with education groups or teachers, but with anti-LGBTQ advocacy groups — chief among them the Center for Arizona Policy, a conservative Christian lobbying organization that has pushed numerous controversial and bigoted bills since forming in 1995. CAP holds sway with most Republican lawmakers and Gov. Doug Ducey, and is widely considered one of the most powerful lobbying groups at the state Capitol.

“I know you have a long-standing (dislike) of that organization. I understand where the bait was in that question,” Kaiser told Hernandez, who is gay. “I’m not sure what education group I’d go to, because they’d be against this.”

Another stakeholder that Kaiser consulted is Family Watch International, which the Southern Poverty Law Center has designated an anti-LGBTQ hate group. That group also has its fingerprints on another piece of legislation that would ban any books that have “sexually explicit” content and that critics say would effectively make it illegal to teach about homosexuality.

Supporters of the bill said it was necessary to punish teachers in order to bring transparency to schools, who they said have been asking “inappropriate questions.” Some said the $500 fine for school districts in the bill’s language was not large enough, a thought echoed by Rep. John Fillmore, R-Apache Junction, who said that was a “drop in the bucket” for a school district and asked Kaiser if he’d agree to increase the amount.

Jeanne Casteen, the executive director of the Arizona Secular Coalition and a former teacher, worried about how the reporting function of the bill would impact child abuse. Teachers are mandatory reporters, and Casteen said that every time she had to report child abuse, it was being inflicted by a parent. Under Kaiser’s bill, she said, a teacher would also have to notify the parents — the likely abusers — that the child informed them of the abuse.

“I keep hearing about parental rights, but what about the rights of these students?” Casteen said.

One of the speakers for the other side was Nicole Eidson with a parent group called “Moms for Liberty” known for frequenting Chandler Unified School District meetings and complaining about alleged racism education and training.

“I’ve been hearing a lot about that kids have rights, but in my household, I gotta say, it is a dictatorship,” Eidson said, adding that schools have “no right” to put forward what is “right” for her to do in her household.

Although the bill cleared the committee along party-lines with Republican support, Rep. Joel John, R-Arlington, acknowledged there may be situations where a student may be more comfortable confiding with their teacher than with a parent.

John said that Kaiser will need to seek changes to the bill, specifically the issues relating to outing students, if he wants his continued support.

Arizona Mirror is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Arizona Mirror maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jim Small for questions: info@azmirror.com. Follow Arizona Mirror on Facebook and Twitter.

GOP mayor holds library funds hostage until “homosexual” books are taken off shelves

The mayor says homosexuality is against his religion. But the town's librarian is standing up to him.

By Molly Sprayregen Wednesday, January 26, 2022

Mayor Gene McGee Photo: Campaign website

The mayor of a small Mississippi city is withholding $110,000 from the county’s library system until it removes all LGBTQ books.

Tonja Johnson, the executive director of the Madison County Library System, was confused when the library didn’t receive its first 2022 quarterly payment from the city of Ridgeland. She called Ridgeland Mayor Gene McGee (R), who told her the library would not be receiving the money until it removed all LGBTQ content from the shelves.

Related: Mother sues school claiming teachers made her kid change gender identity

“He explained his opposition to what he called ‘homosexual materials’ in the library, that it went against his Christian beliefs, and that he would not release the money as the long as the materials were there,” Johnson told the Mississippi Free Press.

Despite Johnson explaining to McGee that the library is not a religious institution and is there to serve the entire community, she said McGee emphasized that “he only serves the great Lord above.”

One book McGee specifically mentioned that he wants out is The Queer Bible, a book of essays about LGBTQ history and culture.

Johnson believes McGee’s outburst could be a reaction to a few informal complaints the library has received about LGBTQ content.

“I think that’s probably where the mayor’s objections are coming from. Perhaps they reached out to him instead of back out to the library.”

The $110,000 McGee is withholding is about 5% of the library system’s annual budget. Losing it, Johnson said, “would definitely impact services” and could even result in some staff members getting laid off.

