The Supreme Court has accepted a major handgun case, McDonald v. Chicago, that will define the scope of the recently recognized individual right under the Second Amendment. It will also allow new Justice Sonia Sotomayor to vote on the very issue that led to much of the opposition against her in her confirmation.
Continue reading “Supreme Court Takes Chicago Handgun Case in Major Test of Second Amendment Rights”
Category: Religion
The cheerleaders of Georgia’s Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe High School appear to be short a cheer for separation of church and state doctrine. They have triggered a constitutional controversy by using Biblical verses as part of their displays to root for the football team to “commit to the Lord” and “take courage and do it.”
Continue reading “Drop Kick Me Jesus Through the Goal Post of Life: Georgia Roots Out Christian Cheerleaders”
Over the last decade, legislators have rushed to impose broader and broader restrictions on sex offenders that prohibit them from living within certain distances of churches, schools, and other locations. The result is often effective banishment or homelessness for sex offenders. Georgia’s politicians have been so careless in their legislation that officials are now recommending that sex offenders live in the forests.
Continue reading “Which of These Two Beings Is More Likely to Get You a Date?”
In this new book, Speechless: Tales of a White House Survivor, Matt Latimer has an interesting insight into the presidency of George W. Bush. When author J.K. Rowling was proposed as a recipient for the Presidential Medal of Freedom, Bush nixed the idea because Rowling’s Harry Potter series “encouraged witchcraft.” While many of us may be unaware of the outbreak of witchcraft, this was no doubt contained in one of those biblically laced briefing books of the President. What is strange is that the President already honored another author of pure fiction — CIA Director George Tenet — for producing false evidence to justify the invasion of Iraq. It must simply be the genre.
A Christian group in Calgary has organized a campaign to protest an elephant statue in the zoo that resembles Ganesh, the Hindu God. The group is challenging the three-meter statue as “selective religious partiality.”
Continue reading “Christians Protest Placement of Ganesh (Elephant God) Statue at Calgary Zoo”
The Illinois Supreme Court has upheld the so-called “Jewish Clause” in a will of a deceased Chicago dentist who wanted to disinherit any children or grandchildren who failed to marry a Jew. Max Feinberg’s will will result in four grandchildren being disinherited.
Continue reading “Bring Home A Nice Jewish Boy . . . or Else: Illinois Supreme Court Upholds “Jewish Clause””
A Polish court has awarded Alicja Tysiac $11,000 against a Catholic magazine, Gosc Niedzielny, after the magazine compared her to a child killer and a Nazi. While it is impressive to see a court levy such damages against a Catholic publication in this very Catholic nation, the ruling does raise freedom of speech issues.
Continue reading “Polish Court Awards Damages to Woman Who Was Compared in Article to the Nazis for Trying to Obtain an Abortion for Health Reasons”
There is an interesting debate going on in St. Petersburg where mayoral candidate Bill Foster is being attacked for his belief in creationism. As Florida’s fourth-largest city, St. Petersburg has tried to attract businesses and industry. His critics claim that high-tech companies are going to get the wrong impression if the Mayor believes that the Earth was created in six days and that man walked with dinosaurs.
Civil libertarians have been objecting that liberals are ignoring the Obama Administration’s continuation of a number of Bush programs and policies — in contradiction to President Obama’s presidential campaign promises. From torture to unlawful surveillance, Obama has continued the positions of President Bush in federal courts in seeking to dismiss lawsuits and claim sweeping executive privilege authority. Now, the Obama Administration is seeking to get a court to dismiss a lawsuit by gay married couples from Massachusetts who are challenging the denial of federal marriage benefits.
Continue reading “Obama Administration Moves to Dismiss Lawsuit By Gay Married Couples Over Federal Benefits”
Pastor Jessica Banks, 65, has been sentenced to life in prison for drugging, beating, and locking up her five adopted daughters. The conviction includes counts of sexual abuse for two of the girls.
Continue reading ““Suffer Little Children . . . and Forbid Them Not”: California Pastor Gets Life Sentence For Abuse of Adopted Daughters”
There is a growing controversy in Jerusalem’s Pisgat Ze’ev neighborhood where groups of Jewish men are regularly patrolling the streets to prevent Jewish women from dating and socializing with Arab men. The group called Eish L’Yahadut (Fire for Judaism) is composed of roughly 40 men who have been accused of some violent encounters as they seek to break up such socialization. They deny that they use force, but admit that sometimes confrontations have turned violent.
Continue reading “Jewish Patrols in Jerusalem Are Targeting “Mixed” Jewish and Arab Couples in Campaign for Religious Separation”
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad gave his traditional Rosh Hashanah speech — effectively wishing Jews a Happy New Year by saying that they may not see another.
There are a couple of interesting stories on the continued struggle over teaching evolution in public schools. In Louisiana, the state has approved special rules allowing teachers to challenge the basis of the theory of evolution. In California, a court ruled that a history teacher’s criticism of creationism violated the Constitution.
A new poll by the Public Policy Polling group of New Jersey voters is out, here. An impressive 32% of conservatives believe that President Barack Obama is foreign born. With an additional 19% expressing uncertainty, that brings the figure to 51% of the polled citizens expressing the belief or suspicion that he is foreign born and not eligible to serve a President. Another 14% of Republicans and 18% of conservatives believe he is the Antichrist. That is by no means contradictory since the Antichrist is also foreign born.
Continue reading “Poll: Thirty-Two Percent of Conservatives Believe Obama is Foreign-Born While Almost Twenty Percent Believe He Is the Actual Anti-Christ”