Conservative Culture

From Stop the ACLU

Wall Street Journal: Cleansing the ACLU

The latest battle of religion in the public square is unfolding in Dearborn, Michigan, a city with one of the highest Muslim populations in the country. At the University of Michigan’s local campus, administrators have recently refitted several school bathrooms to include small footbaths in the corner–an accommodation for Muslim students who must perform ritual washing as part of their daily observance. The issue has more than a few of the usual suspects trying to explain their way out of their usual positions on the separation of church and state.

The Detroit chapter of the ACLU has scrambled to find a way to recuse itself from the matter, claiming that the footbaths qualify as secular since they could be used by non-Muslims, and therefore don’t cross the group’s usual bright church-state line. Further, the ACLU explains, the university’s decision to take on the $25,000 expense was motivated primarily “by health and safety” because some students didn’t like washing their hands in the sinks after others students had washed their feet. If that hadn’t been the case, the group says this religious accommodation would surely have merited greater investigation and criticism.

Uh-huh. This is the same ACLU chapter that in 2005 objected to a high-school wrestling coach saying a prayer with his team before meets, calling the action “inherently coercive.” And the ACLU of Michigan is already on the defensive for its non-action this time. In a letter explaining its silence regarding university footbaths, the ACLU notes that it “has often come to the defense of other religions when the state has attempted to interfere with their religious expression.” The letter even includes a list of cases in which the group has defended Christian clients. Too bad none of the examples prove much of a parallel to the current recusal over state recognition of a religious practice.

Of course the ACLU has “explained away” its double standard in how it scrutinizes government speech or action that involves religion. If a state agency today would have allocated $25,000 of taxpayer money to an explicitly Christian activity, particularly a permanent fixure requiring perpetual maintenance that serves no function to anyone aside from adherents of one faith, you KNOW the ACLU and Americans United would have already filed suit.

I have little issue with the act itself — the university installing these footbaths. As the editorial goes on to point out:

Freedom of religion has never meant freedom from religion, and making it easier for people of different backgrounds to practice their faiths is a perfectly American thing to do. Many schools have chapels on campus, a fact that bothers very few. And few places object to kosher offerings in school cafeterias–an accommodation for Jewish students causing no inconvenience to others.

I do have a problem with the ACLU’s hypocrisy and their long, slimy tongue-kissing of an enemy to America, CAIR (Collecting Alms for Islamic Radicalism).

Input via Jay: Does this mean the ACLU would not reject accomadating Holy Water Basins for Catholics qualifying that they could also be used for secular reasons by others? I don’t think so…

Response from GF: Only if the holy water is placed at illegal border crossing hot spots for dual use as a hydration station.

No tags for this post.

Some people are born leaders… others are not so bright. It appears that the Mayor of Columbus Grove has been busted again. This time for empty beer cans in the car. You might remember his previous bust.

COLUMBUS GROVE MAYOR ARRESTED AGAIN - 8/20/2007
Columbus Grove Mayor Mike Bogart arrested again this morning on a probation violation.

Around 9:30 this morning, a Putnam County Sheriff’s deputy pulled Bogart over for suspicion of driving under suspension which was imposed after his first probation violation in June.

Once pulled over, officers noticed empty beer cans in the vehicle.

Bogart was transported to the Delphos Police Department for blood alcohol testing where he registered under the legal limit.

Bogart is charged with driving under suspension, violating his probation, and having an open container in a motor vehicle.

No tags for this post.

Updated: Indeed it is dead for now. The ballot issue is dead. Several on the Council were rightly concerned including candidate for President of the Council Ray Magnus.

Over the weekend, The Lima News became aware of e-mails about the casino exchanged between Law Director Tony Geiger and Councilman Ray Magnus, because Magnus, who initiated the communication, copied the newspaper on them.

Magnus and Geiger would not comment on the e-mails Monday night.

In the first e-mail, Magnus said the same questions raised by a Washington attorney’s review of the agreement are the same issues he raised at recent City Council meetings. Geiger answered him, also copying The Lima News, and said the points concerned technical and legal language. Geiger referred to a secret meeting between Magnus and Casey, which Magnus later denied.

It appears that despite a “mentioned” poll that showed support apparently there is sufficient evidence to put enough pressure on the Mayor that he bailed on the issue so far. But read the article and notice he hasn’t ruled out more talks. The promise of easy money seems to be a real temptation for some.

___________________________

It appears that the Mayor has pulled the casino deal with the Indian tribe and doesn’t plan on putting it on November’s ballot. That doesn’t mean its over. Either he has received enough pressure to pull it… he wants to do something without a vote on it…. or he is waiting to let it die down until next year. If we are lucky he will just let it die.

He had held a press conference but a Council City meeting is held tonight. We shall see….

COULD THE RESORT CASINO ISSUE BE DEAD AFTER TONIGHTS LIMA CITY COUNCIL? - 8/20/2007
It has been debated, argued over and divided many in the Lima community but tonight the Resort-Casino issue could come to a screeching halt.

The ordinance to place the intergovernmental agreement on the November ballot, which looked like a sure thing a few weeks ago, is being recommended for different this evening by Lima’s Mayor. David Berger says too many important issues remain to try and get this issue on the fall ballot.

