Tag: Religion

Will The Constitution Be Violated?

Professor’s Classroom

Subject:   US Constitution

I asked this question some months ago and at that time I was asking if Obama would violate it.  Then I was pointing to the nomination of Clinton as a possible violation….that problem was averted but there has been many accusations of the violation of the Constitution in the past couple of months.

Just yesterday, North Carolina Rep. Foxx said this about health care:

The Constitution doesn’t grant a right to health care, and most of us are living as much by the Constitution as we can. It also doesn’t give the federal government the authority to deal with health care.

There is always the part about the “general welfare”?

This woman has made several appearance in Info Ink” Anal-Ocity posts, but I digress……

Rep. Bachmann has accused Obama of violating the Constitution by his pushing of the health care reform…hers however is lame and impotent argument.  And then there is the whole Constitutional BS of Obama’s citizenship…and I know everyone has heard that accusation.  And if you believe the BS you would be mistaken…the Prez is a citizen and there is NO violation.

All the accusations have been wrong?  So far most of them are total BS.  But before we go any further there is a few things I should cover, like the 1st amendment which states:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion,

And then there is the state’s rights thing:

all the rights and powers which the Constitution neither grants to the federal government nor denies to the state governments.

And now I would bet that you are wondering where I am going with this, right?

Alrighty then…..the state of Texas, go figure, has recently made it mandatory that the Bible be taught in its public school system.  Now is that a violation of the US Constitution?  Please look at it from a constitutional law perspective and not from personal emotional thing.

The state has past a law that violates the whole separation of church and state thingy…….if the Constitution has said that it is unlawful to put one religion over another…..then how can a state enforce a state law that violates the US Constitution?  Civil rights is the first thing that comes to mind.  Should this mandate be challenged in a court of law?  How should the Constitution be interpreted?  Figuratively?  Literally?  Just how should it be viewed?

These questions have been asked for decades and probably for the entire life of the country…..but how do you see this playing out?

A Religious Outreach To Atheists

Before I go any further…..your beliefs are just that..yours and I in NO way want to infringe on what you care to believe.  I found this article intersting and wanted to post it and maybe some small comment to go with it.

Reuters is reporting that:

What happens when you put a Muslim imam, a Christian priest, a rabbi and a Buddhist monk in a room with 10 atheists?Turkish television station Kanal T hopes the answer is a ratings success as it prepares to launch a gameshow where spiritual guides from the four faiths will seek to convert a group of non-believers.

The prize for converts will be a pilgrimage to a holy site of their chosen religion — Mecca for Muslims, the Vatican for Christians, Jerusalem for Jews and Tibet for Buddhists.

But religious authorities in Muslim but secular Turkey are not amused by the twist on the popular reality game show format and the Religious Affairs Directorate is refusing to provide an imam for the show.

The project focuses attention on the issue of religious identity in European Union-candidate Turkey, where rights groups have raised concerns over freedom of religion for non-Muslim minorities.

Some 200 people have so far applied to take part in the show and the 10 contestants will be chosen next month.

A team of theologians will ensure that the atheists are truly non-believers and are not just seeking fame or a free holiday.

Okay, I should have something clever to say at this point….but I cannot stop laughing long enough to do it…sorry.

Those Who Cannot…..Teach

The news is slow, so that makes room for another edition of Sexy Sunday.

In a report recently in the BBC:

A Polish Catholic priest has published a book which provides married couples with a theological and practical guide to spicing up their sex lives.

In his book, Sex as you don’t know it: for married couples who love God, Father Ksawery Knotz aims to sweep away the strait-laced attitudes many hold.

Sex in marriage, the Franciscan friar explains, should not be boring but “saucy, surprising and fantasy packed”.

The book, which has the backing of the Polish Catholic Church, has been a hit.

Father Kaswery Knotz says in his “Kama Sutra of the Catholiuc Church”:

“Every act – a type of caress, a sexual position – with the goal of arousal is permitted and pleases God. During sexual intercourse, married couples can show their love in every way, can offer one another the most sought-after caresses.”

“Calling sex a celebration of the marriage sacrament raises its dignity in an exceptional way. Such a statement shocks people who learned to look at sexuality in a bad way. It is difficult for them to understand that God is also interested in their happy sex life and in this way gives them his gift.”

But Father Knotz stresses the book does not differ from the Church’s view on sex. He discourages the use of contraceptives, saying they “lead a married couple outside of Catholic culture and into a completely different lifestyle”.

He also dismisses those that have questioned the competency of a celibate monk to write about sex, saying his experience comes from counselling married couples and from running a website giving sexual advice for almost a year.

