New Euro-Crime: Perp Kills ... Plants!

A Swiss farmer walking back from killing a whole field full of wheat swings his scythe and cuts decapitates some wildflowers alongside the road. With those corrections, I have the verbs right, according to Swiss law.

Cutting wildflowers isn't just one of those things, anymore in Switzerland, not since the Swiss government added some language to their constitution requiring "account to be taken of the dignity of creation when handling animals, plants and other organisms."

Welcome to the New Age. Welcome to the secular state where humans are just more primordial ooze not to be considered any higher or better than anything else, be it another mammal, a plant or ... virus?

Note the last bit of the addition to the Swiss constitution: "other organisms." In this new way of thinking, who knows whether it would be appropriate for a mere human to kill a bunch of viruses or bacteria in order to overcome a sickness? Who are we to say we're better than any of our Ooze Brothers?

Indeed, who knows? Here's what the Weekly Standard has to say about how the Swiss dealt with the hypothetical farmer -- was he a murderer, or just some guy whacking some flowers?

No one knew exactly what [the new words in the Swiss constitution] meant, so they asked the Swiss Federal Ethics Committee on Non-Human Biotechnology to figure it out. The resulting report, "The Dignity of Living Beings with Regard to Plants," is enough to short circuit the brain.

A "clear majority" of the panel adopted what it called a "biocentric" moral view, meaning that "living organisms should be considered morally for their own sake because they are alive." Thus, the panel determined that we cannot claim "absolute ownership" over plants and, moreover, that "individual plants have an inherent worth." This means that "we may not use them just as we please, even if the plant community is not in danger, or if our actions do not endanger the species, or if we are not acting arbitrarily."

The committee offered this illustration: A farmer mows his field (apparently an acceptable action, perhaps because the hay is intended to feed the farmer's herd--the report doesn't say). But then, while walking home, he casually "decapitates" some wildflowers with his scythe. The panel
decries this act as immoral, though its members can't agree why. The report states, opaquely:

At this point it remains unclear whether this action is condemned because it expresses a particular moral stance of the farmer toward other organisms or because something bad is being done to the flowers themselves.

I say if the Federal Ethics Committee on Non-Human Biotechnology (and I pray to the high heavens we have no such federal committee here!) cannot decide why the act is morally condemnable, then it's not.

Under this interpretation of the rules, PETA will change its name to PETPA, and demonstrators will be splashing fake blood on customers at flower shops, for what right do we mere humans have to use plants for anything beyond mere survival? Trimming hedges? Forget it!

This is the expansion of secularism, from the shocking idea a few years ago that animals should have the same rights as people to today, when humans are advocating that they're no better than plants. No wonder they can't fight wars anymore!

It's particularly bad in Europe, where participation in Judeo-Christian religions has dropped off to the point where American Christian missionaries now see the continent as a priority area for missions. Without the anchor of God and a belief that there is divinity in our creation, anything goes, proving C.S. Lewis right. If a continent believes in nothing, it will believe anything.

hat-tip: Jim

The Silent Sound Of Reporters Guffawing

Every once in a while you read a line in a news story, presented straightforwardly, cool, and oh, so reportorially, and you just know the reporter was slapping his knees and laughing out loud as he typed it.

Here's one such line:

There was no immediate comment from rebels to the PETA's letter.

Here's what leads up to it:

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) - An international animal rights group called on Sri Lanka's separatist Tamil Tigers to "leave animals out" of the armed conflict, two weeks after a grenade attack blamed on rebels at the island's main zoo.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, or PETA, said in a letter dated Feb. 15 to Velupillai Prabhakaran, the reclusive rebel leader, that "the explosive device that was set off near the zoo's bird enclosures terrified many animals at the zoo."

PETA president Ingrid E. Newkirk pleaded with the rebel leader "to leave animals out of this conflict," the letter said.

Newkirk added that the group has been inundated by messages from people saddened by the attack.

Drum roll, please ...

There was no immediate comment from rebels to the PETA's letter.

Note that no birds were even killed in the Tamil Tiger attack; they just had their feathers ruffled. Yet the animal rights wing of the Lefty insane asylum -- which from the billboard appears to view terrorism as a big hoot -- is a-tizzy with outrage. Of course, they weren't particularly worried about dead people, just bothered birds.

PETA fans will remember that this is hardly the group's most egregious animals-over-people debacle. That came when in their protest to al-Aqsa TV -- the station that brought us Farfur, a character who resembled Mickey Mouse and advocated Palestinian attacks against Israelis until his poor little electrons were beaten to death by an actor depicted as an Israeli.