McGee also made it clear that he alone made the decision to withhold the funds, without the approval of the city’s board of aldermen, who had already approved the 2022 budget. The library board has decided to speak with the board of alderman before pursuing any legal action.

No matter the outcome, Johnson said she doesn’t anticipate the library bending to McGee’s demands.

“Ultimately it is up to the [library] Board, but I do not think they will make that decision,” Johnson said. “As a library, our mission is to serve our community and to provide everyone in the community with the information and resources that they need…Anyone can walk into a library and find something that they don’t agree with, but the book that’s not quite right for you is exactly what someone else needs. And my job is to make sure that [everybody] has access to that.”

Kit Williamson, who grew up in Mississippi and went to school in Ridgeland, told LGBTQ Nation that as a young person trying to become comfortable with himself, LGBTQ representation in stories meant the world to him.

“Representation is a powerful, life-saving force and seeing myself reflected in stories growing up helped me envision a future free from the shame and fear that was consuming me as a kid,” Williamson said. “Far from an isolated incident, actions like this attempted book ban are part of a concerted effort to erase LGBTQ people from the public eye, but we’re here to stay and we will not go backwards.”

He added that McGee “needs to go to the Ridgeland library and read up on the constitution” and that “Mississippi is not a theocracy, and this is a clear violation of the 1st amendment.”

Johnson also emphasized that LGBTQ books are not only there for LGBTQ people, but also to help everyone gain more understanding and empathy for one another.

“We all live in this world together,” she said. “We sit next to people in church, we work with people, we live next door to people, our children go to school with children who don’t look like us and don’t have the same experiences. If we’re going to be together, we have to at least understand each other’s stories.”

Calls to ban books with LGBTQ content, as well as content about race and gender, are taking place across the country as part of a conservative crusade. Conservatives argue that parents have a right to prevent their children from learning about racism and LGBTQ people.

Pope Frances urges parents to support their gay children

By Philip Pullella Reuters
Posted January 26, 2022 

Pope Francis celebrates Christmas Eve Mass, at St. Peter's Basilica, at the Vatican, Friday Dec. 24, 2021. AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino

Pope Francis said on Wednesday that parents of gay children should not condemn them but offer them support.


He spoke in unscripted comments at his weekly audience in reference to difficulties that parents can face in raising offspring.

Those issues included “parents who see different sexual orientations in their children and how to handle this, how to accompany their children, and not hide behind an attitude of condemnation,” Francis said.

He has previously said that gays have a right to be accepted by their families as children and siblings.

READ MORE: Calgary’s Catholic bishop optimistic about reconciliation after meeting with Pope Francis

He has also said that while the Church cannot accept same-sex marriage it can support civil union laws aimed at giving gay partners joint rights in areas of pensions and health care and inheritance issues.

Last year, the Vatican’s doctrinal office issued a document saying that Catholic priests cannot bless same-sex unions, a ruling that greatly disappointed gay Catholics.

In some countries, such as the United States and Germany, parishes and ministers had begun blessing same-sex unions in lieu of marriage, and there have been calls for bishops to de facto institutionalise these.

Violence against women insults God, Pope Francis says in New Year’s speech – Jan 1, 2022

Conservatives in the 1.3 billion-member Church have said the pope – who has sent notes of appreciation to priests and nuns who minister to gay Catholics – is giving mixed signals on homosexuality, confusing some of the faithful.

Last month, a Vatican department apologized for “causing pain to the entire LGBTQ community” by removing from its website a link to resource material from a Catholic gay rights advocacy group in preparation for a Vatican meeting in 2023 on the Church’s future direction.

The Church teaches that gays should be treated with respect and that, while same-sex acts are sinful, same-sex tendencies are not.

(Reporting by Philip Pullella; editing by John Stonestreet)

Pope Francis urges parents not to ‘condemn’ children for their sexual orientation

Pope Francis encouraged parents instead to have the courage to help and accompany them.

