The American Sphinx

American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson - A Film by Ken Burns

H/T Intangible Materiality.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Obama/Keyes vs Kerry/Bush

First off. I got my numbers from Obama/Keyes and Kerry/Bush.

So let us start with the numbers. Also let me add that this is going to be somewhat simplistic since I did not look at exit polls to determine who did what and why. It should give some idea of what went on though. Not counting vote fraud.

Obama 3,597,456
Keyes 1,390,690

Total 4,988,146

===

Kerry 2,891,550
GBush 2,345,946

Total 5,237,946

Let me start with the undervote. 249,800 more people (probably Republicans just to make things simple) voted in the Kerry/Bush (K/B) race than in the Obama/Keyes (O/K) race. Probably Republicans who couldn't stand either candidate.

So let us see how that looks for O/K. If we subtract Kerry from Obama we get 705,906. That means (roughly) that 705,906 Republican voters voted for the Communist over the Socon. I was one of them. It was a protest vote by me against the R party for putting a socon on the ballot who was running on a Theocon platform.

So am I against socons? NO. I support Sarah Palin nationally and Doug Hoffman in NY23. Why? Hoffman is running on a strictly fiscal responsibility platform with NO Culture War issues. And Sarah Palin Governed Alaska on a fiscal responsibility/anti-corruption platform.

So what about the Theocons? The American Taliban is rather apt. Not in terms of the culture they want to enforce but in the fact that they want to enforce culture.

My attitude? On social issues the socons should lead by example not government force. The persuasion of Jesus is better than the sword of Rome. If you are trying to get votes.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Conservative Values

A commenter at Giving up on God (sort of) by David Harsanyi said a funny thing.

David seems to focus his energies on diminishing religion and being a booster for "medicinal marijauna", and gay rights and so forth. It is hard for Dave to admit, but those aren't conservative principles.

I guess using God's own anti-depressant is a bad thing but getting your anti-depressants from the medical cartel is in alignment with God's wishes and true conservatism. Who knew?

I wonder if the complainer also knows that early drafts of the US Constitution were written on hemp paper and the US Frigate The Constitution also known as Old Ironsides had hemp sails. Or that George Washington grew a lot of hemp. In fact George said "Make the most of the hemp seed. Sow it everywhere." Jeeze. It is beginning to look like our county was founded by a bunch of hippies.

And you know what is worse: people still like to print Bibles on hemp paper for its durability. So next time you Real Conservatives™ go to church be careful. You Bible may be printed on a product of the Devil Weed. Oh. The shame.

And rumor has it that Baron VonSteuben a German General who helped Washington at Valley Forge was a homosexual. If you consider sex with 17 year old boys pedophilia he was a supposedly a pedophile too. And horror of horrors there is a VonSteuben Metropolitan Science Center (high school) in Chicago. Fortunately Washington was so desperate for help he overlooked the Baron's alleged indiscretions. You have to wonder what our country was coming to though to allow such reputed degenerates into the military. Especially as leaders. I guess it was part of the evil gay agenda to subvert the country at its very founding.

I guess we are fortunate that the founders were more interested in Liberty than in the True Conservative™ agenda.

H/T Eric at Classical Values.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Exhausted By Islam

Who is exhausted by Islam? The young in Iraq are exhausted by Islam.

BAGHDAD — After almost five years of war, many young people in Iraq, exhausted by constant firsthand exposure to the violence of religious extremism, say they have grown disillusioned with religious leaders and skeptical of the faith that they preach.

In two months of interviews with 40 young people in five Iraqi cities, a pattern of disenchantment emerged, in which young Iraqis, both poor and middle class, blamed clerics for the violence and the restrictions that have narrowed their lives.

“I hate Islam and all the clerics because they limit our freedom every day and their instruction became heavy over us,” said Sara, a high school student in Basra. “Most of the girls in my high school hate that Islamic people control the authority because they don’t deserve to be rulers.”

Atheer, a 19-year-old from a poor, heavily Shiite neighborhood in southern Baghdad, said: “The religion men are liars. Young people don’t believe them. Guys my age are not interested in religion anymore.”

The shift in Iraq runs counter to trends of rising religious practice among young people across much of the Middle East, where religion has replaced nationalism as a unifying ideology.

As usual the New York Times misses the point. It is exposure to the unbending nature of the Islamic revival that is turning people away from Islam.