PETA got mad at the station because an actor verbally harassed some animals at a zoo as part of a show that was teaching children not to be cruel to animals! As I wrote at the time:

Apparently, PETA isn't antisemitic; if it were, and it didn't consider Jews to be fully human, it would rally for their protection. But thinking Jews mere humans, PETA finds itself admonishing the Palestinians for taunting some animals, but not admonishing them for blowing up buses filled with school kids.

Hat-tip: Jim

Secular Progressive Insanity

Here's a bit of classic secular progressive-think for you:

1. People who rape and murder little girls to get their sexual jollies need help, not jail, so let's keep their prison sentences to a minimum. Say three years or so.
   
   
2. People who are (1) foolish enough to have children and (2) savage enough to spank them are the worst of criminals. Let's charge those parents with abuse and neglect. (Neglect? For being aware that there's a disciplinary problem that needs dealing with?)

That's the state of the law -- and the mindset of the state -- in Massachusetts today under its current and proposed laws.

Read more at The Provocateur, who adds:

I am not necessarily a huge fan of spanking, however it is not only ironic but downright shameful that a state moves quicker to stop parents from deciding for themselves what punishment their kids should have than they do from protecting children from actual child predators.

Such is the absurd and perverse world view of the secular progressives. In their world, all criminals need treatment not punishment. At the same time, parenting decisions are taken away from the parents and controlled rather by the states. In some sense, child predators have more rights than parents.

Secularists Place Their Faith In Corbett

The tale of Dr. James Corbett and his frothings against Christians and Conservatives before his high school Advanced Placement classes is big news -- it's now up to 398,000 hits on Google's blog search engine. And as you can imagine, those who believe in Secularism but are rabidly anti-religion nonetheless, have a lot to say.

Let's start with a post at The Seven Solitudes called, ahem, Dr. James Corbett is an American Hero:

It isn’t enough that the school system is still a breeding ground for religious indoctrination, and non-believers and other people who would rather teach their kids at home about religion have been ostracized and having failed previous attempts to bring these lawsuits to the courts, this Fascist Law Firm decides to copy the work of organizations like the ACLU. In these previous cases we, the secular taxpayers, have been found to not have standing. Our only victory was erasing mandatory prayer from school and the occasional Lemon Test success, but Christian proselytizing from the podium is not a phantom. If this brings about the demise of teacher’s personal freedoms of ranting about religion from either way… it is a victory for us.

What school district does this guy go to? Is he a time-traveler or something, perhaps confusing 2007 with 1907? I wasn't aware that Secularist home-schooling was a trend, and haven't heard of any public school districts that were forcing Christianity into, instead of out of, the schools.

Admittedly, Capo Unified, my district and Dr. Corbett's, isn't utterly devoid of Christianity. When Incredible Daughter #1 was in Jr. High chorus, they sang (beautifully) medieval vocal pieces with religious themes, and we even had an entirely voluntary parent-student Hallelujah Chorus one year. She also got a good grade on a paper on Abraham's travels for an ancient history class.

This seems to me appropriate in all ways because no one can deny the power of the church in the formation of our musical heritage, and the Abraham paper was a research exercise whether one were to agree the source material was historical or not.

What is wrong with Seven Solitudes, and indeed most of these posts, is that they don't want "Christian proselytizing" in the schools, but very clearly are comfortable with Secularist proselytizing, whether Christians are made uncomfortable or not.

A blog with the uncondensed name of Esoteric Dissertations of a One Track Mind fisked my most recent post on Corbett in a post called On the Religious Reaction to Dr. Corbett. The writer makes such universal statements like:

First, I find it rather inarguable that religious conservatives want to control women’s reproductive capacity.

I find this extremely funny, given the "anti-breeder" pressure that the Left slams parents with. Who, in fact, wishes to control women's reproductive capacity? He thinks conservative men dictate to their women, "Thou shalt calve," whereas in Christian circles the number of children is a decision husband and wife come to through discussion and prayer.

To compare fundamental Islamic childbirthing trends to Christian trends is silly because in dirt-poor Islamic countries, where humans and animals are the main means of production, the economics of child-bearing are entirely different.

Over at the "revolutionary" blog (Why would we want a revolution? So we could have what sort of system instead?) Blogging the Collapse, there's a post called Heroes and Zeros. Guess which one the blogger thinks Corbett is?

As you’ve seen, I have a general revulsion for all gods, prophets, angels, and higher powers in general. The wisdom that I would like to see kids arrive at through education is that there is no such thing as a cosmic hierarchy (which makes other hierarchies, such as corporate or governmental hierarchies, all the more meaningless); and that the universe doesn’t work through power or control.