There are just so many trashy comments that I could make right now but I will leave those to others.  BTW, I am still shaking my head at this one.

Office Of Faith-Based Policies

As reported by the Associated Press.

President Barack Obama will ask for a legal review of the White House faith-based office before deciding whether to allow federally funded religious groups to hire only their own.

Obama planned to sign an executive order on Thursday forming the White House Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships, the White House said.

But the order also directs White House staff and lawyers and the Justice Department to develop a policy that would guide how government-supported programs can hire staff, according to a religious leader with knowledge of the plans. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the details have not been released.

The deliberate approach is unlikely to please either conservative religious leaders, who worry they’ll need to compromise their religious beliefs to participate, or liberal religious and secular leaders, who quickly want to undo Bush administration hiring policies.

The president will also appoint Joshua DuBois, a 26-year-old Pentecostal minister who headed religious outreach for Obama’s Senate office and later his campaign, to lead the partnerships office and name 25 religious and secular leaders to a new advisory board.

During his presidential campaign, Obama said he wanted to expand White House faith-based efforts begun under Bush. But while he endorsed Bush’s initiative to give religious groups more access to federal funding, he also promised to make some changes to the office.

Obama’s advisers want to be certain tax dollars sent to the faith-based social service groups are used for secular purposes, such as feeding the hungry or housing the homeless, and not for religious evangelism. The administration doesn’t want to be perceived as managing the groups yet does want transparency and accountability.

Obama pledged during the campaign to allow taxpayer-funded religious institutions to hire and fire based on religion — but only for the activities run on private funding.

One question is whether the faith-based office will issue grants under the Bush rules while the hiring policy is worked out.

The Rumble In Jerusalem

Israeli police have had to restore order at one of Christianity’s holiest sites after a mass brawl broke out between monks in Jerusalem’s Old City.

Fighting erupted between Greek Orthodox and Armenian monks at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the traditional site of Christ’s crucifixion.

Two monks from each side were detained as dozens of worshippers traded kicks and punches at the shrine, said police.

Trouble flared as Armenians prepared to mark the annual Feast of the Cross.

Shocked pilgrims looked on as decorations and tapestries were toppled during Sunday’s clash.

Dressed in the vestments of the Greek Orthodox and Armenian denominations, rival monks threw punches and anything they could lay their hands on.

The Greeks blamed the Armenians for not recognising their rights inside the holy site, while the Armenians said the Greeks had violated one of their traditional ceremonies.

An Armenian clergyman said the Greek clergy had tried to place one of their monks inside the Edicule, an ancient structure which is said to encase the tomb of Jesus.

“What is happening here is a violation of status quo. The Greeks have tried so many times to put their monk inside the tomb but they don’t have the right to when the Armenians are celebrating the feast,” he said.

The Armenians had been preparing to commemorate the 4th Century discovery of the cross believed to have been used to crucify Jesus.

A Greek clergyman said: “We protested peacefully, we stood here in the middle and we claimed that we shall not leave the procession finished unless they leave our guardian be inside. This didn’t happen and in that moment the police interfered.”

Six Christian sects share control of the ancient church and the BBC’s Wyre Davies in Jerusalem says confrontations between them are not uncommon, but rarely descend into violence.

And you only thought the Muslims were the silly ones for fighting each other.

What Did The FLDS Raid Cost Texas?

The cost of the April raid on a polygamist compound in West Texas is expected to top $14 million, about one-third of it in lawyers’ fees, according to a published analysis of state records.

The state expects to pay nearly $4.5 million in legal fees, including paying for lawyers who represented the state and others appointed by judges to represent the children. The state also expects to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for expert witnesses, visiting judges and office supplies.

The state attorney general’s office has been billed $110,000 for DNA testing of adults and children taken from the ranch in an effort to identify the parents of each child.

Another big chunk of spending, about $2.4 million, went to rent buses and facilities to house the children and some of the mothers after the early April raid, the newspaper reported.

Overtime for state employees, including workers in the state’s protective services agencies, was about $1.7 million, and travel another $1.2 million during the first month after the raid.

The Texas Department of Public Safety spent nearly $1.3 million, including $410,000 for overtime pay and about $82,000 for travel.

Your tax dollars at work and what did they accomplish?  They wasted time and money, that could have been better spent elsewhere.  All in all, this was a debacle that all should be made to pay for with their jobs.

A Religious Rant

I have no problem with people of faith.  I have no problem with their faith, whatever it may be.  religion is a personal thing and as such should remain between the person and their God.  But in the past years I have witnessed all sorts of religious activism, some I can understand and some I cannot.

