{"id":39241,"date":"2016-12-12T00:30:05","date_gmt":"2016-12-12T03:30:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/?p=39241"},"modified":"2017-01-31T03:36:35","modified_gmt":"2017-01-31T06:36:35","slug":"mikey-weinstein-complains-about-usafa-football-coach-air-force-yawns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/2016\/12\/12\/mikey-weinstein-complains-about-usafa-football-coach-air-force-yawns\/","title":{"rendered":"Mikey Weinstein Complains about USAFA Football Coach.  Air Force Yawns."},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>UPDATE<\/strong><\/span>: While Weinstein&#8217;s original complaint was almost completely ignored, a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.trunews.com\/article\/military-the-coach-can-share-his-bible-verses\">wide variety<\/a> of sites has\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.military.com\/daily-news\/2016\/12\/12\/air-force-academy-finds-no-wrongdoing-in-coachs-bible-tweets.html\">picked up<\/a> on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/sports\/2016\/12\/12\/anti-christian-group-upset-air-force-football-coach-tweeting-bible-verses\/\">USAFA&#8217;s decision<\/a> to ignore Weinstein.\u00a0 One site pointed out Weinstein was <a href=\"https:\/\/pjmedia.com\/faith\/2016\/12\/12\/air-force-academy-protects-unchecked-christian-extremism-of-tweeting-bible-verses\/?singlepage=true\">violating his own organization&#8217;s mission statement<\/a> &#8212; leading one to wonder if his Board of Directors should sanction him.<\/p>\n<p>For his part,\u00a0Mikey Weinstein is now\u00a0awkwardly spinning this incident to claim it\u00a0is an MRFF &#8220;victory,&#8221; despite the fact he previously called the USAFA response &#8220;bulls&#8211;t&#8221; when it didn&#8217;t bow &#8212; and still hasn&#8217;t bowed &#8212;\u00a0to his demands.\u00a0 It would seem <em>not<\/em> doing what Weinstein wants is also an MRFF &#8220;victory,&#8221; meaning Weinstein can never lose&#8230;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>As <a href=\"http:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/2016\/12\/05\/mikey-weinstein-attacks-usafa-coach-steed-lobotzke-for-bible-tweets\/\">discussed last week<\/a>, Michael &#8220;Mikey&#8221; Weinstein demanded an investigation of Air Force tight ends football coach Steed Lobotzke because he &#8220;tweeted&#8221; Bible verses.<\/p>\n<p>The Air Force responded with a <a href=\"http:\/\/gazette.com\/air-force-finds-nothing-wrong-with-football-assistant-spreading-bible-verses-via-twitter\/article\/1592070\">collective yawn<\/a> [emphasis added]:<\/p>\n<div align=\"center\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Air Force finds nothing wrong with football assistant spreading Bible verses via Twitter <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/7jV18Bpa8X\">https:\/\/t.co\/7jV18Bpa8X<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Steed Lobotzke (@CoachLobotzke) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/CoachLobotzke\/status\/807973408239734784\">December 11, 2016<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<blockquote><p>All athletic coaches&#8217; <strong>social media accounts are personal<\/strong> and not maintained by the Air Force Academy Athletic Department. The views and comments within these accounts are personal and not the views of the Air Force Academy or Air Force. However, we appreciate that the accounts could appear official and have advised that an appropriate disclaimer be included to avoid confusion in this regard.<\/p>\n<p>The Academy remains <!--more-->committed to <strong>protecting individuals&#8217; right to practice any religion they choose<\/strong>, or no religion, provided their practices do not violate policy or law, or impede mission accomplishment, military readiness, unit cohesion, standards or discipline.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>In response, Mikey Weinstein issued an impotent statement saying<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>there will be a lot more to come on this.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Coming from a man for whom &#8220;follow through&#8221; is a term he only learned on the Golf Channel, the Air Force doesn&#8217;t have much to worry about.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-37164\" src=\"http:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/wein8x.jpg\" alt=\"wein8x\" width=\"215\" height=\"186\" srcset=\"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/wein8x.jpg 323w, https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/wein8x-300x260.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 215px) 100vw, 215px\" \/>Consider the magnitude of hatred that must drive such sheer idiocy. Mikey Weinstein appears to sincerely believe &#8212; or at least <em>wants<\/em> to believe &#8212; it is an &#8220;illegal action&#8221; for a positions coach on the USAFA football team to quote the Bible on social media.<\/p>\n<p>Fortunately, the rights and liberties Mikey Weinstein would attack are protected in America by our venerated US Constitution.<\/p>\n<p>Though he&#8217;s paid himself <a href=\"http:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/2016\/12\/05\/mikey-weinstein-attacks-usafa-coach-steed-lobotzke-for-bible-tweets\/\">nearly $2 million<\/a> from his personal charity, Weinstein didn&#8217;t even bother to file\u00a0the complaint himself. Rather, he had his (presumably also well-paid) lawyer Donald Rehkopf file an IG complaint that was comical in its citation of &#8220;facts.&#8221; Rehkopf cited two primary sources for the &#8220;facts relevant to this complaint&#8221;: a CSIndy blog by Pam Zubeck, which was fed by information provided by Mikey Weinstein, and another internet site that essentially just repeated\u00a0that report. [<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>Update<\/strong><\/span>: Apparently aware their site was being used as evidence to attack USAFA, the Gospel Herald <a href=\"http:\/\/www.gospelherald.com\/articles\/68526\/20161203\/\">deleted their article<\/a>.]