How does he know this, if not by faith? Where is it written that there is no higher power in the universe?

I've saved the worst and the funniest for last because there is nothing sillier than a hater of intolerance being intolerant. Here's Dr. Naysay's Nay of the Day, Chad Farnan is a Douche and his Parents are Evil:

This piece of Orange County s*** hails from San Juan Capistrano and attends Capistrano Valley High School where he is enrolled in Dr. James Corbett's Advanced Placement European History class.

Recently this little f***ing twit and his parents filed a FEDERAL lawsuit claiming that Dr. Corbett violated his Constitutional Rights. How does a High School history teacher pull off such a feat you might ask?

By allegedly making statements that Mr. Farnan (and his evil parents) feel "make religious students feel like second class citizens."

I think Dr. Naysay makes a pretty darn good case for why morality and values ought to be taught more in school, because the Judeo-Christian tradition certainly teaches a greater deal of brotherly love, understanding and compassion than Dr. Naysay has picked up along his troubled way.

In closing, let's go back to the top post and the allegation that "the school system is still a breeding ground for religious indoctrination." In case you haven't been keeping up on your reading of The Bismark Tribune over the Christmas holidays, I offer this:

A Simle Middle School teacher has been suspended without pay after parents complained about a video he showed in a class.

Superintendent Paul Johnson outlined the investigation and discipline at the Bismarck School Board meeting Monday.

Teacher Michael Nider will be on unpaid leave starting today until Jan. 1. He showed a video called "A Letter from Hell" that he had found on Godtube.com in his fourth period eighth-grade health class Wednesday. It was not shown in any other classes.

In addition to the unpaid leave, Nider also must take a sensitivity training class by May 30. A letter of reprimand is part of his personnel file, and if he violates the school policy again, he will be fired. A new teacher will be assigned to the fourth period eighth-grade health class.

This is the first time in the four years Nider has taught with the district that he has been disciplined, and he has had good evaluations. He has taught 20 years prior to coming to the Bismarck district. Two messages were left Monday night on an answering machine at Nider's home. He did not attend Monday night's meeting.

Parents Steve and Hannah Balaban heard about the video from their daughter, who was in Nider's class. They sent a letter of complaint to the teacher, principal, school board, superintendent and other community members, because of their concerns about its religious content.

Let's review, class:

• Nider has a 20-year-plus teaching record without complaint. This is the third time Corbett's radical Secularism has caused trouble at Capo Unified.
• Nider showed one film in one class. Corbett routinely blasts Christians and their beliefs in his classes and has for years.
• Nider was suspended without pay. Corbett is still teaching with pay.
• Nider has to take sensitivity training, has a letter in his file, and will be fired if anything like this happens again. While it's early in the process still, no such action has been taken against Corbett.
• The action against Nider was taken because one set of parents called to complain. Corbett continued to teach following many such complaints, including parents pulling their children from his class.
  

Again, the model that should be followed is that the teacher in a class like AP European history should, as Corbett did, encourage their students to think hard on provocative questions, but he should do so by asking pointed questions from all points of view, so his students have no idea what his personal beliefs are.

These beliefs should not be a factor. Students should learn from a teacher's character and qualities, not his political diatribes.

Update: The Capo Unified School District apparently feels the same way, according to this OC Register editorial summarizing its policies:

It shouldn't take a lawsuit to force a public school system to consider whether a teacher lives up to district policy, which requires that staff neither promote a religious viewpoint nor "interfere with the philosophical/religious development of each student in whatever tradition the student embraces." According to a Register report, district policy also calls on teachers "to ensure that all sides of a controversial issue are impartially presented with accurate and appropriate factual information."

I don't advocate that Corbett be fired, only that he be forced to follow these policies, and that the District itself develop a method for seeing that the protocols are followed. If Corbett isn't comfortable with that, then he doesn't have to continue taking a publicly funded paycheck.

Separation Of Church And State, Secularist Style

"When you put on your Jesus glasses," Dr. James Corbett told the students in his Advanced Placement European history class at Capistrano Valley High School, "you can't see the truth."

The doc also shared with his class that he just doesn't think much of believers ... any believers:

... Conservatives don't want women to avoid pregnancies. That's interfering with God's work. You got to stay pregnant, barefoot and in the kitchen to have babies until your body collapses. All over the world, doesn't matter where you go, conservatives want control over women's reproductive capacity. Everywhere in the world, from conservative Christians in this country to, um, Muslim fundamentalists in Afghanistan. It's the same. It's stunning how vitally interested they are in controlling women.