Lidia Maksymowicz, a Holocaust survivor who was prisoner in the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp, left, meets Pope Francis at the end of his weekly general audience in the Paul VI Hall, at the Vatican, Wednesday, Jan. 26, 2022. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

January 26, 2022
By Claire Giangravé

VATICAN CITY (RNS) — Pope Francis encouraged parents of LGBTQ children to come alongside and help their children rather than stand in judgment of them during his weekly audience with faithful on Wednesday at the Vatican.

While addressing the challenges many parents face when raising children, Francis mentioned “parents who see different sexual orientations in their children” who must learn “to handle this and accompany their children and not hide behind a condemning attitude.”

This isn’t the first time the pope has called for more compassionate understanding for LGBTQ individuals by Catholic faithful and the church in general. Starting with his now famous quote “who am I to judge?” in response to questions regarding gay clergy in 2013, Pope Francis has become synonymous with a greater openness and welcoming of LGBTQ people in the church.

In a 2019 interview with the Mexican broadcaster Televisa, the pope voiced support for civil unions for same-sex couples. Francis has also met personally with LGBTQ individuals at the Vatican where he reportedly told them they are loved and welcomed by God. On several occasions, the pope has written letters of support for Catholics who minister to LGBTQ communities, including F. James Martin and Sister Jeannine Gramick.

The pope has also urged Catholics not to discriminate against transgender people, whom he described as “the lepers of today” in a 2020 letter to an Argentinian nun who provides safe housing for transgender women.

Despite Francis’ pastoral approach toward the LGBTQ community, there have been no changes to the official doctrine of the Catholic Church, which views homosexuality as “intrinsically disordered” and homosexual acts as a “sin.”

The Vatican’s doctrine watchdog agency, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, issued a document in March of last year — signed by Pope Francis — prohibiting priests from blessing same-sex couples, stating the church “cannot bless sin.”

The pope has also been an outspoken critic of gender theory, describing it as a form of “ideological colonization” where the economically developed countries impose liberal views on family and sexuality on poorer countries in exchange for aid.

RELATED: Vatican rises to Benedict XVI’s defense after Munich abuse report

Francis’ comments on Wednesday were made in the context of his reflections on St. Joseph, stepfather to Jesus, whom the pope praised as an example for parents raising children through the challenges of life.

“I think also about parents facing their children’s problems. Children with many diseases, children who are sick, even with permanent illnesses,” he said. Francis spoke about parents who lose their children due to illness or accidents but also parents who struggle watching their children fail in school or in life.

“Never condemn a child,” the pope said, recalling the many mothers who waited in line to visit their children in prison in his home diocese of Buenos Aires, Argentina. Francis praised the “courage of dads and moms who always accompany children. Let’s ask the Lord to give all fathers and all mothers this courage which he gave Joseph.”

Op/Ed: Book banning is back in style as the MAGA crowd’s war on truth heats up

By Karen Graham
Published January 31, 2022

Banned book display. Source - Charles Hackey. CC SA 2.0.

Around the country, parents, politicians, school board officials, and activists are challenging the content of books at a pace not seen in decades. In all probability, the effort is being fueled by an attempt to rewrite history.

Rich Barlow, writing a commentary for WBUR, quotes President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who had been president for six months when he gave the 1953 commencement address at Dartmouth College.

“Don’t join the book burners,” he told the Ivy League graduates. “Don’t think you are going to conceal faults by concealing evidence that they ever existed. Don’t be afraid to go in your library and read every book, as long as any document does not offend our own ideas of decency. That should be the only censorship.”

Eisenhower was correct then, and his words are just as correct and meaningful today, especially when the American Library Association said in a preliminary report that it received an “unprecedented” 330 reports of book challenges, each of which can include multiple books, last fall.

“It’s a pretty startling phenomenon here in the United States to see book bans back in style, to see efforts to press criminal charges against school librarians,” said Suzanne Nossel, the chief executive of the free-speech organization PEN America, even if efforts to press charges have so far failed.

