Tag Archives: mikey weinstein

American Family Association Lauds Air Force Academy

In a seemingly rare occurrence, the US Air Force Academy received a bit of positive press when the American Family Association asked people to sign a petition thanking USAFA for protecting the religious liberty of its cadets. Noting the faux-controversy of USAFA football players taking a knee in the end zone, the AFA first quoted the official USAFA response:

The United States Air Force Academy places a high value on the rights of its members to observe the tenets of their respective religion or to observe no religion at all. Recently, the United States Air Force Academy received a complaint about its football players kneeling in prayer. An inquiry was initiated, which found the football players’ actions to be consistent with Air Force Instruction 1-1 and its guidance on the free exercise of religion and religious accommodation.

The United States Air Force Academy will continue to reaffirm to cadets that all Airmen are free to practice the religion of their choice or subscribe to no religious belief at all. The players may confidently practice their own beliefs without pressure to participate in the practices of others.

The AFA concluded with:  Read more

Ed Brayton Schools Ted Cruz on Military. And Gets It Wrong.

braytonEd Brayton is a prolific and progressive atheistic blogger who is also a longtime ally of Michael “Mikey” Weinstein and his research assistant, Chris Rodda. Unlike Rodda, Brayton occasionally shows a rare streak of principle and holds his own ideologues to the same standards he demands of the “right wing fundamentalists” he so often mocks.  Still, like Rodda and Weinstein, he is often blind to the traits he shares with those he ridicules.

On Monday, Brayton wrote a blog at the pay-per-click Patheos entitled “Cruz Shows He Has No Clue About the Military” in which he mocks presidential candidate and US Senator Ted Cruz for his statement saying of ISIS “we will carpet bomb them into oblivion.” Speaking to Cruz, Brayton says:

Do you or do you not know what carpet bombing is? He makes clear that he does not.

Brayton quotes Cruz waxing political in pivoting to Operation Desert Storm and the military draw down that has occurred since then:  Read more

Soldier Mentions God. Mikey Weinstein Complains. Film at 11.

Update: Nearly a month later, Mikey Weinstein complained that the disclaimer discussed below was “lipstick on a pig.”  Weinstein appeared offended that he hadn’t been consulted and that his demand that Col Hundley be “publicly punish[ed]” was ignored.

hundley

The latest US service member to publicly mention his faith and get castigated by Michael “Mikey” Weinstein is US Army Col Thomas Hundley. In a 400-word post at the US military’s official Health.mil, Col Hundley provided one of his regular “Motivational Monday Messages” and recounted his grandfather’s admonition “You just gotta give God a little something to work with.”

He finished with

I challenge you to join the Operation Live Well team on the journey to attain a “new you” in 2016. All we have to do is give God and ourselves a little something to work with. Happy New Year!

and included a list of “improvements” for 2016, among which was

1. Improve your spiritual fitness through increased prayer.

Cited by Military.com’s Bryant Jordan, Weinstein said he complained because  Read more

Mikey Weinstein Supporter Calls Franklin Graham a “Fool”

Michael “Mikey” Weinstein frequently publishes messages written in support of his organization, as he did last week when he published a letter from a supporter to Franklin Graham berating Graham for his defense of US Air Academy football players taking a knee in the end zone.  The supporter first summarized what he believed was Graham’s position:

You contended that young football players at the USAF Academy should be free to kneel down in a circle before a football game if they wished.

While it’s not too far off, that’s not actually what was happening. Football players were Read more

Critics Try to Out Retired Gen Bob Dees, Carson Campaign Chairman

Over the past months, a few critics have tried to draw attention to one particular person on the staff of Republican Presidential candidate Ben Carson.

Originally his foreign policy advisor, Carson’s new campaign chairman is Bob Dees, a retired US Army Major General and former executive director of Campus Crusade for Christ (now “Cru“) which had a substantial ministry to the US armed forces called Military Ministry (now “CruMilitary“).

As early as November 10th of last year, James Bamford at Foreign Policy described Dees as

a retired general who believes Muslims pose a threat to the U.S., the military should spread Christianity, and Carson should be president.

But the statements that Bamford apparently found ‘disturbing’ were fairly benign:  Read more

Mikey Weinstein Attacks Religious Liberty Advocate

Michael “Mikey” Weinstein frequently shows off his “hate mail,” using the threats and invective shown against him as an attempt to legitimize his cause. His presentation of himself as a victim — which he uses to garner sympathy and donations — rings hollow, however, given the “hate mail” Weinstein participates in himself.

Weinstein published an attack on the religious liberty of US Air Force Academy cadets in the local Colorado Springs Gazette, calling their conduct a violation of regulations, the law, and the US Constitution. Weinstein’s personal invective associated these cadets with what he called a

virulent strain of fundamentalist Christian supremacy, triumphalism, and exceptionalism

In a reasoned defense of military religious freedom, Liberty Institute attorney Mike Berry — himself a Reserve Marine JAG — published his own column in the Gazette as a response, saying the MRFF and Weinstein were “wrong on the history and the law.”  That was as “personal” as the well-presented column got.

In a response to Berry’s column quoted at the Daily Caller, Mikey Weinstein  Read more

Humanists Appeal, Continue Attack on Bladensburg Cross

Following a Federal judge’s ruling against them a few weeks ago, the American Humanist Association has now filed an appeal of its lawsuit against the Bladensburg Peace Cross, a 90-year old World War I memorial in Maryland:

“The Bladensburg Cross is an enormous Christian symbol on government property and has the clear effect of endorsing religion,” said Monica Miller, senior counsel for the Appignani Humanist Legal Center. “We will continue defending the First Amendment rights of Read more

Like Mikey Weinstein, Wounded Warrior Project Criticized for Leader Pay

Rightly or wrongly, the Wounded Warrior Project tends to be loved or hated. Its critics blast its finances on several fronts, claiming, among other things, it excessively compensates its leadership compared to how much money goes back out to help wounded warriors. Using IRS 990s, Brandi Kay at Freedom Outpost recently noted the following numbers for 2013:

Revenue: $234,682,943
Steven Nardizzi, CEO: $375,000

That’s 0.16% of the revenue back to the CEO as compensation.

For comparison, for 2013 Michael “Mikey” Weinstein’s MRFF numbers were  Read more

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