In fact, he thinks religion draws a society down:

People ... in the industrialized world the people least likely to go to church are the Swedes. The people in the industrialized world most likely to go to church are the Americans. America has the highest crime rate of all the industrialized nations and Sweden has the lowest. The next time someone [like your parents] tells you religion is connected with morality, you might want to ask them about that.

The US does, in fact, have the highest crime rate -- a function of excellent and transparent record keeping as much as anything else. But if Corbett were to look at crime rater per capita -- the stat that matters, since he's talking about individuals' relationships with God here -- he'd' find that many much more secular industrialized nations, Finland, Denmark and the UK, all have higher crime rates.

Godless Sweden's rate is lower, but it has a higher per capita adult suicide rate than religious America. Corbett didn't share that with his students.

Moving on through this fascinating review of European history, we find the doc saying this:

I love Rush Limbaugh. A fat, pain in the ass liar. And boy is he a liar. Unbelievable.

And this important analysis of European history:

U.S. regulators -- U.S. regulators say they added new warnings about the potential risks of sudden hearing loss among men who are using Viagra, Cialis or Levitra. So what they've been telling you for all these years, that you'll go blind, isn't true. ... So you know, you know, so if you run into somebody who is, you know, deaf and whose pants felt stiff, he's probably using the drug. They're happy, but they're deaf.

In the same class, after denouncing the Boy Scouts for being "in their own mind a homophobic and racist organization," he said:

It's simple. It's called separation of church and state.

In his mind, there is no religion called "Secularism," but it's evident by his comments that there is, and he is a devout believer in that faith. One of the students in his class, Chad Farnan, has filed a lawsuit with the assistance of the Christian legal group Advocates for Faith and Freedom. Read the full complaint here.

Farnan liked Corbett's class at first, then, according to yesterday's OC Reg, he became more and more uncomfortable, and gave a recording of one of Corbett's classroom rants to his mother. All quotes in this story are from that one tape, from one class.

This isn't the first time Corbett's gotten in trouble for his views, according to the Reg:

Corbett has been involved in at least two prior court cases as a Capistrano Valley High teacher. In 1993, he was named in a lawsuit brought by colleague John Peloza, a biology teacher who challenged Capistrano Unified's mandate to teach evolutionary theory.

Corbett was listed in the suit as one of the defendants with a "class-based animus against practicing Christians" who attempted to "force" Peloza to teach evolution through "harassment and intimidation." A trial court and an appeals court ruled against Peloza, although the appeals court said the complaint was "not entirely frivolous" and awarded attorney fees to Peloza.

Despite this, Corbett is still teaching, and Capistrano Valley High principal Tom Ressler hasn't commented on his teacher's latest transgression yet, except to say that 33 percent of Corbett's students flunked the state's Advanced Placement exam. (Actually, he said 66 percent passed, but I thought I'd emphasize that Corbett is a lousy teacher, too, not just a bigot.)

Were a teacher to lead his students in prayer, you can bet that Corbett would be at the front of the crazed pack, calling for that teacher's "fat, pain in the ass" head. Were a teacher to attempt to teach the true history of Communist violence and abuse, or the terrorist acts of the Palestinians, you can bet that Corbett would be the loudest voice crying "Foul!" (or something more profane).

Yet he feel free to encourage kids to have premarital sex and to not trust their parents ...

So you know, some parents are objecting, saying [handing out birth control pills is] taking too much power away from the parents. Parents are pretty irresponsible. And so is the Bush administration with its abstinence policy. Spending billions of dollars [!!] on something they know doesn't work, wonderful. Wonderful. Idiotic.

... to not trust America, and above all, to not be a fool who believes in God.

And we pay him to do this, and if the school district -- the school district my taxes go to, as a matter of fact -- doesn't fire him, we will pay for his defense.

Update: Here's a follow-up article on the spirited debate the first article on Corbett generated.

Sunday Scan

Tell Me If This Hurts

This hurts, Doc. From an op/ed on health care solutions in today's OC Register:

Many more doctors and nurses have been hired [by Britain's National Health Service]. Unfortunately, their productivity has declined, as the number of patients seen by each physician has declined over the same period.

Britain has imported more than 20,000 physicians from Third World countries in the past three years, as after 60 years of experience the NHS has failed to attract and retain British physicians. Most of the imports are undoubtedly well-qualified, even those few who blow up cars and airports in their spare time.

The author, Richard Ralston, a health care advocate, notes that the NHS is a model for many who would reform America's health system along Socialist lines. Cou-Hillary!-gh. He highlights for us some elements of the model:

• No knee replacements for women weighing more than 180 pounds and men more than 218 pounds.
• Heart bypasses denied for smokers.
• "Patients 80 years and older have been denied treatment for stroke because, after all, what is the point?"
• No longer changing sheets between patients -- just turning the sheets over, instead. Staph, anyone?
  