Groups today are not going bonkers just because a book might have sexually explicit material in it, but now their list includes books about racism, or about LGBTQ themes considered offensive to some parents’ and politicians’ sense of propriety.

Book burning will not get rid of history.

Banning books has become a political weapon

And somehow, the tactics behind the calls for banning books and the venues where they play out have changed. It has become politicized, with the MAGA crowd leading the way on a war on truth.

“The politicization of the topic is what’s different than what I’ve seen in the past,” said Britten Follett, the chief executive of content at Follett School Solutions, one of the country’s largest providers of books to K-12 schools. “It’s being driven by legislation, it’s being driven by politicians aligning with one side or the other. And in the end, the librarian, teacher or educator is getting caught in the middle.”

Let’s look at Texas. Gov. Greg Abbott has decried “pornography” in public schools and he’s made conservative-minded education a cornerstone of his re-election campaign. Last week he unveiled a “Parental Bill of Rights.”

And while Texas state Rep. Matt Krause, from Fort Worth, has a 16-page list of books that he says will make students feel uncomfortable, Axios contends the move to ban these books stems from fears over Texas schools teaching critical race theory (CRT) and other issues related to race and sexuality.

And Texas is certainly not the only state doing this. If you really look into this book-banning situation, just about every state with a Republican governor and majority GOP legislature is doing the same thing.

And the list of books is growing by leaps and bounds. Of course, “To Kill a Mockingbird” – voted the best book of the past 125 years in a survey of readers conducted by The New York Times Book Review is a frequent title on banned book lists.

But in today’s political climate, efforts to ban books are more sweeping. Perhaps no book has been targeted more vigorously than “The 1619 Project,” a best seller about slavery in America that has drawn wide support among many historians and Black leaders.

What is the 1619 Project? The project explored the history of slavery in the United States and was released to coincide with the anniversary of a ship carrying the first enslaved Africans to the English colonies.

But, as I have written a number of times – No one can rewrite history, however, we can learn from history. And books are precious beyond words. Banning a book will not make the truth disappear, nor will it alter history.

Karen Graham  is Digital Journal's Editor-at-Large for environmental news. Karen's view of what is happening in our world is colored by her love of history and how the past influences events taking place today. Her belief in man's part in the care of the planet and our environment has led her to focus on the need for action in dealing with climate change. It was said by Geoffrey C. Ward, "Journalism is merely history's first draft." Everyone who writes about what is happening today is indeed, writing a small part of our history.

 

Georgia pastor crushes right-wing book bans and CRT hysteria in less than 30 seconds

Sarah K. Burris
January 29, 2022


Rev. Matt Laney, the senior pastor at Virginia-Highland Church in Georgia, created a TikTok video bringing down the white fragility argument that comes from those attempting to ban so-called critical race theory, which isn't taught outside of law schools.

Many commented on a photo of a table of banned books that showcased some of the children's volumes that racist Republicans are blocking from school and community libraries. The table included books like the Holocaust book Maus, but it also included books like The Lorax, which few knew was once banned after the logging industry thought it portrayed them in a bad light. Fahrenheit 451 was also frequently banned, even though the book is about extremists banning books and burning them. The Harry Potter series was protested and banned for showing sorcery and witches, which Republicans have tied to Satanism.

In his video, Rev. Laney held up a page with text which appeared to explain that children who feel emotions after reading about atrocities aren't as bad as helicopter parents want the world to believe.

"They are not being harmed," said Rev. Laney. "They are stretching and growing into compassionate, decent people."

See his video below:

Book banning fever heats up in red states

Schools boards and city officials in

 Mississippi, Missouri, and Tennessee want to purge "objectionable" books

By JON SKOLNIK

SALON
PUBLISHED JANUARY 26, 2022 

Display of banned books or censored books at Books Inc independent bookstore in Alameda, California, October 16, 2021.

 (Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images)

Amid the GOP's national campaign to purge "leftist ideology" from public schools, local officials across the nation are now banning certain books that deal with race, sex, and gender, from school shelves.

