Of Jews and Mormons ...

In cultures there are some early warning signs of political thuggery. When there is a group of people who are so sure of their own beliefs that they will not work through a normal, free political process - they will often turn to violence. That violence, like that of a narcissistic child, derives from and intellectual inability to accept that perhaps their chosen idea is not acceptable to the majority.

When that happens and there is a group that holds the majority in contempt - they will lash out. They won't lash out of the majority though, no that would be too hard. They will instead focus on a sub-set of the majority and attempt to bully, suppress, or destroy that segment to remove it from the equation - and therefor get close to winning thorough either changing the playing field, or intimidating the remainder of the majority.

That is one thing - another is when to distract from real problems with their goals, they find a minority to place all the blame on their failure. Externalizing their problem even though the problem is internal.

With the victory of Prop 8, we see a little of both. In California, when it was found out that majorities of the Hispanic and Black communities supported traditional marriage - the radical homosexual advocates attacked them. After a few days, they realized that Hispanics and Blacks are not only a large part of the CA political Left coalition, they are also a protected class.

Like all thugs however, they looked around for an easier target for their blame and anger. Falling on traditions thousands of years old, they went for a religious minority. Historically, the Jews have been the target. This time it is the Mormons.

The FBI says a letter containing a suspicious white powder sent to a Mormon temple in the Westwood area of Los Angeles was not hazardous.

The temple was evacuated Thursday while a hazardous materials crew tested the substance and determined it was non-toxic.

A temple in downtown Salt Lake City received a similar envelope containing a white powder that spilled onto a clerk’s hand. The room was decontaminated and the envelope taken by the FBI for testing. A spokesman for the Salt Lake City Fire Department says the clerk showed no signs of illness, but the scare shut down a building at Temple Square for more than an hour.

Both macro like above, and micro.

In Sacramento, a high-profile theater director resigned from his job of 25 years after a boycott threat over his $1,000 donation in support of the measure. In Los Angeles, a Mexican restaurant owner, a Mormon who donated $100, was reduced to tears and left town after hundreds of protesters confronted her at work, by phone and on the Internet.

"You express your beliefs and you have to be punished for it?" said Arnoldo Archila, an employee at the El Coyote restaurant. "This is not right, not in this country. This is not Iraq."

Where is President Elect Obama? What about this hate? Who will stand with the Mormons? I will. All good people, Spartacus like should proclaim,

I am a Mormon.

OK, maybe too much to ask for the beer drinkers out there - but you get the idea.

Such thuggery should not go unopposed. Saddleback Church Members should spend next Sunday at the Mormon Temple in LA - as should a delegation from the Catholic Church.

Sad thing - this hurts gay men and women everywhere. As most of you know, I have no problem with openly gay people serving in the military - but it is the radical fringe that is preventing many from being fully comfortable with the concept. Full frontal political thuggery will not help your cause - and gives your benign supporters pause.