Justice Antonin Scalia believes that the government should favor the religious over the non-religious.

Courtesy of NOLA: 

Government support for religion is not only justified by the Constitution, it was the norm for hundreds of years and it helped the United States become a free and prosperous nation, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia said Saturday in Metairie. 

Speaking before a small crowd at Archbishop Rummel High School, Scalia delivered a short but provocative speech on religious freedom that saw the conservative Catholic take aim at those who confuse freedom of religion for freedom from it. 

The Constitution's First Amendment protects the free practice of religion and forbids the government from playing favorites among the various sects, Scalia said, but that doesn't mean the government can't favor religion over nonreligion.

 Scalia goes on to suggest that when Thomas Jefferson first invoked the idea of the "wall of separation between church and state," that he did not intend for it to be taken literally since he also mentioned God in the Declaration of Independence, and penned Virginia's religious freedom law.

However it is within that Virginia religious freedom law that Jefferson wrote the following:

That our civil rights have no dependence on our religious opinions any more than our opinions in physics or geometry.

That therefore the proscribing any citizen as unworthy the public confidence, by laying upon him an incapacity of being called to offices of trust and emolument, unless he profess or renounce this or that religious opinion, is depriving him injuriously of those privileges and advantages, to which, in common with his fellow citizens, he has a natural right.

You know to me that sounds very much like a man who absolutely does not want special privilege provided to those who profess a faith in any god or adherence to any particular religion.

And that is even before taking into account the Jefferson Bible, where he methodically removed all mentions of miracles and left only the words ascribed to Jesus that he felt reflected his moral teachings.

No Scalia is wrong, dead wrong.

But even if he is right about the "common practice" of Christianity during the time when the country was formed, that time is long past and if we as a nation to not progress past the superstitions and ignorance of our forefathers we will find ourselves left in the dust by the rest of the world.

In fact in many ways, we already have.

Conservatives attempt to have bust of Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger removed from the Smithsonian.

Courtesy of the AP: 

Conservatives are demanding that a Smithsonian Institution art and history museum remove its bust of the founder of Planned Parenthood in their latest offensive against the organization. 

But the National Portrait Gallery says it won't remove its bust of Margaret Sanger, an early leader of the birth control movement. It has been displayed since 2010. 

Sanger, who died in 1966, also supported eugenics, a now-condemned effort to discourage reproduction by criminals and others with undesirable traits. Brent Bozell, chairman of the conservative group ForAmerica, and a group of black pastors say Sanger favored using eugenics to limit the population of blacks, a claim that some Republican lawmakers have echoed but for which the evidence is contested. 

"It's one and the same," Bozell said Wednesday of Sanger's support for eugenics and her role in starting two organizations that eventually became Planned Parenthood. He said Sanger wanted to "sterilize out of existence the poor, the blacks." 

The conservative push to remove Sanger's bust comes after anti-abortion activists have released eight videos showing secretly recorded conversations in which Planned Parenthood officials discuss how the organization sometimes provides fetal tissue to medical researchers. The videos have prompted investigations by several congressional committees and efforts by Republicans in Congress and several states to block government payments to the group. 

The move against Sanger's bust has the support of presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, who are circulating a letter to other lawmakers. A draft of that letter calls the bust's display by the museum "an affront both to basic human decency and the very meaning of justice."

Of course this has absolutely NOTHING to do with Sanger's perceived racism and everything to do with attacking Planned Parenthood.

You can bet that if conservatives gave a shit about racism then Donald Trump would not be leading in the polls right now.

And if they want to start removing the busts of people who supported racism in this country, perhaps they ought to start with this one:

After all Thomas Jefferson owned hundreds of slaves and even fathered children by at least one of the women he owned.

Perhaps we should recognize that NONE of our heroes are perfect, however in many cases their contributions to this country far outweigh the perceived negatives in their character.

Found on the wall surrounding the Thomas Jefferson statue within the Thomas Jefferson Memorial.

A man well ahead of his time.

Hell, if he were a modern day politician he would even be ahead of THIS time.

Sarah Palin's super patriotic passive aggressive 4th of July shout out.

Wearing her "With every step I am disrespecting our flag" shoes.

Courtesy of the red, White, ans Blue moron's Facebook page:

Happy Fourth of July, America! Never forget what Thomas Jefferson called “the Spirit of 1776” – a sentiment rooted in the abiding belief that all men are created equal and desire freedom. Reagan invoked that same spirit in his famous speech “A Time for Choosing” when he urged us not to “abandon the American revolution and confess that a little intellectual elite in a far-distant capitol can plan our lives for us better than we can plan them ourselves.” 

(Translation:  Happy freedom day you small town living patriots, and fuck all of you elite intellectuals who keep fact checking me and pointing out my ignorance for all to see.)

Today and every day, let’s remember the “Spirit of 1776” and celebrate Independence, not government!  

(Translation: "Let's totally celebrate the spirit that formed this great country, but not the government the Founding Fathers came up with to run it.")


May that love of liberty burn in our hearts and renew our commitment to restore and preserve all that is good and strong and true about America. 