On Thursday, a Missouri school board voted 4-3 to formally pull Toni Morrison's "The Bluest Eye" from high school libraries in the district. The book, which tells the story of a young Black girl growing up in the Great Depression, includes passages that describe incest and child molestation. Central to the book's premise is the narrator's struggle with society's white standards of beauty, which cause her to develop an inferiority complex around the color of her skin.

Wentzville School Board member Sandy Garber told the St. Louis Post Dispatch that she voted against the book to shield her children from obscenity. "By all means, go buy the book for your child," Garber said. "I would not want this book in the school for anyone else to see."

The decision comes despite pushback from district staff and residents, who after a committee review advised the board that banning the novel would "infringe on the rights of parents and students to decide for themselves if they want to read this work of literature."

Kris Kleindienst, owner of Left Bank Books in St. Louis, told a Fox affiliate that the board's vote sweeps important discussions of race and sexual abuse under the rug.

"Kids are growing and developing and should have access to as much material as is out there," Kleindienst said. "It shouldn't be the decision of a few parents what kids should read."

RELATED: "Moms for Liberty" group demands schools ban books with "sexy" pictures of seahorses

The book banning fever has reached a pitch in Mississippi this week as well.

Ridgeland Mayor Gene McGee is currently engaged in a budgetary standoff with Madison County Library System. McGee is attempting to deprive the school board of $100,000 in funding because the Republican wants to see a spate of LGBTQ-themed books banned from school libraries.

Tonja Johnson, executive director for the Madison County Library System, told The Mississippi Free Press that McGee is withholding the money due to his own personal beliefs. "He explained his opposition to what he called 'homosexual materials' in the library, that it went against his Christian beliefs, and that he would not release the money as the long as the materials were there," Johnson said. "He told me that the library can serve whoever we wanted, but that he only serves the great Lord above."

According to the Free Press, McGee specifically demanded the immediate removal of the "The Queer Bible," an essay collection feating the voices of queer figures like Elton John, Munroe Bergdorf, Tan France, George Michael and Susan Sontag.

And in Tennessee, the Williamson County Schools committee has also joined the censorship fold, imposing restrictions on several different books in light of conservative backlash.

After a review of 31 different texts, the committee on Tuesday "removed one book" from the school shelves and "restricted seven others," according to The Tennessean. The committee specifically removed "Walk Two Moons," a 1994 fiction novel written by Sharon Creech. The book centers on the story of a 13-year-old girl with Native American heritage who is reckoning with the disappearance of her mother while traveling from Ohio to Idaho.

The books were reportedly first called into question by the Williamson County chapter of Moms for Liberty, a right-wing advocacy group that advocates for "parents' rights" in education. The committee concluded that the text contained "objectionable content," which according to Moms for Liberty, included "stick figures hanging, cursing and miscarriage, hysterectomy/stillborn and screaming during labor."

RELATED: Ta-Nehisi Coates on banning books: "That's no longer education, that's indoctrination"

The bans in Mississippi, Missouri and Tennessee are part of a larger right-wing movement to crack down on books with "objectionable" works often featuring Black and LGTBQ+ themes. According to the American Library Association (ALA), between June and September of last year, the U.S. saw "155 unique censorship incidents" in cities and districts across the nation.

"We're seeing an unprecedented volume of challenges in the fall of 2021," said Deborah Caldwell-Stone, the director of the ALA's Office of Intellectual Freedom, last year. "In my twenty years with ALA, I can't recall a time when we had multiple challenges coming in on a daily basis.

Jon Skolnik is a staff writer at Salon. His work has appeared in Current Affairs, The Baffler, and The New York Daily News.

Why serial killers are drawn to politics

Matthew Rozsa, Salon
January 29, 2022


One of the most infamous serial killers of the twentieth century almost followed a very different path in life. His name was Ted Bundy and, during his formative years, he craved a career in politics.