• British patients taking "surgery vacations" so they don't need to wait for surgery at home.
  

Feeling Insignificant

An anonymous LAT editorial took a swipe at those who would stand up to the secularization of American culture. Writing on the SCOTUS decision not to take up the forced removal of a cross from LA County's seal, the ever-tolerant LAT scathed:

The county offered up a new cross-less seal that also banished the Roman goddess Pomona (we can't show favoritism to pagans, you know) and replaced oil derricks with a cross-less view of Mission San Gabriel. People went berserk. The deaths of inmates in county custody, or patients at county hospitals, or children in county-supervised foster homes attract only a fraction of the invective that the change to the ridiculously insignificant county seal brought.

No criticism was directed the ACLU's way for bringing the lawsuit, even though if the seal were "ridiculously insignificant," criticism is certainly due. Instead, the LAT reduces to "ridiculously insignificant"' the concerns of those of us who see a very real threat in the ACLU's efforts to remove God from the public square, and paints us as a "berserk" bunch who would put this trifling concerns above whatever issue du jour concerns the godless heathens editorial writers at the Lost Angels Times.

The Trouble With Mormons

Now that the NYT has stopped forcing us to pay to get angry at Maureen Doud, I'm reading her again. Good thing. She's clarified what's so wrong about Mormons. Here's what she wrote today about the Mormon temple near her hometown:

It did seem like an alien world, an impression that was enhanced when we took a tour of the temple and saw all the women wearing white outfits and light pink lipstick.

Ooooh. There goes my vote for Mitt.

To ice her case, Doud turns to Jon Krakauer, who's Under the Banner of Heaven was not a kind portrayal of Mormon history. He delivers for her this line:

“J.F.K.’s speech was to reassure Americans that he wasn’t a religious fanatic,. Mitt’s was to tell evangelical Christians, ‘I’m a religious fanatic just like you.’”

Doud then jumps on the "religious fanatic" theme:

The world is globalizing, nuclear weapons are proliferating, the Middle East is seething, but Republicans are still arguing the Scopes trial.

Sure we are, Mo. Just a bunch of fanatics stuck in a time warp; not that different from the Mohammed Teddy bunch in Sudan.

Ignorance and intolerance has found a Petri dish it loves to fester in at the NYT.

Edwards Answers Oprah

Yeah, this should work:

Democrat John Edwards announced Sunday that actors Kevin Bacon and Tim Robbins will join him on Iowa's frigid campaign trail.

Edwards' announcement came as media mogul Oprah Winfrey stumped here for Barack Obama during the weekend ...

Just last week, Edwards was joined on the stump by actresses Jean Smart, who plays the first lady on the popular FOX series "24," and Madeleine Stowe, who has appeared in such films as "The Last of the Mohicans" and "Twelve Monkeys." Last month, performers Bonnie Raitt and Jackson Browne campaigned in Iowa for Edwards.

Bacon, Robbins, Smart,Stowe, Raitt and Browne between them have the drawing power of Oprah's little toenail.

And perhaps someone should remind Pretty Boy that the entertainment industry has done oh so much for politics, proving its worth with Al Gore, then re-proving it with John Kerry.

Academics (Snark!) For Ron Paul

Twenty-one, count 'em, twenty-one academics have signed an Academics for Ron Paul statement as of this writing.

These are an illustrious bunch. Netz Katz. Ivan Pongracic, Jr. Ralph Raico. Aeon J. Skoble. Household names all.

And darn good grammarians, too:

Paul is the only presidential candidate with a proven record of defending academic freedom across-the-board.

That would be "defending academic freedom across the board."

Pass the Methane, Mom!

Gee willikers, there's less then 10 years left to deal with global warming!

Does that mean -- puleeeze, God! -- that by 2018 we won't have to listen to this tripe anymore?

Probably not, but it's a good enough intro to this story:

A new species of bacteria discovered living in one of the most extreme environments on Earth could yield a tool in the fight against global warming.

University of Calgary biology professor Peter Dunfield and colleagues discovered a methane-eating microorganism in the geothermal field known as Hell's Gate, near the city of Rotorua in New Zealand. It is the hardiest "methanotrophic" bacterium yet discovered, which makes it a likely candidate for use in reducing methane gas emissions from landfills, mines, industrial wastes, geothermal power plants and other sources.

"This is a really tough methane-consuming organism that lives in a much more acidic environment than any we've seen before," said Dunfield, who is the lead author of the paper. "It belongs to a rather mysterious family of bacteria (called Verrucomicrobia) that are found everywhere but are very difficult to grow in the laboratory."

