ProgressOhio

United Coalition for Reason's "Don't Believe in God? You Are Not Alone" billboard campaign -- an exceptionally uplifting message in my opinion -- seemed to go over well here in Columbus. In Cincinnati, not so much. Because of threats to property owners, the Over-The-Rhine billboard had to be relocated.

So sad to see the jihadists get their way.

Not surprising that the home of the Creation Museum, Citizens for Community Values, Ken Blackwell and countless other ideologues would be so intolerant. I guess they just don't like free-thinking competition down yonder.

Being a free-speech advocate, I've got no problem with the plethora of religious signs and symbols I see every day. (Although I thought the exhortation to "Pray" on the back of a COTA bus as I breathed its exhaust fumes was a little weird. And the altered pro-life billboard in Sugar Grove off Rt. 33 that now says "Abortion Stops a Beating...." is really not funny at all.)

Go ahead, put your "Hell Is Real" and Ten Commandments billboards along I-71. This is Sarah Palin's "real" America, after all....But you might as well erect a big sign that says "High-Tech Companies, Keep Out!"

In particular, the Ten Commandments public displays puzzle me. That commandment about coveting -- you know, the entire basis of our economy. As a kid I learned that I should not "covet thy neighbor's wife, nor his ass...." Well, rest assured, I do not covet my neighbor's wife. But I'm not making any promises about his ass.