Bundy was living in Seattle and taking classes at the University of Washington when he first considered working in foreign affairs, according to Katharine Ramsland. A professor of forensic psychology at DeSales University, Ramsland has written prolifically about murderers like Bundy. "His goal was to graduate from college, get a diplomatic position with the government and work on improving trade with China," Ramsland explained, referencing the book "Violent Mind: The 1976 Psychological Assessment of Ted Bundy" by a prison psychologist (Dr. Al Carlisle) who evaluated Bundy after he was accused of attempted kidnapping. In 1976, no one knew if Bundy was even capable of killing; it was unimaginable that one day he would confess to 30 murders, and experts believe he was guilty of dozens more.

Carlisle recalled that "importance, prestige and wealth were his primary goals," according to Ramsland. Eventually those objectives evolved into wanting to impress his wealthy girlfriend; Bundy would steal fancy clothes and boast about supposed big government connections in order to do so.

Bundy is not the only serial killer to have a nascent interest in politics. Because serial killers are some of the most psychologically analyzed individuals in history, and their psychological profiles and family histories are often public, we know that there are many peculiar connections between politics and aspirations to murder.

While it may seem comedic to suggest politics and serial killing can be juxtaposed in this way (such as the viral joke comparing Ted Cruz to the Zodiac Killer), stories like Bundy's illustrate how the two passions — one evil and despised, the other neutral yet socially applauded — are rooted in similar parts of the human psyche. Both require a certain amount of grandiose thinking, and with it, self-involvement. Success in either endeavor depends heavily on being a skilled manipulator, and is rewarded with real power over actual human beings.

Then again, only politicians are capable of wielding that power to help people and make the world into a better place. Even though it is fashionable (and not unjustified) to be cynical about politics, there have been plenty of government officials who have used and continue to use their power for benevolent purposes. If there is a sliding scale that connects those individuals with undeniable monsters like Bundy, it raises troubling questions about what kinds of people gravitate to our political system — or may already be flourishing within it.

The Killer Clown and the First Lady

One serial killer who was interested in politics and did manage to create a political career for himself was John Wayne Gacy, the so-called "Killer Clown." Gacy is known to have sexually assaulted and murdered at least 33 young men and boys between 1972 and 1978, although there may have been more victims.

If nothing else, Gacy's party affiliation shows that there is bipartisanship among serial killers: Unlike the Republican Bundy, Gacy was a Democrat.

"It was never specifically said by Gacy, or generally known, why he became a Democrat," John Borowski told Salon. An independent filmmaker who has studied a number of serial killers (including Gacy), Borowski also wrote the book "John Wayne Gacy Hunting a Predator: The Pursuit, Arrest, and Confession." He has pored through countless details about the man's life — and admitted, ruefully, that there is not much to analyze right now in terms of his writing. Gacy would sometimes respond to letters he received while he was incarcerated, Borowski explained, and it is possible one of his correspondents has information about Gacy's political views that is currently unknown to the public. What we possess right now, however, is pretty thin.

Still, in his research, Borowski did find that Gacy's psyche was heavily influenced by his father, who by multiple accounts was an extremely abusive man. Like many victims of child abuse, Gacy grew up simultaneously craving his father's approval and deeply resenting the way he was treated.

Oh, and one more thing: Gacy's father was a Republican.

RELATED: Why Jack the Ripper and other serial killer narratives endure

"He was attempting to almost be the antithesis of what his father was in every single way," Borowski pointed out. If that was his mission, Gacy accomplished it. After his father learned about his son's political views, he denounced him as a "patsy" and inundated him with homophobic slurs.

Yet the same Democratic Party affiliation that Gacy's father cited as just one more sign of the young man's worthlessness actually became a vehicle for real achievement. Gacy was active in local politics and community projects, first on a smaller level when he lived in Iowa and then much more so after moving to Illinois. Because he had prospered as a businessman, Gacy offered up his employees to clean the party headquarters free of charge, served on his township's street lighting committee, became a precinct captain and directed Chicago's annual Polish Constitution Day Parade. He even was photographed with First Lady Rosalynn Carter, a major Secret Service blunder considering that Gacy had already been convicted of a violent sex crime.