Methanotrophic bacteria consume methane as their only source of energy and convert it to carbon dioxide during their digestive process. Methane (commonly known as natural gas) is 20 times more potent a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide and is largely produced by decaying organic matter.

Set if we let these little guys go free in methane-rich environments like landfills, they'll convert the methane into CO2, screwing up every single global warming model the Warmies have created.

Ironic, isn't it, that all these big believers in anthropomorphic global warming believe we've screwed everything up, but can't imagine that we can actually fix things. So they don't factor human ingenuity into their models, just assuming we'll go roasting off to oblivion, like so many overheated lemmings.

U.N. Solves Global Warming!

Not content to deal with pursue practical approaches like methane-eating microbes, the UN jet-setted 8,000 Warmie bureaucrats to Bali to emit hot air endlessly.

The UN is big on symbolism, and they've done a magnificent job of being symbolic in Bali:

Further rigors, according to a report from China’s Xinhua News Agency, include the demand that all motor vehicles entering the beach area surrounding Bali’s Nusa Dua conference complex run on biofuels.

Claudia Rosette harumphs:

That sounds problematic, if the Xinhua report is accurate that only a few gas stations in Indonesia routinely sell biofuels, and they not on Bali, but are clustered around the Indonesian capital of Jakarta, on the island of Java, more than 500 miles from the UN conference.

The UN is nothing if not a good source of comedy.

The Joys Of Christian-Bashing

You might want to drop by Okie on the Lam today and read his piece on not one, not two, but three Christian-bashing pieces in today's LA Times.

'Tis the season!

Romney Speech: No Converts

Mitt Romney gave a beautifully crafted speech today called "Faith in America" that was really about "The Mormon Faith in American Politics."

It was pretty much the best speech on the subject he could have given. There were quibbles, of course:

By insisting on faith - any faith - as the proper criterion for public office, Romney draws the line, oh-so-conveniently, so as to include Mormonism but exclude atheism and agnosticism. -- Andrew Sullivan

And there were broadsides:

Romney, though, had a perfect distraction for his doubters, the religious group Americans distrust more than Mormons: Muslims. ... No matter how much Republican voters may distrust members of Romney's faith, they hate someone else [Muslims] more. -- Mother Jones

But mostly, there were lovely turns of phrase:

Freedom requires religion just as religion requires freedom. Freedom opens the windows of the soul so that man can discover his most profound beliefs and commune with God. Freedom and religion endure together, or perish alone. ...

No candidate should become the spokesman for his faith. For if he becomes President he will need the prayers of the people of all faiths.

But it really all gets down to this: Those who are more concerned about a president's morality and character than the church he goes to didn't need to be moved, and those who cannot stomach a Mormon president cannot be moved. This speech was about getting it over with, and only about getting it over with. It was not about overcoming the doubts of those who hold Romney's religion against him.

And as a "getting it over with" speech, it was effective, as Romney said:

There are some who would have a presidential candidate describe and explain his church's distinctive doctrines. To do so would enable the very religious test the founders prohibited in the Constitution.

Agreed ... with a bit of a groan, because if, as Romney suggested and I believe, secularism is a religion, then questions about the moral structure of a secularist candidate are out, too. Abortion? Public prayer? Faith-based initiatives? Can't answer; religious test.

Of course those are issues for the Democratic party, where they don't matter. There are, and will be, no meaningful Secularist GOP candidates any time soon.

Half a century ago, Kennedy made a similar speech that some credit with giving him the edge over Nixon. I disagree. His haircut, his wife, his personna -- they gave him the edge over Nixon, and none of those moved a single person unsettled about a Catholic in the White House.

God may smile on Romney and he may be our next president. But it will be his policies and his ability to communicate them effectively to those who don't have a Mormon hang-up that will get him votes.

Now that the speech has been given and the issue is done with, he can get along with that task.

Photo: NY Times

Short Victory For Snot-Nosed Secularist

In a bit o' power to the people, I wrote Cong. Ron Packard, a good GOP man who represents Riverside, when I heard that a complaint from a single, solitary slime-ball secularist had brought an end to the solemn "13-Fold Recital" flag ceremony at funerals at Riverside National Cemetery and other Veterans Administration cemeteries across the country. (Here's my post on the matter.)

Yesterday I got a response, and I just have to say ... YIPPEE!

Thank you for contacting my office regarding the Department of Veterans Affairs policy on the 13-fold recital ceremony. I appreciate the opportunity to update you on this situation: good sense and common cultural values have prevailed.

