The picture you see to the left is that of a beautiful child named Brisenia Flores. She beams an awkward little smile for the photographer that is common in chidren of that age, and she reminds me very much of my own five year old daughter (whose last name, by sheer coincidence, is also Flores). But unlike my daughter, Brisenia will never again flash that beautiful smile to a photographer or anyone else for that matter. That is because on March 30 of this year Brisenia, who was nine at the time, was murdered by members of a Right-wing terrorist, anti-immigrant, paramilitary group called the Minutemen American Defense, a group with ties to the larger Minutemen paramilitary vigilante organization that patrols the U.S. border on a self proclaimed mission to halt illegal immigration into this nation. This is how the blog Crooks and Liars describes the 9/11 tape of the call that Brisenia’s mother placed on the night of the shooting:

She explains that the killers walked up cold-bloodedly to her daughter, 9-year-old Brisenia Flores, as she cowered and cried, and shot her two or three times anyway.

Stinquers will forgive me for relying on that blog’s description, but I have not been able to bring myself to listen to the tape. As I said, I have a daughter who is probably the same age as Brisenia was when the above picture was taken and I don’t think I could bear to live her mother’s experience even voeyeuristically.

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You know that guy don’t you? You know who I’m talking about. The guy who, no matter what the conversation, finds a way to make it all about him.  You can be all “So I took my car in to the shop for a regular maintenance and the mechanic is telling me I need new pads, rotors and wheel bearings and it’s going to cost me $1200!” And this guy instantly replies “Oh, that’s nothing. Last fall my car was hit by a meteor and erupted into a ball of flame.” Then later your other friend is like “My daughter is so sad because our dog ran away two days ago and he still hasn’t turned up.” And this guy doesn’t bat an eyelid before responding: “That’s nothing, back in ’92 one of my cats was eaten by an alligator.” So no matter what the conversation, he tries to one-up you with an anecdote of his own.

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Two weeks ago we introduced you to Scott Roeder, the murderer of Kansas abortion provider Dr. George Tiller. At the time we noted that certain details of Roeder’s personal life seemed to fit in to a depressing pattern among right-wing extremists. Like so many others before him who have resorted to violence in the name of a grand, if hateful, ideology, Roder’s personal life was marked by failure. In personal and financial matters Roeder was a wreck, unable to maintain a marriage or hold a steady job.

Now we get word that another right-wing loser has gone on an ideologically inspired murdering spree.  Shawna Forde was a prominent member of the anti-immigrant Minuteman vigilante group that patrols the U.S. – Mexican border. She was also a member of FAIR, the Federation For American Immigration reform. Recently, after befriending Jim Gilchrist, founder of the Minutemen vigilante patrol, Forde founded her own branch of that organization called the Minutemen American Defense group and came up with a novel method for funding that group’s activities: she and her associates would rob suspected drug dealers at gunpoint and use the proceeds to keep on keepin’ on It seemed like a great idea at the time, no doubt. After all, what could possibly go wrong with a plan that reads like the plot t0 a Guy Ritchie film?

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And in other news, the New York Times is reporting that General Motors has managed to find a buyer for its troubled Saab unit:

Koenigsegg, a small company with just 45 staff that makes only a handful of cars a year, came out of nowhere to emerge as a front-runner to buy Saab.

This is a boutique automobile manufacturer that yearly produces less than twenty units of it’s only model offering, the ultra-exclusive exotic sports car, the CCX. A rather surprising turn of events, indeed. One wishes the new company well.

After the jump: Top Gear‘s Jeremy Clarkson reviews the CCX:

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Thanks to reporting by  the New York Times, details have begun to emerge about the life and background of Scott Roeder, the Kansas man who murdered Dr. George R. Tiller last Sunday, as he ushered congregants at the Lutheran church where he was a member. What we know about Tiller’s murderer so far, is predictably depressing… or depressingly predictable, depending on how you want to view it.

It will probably come as no surprise to Stinquers to learn that Roeder was an enthusiast of kooky right-wing causes that went well beyond the question of abortion:

Years earlier, Mr. Roeder belonged to a Kansas group known as the Patriot Movement, a citizens’ militia which, according to a fellow member, Morris Wilson, 70, aimed to “kick Uncle Sam in the shins” by bucking rules like mounting license plates on cars. “He didn’t like taxation and over-regulation…”

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Those of us who opposed the war knew from the beginning that the Bush administration’s invasion of Iraq was an unnecessary and illegal war of choice, not a regrettable conflict born of unavoidable necessity, as the Administration and its backers in the media insisted. But in a new Slate piece by Christopher Hitchens on the death of Israeli historian Amos Elon, we learn again just how unnecessary the death and destruction that accompanied the invasion truly was:

One day in Washington several years ago, as it became obvious that things in Baghdad were becoming hellish for the American-led coalition in the Iraq war, he told me the following story. In the run-up to the intervention in Iraq, the United States had approached the Israelis and asked how many citizens they had who spoke “Iraqi Arabic”—i.e., who had lived in Iraq before they had left or been expelled and who understood the local idioms and vernacular. The answer was that there were still quite a few. A group of these was put aboard an AWACS plane that flew high over Iraqi airspace and asked to listen in to radio traffic between Iraqi officers as the date of the Bush ultimatum to Saddam drew nearer.

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From time to time, a member of my flock will approach me with a seeming conundrum.  “Pastor Divad,” he’ll say, “why is it that the Lord doesn’t work miracles any more?”

When that happens, I act quickly to nip those sorts of doubts in the bud. After all, that’s the sort of unadvisable question that often lead the doubter to much greater sin. If a pastor can’t quickly put doubts like that to rest, next thing you know your lost little lamb will start asking why God made stars that appear to be millions of years distant, even though the whole Universe is only 6,000 years old.

Because let me reassure you, brothers and sisters, miracles do still occur. But don’t take my word for it. Listen to the words of one who has personally witnessed one: Baltimore councilwoman Helen L. Holton, who recently e-mailed the following testimony out to her supporters:

“God that can do anything but fail has found favor with this child of his … HALLELUJAH! HALLELUJAH! HALLELUJAH!”

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