"With any type of politics comes that stature, and that prominence, and Gacy loved attention in any way he could get it," Borowski explained.

What drew Gacy to politics in the first place? "One, of course, is that feeling of power, to say he is involved with the Democratic Party or he was given the title of Norwood Park Lighting District Commissioner, and he had his own little business card," Borowski said. It helped Gacy feel better about himself — and reinforced the image of normality that he needed to get away with his crimes. Indeed, Gacy's status as a respected local politician even played a direct role in putting his victims at ease.

"When you look further in Gacy's plans, when he would bring his young victims to his home, or even police officers who had come to inquire about some of the victims — which they did during his whole killing spree — he would bring them into his den and he would show them his pictures with the president's wife and his meeting Mayor [Michael Anthony] Bilandic in Chicago," Borowski told Salon.

Borowski noted that some of these hypotheses were, of course, informed speculation.

The serial killer who campaigned for a Rockefeller

In Bundy's case, we actually have confirmed evidence about which politicians he admired.

Richard Larsen, a Seattle Times reporter who interviewed Ted Bundy and authored a book called "Bundy: The Deliberate Stranger," writes that Bundy had worked for local Republican candidates in Washington State before managing a grassroots campaign there during the 1968 election to draft New York Gov. Nelson Rockefeller for the presidency. Bundy even attended the Republican National Convention that year as a Rockefeller delegate. He also served as a driver, bodyguard and overall assistant to lieutenant governor candidate Arthur Fletcher, the first African American to seek statewide electoral office in the western United States. According to Larsen, this gave Bundy a sense of "belonging and accomplishment."

By 1972, Bundy was a high-ranking volunteer for the reelection campaign of Gov. Daniel Evans, at one point being observed by witnesses impressing Evans with his detailed notes about a speech delivered by rival candidate Albert Rosellini, a Democrat. He was later rewarded for his efforts with a job as an assistant to Ross Davis, chairman of the Washington Republican Party.

It later came out that Bundy had obtained his dirt on Rosellini through methods that would seem like normal political dirty tricks under different circumstances, but take on a potentially ominous cast in this context. Bundy had infiltrated Rosellini's campaign by pretending to be a college student and not disclosing his connection to the Evans team. Republicans denounced the story as a "distortion" (a 1970s equivalent of crying "fake news"), but Larsen recalls that Bundy was excited to discuss what he had done. When asked if he wanted to run for office, Bundy said that he had "given that some thought" and was planning on becoming a lawyer in keeping with those potential aspirations. In a separate interview with The New York Times, Bundy was pointedly blasé about being caught in an act of deception.

"I'm not the least bit uncomfortable with what went, on," Bundy told the journal of record. "It was just part of political campaigning. You have to know what your opposition is saying and doing."

As with Gacy, it is easy to develop leads on the deeper meaning of Bundy's political predilections, but difficult to arrive at any definite conclusions. Born in 1946, Bundy would have taken an interest in politics around roughly the same period in history as Gacy — the 1960s. The Republican Party had undergone its metamorphosis into a predominantly conservative organization during the 1964 election, yet within that now-avowedly right-wing body Bundy consistently supported the dwindling faction that could still be described as moderate: Rockefeller, Fletcher and Evans were all noted for taking liberal stances on issues like civil rights and the environment.

The serial killer who was both a Democrat and a Republican

While Bundy and Gacy are the most famous serial killers to also enter politics, they are not alone. Randy Kraft, whose crime spree from 1971 to 1983 included the rape and murder of dozens of boys and young men, is actually still alive at the time of this writing. Like Bundy and Gacy, Kraft was born in the 1940s (1945 in his case), and became extremely passionate about politics in his adolescence. Kraft started out as a conservative Republican, stating that his ambition was to become a United States senator. In 1964 he campaigned for Arizona Sen. Barry Goldwater, the presidential candidate who made that year's election into an ideological turning point for the Republican Party. Kraft was also an outspoken supporter of the Vietnam War and even attended pro-war demonstrations.