 (Translation: And what is good and strong and true in America is that there are certain people who deserve to have rights, and certain others who simply do not. You know who you are!)


 - Sarah Palin (Translation: RAM.)


Palin's ghostwriter also includes a quote from Ron Paul which kind of makes me think she is seriously considering the idea of the Tea Party breaking off and forming its own political party.

Which would, in my estimation, be just about the greatest thing to happen to this country since Paul Revere rode through the streets ringing those bells and warning the British that they weren't going to be taking away our arms.

Okay I know that might confuse a few of you who did NOT sleep through tenth grade history, so here let Stephen Colbert explain exactly how that took place.

By the way I just returned from attending the 4th of July parade downtown where I got the chance to see my Senator. Mark Begich, walking down the street while being greeted by friendly waves from bystanders, and numerous floats promoting diversity and Alaska's commitment to human rights.

It made me very proud of my state, and very proud of my country.

Alabama supreme court justice claims that since the "Buddha did not create us" that the First Amendment only applies to Christians.

Justice Roy Moore

Courtesy of Raw Story:  

Speaking at the Pastor for Life Luncheon, which was sponsored by Pro-Life Mississippi, Chief Justice Roy Moore of the Alabama Supreme Court declared that the First Amendment only applies to Christians because “Buddha didn’t create us, Mohammed didn’t create us, it was the God of the Holy Scriptures” who created us. 

“They didn’t bring the Koran over on the pilgrim ship,” he continued. “Let’s get real, let’s go back and learn our history. Let’s stop playing games.”

Moore also shared his views on abortion and the keys to happiness. (Here's a hint, it's all about God.)  
“Now,” he continued, “if technology’s supposed to increase our knowledge, how did we become so stupid?” Discussing Thomas Jefferson’s use of “life” in the Declaration of Independence, he said that “when [Jefferson] put ‘life’ in there, it was in the womb — we know it begins at conception. Why aren’t we going the right way instead of the wrong way?” 

He later said that “you can’t be happy unless you follow God’s law, and if you follow God’s law, you can’t help but be happy.”

Well I am no theologian but I have certainly met my fair share of disgruntled and unhappy Christians in my time.

This guy is supposed to defend the Constitution of the United States of America, NOT the Bible.

And there is NO way that Jefferson was talking about the life of a fetus, especially at a time when infant mortality rates were over 50%. It would be incredibly ignorant at the time to count life as beginning at conception, when the likelihood of seeing a life birth was so incredibly low.

This guy demonstrates a crippling lack of intelligence, and is clearly far more concerned with supporting Biblical principles, and protecting Christians, than he is in justice, or protecting the Constitution.

Sarah Palin demonstrating her ignorance about Thomas Jefferson in her own words.

The above is from Palin's visit to Liberty University last Thursday. Where Palin did her best to lower the IQ of the already logic averse student body that attends the "school."

Here is how the Washington Monthly covered this portion of her speech: 

Palin said Jefferson would likely agree that secularists had set their sights on destroying the religious themes in Christmas celebrations. 

“He would recognize those who would want to try to ignore that Jesus is the reason for the season, those who would want to try to abort Christ from Christmas,” she said. “He would recognize that, for the most part, these are angry atheists armed with an attorney. They are not the majority of Americans.” 

Palin said there was a double standard that protected atheists at the expense of the religious. 

“Why is it they get to claim some offense taken when they see a plastic Jewish family on somebody’s lawn - a nativity scene, that’s basically what it is right?” she said. “Oh, they take such offense, though. They say that it physically even can hurt them and mentally it distresses them so they sue, right?” 

“But heaven forbid we claim any type of offense when we say, ‘Wait, you’re stripping Jesus from the reason, as the reason for the season,’ but heaven forbid we claim any type of offense,” Palin said. “So that double standard, I think Thomas Jefferson would certainly recognize it and stand up and he wouldn’t let anybody tell him to sit down and shut up.”

The Washington Monthly then went on to provide a couple of Jefferson quotes that indicate Palin's complete lack of knowledge or understanding of the Founding Father.  

“Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legislative powers of government reach actions only, and not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should ‘make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,’ thus building a wall of separation between church and State.” -Thomas Jefferson, letter to Danbury Baptist Association, CT., Jan. 1, 1802 

“Christianity neither is, nor ever was a part of the common law.” -Thomas Jefferson, letter to Dr. Thomas Cooper, February 10, 1814

What's more, Jefferson was famously so unimpressed with  the New Testament that he took a razor and cut out all of the miracles attributed to Jesus, and the parts that he considered pure BS, and put together the Jefferson Bible dedicated to the philosophy of Jesus.

No birth in a manger, no wise men, no walking on water, no healing the sick, no bringing the dead back to life, and no resurrection after the crucifixion.

So exactly HOW does Palin imagine that Jefferson would get his panties in a wad over people celebrating a holiday that does not fall anywhere near the birthday of Jesus, without saying the words "Merry Christmas?"

P.S. This is how the Washington Monthly began their arcticle:

If you could turn stupid into a fuel, you could use Sarah Palin to leave the Solar System.

That about sums it up, don't you think?

What if the Teabaggers had been around during the writing of the Constitution?

Yep, just about sums it up.