Does the bible say anything about copying and pasting? That’s another question for pastor Gary Randall—who has stopped answering my questions—the president of a trinity of organizations called Faith and Freedom.

A quick recap: Randall makes money off of running his bigoted, anti-gay organizations in Washington State, his group plans to run a referendum to repeal the state’s domestic-partnership bill, he isn’t registered to vote in Washington, and he owes tens of thousands of dollars in back taxes. He sounds like an original piece of work, but, alas, BlackWhite finds that not all of his work is original.

In a post in 2007, Randall asks:

Does free speech extend the right to question the legitimacy of one’s own government, whether the homeland has a moral and legal right to exist, and to rewrite history by denying that events ever happened or for that matter, denying the founding principle on which this country was built?

Which is such an interesting question that Tom O’Connor pondered exact same thing in a paper a year before:

Does eccentricity extend to the right to question the legitimacy of one’s own government, whether the homeland has a moral and legal right to exist, and to rewrite history by denying events ever happened?

Indeed, Gary, one day we’re granting free speech to homosexuals and the next day Nazis are writing Jews out of Germany’s history. But what about other countries? Randall calls laws against hate crimes laws elsewhere in Europe a “slippery slope” that could lead to punishing people for their “thoughts.” For example, in September 2007, he writes:

• Ireland prohibits words or behaviors that are “threatening, abusive, or insulting and are intended or…are likely to stir up hatred” on the basis of sexual orientation.
• Iceland forbids “ridiculing, slandering, insulting or threatening” protected classes including homosexuals.
• Sweden’s hate speech law even bans expressing “disrespect.”
• In Italy, an atheist has taken a priest to the European court of Human Rights on a complaint of “religious racism” for teaching that Jesus existed.

Those are dangerous thoughts indeed. And common thoughts. In fact, Stephen Adams had the exact same thoughts a month before writing for Focus on the Family:

• Ireland prohibits words or behaviors that are “threatening, abusive or insulting and are intended or … are likely to stir up hatred” on the basis of one’s sexual orientation.
• Iceland forbids “ridiculing, slandering, insulting, threatening” protected classes, including homosexuals.
• Sweden’s hate-speech law bans even expressing “disrespect.
• In Italy, an atheist is taking a priest to the European Court of Human Rights on a complaint of “religious racism” for teaching that Jesus existed.

What to make of all this? Perhaps Randall isn’t really going to run a referendum after all. Maybe he lifted the idea from another website.

22 replies on “Bigot, Carpetbagger, Tax Evader, and Plagiarist”

  1. That is why “Will in Seattle” needs to be stopped from his ant-Republican genocidal comments.

    Same with the SLOG hate crimes against Sarah Palin.

    Stop the Democrat loonies from attacking the man instead of the idea!

  4. I wonder if it’s possible to write an initiative that only goes into effect if, in addition to winning enough votes, another initiative passes?

    For example– we could file an initiative protecting marriage by banning divorce, but only if an initiative that bans same sex marriage passes.

  5. Normally I don’t pipe up with complaints on style/grammar, etc., but the first para stopped me cold:

    Does the bible say anything about copying and pasting? That’s another question for pastor Gary Randall—who has stopped answering my questions—the president of a trinity of organizations called Faith and Freedom.

    A trinity of organizations, with only two members?? I think you’ve overextended yourself, Dominic.

  6. I love how the the title keeps getting appending. The next installment will be even greater, I’m sure! Some potentials:

    – and Alcoholic
    – and Racist
    – and Holocaust Denier
    – and Shithead Boss
    – and addicted to gambling
    – and Even More Bigoted

  8. @5 it’s unclear from the context, but there actually are three organizations, all with the name ‘faith and freedom.’ from their website:

    The Faith and Freedom family of organizations is made up of three, related, but independent parts;
    Faith and Freedom Network, Faith and Freedom PAC and Faith and Freedom Foundation.

  9. @ 5) He is president of the Faith and Freedom Foundation, the Faith and Freedom Network, and the Faith and Freedom PAC. I spared the details of his background in this post but there’s more information if you click on those links.

  10. @arts&letters, the Trinity refers to:

    *Faith and Freedom* Network, *Faith and Freedom* PAC and *Faith and Freedom* Foundation which you could find out if you read past posts.

  12. How come we don’t have a SLOG post about the “flyby” of an Air Force One jet (and trailed by 2 F 16s) across the New York skyline this morning that caused mass panic in people working in office towers? Apparently it was announced only to law enforcement and told it was a confidential “photo op” for publicity to get a shot of Air Force One with the Statue of Liberty as a backdrop?

    SLOG?

    You guys are really dropping the ball often lately!

  14. @12

    …Because that was an empty story about a whole bunch of jumpy office workers with nothing better to do calling 911 because they saw a plane and concluded that The Terrorists were attacking them; also because the mainstream media is already devoting way too much column space and airtime to that very nonevent.

    Lest we forget: it is only in recent years that occurrences in which nothing actually occurs have come to be considered newsworthy.

  17. About that “photo op”, if that’s really what it was, wouldn’t it be a lot fucking cheaper to use Photoshop? Do we really need to fuel up a fucking jumbo-jet and two fighter jets and fly them around for a couple of hours in close proximity to millions of jumpy, skittish people for something that could be put together digitally by in intern in 20 minutes? Really? Something about this sounds totally ridiculous.

  18. Because @17 then the right-wingers would just start screaming about how Obama was using a photoshopped image that didn’t really happen and, ZOMG! What other “faked images” are appearing on the White House web site? Maybe teh cute lil’ puppy DOESN’T REALLY EXIST! Maybe those two precious little daughters were CUT&PASTED FROM A TOYS-R-US AD! Maybe Michelle is really just an AMALGAM OF ALL THE WOMEN WHO’VE APPEARED ON TEH COVER OF “OPRAH” MAGAZINE!

  21. lol, @1. Oh, hey, if they avoided Federal IRS taxes, and Oregon State taxes, then chances are they’re avoiding Washington State taxes.

    Every time you turn them in you get 10 percent of the money seized.

    Use it hold a party. That creates jobs locally.

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