Then, one year after he was arrested for lewd conduct for propositioning an undercover police officer, Kraft suddenly became a liberal. Before long he was a Democratic Party organizer and enthusiastic backer of New York Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, who was running for the 1968 Democratic Party presidential nomination as the most left-wing alternative. This radical shift may seem like a possible clue into his pathology — but, as a Kraft biographer pointed out, plenty of people transitioned from being conservative Goldwater supporters to liberal Democrats during the tumultuous 1960s. According to Dennis McDougal, an author and investigative journalist who wrote a book on Kraft called "Angel of Darkness: The True Story of Randy Kraft and the Most Heinous Murder Spree of the Century," the stress of America's political situation in the 1960s and 1970s could have exacerbated Kraft's preexisting pathology simply because everyone suffered due to those political stresses. In Kraft's case, politics offers not only insights into the mind of monster, but also into the conditions that created one.

In particular with Kraft, McDougal observed, it is telling to look at how he chose his victims.

"Why select Marines?" McDougal asked. "Why go out and trawl for sailors or for any kind of military personnel that he sees as his prey of choice? I think that you can probably draw a pretty distinct line between his Goldwater politics shifting to [Kennedy] politics as being influential with that pathology. He's out literally exorcising his own sexual demons with people who are in the military doing the bidding of whichever other political party happens to be in power. That just happens to chime in with his sexual identity and whatever pathology drove him to those extremes in the first place."

For Kraft, the ideologies that he may or may not have sincerely held likely mattered far less than the malicious fantasies he enjoyed reenacting for sexual pleasure. It was the fantasy, not the politics, that seemed to drive him.

Not all psychopaths are serial killers

"Serial killers are driven by fantasy," Dr. Scott Bonn, criminologist and author of the book "Why We Love Serial Killers," told Salon. "They are driven by a fantasy need. It's the reason that they kill. And you happened to pick two serial killers [Gacy and Bundy] that fall into the category of power and control killers. Their fantasy need that was served by killing is the need to dominate and control others."

Borowski echoed Bonn's observation.

"It comes down to their lust and desire for tension and power, domination and control," Borowski said. "That's what leads the serial killer in their day to day life, and that power, domination and control could bleed into any other profession, whether it's politics or law enforcement." He later added that "whether they're actually killing someone with their hands or killing them with a pen on a mass destruction scale, I think it's all pretty much the same."

As Ramsland put it, "That's what people would get confused about. They think all psychopaths are serial killers and all serial killers are psychopaths. That is not true."

Does this mean that there are people in politics today who, even if they are not serial killers, pursue that passion for the same reasons that a serial killer might do so?

"I'm sure there are," Bonn told Salon. He later added: "To have a cold-blooded nature, where you simply don't care about stepping on others and hurting others, you could see as actually a benefit to someone who wants to succeed in business or politics."

Yet psychopaths can certainly possess sincere political ideologies, though that sincerity often gets tied back in some way to their pathology. Take Gacy: At a time when the gay rights had not yet been associated with either major party, Gacy's adamant hostility toward homosexuality was a tragically normal sentiment. In his case, however, that opinion intersected with Gacy being what Bonn described as a "power control killer."

"It's important to understand that serial killers are motivated by different things," Bonn explained. "Some of them are motivated by sex. Some of them are motivated by a mission they might think they have about eliminating the world of gay men." As Gacy justified his actions by describing his victims as "worthless little queers and punks," and insisted that as a respectable member of society he was not himself a homosexual, one can reasonably assume a link existed between his views on homosexuality and the horrific murders he perpetrated.

Despite their very different reasons for acting, however, the main thing that connects these serial killers' political pursuits is that their passions make them more enigmatic rather than less so. All we know for sure is that the same urges which drive people to run for office can motivate them to commit the most heinous crimes imaginable. It is an important piece of the puzzle for anyone who wants a better picture of the face of evil.

It does not, however, complete the puzzle.