On October 25, 2007, an article in the Press Enterprise brought to my attention that a memo from the National Cemetery Administration (NCA) banned the recitation of a common flag-folding ceremony sometimes used by cemetery employees and volunteers at 125 national cemeteries. The change in policy was prompted by one complaint which originated at Riverside National Cemetery.

Freedom of speech and religion are American freedoms that I strongly support, and I believe that the rights granted to all citizens through the First Amendment are instrumental to democracy. Therefore, on October 29, 2007, I sent a letter to the Acting Secretary of Veterans' Affairs, along with 127 of my colleagues expressing our frustration with the policy of disallowing employees and volunteers from providing the 13-fold recital to families if they request the ceremony.

In addition, I introduced H.Res. 783, along with Rep. Steven LaTourette, which expresses the sense of the House of Representatives that the Department of Veterans Affairs National Cemetery Administration employees, volunteers, and veterans' service organizations that perform funeral honors and memorial honor details should be permitted to recite the 13 steps to fold an American flag (known as the "13-fold recital") at any national cemetery if requested by the family of the deceased.

You may be happy to know that the Department of Veterans Affairs instituted a different policy on November 1, 2007, which stated that NCA employees, including VA-sponsored Volunteer Honor Guards, can read the "13-fold recital" if requested by the deceased's survivors. In addition, they will not be selective in determining which recitations on the meaning of the thirteen folds will be read.

However, the VA will not accept for reading any texts that would have an adverse impact on the dignity and solemnity of a cemetery honoring those who served the Nation. Among the texts that would not be read would be those that are obscene, racist, are "fighting words," or are coarse, abusive, or politically partisan.

While our system of government can sometimes be slow and unwieldy, in this case strong reaction by the people and quick action by interested Representatives yielded a speedy "about face" by the Department of Veterans' Affairs.

So today, somewhere in America, volunteer vets are once again folding the flag that had draped the coffin of a vet who has passed on, reciting the pledge, honoring his service, respecting his family ... and letting secularists know that we Americans will stand strong in support of our freedoms.

p.s.: Flopping Aces has the text of the 13-fold recital here.

p.p.s.: Please see the site from which the photo came; it honors a fallen hero you should remember, Johnny Michael Spann.

Snot-Nosed Secularist Defeats Vets

Vets like these two gentlemen, Bobby Castillo and Rees Lloyd, have conducted a flag-folding ceremony for the funerals of vets at the Riverside National Cemetery, as have others throughout the country.

And they're spittin' mad:

Through thousands of military burials, Memorial Honor Detail volunteers at Riverside National Cemetery have folded the American flag 13 times and recited the significance of every fold to survivors of those being laid to rest.

The first fold, a narrator tells relatives, represents life, the second a belief in eternal life.

The 11th fold celebrates Jewish war veterans and "glorifies the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob."

A single complaint lodged against the words for the 11th fold recently prompted the National Cemetery Administration to ban the entire recital at all 125 national cemeteries.

It turns out that complaint came from just one person, a selfish, bitter, vicious subhuman who heard the dreadful word "God" at that very cemetery. Rees Lloyd actually spun together some better adjectives than I did:

"That the actions of one disgruntled, whining, narcissistic and intolerant individual is preventing veterans from getting the honors they deserve is truly an outrage. This is another attempt by secularist fanatics to cleanse any reference to God."

The bureaucrats at that most august and valiant agency, the National Cemetery Administration, followed standard bureaucratic protocol and simply folded in the face of one sludge-synapsed, self-aggrandizing sorry soul -- the bizarre flipside of their characteristic bureaucratic inability to list a finger to simplify their byzantine processes for good people in need.

Mike Nacincik, paper clip chain maker for the Cemeterians, thinks we're a stupid bunch that aren't much worth his taxpayer-funded time:

"We are looking at consistency. We think that's important."

Yeah, but are we? Do we think it's important to have a consistently soulless ceremony or a memorable and appropriately solemn one? Whatever -- just don't read anything into their action to imply that these secularist wimps public servants showed any bias against religion by their action.

"People are going to have their own views on that."

You mean, Nacinicik, that there's no Federal Manual for Raging Impotently at the Bureaucracy we can pull out, flip to subsection 7(A) 4.7c and read the proper procedures for flippin' our stacks over the power placed in the hands of little people looking for ways to impose their twisted, minority will on everyone?

The bureaucrats are by far the worse secular intolerants in this story, not the unnamed -- Oh, how I wish they had named the faceless coward! -- whiner who initiated the action.

Ken Calvert is a fine conservative Republican Congressman who represents Riverside. I'm going to drop him an email to ask for an investigation and regulatory fix to this situation. Won't you, too?

