Church and state

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion,
or prohibiting the free exercise thereof."

http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/index.html

1925, Gitlow v. People [New York]
Criminal anarchy is the doctrine that organized government should be
overthrown by force or violence, or by assassination of the executive
head or of any of the executive officials of government, or by any
unlawful means. The advocacy of such doctrine either by word of
mouth or writing is a felony.
The legislature has authority to forbid the advocacy of a doctrine
designed and intended to overthrow the government without waiting
until there is a present and imminent danger of the success of the
plan advocated.

1940, Cantwell v. Connecticut
Newton Cantwell and his two sons, Jesse and Russell, members of a
group known as Jehovah's Witnesses were going door-to-door in a
thickly populated neighborhood where about ninety percent of the
residents are Roman Catholics. They were soliciting money,
services, subscriptions or any valuable thing for their religious
cause. "unless such cause shall have been approved by the
secretary of the public welfare council." The state contends the
statute imposes no previous restraint upon the dissemination of
religious views or teaching, but merely safeguards against the
perpetration of frauds under the cloak of religion.
The statute is to be read as requiring the officer to issue a
certificate unless the cause in question is clearly not a religious
one, and that, if he violates his duty, his action will be corrected
by a court.
The conviction of Jesse Cantwell on the fifth count must be set
aside. The State of Connecticut has an obvious interest in the
preservation and protection of peace and good order within her
borders.
The offense known as breach of the peace embraces a great variety
of conduct destroying or menacing public order and tranquility.
It includes not only violent acts, but acts and words likely to
produce violence in others. A State may not unduly suppress free
communication of views, religious or other, under the guise of
conserving desirable conditions.

1947, Everson v. Board of Education
A township board of education, acting pursuant to this statute,
authorized reimbursement to parents of money expended by them
for the bus transportation of their children on regular busses
operated by the public transportation system. Part of this
money was for the payment of transportation of some children
in the community to Catholic parochial schools. These church
schools give their students, in addition to secular education,
regular religious instruction conforming to the religious tenets
and modes of worship of the Catholic Faith. The superintendent of
these schools is a Catholic priest.
The First Amendment has erected a wall between church and state.
That wall must be kept high and impregnable. We could not approve
the slightest breach. New Jersey has not breached it here.

God is back

Actually, He never left. This is a title to a book:

God is Back: How the Global Revival of Faith is Changing the World
Authors: John Micklethwait; Adrian Wooldridge

The Editor-in-Chief of The Economist and its D.C. Bureau Chief
examine how religious fervor and political unrest are reinforcing
each other all around the world. Wooldridge is an athiest, and
Micklethwait is Roman Catholic. Wooldridge points out that the
Church of England is probably the greatest bulwark to the revival
of Christianity in England.

The additional panelist on BookTV was Luis Lugo. He was excellent.

Jobs for Australia

The Western Australia government will decide next Thursday to permit
Chevron, Exxon Mobil and others for the Gorgon liquefied natural gas
project expansion. This $25B project will provide 6,000 jobs for
Australia.
The Democrats in Congress keep denying natural gas jobs to Americans.

Too bad.

Secession

Half seriously, I suggested in November 2008 that "red" states should
do the same thing that southern states did in 1860 when the other guy
from Illinois was elected President .
More seriously, we need to at least debate the topic. A new Constitution
could correct some serious mistakes of the past and a lot of really bad
case law.
The nation is obviously divided along conservative/liberal lines. Look
at the red/blue states map.
Let's scrap Social Security, Medicare, Medicare Prescription Drug and
other unConstitutional programs. The SCOTUS told FDR that they
were unConstitutional, but he took the "I Won" approach and
threatened to pack the Court. Let's implement the Fair Tax - omitting
the 16th amendment and others (14th) with the new Constitution.

Meltdown of the [not very] united states

In his new book Meltdown, Thomas E. Woods explains how the current
financial crisis occurred. At his Web site you may enter your email
address and have the first chapter [9 pages] emailed to you as a PDF
attachment:

http://www.thomasewoods.com

Tom was on BookTV and was very competent and believable. He states
that blaming the crisis on "greed" is like blaming a plane crash on
gravity.