The “Support Life” is one that makes little sense.  I understand that some people are against abortions, which is cool, but these same people are the staunchest supports of war.  Does that mean that life is important until you come out of the womb and then you are just another statistic?

Where does one draw the line in support of life?  You either support all life or you do not. but to turn it into a political issue is just stupid!  ALL life is important and not an issue for candidates to threw out there to gain votes.  If you like pandering then that is your bag, but I want real issues that concern real Americans.

God, Pastors And Candidates

To begin with I will not go to the Rev wright stuff, that has been playing ad naseum by the media and surely everyone has formed an opinion on him and his comments.  Moving on!

Farrakhan has endorsed Obama, it was not a sought after endorsement and Obama has distanced himself from the leader of the Nation of Islam, but it was a story for awhile and help fuel the “Obama–The Muslim” email.  A thinking person would not see the connection between his name and a religion, but then thinking was the key word.  It is a FALSE claim!

Let us speak of Rev. Hagee, this is a pastor who has belittled the Catholic Church, even to calling it derogatory names.  And it is an endorsement that McCain actively sought to help solidify his support among social conservatives.  But yet not much of a story within the mainstream media.

And now this from a Rev. Paisley another sought after endorsement by McCain.  This quote is from the Washington Times:”In March 2008–two weeks after McCain appeared with Parsley at a Cincinnati campaign rally, hailing him as “one of the truly great leaders in America, a moral compass, a spiritual guide”–Mother Jones reported that Parsley had urged Christians to wage a “war” to eradicate Islam in his 2005 book,” Corn adds. “McCain’s campaign refused to respond to questions about Parsley, and the presumptive Republican presidential nominee declined to denounce Parsley’s anti-Islam remarks or renounce his endorsement. At a time when Barack Obama was mired in a searing controversy involving Reverend Jeremiah Wright, McCain escaped any trouble for his political alliance with Parsley, who leads the World Harvest Church, a supersized Pentecostal institution in Columbus, Ohio. Parsley, whose sermons are broadcast around the world, has been credited with helping George W. Bush win Ohio in 2004 by registering social conservatives and encouraging them to vote. McCain certainly would like to see Parsley do the same for him–which could explain his reluctance to do any harm to his relationship with this anti-Islam extremist.”

Now someone please take the time to explain this to me?  Why the disconnect in the reporting?  Is it accidental?  Or is there a plan in the media?

For The Love Of God, Guns And Shooters

Since Obama has made the “bitter” comment, Hillary has become a typical politician, she has picked up on the God tag and is slamming back shooters with the great unwashed.  But the best part is she is now a hunter and a proud pro-gun supporter.  She recalls hunting on some pond in PA when she was smaller.  I just do not recall guns being high on her list of things to do, before the comment was made.

Of course, we all love God and our choice of technique of worship, to say nay different would be political suicide.  So why not just write that up as a given and move on.  Shooters?  Slamming back a shot and beer does not make her one of the great unwashed…..it does however, make her look like a pandering politician.

That leaves guns and gun control……since she has not made it a majir issue until now, I would say once again making hay while the sun shines…it is pandering, also.

If the voter is dumb enough to make this a decider of where to place your vote…I say keep it, America does not need it that bad.

Intelligent Design?

 

 

Intelligent design.  HUH?  When did creationism become intelligent design?  I guess I was standing on the dock and that boat just past be by.

 

Let me see if I have it about right–God created man in his image about 5000years ago.  He did not evelve from ooze from a bog into man over millions of years.  Ok, this elderly gent made man in his image and then a woman from a rib–and this is basically, intelligent design, I realize this a simplistic look at tghe theory, but to go further, I would be dead and gone by its completion.

 

So this benevolent being with a wealth of intelligence formed this being known as man. 

 

Does anything about man show any intelligence?  NO!  It shows an extreme lack of intelligence.  Would an intelligent being make another being that would have kids kill kids over shoes or kids having babies and then leaving them in a dumpster or a man that uses a stun gun on a 19 month baby?  Hopefully the answer is NO!

 

If there is an intelligent being watching over the world, then I would suggest that he flush this toilet and try again, this experiment is a total failure.  It does not deserve to continue.  Of course, we could always blame Satan for the failure, but that would just be looking for someone to blame other than ourselves. 

 

God gave man a brain and in doing so gave the decision making to him, so man can only blame himself for any of the ridiculous occurrances in his life.  It is a shame God did not give man the intelligence to fix his own problems and in doing so man is a worthless lump of proto-plasm that serves no necessary functions, other than destroying everything he touches.

 

I say again–GOD PLEASE FLUSH THIS TOILET!