Islam brings murder and repression. The West offers Liberty and wealth. Which is more popular to the young and old? Which is better for business?

Samizdata is discussing the brittleness of Islam. The author of the post thinks that Islam can't stand up to rational examination.

I think one of the commenters had an even better idea. Ridicule. You believe What? And women should do What? And no popping down to the pub for a pint? And what is this about Mohamed marrying a nine year old girl? And authorizing brigandage? And Mohamed is to be emulated? What a larfer.

HT Instapundit .

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Up To No Good

Gayle at Dragon Lady's Den has just alerted me to the outrage of the week or even month (this one and the next). It seems that a traditional recitation during the flag folding ceremony has been banned. It was banned because of this verse.

The eleventh fold, in the eyes of a Hebrew citizen
represents the lower portion of the seal of King David
and King Solomon, and glorifies in their eyes, the God
of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

The objections are anonymous, yet the objection to this particular verse is curious.

Now the recitation itself is fairly sectarian. I'm not sure a Hindu or an atheist would approve. However, commenter Old Soldier at the Dragon Lady's says:

First, accodring to OSD the flag folding ceremony is part of the honors provided; not the recital.

Second, the recital is a tradition that has an unknown origin. It has had variations depending upon the organization providing the recital. One version seems to have become the accepted prose.

Third, neither the flag folding ceremony nor the recital are statutory, and neither are included in any flag etiquette writings.

As many of your commenters and you have indicated, it should be none of the government's business what a family choses as traditions for thier departed loved one. The government provides access to the cemetary based upon service and kinship to veterans. There should be no restrictions to traditions desired by the bereaving provided they [the traditions] are not immoral or unethical.

Most veterans know what the flag stands for and it should not take a recital at a funeral to remind his/her family and other mourners.

Now, all that said (without emotion); I cannot believe one complaint would force our government to stop allowing what has become and accepted traditon at the funeral of veterans.

I would object if this was required, or if recited by some government official other than a chaplain, however I can see no possible reason for not letting those who want to be part of the ceremony to say these words or any others. Our Constitution has some words on the matter.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

They should be final.

Evidently our vets know the Constitution better than the Government does (what a surprise).

During thousands of military burials, Veterans Administration employees and volunteers have folded the American flag 13 times and recited the significance of every fold to survivors. The fourth fold, for example, refers to God's "divine guidance." The 11th fold glorifies "the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob." And the 12th fold glorifies "God the Father, the Son and Holy Ghost." Now the National Cemetery Association has made a decision to ban flag-folding recitations by VA employees and volunteers at all 125 national cemeteries -- all because of one complaint about a ceremony at Riverside National Cemetery in California that included a reference to God.

Rees Lloyd is director of the California Defense of Veterans Memorials Project and part of a 16-member detail that has performed military honors at more than 1,400 services. He says veterans -- and in particular, American Legionnaires -- are outraged by the ban.

"It's outrageous," he says bluntly. "These are decisions that should be made by the families of our deceased veteran comrades and not by Washington bureaucrats -- and most certainly not by any narcissistic, disaffected, offended atheist, agnostic, or any other [person] who is upset or offended by the word 'God' or a religious symbol which might offend his delicate sensibilities."

Lloyd vows that even if there are "a hundred-million offended atheists," he and other American Legionnaires will stand against the ban.

"We will defy this ban, pure and simple," he states. "If the families ask us to recite the flag-folding ceremony, we will abide by the wishes of the family -- not [by the wishes of] some bureaucrat sitting in an air-conditioned office in Washington, DC, or some lawyer wearing a diaper back there whose main mission in life is to protect his own behind instead of standing up for the American people and saying enough is enough."

Yep. Enough.

Fired For Washington

A tenured Professor is being fired for quoting George Washington.

A tenured college professor is set to be fired for simply sending out an e-mail to colleagues containing George Washington’s "Thanksgiving Day Proclamation of 1789.”

Already professor Walter Kehowski at Glendale Community College in Arizona has been placed on forced administrative leave and the school’s chief has recommended his termination.

"It simply boggles the mind that a professor could find himself facing termination simply for e-mailing the Thanksgiving address of our first president,” said Greg Lukianoff, president of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE).

So what was in this Thanksgiving Address that was so incendiary? Let me quote a bit and see if you agree:

Whereas it is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor, and Whereas both Houses of Congress have by their joint committee requested me to recommend to the People of the United States a day of public thanks giving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many single favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness.

