Get your burqas out gals!

So, I went to the West Roxbury Starbucks this morning (as I always do on Thursdays b/c it’s Dan’s day for preschool drop-off), and there… sitting on the cover of this week’s West Roxbury – Roslindale Bulletin, was the story: We’re no Taliban

Hmmm… what’s this, I thought. I picked it up, began to read and the first three words were “Support Community Decency…”. What the??? Not these freaks again! Why does the Bulletin insist on giving right-winged, religious zealot, wanna-be-leader, Bob Joyce the cover again? Does anyone think that perhaps a pay-off is involved? Or maybe the Bulletin is letting us know how they really feel.

Anyhow, for those of you that don’t remember, I posted a story a few weeks ago re: the SCD and how they want to remove the Boston Phoenix from every establishment in West Roxbury b/c the adult section is indecent. According to Joyce, the Phoenix is “soliciting local young women in need of cash to become escorts”, and will be attractive to “single mothers, young women with drug problems, or one whose mother or father is in need of an operation.”

My post made it onto Boston.com and I was flooded with emails and comments. Most of you agreed with my take on this — that Bob Joyce is trying to take away our constitutional rights, the freedom of the press and is basically suggesting that women are so weak that they cannot prevent themselves from falling prey to the evil empire of prostitution and drugs… and that The Phoenix is our pathway to hell.

The Bulletin received many letters of complaint regarding the SCD and Bob Joyce has retaliated by publishing another article backing his beliefs and suggesting that even more people are on board with his efforts now. Joyce also suggests that “…the criticism provoked by the press coverage of earlier meetings centered on the first amendment…” and that this point is “…a red herring…”.

During another SCD meeting this week, Joyce made it clear that the SCD “…goals remain solid: it does not want the Phoenix in the neighborhood…”. Joyce suggests that the more people who “made aware” of this problem, the more supporters he will get (he was able to recruit ELEVEN whole new members — Woo Hoo!). He likened his efforts to those of Abraham Lincoln, quoting “…Like Abrahham Lincoln said of slavery, if the people have the facts, the country will be saved…“. IS HE FOR REAL???

In attendance at this week’s meeting was ex-reporter, Helen Sullivan, who was quoted as saying about the Phoenix “They’re just jerks”, and who also suggested that the US is “…becoming a third-world country…” because of the “human trafficking” that occurs (which papers, like the Phoenix, are supposedly advertising and promoting through their ads for escort services and exotic massages).

If all of this doesn’t get your liberal juices flowing, than a how about the artical’s final quote “…you cannot run a society without firmer beliefs than what libertarianism offers. There is no thick understanding of the good of community in it”, made by SCD memeber Frank McLaughlin, an Economics professor at Boston College — who also happens to be a member of the Catholic-run Just Faith group — whose site asks if you wish “God’s vision of justice and reconciliation could shine forth in your faith community?”

They’re not acting like the Taliban? Well, you sure could have fooled me! Next thing you know, I’ll be walking around town in a burqa because when women show too much skin, men cannot control their sexual urges and deviancy.