The First Amendment is pretty clear about the limitation placed on the government in regard to religion. That hasn’t stopped them from virtually dictating the censorship of Christianity from almost every aspect of public life, where they can pretend to claim an interest. But they are still hampered by the idea that they can’t restrict religion, unless they have a compelling interest—thus the idea of “overall offense”. If a precedence can be established that any building or action that causes a “significance” offense can be blocked by the government, then they can use that to create offense at any (and most likely all) public religious acts by Christians that they were restrained from doing before. That’s why the focus seems to keep shifting back to the idea of the government using their authority to stop the GZ Mosque. That’s exactly what the Liberals want, all the while claiming they don’t.

The real solution is public pressure on the Muslims, who are trying to provoke people by placing a Mosque there, as well as the property owners that are still in the process of selling the land to the Muslim group.

Obama, mayor Bloomberg and NY governor Paterson are all taking the same stance, that freedom of religion would prevent the government from interfering, but they stop there, knowing full well that the power of public opinion could easily end the atrocity. But Democrats don’t want people to think like that. They want us to cry that if the government doesn’t currently have the authority to end such an atrocious act, then we should change the rules and give the government the power.

Republicans and all Conservatives need to focus on the only realistic approach to the problem, and work through means other than the government to prevent Muslims from gloating over the atrocity they committed. We did it with Kelo (the shopping center the evicted the people to build was never built, because public opinion was too strong against it) and we can do it here.

Omitted from the article (and most MSM coverage): The land was unused until the city of Philadelphia asked the Boy Scouts in 1929 to take it over, develop it. The agreement was that the Boy Scouts would only be charged for maintaining the property. All improvements, buildings etc, were done and built at Boy Scouts' expense over the years. The city earns money from leasing the space in the building bought and paid for by the Boy Scouts.

WorldNetDaily: Majority Democrats on the U.S. House Judiciary Committee today blocked one avenue of inquiry into the White House's attempt to secure victory for two incumbent Senate candidates by offering a job to their chief opponent in exchange for exiting the race....

Republicans on the Judiciary Committee had filed a resolution that sought information about the role the Justice Department may have played in the offers to Rep. Joe Sestak, D-Pa., and Andrew Romanoff, the former speaker of the Colorado House....

Federal officials are barred from offering anything of value, such as a job, in exchange for a partisan political decision, such as bowing out of a campaign for office.

FoxNews: Mexican drug cartels have set up shop on American soil, maintaining lookout bases in strategic locations in the hills of southern Arizona from which their scouts can monitor every move made by law enforcement officials...

“Every night we’re getting beaten like a pinata at a birthday party by drug, alien smugglers," a second federal agent told Fox News by e-mail. "The danger is out there, with all the weapons being found coming northbound…. someone needs to know about this!”

The agents blame part of their plight on new policies from Washington, claiming it has put a majority of the U.S. agents on the border itself. One agent compared it to a short-yardage defense in football, explaining that once the smugglers and drug-runners break through the front line, they're home free.

USA Today: This is news because while SCOTUS nominee Elena Kagan banned the military from Harvard, she gleefully accepted money from Saudi Arabia.

Judicial officials say a Saudi court has convicted four women and 11 men for mingling at a party and sentenced them to flogging and prison terms.

The men, who are between 30 and 40 years old, and three of the women, who are under the age of 30, were sentenced to an unspecified number of lashes and one or two year prison terms each....

Saudi Arabia follows a strict interpretation of Islam that prohibits unrelated men and women from mingling.

YouTube: Florida Senator George LeMieux on Obama’s inaction…

Wall Street Journal: Bush was blamed for local failures after Katrina. Obama got a free ride for weeks as federal failures mounted during the Gulf spill.

World Net Daily: U.S. District Judge Richard Roberts late last week dismissed [former Inspector General Gerald] Walpin's case, reasoning that the Inspector General Reform Act – a bill co-sponsored by then-Sen. Obama to keep inspectors general free from presidential political interference – gives Walpin no legal recourse for getting his job back, even if the president did fire him illegally.

...the White House fired Walpin from his watchdog position over the Corporation for National and Community Services shortly after the inspector general exposed sexual misconduct and gross misappropriation of federal funds by Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson, a prominent Obama supporter.

Eat Drink and Be: Subway restaurant chain tries new weight loss method—Salmonella and Shigella food poisoning.

Reuters: CNN drops liberal Associated Press to use even more liberal Reuters.

Associated Press: More than a third of the 1.24 million borrowers who have enrolled in Obama's $75 billion mortgage modification program have dropped out. That exceeds the number of people who have managed to have their loan payments reduced to help them keep their homes.]]> http://JackLewis.net/weblog/archives/2010/06/tuesdays_links_37.php http://JackLewis.net/weblog/archives/2010/06/tuesdays_links_37.php Tue, 22 Jun 2010 06:49:45 -0600 WorldNetDaily: In office 16 month, Obama Administration tries to blame Bush administration for Gulf oil spill.

Washington Post: Another candidate comes forward with claims that Obama promised job for dropping out of race.

WorldNetDaily: Obama Administration joins condemnation of Israel for defending herself against criminals and terrorists.

ACLJ: Federal judge rules student may wear rosary to school. This would be the student suspended for wearing it after the school claimed it was “gang symbols”

Washington Times: Angry over health care reform and the abortion fight it reinvigorated, worried about the expansion of gay rights and frustrated by President Obama's criticisms of Israel, religious conservatives are eager to play a key role in the outcome of the 2010 midterm elections.

NewsBusters: Liberal MSM blames Al and Tupper Gore’s breakup on…you guessed it…George W. Bush.

AP via Breitbart: Gas prices continue to drop as summer approaches. Is this the result of the BP spill?

Real Clear Politics: Barney Franks defends Arab Terrorists and condemns Israel. A homosexual Jew defends people who would gladly kill him for being either. Can we say perverted?

Ontario Globe and Mail: Drunk idiot sues designated driver for not stopping her from jumping from moving vehicle. If she wins, most people will then refuse to act as designated drivers, causing untold thousands of deaths.

AP via NYT: Consumers get sued for giving companies bad reviews online.

Financial Times: Google abandons Windows OS on employee computers. This could be a PR move since Google is supposed to come out with their own OS soon.

Frontpage Magazine: World Regrets Deaths of Jihadists, Vilifies Israel.

Reuters via Yahoo News: Thunder and Lightening stop Obama’s Memorial Day speech. When God heckles…

After creating at least eight fake 'profiles', Michael Williams targeted youngsters he met on his post round, on school runs as a taxi driver, and in his role as secretary of a football club....

Many victims were tricked into performing sex acts on a webcam but he convinced others to meet him in parks, on beaches and at his home, where he abused them.

WorldNetDaily: Alaska becomes eighth state to pass Firearms Freedom Act.

London Telegraph: Barack Obama declares War on Terror is over. Someone, apparently, forgot to tell the terrorists.

New York Times: Arizona’s anti-immigration law—the gift that keeps on giving. Trashy, no-talent musicians vow to boycott Arizona.

London Telegraph: Bottled water carries more bacteria than tap.

LifeNews: Obama may have illegally spent $10 million promoting abortion in Kenya. Exporting Margaret Sanger genocide plans.

Israel National News: Could US trained PA military turn their guns on Israel?

WorldNetDaily: A Florida congressman plans to offer an amendment to the 2011 Defense Authorization bill that would require House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to fly coach – just as she requires of other Congress members.

ACLJ: A 7th grade student was suspended by school officials for wearing a Rosary to school. A school district spokesperson told a local newspaper that the rosary beads "could be an identifier of gangs" and needed to be removed "for safety reasons."

Israel National News: Hizbullah chief Hassan Nasrallah threatened Tuesday that his guerrilla army would sink all vessels sailing into Israel's waters in any future war.

Ass. Press: Inter-racial marriage up, but not up as much as before. The Ass. Press note that the biggest decline is among Asians and Hispanics, yet still blathers on for four or five paragraphs about how it’s somehow white people’s fault.

BBC News: Bad news. Your computer implant may have a virus. (warning video auto-starts)

NewYorkPost: Census Workers claims she was hired and fired numerous times by the Census Bureau and each time she was hired back, the Census Bureau reported the creation of a new job to the Labor Department.

Associated Press: Obama wants to raise taxes to pay for oil cleanup, that the company responsible has already agreed to pay for.

WorldNetDaily: Judicial Watch files lawsuit demanding an explanation for the federal government's decision to allow militia-type men with nightsticks to get away with intimidating voters at a polling station.

YouTube: University of Arizona commencement speakers gets roundly booed for criticizing Arizona’s new illegal immigration law.

Rasmussen Reports: 63% favor repeal of Obama’s Socialist Health Insurance Takeover.

BldgBlog: They should call this The Obama Door: a facade, put in place for supposedly esthetical reasons, that does nothing, leads nowhere, yet continues to soak up taxpayer money.

Facebook: The Palins get a creepy, peeping-tom as a neighbor. – Liberal, hack “journalist” Joe McGinnis.

But there'd be a problem. Some people actually believe laws should be obeyed, and in order to make such a law strict enough it would have to criminalize what would normally be acceptable behavior. A lot of people wouldn't have a problem with such a law, because they believe law, and morality for that matter, is something that should be an individual choice based of the convenience of the moment. But others, stubbornly hold on to the concept of a moral absolute, and the principle that a civilized society should have reasonable laws accompanied by reasonable enforcement. Under our proposed law, these people would find life very burdensome, because they would try to obey a law never actually intended to be obeyed.

Yes, eventually criminals would figure the law out, and adjust their response according to the actual consequence rather than the actual law, but we'd simply then make the law even more draconian to scare them even more. Maybe we could target a few people at random who've somehow violated the law (intentionally or unintentionally) punish them with lengthy, expensive trials, followed by lengthy prison sentences and outrageous fines, make a big deal about it in the press, throw parties for the law enforcement officers that brought down the scapegoats, er wanton criminals, toss out promotions to the "good guys" and scare the real bad guys into maybe not doing the thing we actually wanted them to not do in the first place. Sort of. Maybe. It should work. Right?

Welcome to American Legal Philosophy 101.

What I've described is actually how much of our laws are written. We've got all the immigration laws, yet they're rarely enforced. We let repeat criminals stay in the country, while deporting people who grew up here, never being told they weren't US citizens. Making scapegoats out of the innocent in hopes it might frighten they guilty, which we don't prosecute. We don't guard our borders, then the media accuses those that try on their own of being racists. We make laws requiring stricter sentencing on those who use guns when committing a crime, then selectively apply the new sentencing guidelines to railroad the few law enforcement officers who actually assumed they were supposed to do their jobs.

The pervasive attitude that laws are suggestions has created a climate of quasi-anarchy. We have speed limits, but they aren't very seriously enforced. Most speed limits, therefore are placed at least 10mph slower than what they reasonably should be placed at, in hopes that it would slow drivers down in the absence of any realistic enforcement.

What's ironic is that the real victims in all this are those who actually try to abide by the law, but these are laws that become increasingly ridiculous as the words of the law-- rather than the enforcement-- is used to deter criminals.

Originally posted at http://jacklewis.net/weblog/archives/2008/03/legally_insane.php

Wall Street Journal: “Scientists” take DNA from living organism, change it around and put it back, then claim they’ve created life. When I was in school, taking someone else’s work and claiming it was you own was called plagiarism and cheating.

Fort Worth Star-Telegram: Texas Tea Party publicizes Hispanics in support of Arizona’s new law.

Kenyan Daily Nation: Kenya finds itself the recipient of a mysterious influx of $2.1 billion.

In fact, in few Capitalist nation will you find those running the government, living in the largest houses, or possessing the greatest wealth. But in few Communist countries will you find anyone living as well off as those in control of the government.

And in spite of what some may say, socialists are Communists. Name one purely socialist nation that isn't Communist. Every nation that's dared dabble with socialism, hedged that attempt with a strong emphasis in Capitalism to ensure a vital economy, which means it wasn't real Socialism.

Individuals need to make a living, therefore they expect to get paid for what they do. However, when productivity is divorced from income, time and time again history has shown most people have little interest in any real productivity. The pilgrims discovered that when they first came to the New World. They were lured into the concept of sharing burden and resources, because it sounded so noble. They almost starved to death. Seeing the failure of that approach, they instituted a system of Capitalism, allowing each person access to what they themselves worked to produce. From that point on they thrived.

The problem comes from the false assumption that benevolence can ever be forced. Once you've rationalized using the force of law to take people's possessions, stealing other things becomes very easy. Ultimately the greedy gravitate to positions of power, leaving society a reverse prison, where the dishonest are in control and the honest suffer deprivation. Socialism, cannot exist without forced "benevolence", and it therefore always becomes Communism. Capitalism, however, is built on the principle of freedom—freedom to keep what you build. Starting from a position of freedom, it can then maintain that same ideal. All Capitalist nations understand the core principles of Capitalism, and therefore work to ensure fair competition, private property rights and limited government.

There will always be a conflict between what a business owner thinks is fair and what the employees think is fair, but ultimately, competition solves that problem. The fair and generous employer can keep the most productive employees, giving that business an advantage. The horror stories of Capitalism come not from Capitalism, but from those who failed to follow the principles of Capitalism and stopped being Capitalists to become thugs, cheats and thieves. Ironically the person most viewed as an example in the US of Capitalism gone bad, Bill Gates, contributes heavily to socialist causes. His failure come from his abandonment of Capitalism, not his use of it.

When guns were first introduced into Japan in the 16th century, Samurai thought them cowardly weapons which allowed the unskilled to kill from a distance, rather than having to bravely face their enemies. The Samurai preferred their deadly katanas—deadly at three feet, pretty much useless at five feet. Thousands of Samurai subsequently died because they failed to distinguish between the illusion of false bravado and reality. The illusion of Socialism as moral and Capitalism as immoral contains the same seeds of destruction. As long as we court with Socialism in our tax system, in our economic policies and in our educational institutions, we poison our future.

Originally posted at http://jacklewis.net/weblog/archives/2008/04/mere_capitalism.php

MSNBC: RINO turned Dem, Arlen Specter tossed by voters.

WND: SCOTUS nominee, Elena Kagan, says the government can ban book it dislikes.

Washington Post: Anti-Christian bigots attack business owned by Christian.

“In anonymous postings on local Web sites, parents [falsely] accused [owner, Gina Seebachan] of handing out antiabortion literature at the Playseum, accepting support from right-wing Christian groups and playing Christian rock music at the play space. Most damning, one anonymous poster who said she was Jewish [falsely] claimed that Seebachan told her that unless she accepted Jesus as her personal savior, the client and her children would go to hell.”

“Ali-Sheldon has come from her home in Gaithersburg to the Playseum every week since it opened in November. Asked about seeing any religious message there, she laughed. ‘That's insane,’ she said. ‘I'm a Muslim. And if I saw anything like that, I wouldn't come back.’”

WND: Elena Kagan’s insanity—Flag burning okay but speech that promotes "racial or gender inequality" bad.

NYT: Democratic Senate candidate lied about serving in Vietnam. Contrary to his publics claims Attorney General Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut never served in Vietnam. “In 1970, with his last deferment in jeopardy, he landed a coveted spot in the Marine Reserve, which virtually guaranteed that he would not be sent to Vietnam. He joined a unit in Washington that conducted drills and other exercises and focused on local projects, like fixing a campground and organizing a Toys for Tots drive.”

WTTG Channel 5, (My Fox DC): A fourteen-year-old autistic boy, with the mental capacity of a 3rd grader, is facing terrorist charges after a sketch he made in school.

…now compare that story to this…

YouTube: Obama’s Attorney General Eric Holder refuses to admit three latest act (or attempts) at terrorism has anything to do with radical Islam. Even though one was screaming “Allah Akbar” as he gunned down unarmed victims.

London Mail: Another victim comes forward accusing Hollywood’s favorite pedophile of molesting her. “On Friday, Charlotte, now 42, called a Press conference in Los Angeles to claim that director Roman Polanski, the man who gave her her first break, had abused her, ‘in the worst possible way’ when she was just 16 years old.”

Hot Air: “World of Dance” competitions and parents force 8 and 9 years old to dress like hookers and dance a semi-strip tease. How are these people any different than pedophiles?

CNN: Detroit cops raid wrong home, kill 7-year old girl. Who’s policing the police?