That seems pretty non-denominational.

Washington was familiar with the Jews in America and was well disposed to them. In fact a little less than a year after the Thanksgiving Proclomation George had this to say to the Jewish Congregation of Newport, Rhode Island. In part:

The Citizens of the United States of America have a right to applaud themselves for having given to mankind examples of an enlarged and liberal policy: a policy worthy of imitation. All possess alike liberty of conscience and immunities of citizenship It is now no more that toleration is spoken of, as if it was by the indulgence of one class of people, that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights. For happily the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens, in giving it on all occasions their effectual support.

It would be inconsistent with the frankness of my character not to avow that I am pleased with your favorable opinion of my Administration, and fervent wishes for my felicity. May the Children of the Stock of Abraham, who dwell in this land, continue to merit and enjoy the good will of the other Inhabitants; while every one shall sit in safety under his own vine and figtree, and there shall be none to make him afraid. May the father of all mercies scatter light and not darkness in our paths, and make us all in our several vocations useful here, and in his own due time and way everlastingly happy.

It is pretty obvious by the standards of those days and even these days that Washington was not religiously prejudiced.

So it seems that any reference to the Maker or Divine Providence is now out of bounds, at least in some University settings.

Pretty outrageous when you can get fired in the United States for passing out an Official Proclomation by the First President of the United States.

H/T JR at The Astute Bloggers.

Religious Liberty

Not having much profound to say at this time I'm going to quote our profoundist president, Thomas Jefferson on religious liberty. Virginia Statute For Religious Freedom

Whereas Almighty God hath created the mind free; that all attempts to influence it by temporal punishments or burthens, or by civil incapacitations, tend only to beget habits of hypocrisy and meanness, and are a departure from the plan of the Holy author of our religion, who being Lord both of body and mind, yet chose not to propagate it by coercions on either, as it was in his Almighty power to do; that the impious presumption of legislators and rulers, civil as well as ecclesiastical, who being themselves but fallible and uninspired men, have assumed dominion over the faith of others, setting up their own opinions and modes of thinking as the only true and infallible, and as such endeavouring to impose them on others, hath established and maintained false religions over the greatest part of the world, and through all time; that to compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves, is sinful and tyrannical; that even the forcing him to support this or that teacher of his own religious persuasion, is depriving him of the comfortable liberty of giving his contributions to the particular pastor, whose morals he would make his pattern, and whose powers he feels most persuasive to righteousness, and is withdrawing from the ministry those temporary rewards, which proceeding from an approbation of their personal conduct, are an additional incitement to earnest and unremitting labours for the instruction of mankind; 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; that it tends only to corrupt the principles of that religion it is meant to encourage, by bribing with a monopoly of worldly honours and emoluments, those who will externally profess and conform to it; that though indeed these are criminal who do not withstand such temptation, yet neither are those innocent who lay the bait in their way; that to suffer the civil magistrate to intrude his powers into the field of opinion, and to restrain the profession or propagation of principles on supposition of their ill tendency, is a dangerous fallacy, which at once destroys all religious liberty, because he being of course judge of that tendency will make his opinions the rule of judgment, and approve or condemn the sentiments of others only as they shall square with or differ from his own; that it is time enough for the rightful purposes of civil government, for its officers to interfere when principles break out into overt acts against peace and good order; and finally, that truth is great and will prevail if left to herself, that she is the proper and sufficient antagonist to error, and has nothing to fear from the conflict, unless by human interposition disarmed of her natural weapons, free argument and debate, errors ceasing to be dangerous when it is permitted freely to contradict them:

Be it enacted by the General Assembly, That no man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place, or ministry whatsoever, nor shall be enforced, restrained, molested, or burthened in his body or goods, nor shall otherwise suffer on account of his religious opinions or belief; but that all men shall be free to profess, and by argument to maintain, their opinion in matters of religion, and that the same shall in no wise diminish enlarge, or affect their civil capacities.

And though we well know that this assembly elected by the people for the ordinary purposes of legislation only, have no power to restrain the acts of succeeding assemblies, constituted with powers equal to our own, and that therefore to declare this act to be irrevocable would be of no effect in law; yet we are free to declare, and do declare, that the rights hereby asserted are of the natural rights of mankind, and that if any act shall be hereafter passed to repeal the present, or to narrow its operation, such act shall be an infringement of natural right.

Cross Posted at Classical Values