House Blocks Court on Pledge Case Rulings

WASHINGTON (AP) — The House passed a bill Thursday that would prevent the Supreme Court from ruling on whether the words “under God” should be stricken from the Pledge of Allegiance.

In a politically and emotionally charged debate, Democrats said majority Republicans in the chamber were debasing the Constitution in order to force a vote that could hurt Democrats in the election.

Supporters insisted that Congress has always had authority to limit federal court jurisdiction, and the legislation is needed to protect an affirmation of religion that is part of the national heritage.

The bill, which was passed 247-173, would prohibit federal courts, including the Supreme Court, from hearing cases involving the pledge and its recitation and would prevent federal courts from striking the words “under God” from the pledge.

I grew up in Seattle; and by and large, it’s a pretty liberal/progressive place, as things go. And with the exception of the nuts in eastern WA, the state’s not so bad. (It’s a blue state, you know.) So, this bit of idiotic religious bigotry in the governor’s race seemed especially depressing to me: Gubernatorial Candidate Slams Atheists

Ron Sims, running for governor under the Democratic party (Washington), made a statement expressing a high degree of bigotry against Atheists… in a debate hosted by KING5 and the Seattle Times… One viewer who submitted a question… asked Sims if he would appoint [Atheists] to a judgeship. Sims responded “I think it�s important for a person to feel they are not the only answer and that if they don�t have to account for what they say and what they do, those people are very dangerous. People who think they are the beginning and end of every question and answer are very dangerous people. Anyone who does not hold a belief in a higher authority is a very dangerous person.”

Part of what’s interesting is that he gives voice to exactly the equation that lurks in lots of very mainstream rhetoric: Being someone who “doesn’t hold a belief in a higher authority” is the same as being someone who thinks “they don�t have to account for what they say and what they do” and “they are the beginning and end of every question and answer”. That is, atheism is equivalent to non-moral egoism. Is there a more widespread piece of stupid theistic bigotry?

This document from the British House of Lords (Religious Offences in England and Wales) is kind of interesting. It outlines some of the legal detail of the crime of blasphemy in the UK — which, for all the bullshit neo-theocracy in the US, isn’t actually illegal here, what with the roadblock of the 1st amendment and all. The document opens with this chilling line: “1. Blasphemy (and blasphemous libel) is a common law offence with an unlimited penalty.”

Ah yes, the joys of reading xian nutjobs. Check out Yes, God Established America! Some highlights:

It isn�t as though God has given up on his creation. To quote my very good friend again: “God wrote books, sent messengers, floods, famines, pestilence; nothing seemed to convey God�s message to men.”

You can just see God: “Jeez, you’d think that after the fourth or fifth plague they would realize how much I love them and how it’s important for them to love me back so I can stop killing them slowly and painfully.”

My friend believes: “God is giving the world one last chance. God [established] George Walker Bush, President of the United States of America. Not the voters of Florida, not the Supreme Court of the [US], not the Supreme Court of Florida. God cast the deciding vote in the election of 2000.”

I guess God was working through Katherine Harris.sex tucci interracial flowerunderage teen russiantity big ebony girlswho suck breasts men lactatingnaturist peeingthumbs pissing freesexy ladies pissingatk hairy amkingdom Map

I’ve heard the line that God allows human beings to do awful things, like molest children, because he has given us free will, and restricting our free will would be bad, or something. But I don’t think I’ve ever heard someone claim that God chose a kid to be molested. But apparently that’s what Big Daddy did in the case of Michael Jackson’s alleged victim, according to the kid’s mom:

On a police tape, obtained by a US television show the woman is heard saying:
“God hand-picked me and the kids because he knew that we weren’t going to fall
for any of their money.
“It was going to be justice more than anything.” (Jacko accuser’s mum ‘chosen by God’)

OK, so God chose them because they are strong enough to bring Michael down and resist a payoff. Of course God could just punish a molester directly (cover him with gruesome sores, toss a lightning bolt at him, turn him to salt — you know, give him the Old Testament treatment) or, better yet, make it so that he never wanted to molest kids. But, hey, what do we know?

Some reporter for the Washington Post is trying to emphasize the “mystery” of Dubya’s religious faith:

Bush has said many times that he is a Christian, believes in the power of prayer and considers himself a “lowly sinner.” But White House aides said they do not know whether the president believes that: the Bible is without error; the theory of evolution is true; homosexuality is a sinful choice; only Christians will go to heaven; support for Israel is a biblical imperative; or the war in Iraq is part of God’s plan.

Really? We don’t know any of that? And the funny part is that the story starts off with:

Before President Bush addressed a Knights of Columbus convention last month in Dallas, the audience of 2,500 conservative Catholics watched a documentary film about a woman who chose to die rather than end a pregnancy that threatened her life. Then the president gave a speech in which he called Pope John Paul II “a true hero of our time” and used the pope’s phrase “culture of life” three times.

Yeah, what a fucking mystery. Maybe it’s just me…

Seems like some fucking xians are attacking birth control now:

A growing number of doctors and pharmacists are now refusing to dispense it, on the grounds that it is actually a form of abortion.

And I can’t stand that conscience-of-the-pharmacist bullshit argument.

Representative Curt Gielow says pharmacists should be protected.

“There was an incident where a pharmacist who worked in a retail drug store refused on conscience to fill a prescription and that individual was terminated from employment,” Mr Gielow says.

“That, I believe, set the stage for concern there might be employment discrimination opportunity here if in fact you listened to your conscience instead of doing what the boss told you to do.”

Yeah, that’s right, discrimination against xians once again. Those poor little xians…

It’ll surprise nobody who visits here that I’m not a fan of BeliefNet’s Steven Waldman, but his Slate piece Heaven Sent: Does God endorse George Bush? is worth a read just for the reminders of all the “God chose W” crap the ‘Publicans spout. (But fuck Waldman for his God-luvin shit like “Democrats tend to overreact to Bush’s use of religious rhetoric, which has usually been responsible, inspiring, and poetic.”)

…while Bush’s public comments about faith have been mostly within the mainstream tradition of presidential rhetoric, his supporters lately have gone in a less-familiar direction: conveying the idea that God is responsible for Bush being in the White House. “He is one of those men God and fate somehow lead to the fore in times of challenge,” said George Pataki in the high-profile introduction of Bush at the Republican National Convention… lines from Rudy Giuliani’s speech two nights earlier: “Spontaneously, I grabbed the arm of then Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik and said to Bernie, ‘Thank God, George Bush is our president.’ ” And, to reinforce the point, Giuliani added, “And I say it again tonight: Thank God, George Bush is our president”… Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention heard Bush say ‘I believe that God wants me to be president’ … “I think that God picked the right man at the right time for the right purpose,” said popular Christian broadcaster Janet Parshall. Gen. William “Jerry” Boykin, who got in trouble for derogatory comments about Islam, argued that it must have been God who selected Bush, since a plurality of voters hadn’t. “Why is this man in the White House? The majority of America did not vote for him. He’s in the White House because God put him there for a time such as this.” (Boykin still has his job.) Time magazine reported, “Privately, Bush talked of being chosen by the grace of God to lead at that moment.” World Magazine, a conservative Christian publication, quoted White House official Tim Goeglein as saying, “I think President Bush is God’s man at this hour, and I say this with a great sense of humility.”

And there are more.

Hey God, if you did choose W: What are you, a fucking moron? A retarded, spoiled, silver-spoon drunk who has been called “the worst president of the 20th century” by more non-partisan centrists than you can shake a stick at? You pathetic fuck-up.