I'd like a Bud Light and Fatwa, please

Next week, Judge Mary Shaw's courtroom may be the finish line of the Shawnee neighborhood's wet-dry vote, which has turned into an ugly spitting contest between convenient storeowners and community leaders.

My logic was never able to connect the dots from buying Bud Light to increased crime. If neighborhood ministers and Councilwoman Cheri Bryant-Hamilton worked closer with the Health Department and examined the affect these stores have on the community's health they may have found a better argument. Then again, the only thing that motivates activists or journalists or politicians in West Louisville is crime.

For more, check out my news analysis entitled Near the finish line, in this week's LEO.

Besides the sensationalist beer = crime argument, a new injection of religion has provided a bizarre twist.

One new dry supporter, Rev. Peter Hayes, sent out dozens of letters to American Muslim organizations asking for a fatwa (edict issued by an Islamic cleric) against the Palestinian storeowners. Rev. Hayes has gotten mixed responses with at least one cleric agreeing and another saying no fatwa is necessary, just a Islamic expert testifying in Judge Shaw's court.

Hayes is the pudgy white gentleman in the video below.