\u00a0 In other words, Weinstein is <em>creating<\/em> internet stories and then using the <em>existence<\/em> of those internet\u00a0stories as justification for an IG complaint.<\/p>\n<p>When your case doesn&#8217;t have enough &#8220;facts,&#8221; just create your own, eh?<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-39245\" src=\"http:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/lobotzkeusafa.jpg\" alt=\"lobotzkeusafa\" width=\"289\" height=\"286\" srcset=\"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/lobotzkeusafa.jpg 289w, https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/lobotzkeusafa-90x90.jpg 90w, https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/lobotzkeusafa-75x75.jpg 75w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 289px) 100vw, 289px\" \/>Weinstein&#8217;s hatred is so thick it apparently blinded him to a couple of fundamental facts. Primarily, Weinstein attorney Donald Rehkopf cites regulation after regulation governing the conduct of government employees&#8230; apparently blissfully unaware of the fact <strong>Coach Steed Lobotzke isn&#8217;t a government employee<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>USAFA football coaches are contractors hired by the non-profit Air Force Athletic Association. In fact, their contracts specifically say they&#8217;re <em>not<\/em> government employees.<\/p>\n<p>Oops.<\/p>\n<p>Even if Coach Lobotzke <em>had <\/em>been considered an Air Force employee, there would be this gem from the Military Commander and the Law just <a href=\"http:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/2016\/12\/09\/us-air-force-updates-weinstein-social-media-guidance\/\">recently released<\/a> [emphasis added]:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Generally, the Air Force views personal web sites and weblogs positively, and it <strong>respects the right of Airmen<\/strong> to use them as a medium of self-expression, <strong>including religious expression<\/strong>, <strong>even if their status as Air Force members is apparent<\/strong>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Mikey Weinstein&#8217;s crotchety get-off-my-lawn attitude toward Christians, Christianity, and the Bible that is driving these lunatic complaints is pretty pathetic. While sad, at least it is recognizable for the bigoted vitriol that it is.<\/p>\n<p>The Air Force Academy&#8217;s response was commendable. USAFA chose its words and actions carefully, likely because it understood the impact of the contractor relationship &#8212; something Mikey Weinstein did not. The statement also comes very close to affirming the <strong>virtue of the freedom to post Bible verses on social media<\/strong> &#8212; probably because USAFA PA likely recognizes how the public will view the benign behavior Weinstein is attacking.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s a small, almost imperceptible step. But we&#8217;re gradually working toward a time when the Air Force will affirm the <strong>virtue of faith<\/strong> &#8212; even the Christian faith &#8212; within the military environment. At some point, these attacks on religious liberty will become so base, so militant that the military will be forced to defend the <em>good<\/em> in its troops&#8217; religious faith.<\/p>\n<p>And we&#8217;ll have Michael &#8220;Mikey&#8221; Weinstein to thank for driving the military to take such a principled stand.<\/p>\n<p>Keep it up, Mikey.\u00a0 We&#8217;re almost there.<\/p>\n<div class=\"fb-like\" data-layout=\"standard\" data-action=\"like\" data-size=\"small\" data-show-faces=\"true\" data-share=\"true\"><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: xx-small;\"><strong>ADVERTISEMENT<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js\"><\/script><!-- blogpost --><ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" style=\"display: block;\" data-ad-format=\"auto\" data-ad-slot=\"2728423835\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-6450825356098669\"><\/ins><script>\n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});<\/script><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>UPDATE: While Weinstein&#8217;s original complaint was almost completely ignored, a wide variety of sites has\u00a0picked up on USAFA&#8217;s decision to ignore Weinstein.\u00a0 One site pointed out Weinstein was violating his own organization&#8217;s mission statement &#8212; leading one to wonder if his Board of Directors should sanction him. For his part,\u00a0Mikey Weinstein is now\u00a0awkwardly spinning this incident to claim it\u00a0is an [&#8230;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":39249,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[134,5995,23,96,82,776,5938,956,19,1615,85,2,5218,7,1073,17,10,171,5986,65],"class_list":["post-39241","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government-and-religion","tag-air-force","tag-air-force-athletic-association","tag-bible","tag-christian","tag-constitution","tag-contract","tag-donald-rehkopf","tag-football","tag-government","tag-inspector-general","tag-mikey-weinstein","tag-military","tag-military-religious-freedom-foundation","tag-mrff","tag-pam-zubeck","tag-religious-expression","tag-religion","tag-religious-freedom","tag-steed-lobotzke","tag-usafa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39241","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39241"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39241\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39241"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}