Tribe Representative Terry Casey will be in Lima tonight. He says he will thank Mayor Berger, City Council and the community for making the tribe feel welcome. He says he clearly understands there is differing opinion on the Resort-Casino issue. But since it appears this did not work out this go-around, it would be a long shot to ever see a Resort-Casino in Lima.

Council meets at 7 in council chambers at the Lima Municipal Center.

Tags: Ohio

Interesting piece by this fellow, Dan Simpson. What a great last name. It may prepare you for the thoughts into a real liberal who understands nothing about the rights of the Constitution. Read the entire piece here. Below is an excerpt on the HOW TO of disarming America. This is from April but in case you missed it…. which I did.

Now, how would one disarm the American population? First of all, federal or state laws would need to make it a crime punishable by a $1,000 fine and one year in prison per weapon to possess a firearm. The population would then be given three months to turn in their guns, without penalty.

Hunters would be able to deposit their hunting weapons in a centrally located arsenal, heavily guarded, from which they would be able to withdraw them each hunting season upon presentation of a valid hunting license. The weapons would be required to be redeposited at the end of the season on pain of arrest. When hunters submit a request for their weapons, federal, state, and local checks would be made to establish that they had not been convicted of a violent crime since the last time they withdrew their weapons. In the process, arsenal staff would take at least a quick look at each hunter to try to affirm that he was not obviously unhinged.

It would have to be the case that the term “hunting weapon” did not include anti-tank ordnance, assault weapons, rocket-propelled grenade launchers, or other weapons of war.

All antique or interesting non-hunting weapons would be required to be delivered to a local or regional museum, also to be under strict 24-hour-a-day guard. There they would be on display, if the owner desired, as part of an interesting exhibit of antique American weapons, as family heirlooms from proud wars past or as part of collections.

Gun dealers could continue their work, selling hunting and antique firearms. They would be required to maintain very tight inventories. Any gun sold would be delivered immediately by the dealer to the nearest arsenal or the museum, not to the buyer.

The disarmament process would begin after the initial three-month amnesty. Special squads of police would be formed and trained to carry out the work. Then, on a random basis to permit no advance warning, city blocks and stretches of suburban and rural areas would be cordoned off and searches carried out in every business, dwelling, and empty building. All firearms would be seized. The owners of weapons found in the searches would be prosecuted: $1,000 and one year in prison for each firearm.

Clearly, since such sweeps could not take place all across the country at the same time. But fairly quickly there would begin to be gun-swept, gun-free areas where there should be no firearms. If there were, those carrying them would be subject to quick confiscation and prosecution. On the streets it would be a question of stop-and-search of anyone, even grandma with her walker, with the same penalties for “carrying.”

The “gun lobby” would no doubt try to head off in the courts the new laws and the actions to implement them. They might succeed in doing so, although the new approach would undoubtedly prompt new, vigorous debate on the subject. In any case, some jurisdictions would undoubtedly take the opportunity of the chronic slowness of the courts to begin implementing the new approach.

America’s long land and sea borders present another kind of problem. It is easy to imagine mega-gun dealerships installing themselves in Mexico, and perhaps in more remote parts of the Canadian border area, to funnel guns into the United States. That would constitute a problem for American immigration authorities and the U.S. Coast Guard, but not an insurmountable one over time.

There could conceivably also be a rash of score-settling during hunting season as people drew out their weapons, ostensibly to shoot squirrels and deer, and began eliminating various of their perceived two-footed enemies. Given the general nature of hunting weapons and the fact that such killings are frequently time-sensitive, that seems a lesser sort of issue.

That is my idea of how it could be done. The desire to do so on the part of the American people is another question altogether, but one clearly raised again by the Blacksburg tragedy.

No tags for this post.

It must remain purely about equal protection under the law. No individual or group has the right to “special protection”. Assault is assault… murder is murder. Activists for the gay movement don’t believe in equal protection of the law, they believe in special protection based on what one was thinking.

CROTHERSVILLE, Ind. – Aaron C. Hall’s killing has been called a hate crime outside this small Southern Indiana town, but the lead investigator and a defense attorney say they believe the real motive was far simpler.

 

Hall died after a beating fueled, they say, by alcohol and insults, not by confusion over whether Hall might have propositioned the men charged in his death.

 

A man dies and in a drunken brawl at that. Charge it as such. What was going on in their minds and what they were thinking at the moment is impossible to tell. Let the man be charged appropriately.

They basically said it was a drunken fight that got way out of hand,” said Detective Robert Henley of the Jackson County Sheriff’s Department, who took part in the interviews of both suspects, Coleman M. King, 18, and Garret L. Gray, 19. “I really don’t think this was a hate crime.”

 

It’s impossible to know what the men were thinking that night. But from the start, relatives insisted that Hall, who had a daughter from a nine-year relationship with a woman, wasn’t gay and knew the suspects.

 But the libs want to determine your thoughts. So if you disapprove and not praise the homosexual lifestyle they will be able to charge you for your thoughts and not just for your actions. Could I determine that their thoughts are filled with hate for the people who believe only in “straight relationships” that they can’t wait to lock us up or shut us up? Perhaps the only proof they need is that anyone who carries a Bible and believes in it is simply filled with hate and need to be locked up. One at a time if needed. More reasons I just Hate the Hate Crime Laws.

 

No tags for this post.