Taxed Enough Already (TEA) Party

The Congress and the Federal Government are on a spending binge.
They are trying to make up for consumers who slowed their spending
to pay down their own debt. [see first post, 22 March]
The problem is bipartisan. PGWB had the first 2 Trillion dollar and
3 Trillion dollar budgets. The U.S. Constitution was set aside in most
of the recent spending. Adam Smith's "invisible hand" which guides
the market economy was set aside for very direct government
intervention.
No one is talking about the 101 Trillion dollars in unfunded
obligations for Social Security (the original Ponzi scheme), Medicare,
and Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit, etc.
The Fair Tax will make taxes more transparent. A consumption tax
has few loopholes. The rich will continue to pay most of the federal tax.
The prebate will ensure that the tax is not regressive. Those who live
frugally may pay less tax than they currently do. There will be no April
15 tax day and no quarterly estimates. A $1000 wage will be $1000 at
the bank - no deductions for income tax, FICA SS or FICA Medicare.
Many politicians have been intentionally misleading about the Fair
Tax. They present the 23% consumption tax and do not mention that
it replaces an equal amount of other taxes. It is designed to be revenue
neutral. The Fair Tax would deny them the power to grant specific tax
deductions to their friends. The $7,500 subsidy on the Tesla is a prime
example. Most taxpayers will not buy this electric car for $56,400. Few
will be able to take advantage of the $8,000 home-buyer subsidy. The
rich can buy first homes for their adult children.
Capitalism and the market economy has made the U.S.A. a superpower.
A centrally-planned economy will make us a 1980s Soviet Union.

He is Risen!

On the first day of the week, at early dawn, Mary Magdalene,
Joanna and Mary the mother of James came to the tomb bringing
the spices which they had prepared. And they found the stone rolled
away from the tomb, but when they entered, they did not find the
body of the Lord Jesus.
While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men suddenly
stood near them in dazzling clothing; and as the women were terrified
and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them,
"Why do you seek the living One among the dead? He is not here,
but He has risen. Remember how He spoke to you while He was still
in Galilee, saying that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands
of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again."
And they remembered His words, and returned from the tomb and
reported all these things to the eleven and to all the rest. But these
words appeared to them as nonsense, and they would not believe them.
But Peter got up and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw
the linen wrappings only; and he went away to his home, marveling at
what had happened.

Not only did he bow ...

Barack Obama did indeed bow to the king of Saudi Arabia.
He also genuflected!
You can clearly see him bend his right knee. The dictionary
defines genuflect as
"to bend the knee or touch one knee to the floor in reverence or worship".
PBO did not touch the floor, but he clearly bent his knee as
he bent forward. We can not know his heart at that moment,
so we do not know whether the act was in reverence or worship
of this Muslim king. If not, it is really strange that PBO will go so
far beyond the established protocol.

God so loved the world

My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?
O my God, I cry by day, but You do not answer;
But I am a worm and not a man, a reproach of men and
despised by the people.
All who see me sneer at me; they separate with the lip,
they wag the head, saying, "Commit yourself to the LORD;
let Him deliver him; Let Him rescue him, because He delights
in him."
Yet You are He who brought me forth from the womb;
You made me trust when upon my mother's breasts.
Upon You I was cast from birth; You have been my God
from my mother's womb.
I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint;
My heart is like wax; it is melted within me.
My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue cleaves
to my jaws;
A band of evildoers has encompassed me; they pierced
my hands and my feet.
I can count all my bones. They look, they stare at me;
They divide my garments among them, and for my clothing
they cast lots.
You who fear the LORD, praise Him;
All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the LORD,
and all the families of the nations will worship before You.
For the kingdom is the LORD'S and He rules over the nations.

Our Hope

For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us;
and the government will rest on His shoulders; and His name
will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father,
Prince of Peace.
There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace;
on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to
uphold it with justice and righteousness from then on and forevermore.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and
God was the Word. He was in the beginning with God. All things came
into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being
that has come into being.
And the Word [Jesus Christ] became flesh, and dwelt among us, and
we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of
grace and truth.

And I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and He who sat
on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and
wages war. He is clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name
is called The Word of God.
From His mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it He may strike
down the nations, and He will rule them with a rod of iron; and He
treads the wine press of the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty. And on
His robe and on His thigh He has a name written,
"KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS."

Excellent Trade

As President Obama was getting off the helicopter in front of the White
House, he was carrying a baby piglet under each arm.
The squared away Marine guard snapped to attention, saluted, and
said, "Nice pigs, sir."
The president replied, "These are not pigs. These are authentic
Arkansas Razorback Hogs. I got one for Secretary of State Hillary
Clinton and I got one for Speaker of The House Nancy Pelosi."
The squared away Marine again snapped to attention, saluted, and
said, "Excellent trade, sir."

Current threats

Economic threat:
China and Japan hold about a Trillion U.S. Dollars (USD) each. Unless
they - and the rest of the world - continue to loan us money, then we
will have to print more USDs. I do not believe that we will have
inflation like Germany after WWI - the USD was worth 4.2 marks in
1918 and 4,200,000,000,000 marks in 1923!

Military threat:
A single launch vehicle (FOBS) with 11 independently-targeted re-entry
vehicles (MIRVs) can totally destroy:
Los Angeles, Phoenix, Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, Denver, Miami,
New York City, Chicago, Atlanta, Washington, D.C. and Boston.
The warning will be less than 5 minutes when the MIRVs re-enter from
the fractional orbit.

Climate threat: Miniscule. The real threat is to let the United Nations'
Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change control world economies.