OK every clowder has them. The cousin with whom we disagree profoundly in all matters political. Some of them use their paws to hit "forward" rather too liberally in the human aetheric medium of the email. I'll briefly describe a recent email I received:

Long list of horrible things done by a muslim men between the ages of 17 and 40 punctuated by fancy fonts. Bobby Kennedy, Munich Olympics ect. The email then presents its case for racial profiling at airport security, and quotes the Book of Revelation about the Anti-Christ being a Muslim man in his 40s] Then it introduces, in REALLY dramatic fonts, the idea that "People of America want to elect, to the most Powerful position on the face of the Planet -- The Presidency of the United states of America A Muslim Male in his 40s!"

Here's the "argument"
Say what you want, he was born a Muslim (and is still considered a Muslim by his family), to a Muslim father. His mother remarried, yep another Muslim so what makes you think she didn't raise him as a Muslim? His African family is Muslim, he attended a Muslim school. Have the American People completely lost their Minds, or just their Power of Reason ??? Let's send this to as many people as we can etc.
***
My apologies for even posting it. But here's my response:

"I promise I won’t hit reply all, but feel free to forward this back to the bigoted [my offensive term bleeped] who wrote it:

That’s completely [my offensive term bleeped]. Maybe if you keep your brain in the “off” position it makes sense.
But Timothy McVeigh was not Muslim to my knowledge,
nor was the “Unabomber,” Theodore Kaczynski.
nor was Hitler,
nor was Mussolini.
I could go on but it’s a waste of time.

As far as Obama being Muslim? I’ll just use a quote because people way smarter than I have already written about it:

“As political rumors go, these are of a piece with John McCain's illegitimate black baby: Too ugly for polite company, the stories thrive on e-mail and talk-radio hearsay, and though they're trivial to debunk (the truth is just a Web search away), the lies seem possessed of uncanny sticking power. My cousin never responded.

I know it's silly to argue with people who listen to this nonsense but I am really surprised and affronted by the bigotry. I'm trying to cope with humor. I hope the Obama campaign doesn't respond directly, but rather leaves it in the blogosphere. I for one am holding a sophomoric contest to come up with a counter-smear:
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