Nice little piece on the priority of law: Sorry, but the law of this land isn’t God’s

The first injunction, “Thou shalt have no other gods before me,” doesn’t work in this country. We got religions out the wazoo, and they’re all legal. The First Amendment trumps the First Commandment.

Looks like humans ain’t that shabby after all. So, don’t sell yourself short, people…

I know we’ve referred to this before, but it still kills me: Society for the Practical Establishment and Perpetuation of the Ten Commandments. Specifically, check out why Man Cannot Make a Law:

To uphold and defend the constitution and its Bill of Rights is to defend principles that are the governing principles of the kingdom of Satan. Any law that is antithetical to the TEN COMMANDMENTS is always satanic.

Sorry about that, Glenn, you damned Jersey heathen…

Here’s a little letter I wrote that appears today in my local rag, the Asbury Park Press:

In a recent letter to the Press (”Restore ‘God’ to schools,” Sept. 9), the writer bemoans legal rulings that, in his view, illegitimately remove God and religion from public life. He writes: “I believe that if these mandates or laws were put to elections, God would remain by majority vote.”

We should all be grateful that they cannot be put to a vote. The function of the federal courts is not to endorse the world-view and values of the greatest number. The courts are supposed to enforce the Constitution and protect the rights and freedoms of all Americans, including those Americans who want freedom from religion.

Glenn Braddock

A thought for the day from a real philosophy guy:

“A tyrant must put on the appearance of uncommon devotion to religion. Subjects are less apprehensive of illegal treatment from a ruler whom they consider godfearing and pious. On the other hand, they do less easily move against him, believing that he has the gods on his side.” [From Aristotle's Politics]

OK, I have mixed feelings about hate-crime laws. But if you’re going to have them, gays should of course be protected along with the other obvious groups. And good for Canada, their House just passed a bill extending hate-crimes protection to gays and lesbians (previously, the legislation banned “incitement of hatred on the basis of colour, race, religion and ethnic origin”).

But there’s a catch. Since “several Liberals, the Canadian Alliance and many church groups say they fear that extending hate-crime protection for gays could criminalize religious texts, including the Bible, that condemn homosexuality”, the bill now “exempts from the hate crime section anyone expressing an anti-gay belief based on a religious text.” No, I’m not kidding; read it yourself: MPs vote to protect gays from hate. No gay bashing — unless it’s for God.

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Some providers allow users to create their own music tones, either with mylan xanax 4 composer” or a sample/loop arranger (such as the MusicDJ in many Sony Ericsson phones).

Al Franken’s The Gospel of Supply Side Jesus is being run at the usually good Buzzflash. Not really anti-Xian, but very anti-Bush’s-Xianity. And pretty funny.payday debt 12 consolidate loan 18payday credit 13 19 business loanloan 132015 22 payday loan mobilepayday loan 18 from 26 ukhome loan 1st texas timeloan mortgage delaware 2ndapr small loan 3 businesspayday money day loan 30advance online 4 payday loan

A follow-up to our earlier post about the CA couple whose infant daughter died of meningitis after they treated her with prayer instead of medicine (God kills another child): The parents have been sentenced to a year of weekends in jail. Bad parents! Don’t kill yer babies! No weekends for you, for a whole year! Oh, wait, they also were placed on five years’ probation and ordered to attend parenting classes. Well, then, I guess it’s OK. And of course, they get to keep the kid they haven’t killed yet — a 20-month-old son.

See it: Parents Who Treated Infant’s Illness With Prayer Get Jail Time. Well, sorta, they do.

I love former U.S. Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders. And not just because she’s the patron saint of masturbation. (Which, frankly, is reason enough.) Going through some old files, and found this great quote from her:

In the old days, many of these people rode around behind sheets. We called them the Ku Klux Klan. Then, all of a sudden, you couldn’t really do that anymore, it wasn’t fashionable. So they became the right-to-life movement and they hid behind women’s uteruses. Now, all of a sudden, they are the Christian Coalition, and they are hiding behind God.

You tell ‘em, Doc.