Hat-tip: Jim

Is Christianity Really This Threatened?

I've had the priviledge of meeting Rabbi Daniel Lapin on several occasions and he's quite a guy -- a Jew who understands the importance of Christians and the need for the two faiths to work closely together to protect America and his values.

Here, with a hat-tip to Ex-Preacherman, is a rather lengthy example of why Lapin's principles are so important to the American future. I've edited it some; go to Ex-Preacherman for a lengthier text.

[A] serious war is being waged against a group of Americans. I am certain that if we lose this war, the consequences for American civilization will be dire.

There is no better term than propaganda blitzkrieg to describe what has been unleashed against Christian conservatives recently.

Consider the long list of anti-Christian books that have been published in recent months. Here are just a few samples of more than 30 similar titles, all from mainstream publishers:

• “American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America”
• “The Baptizing of America: The Religious Right’s Plans for the Rest of Us”
• “The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason”
• “Piety & Politics: The Right-wing Assault on Religious Freedom”
• “Atheist Universe: The Thinking Person’s Answer to Christian Fundamentalism”
• “Thy Kingdom Come: How the Religious Right Distorts the Faith and Threatens America”
• “Religion Gone Bad: The Hidden Dangers of the Christian Right”

What is truly alarming is that there are more of these books for sale at your local large book store warning against the perils of fervent Christianity than those warning against the perils of fervent Islam. Does anyone seriously think America is more seriously jeopardized by Christian conservatives than by Islamic zealots? I fear that many Americans believe just that in the same way that many pre-World War II Westerners considered Churchill a bigger threat than Hitler. ...

I would advise you not to underestimate the power of books to alter the behavior of the American public, and I fear for an America influenced to detest Christianity by this hate-filled catalog.

It is not just books but popular entertainment also that beams the most lurid anti-Christian propaganda into the hearts and minds of viewers. ….. The brilliant Jewish moviemaker Sacha Baron Cohen, [Borat]…..has revealed nothing other than the latent anti-Christianism of America’s social, economic and academic secular elites.

Even the recent PBS documentary, “Anti-Semitism in the 21st Century: The Resurgence,” managed to do more attacking Christianity than defending Judaism.

Richard Dawkins, an Oxford University professor, is one of the generals in the anti-Christian army of the secular left. ….he asks, “It’s one thing to say people should be free to believe whatever they like, but should they be free to impose their beliefs on their children?” He suggests that the state should intervene to protect children from their parents’ religious beliefs. Needless to say, he means Christian beliefs, of course. ...

Tyranny comes when citizens are seduced into trading freedom for the promise of safety and security. ...

If they succeed, Christianity will be driven underground, and its benign influence on the character of America will be lost. In its place we shall see a sinister secularism that menaces Bible believers of all faiths. Once the voice of the Bible has been silenced, the war on Western Civilization can begin and we shall see a long night of barbarism descend on the West. (World Net Daily)

Ironically, Anti-Christian forces have used radical Islam to their advantage. Far too many people don't seem to be able to differentiate between jihad, which they see as fundamentalist Islam, and fundamentalist Christianity.

And far too many others fall for the garbage these people put out, or are willing to trumpet it in the media.

A New Low For Euro-Tastelessness?

We have to go back ten years or so for this episode of European secularism at its best/worst (who's to judge?):

Accusations of "extraordinary bad taste" were leveled at Vienna on Sunday after details emerged of an Austrian designer snapping nude photos at a former Nazi concentration camp.

Gudrun Geiblinger used the memorial site at the former Mauthausen death camp as a backdrop for nude photos of herself, the news magazine Profil wrote in its latest edition.

The photos, shot in the late 1990s, show Geiblinger naked, wearing only white stockings and high heels, in sensual poses in front of a camp watchtower and hugging a sculpture depicting a dying soldier.

Geiblinger justified the photoshoot by saying she worked on a project at an art school and the photos were used for "brainstorming." (source)

"Oh, art is supposed to shock," you say? Not until secularism took it over, it wasn't; before that, art existed to edify. But being uplifting is so passe.

Geiblinger certainly was caught up in the shock aspects of art when in art school. Her excuse, looking for was a simple prison, doesn't earn her much slack. White stockings and high heels in a prison? That's sure normal. Besides, we're supposed to believe that she didn't think about how debasing to the memory of Mauthausen's victims her actions were?

Since getting out of art school, Geiblinger has grown to be a rootin' tootin' graphic artist, but doesn't seem to have gotten too far away from her efforts to stay in the mainstream of the anti-mainstream art world: