Of Today's Annoyances, These...

It's tough to get too upset when Tom DeLay is on the brink of total collapse, but there are a few things bothering me. Nothing too major, just little niggling things that managed to get under my skin.

First of all, there is a decent chance that I'll be moving to the Hudson Valley area of New York this summer. I bring this up because the town I may be moving to is very close to Nyack, NY, which is evidently the home of Stephen Baldwin. Fans may recognize Stephen not only as the fanatical, evangelical Christian Baldwin brother, but also as the star of such uplifting films as "Threesome" and "Biodome." The Hudson Valley Journal-News reported that Stephen has waged a one-man crusade against a small adult bookstore in Nyack.

The village's planning board rejected a request to extend the hours of the Fama DVD Video Center... But Baldwin vowed to take his protest further.

He says he'll stand outside the store every day, photograph the license plates of patrons and track down their identities.

Then he'll take out a full-page newspaper ad once a month to publish their names.

"Just like this business has the right to open, I have the right to stand outside and take photographs," he said.

Now, I'm really not a big a fan of adult entertainment... it's never really been my thing. I can, however, assure you that I will at least visit this establishment, and happily provide Stephen with my name so he doesn't have to go through all the trouble of looking up the information. I think it's a little pathetic, however, that Stephen's inferiority complex over his brother Alec has turned into an attempt to prove moral superiority over his neighbors. For a guy who once starred in a movie that put him into sex scenes with another man, a female acquaintance, and finally both at the same time, he doesn't seem to have a lot of respect for people who haven't embraced a religion that he earned the vast majority of his wealth by offending. Nothing wins over converts like good old-fashioned bullying, right Stephen? Good call, jackass.

I've had the pleasure of briefly meeting Alec Baldwin. He seems like a hell of a nice guy, although ironically he evidently has a problem with people who get too loose with the invasive photography. I wish he'd let his fists do a little tap-dancing on his brother's nose.

Next on the list are the Rev. Ronald Russell and Robert Kiesinger, who filed a lawsuit against the Mexico, NY, School District for removing bricks bearing evangelical Christian messages from its sidewalk.

U.S. District Judge Norman Mordue... said the bricks - which carry messages such as "Jesus Christ the only way" and "Jesus Saves" - don't endorse a particular religious view by the district and that removing them violated the rights of the people who paid for them... The bricks were part of a fundraiser for the Class of 1999.

"To me, it's a bottom-line case," said [Russell & Kiesinger attourney Thomas] Marcelle. "From the very beginning we've said you can't discriminate by literally chiseling out certain religious expressions and allowing other religious expressions to remain."

Now, my issue here isn't with Mordue's ruling, in the sense that I don't believe the bricks represented a real issue of state established religion. Removing the bricks from their own property, however, was in no way a violation of religion or free speech. The school district has every right to decide which messages are appropriate and which are not, and simply purchasing a fund-raiser brick does not grant someone the right to put any message they want on school property. Certainly the school would not be expected to keep lewd, vulgar, violent, or inflammatory messages, and in fact it is their responsibility to remove things that cause unnecessary controversy for the school, as was evidently the case with these bricks in so much as they were removed after numerous complaints. This wasn't a crackdown on Christianity... less incendiary bricks, including one placed by a priest that simply says, "God Bless You," garnered no complaints and were not removed.

Much worse than the decision, however, is the obvious agenda of Russell and Kiesinger. Buying a brick during the fund-raiser was meant to be a way to support the students and the school, not a way to support their proselytizing efforts. By suing the school, Russell and Kiesinger have proven that, in fact, they do not support the students or the school, and are willing to drain the already struggling school district of much-needed funds through frivolous litigation. In the shallow, self-centered world of fanatical evangelicals, their right to impose judgment on others trumps the right of children to receive the best possible education.

Also, a place of education simply should not be required to support embarrassingly poor sentence structure like "Jesus Christ the only way" It's called a 'verb,' fellas. Employ one.

Since the first two items are about fanatical evangelicals bullying people with their beliefs, it's only appropriate to end with the biggest evangelical bully of them all, Tom DeLay. There aren't many people sorry to see him go, but I think it's shocking how the story has been covered by the media. For a supposedly leftist establishment, they have certainly gone easy on a guy who just happened to announce his resignation right after one of his top aides confessed to corruption and promised to tell everything he knows to keep his wife out of prison. I thought the job of the fourth estate was to protect us from corruption, not to apologize for it.

Specifically irritating was a post to cnn.com’s 360 Blog by John Roberts. First of all, the link from the main CNN page was, "How Will DeLay’s Resignation Affect Democrats?" as if somehow DeLay’s story has more to do with Democratic strategy and less to do with Republican corruption. A few choice excerpts:

DeLay's departure from the scene -- expected in late May or early June -- robs the Democrats of a potent arrow in their election year quiver. While all politics are local, Democrats were anxious to turn the battle for the 22nd District into a national issue by holding up DeLay as "poster boy" for what they call the Republicans' "culture of corruption." With DeLay off the stage, Howard Dean and company will be left to point to Randy "Duke" Cunningham as the national example of bad behavior.

What? Roberts is just going to let DeLay off the hook? What a pile of crap. A year ago this man was the most powerful member of the House of Representatives and arguably one of the most powerful men in Washington. Now he’s resigning, something you can bet he wouldn’t do unless it was necessary to, say, divert election campaign funds into a defense fund. Simply because he resigned doesn’t mean he isn’t an example of corruption in Republican leadership. If you only say sorry because you got caught, it doesn’t count.

Any way you shape it, Congress won't be the same without the "Hammer." For some people, that's a good thing. But DeLay is one of those characters, who, love him or hate him, is a rich part of the American political process, one of those colorful figures whom history remembers.

Colorful? Three of the man’s top aides are indicted for corruption, with one confessing. He has direct ties to Abramoff, and is directly responsible for helping Abramoff maintain ghastly working conditions in the American protectorate of the North Marianas Islands. He’s been brought up on ethics violations numerous times, and is personally responsible for the disbanding of the House Ethics Committee. Hell, DeLay first entered politics because he felt government regulation of hazardous compounds was protecting people at the expense of his profit margin. The man has never acted out of anything but self-serving arrogance. The only color I care to see him in is day-glo orange.