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JISHOU, HUNAN — The Queen Bee of the Birthers, Orly Taitz Esq., DDS, buzzed over to Kentucky recently to whip up a swarm of angry bee-rthers to visit state officials in Frankfort.
She wanted Kentucky state officials to do something, anything, about the “proof” she had that Pres. Barack Obama was actually born outside the USA and therefore ineligible to be president.
Taitz, who has a correspondence course law degree and is a member of the California bar, brought a federal issue to Kentucky‘s attorney general’s public corruption office, the secretary of state, and finally (perhaps as an afterthought) to the Kentucky office of the FBI.
For the full details, read this account in Esquire of another example of Taitz tilting at windmills.
The fact that Taitz could find so many other people who believe the same whacko things she does is just a little scary. That she found them in Kentucky is, well, not so surprising.
[Kentucky factoid: The Esquire piece refers to the Knob Creek Machine Gun Range, which is in West Point, Kentucky, about 40 minutes' drive southwest of Louisville. Travel a bit further south along wide, wide Dixie Highway, and you will come to the Fort Knox Military Reservation. Diagonally opposite West Point, on the other side of Fort Knox, is where I used to live - Lebanon Junction. See map below.]
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JISHOU, HUNAN — I lived in Louisville a long time. I love the River City, but there are way too many religious crazies there tarnishing Louisville’s national image.
Take Ken Pagano, for example, whose invitation to his parishioners to bring their guns to a special event at church tomorrow has made national headlines. Pastor Pagano, shown in The New York Times with a handgun in a holster and a submachine gun in his left hand, wants his church to celebrate their right to carry firearms.
“God and guns were part of the foundation of this country,” Mr. Pagano, 49, said Wednesday in the small brick Assembly of God church, where a large wooden cross hung over the altar and two American flags jutted from side walls. “I don’t see any contradiction in this. Not every Christian denomination is pacifist.”
The Times article notes that, in the interests of safety, Jefferson County sheriff’s deputies (who I am sure have better things to do) will check visible weapons to make sure they are unloaded. They will not ask the parishioners of New Bethel Church in Valley Station for any concealed weapons, however.
“That’s the whole point of concealed,” Mr. Pagano said, adding that he was not worried because such owners require training.
Not everyone agrees with Pagano’s gun-love. The church’s insurers, for one, have canceled the church’s liability insurance for the “Bring Your Gun to Church” event, and have advised him they will cancel the policy at the end of the year.
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JISHOU, HUNAN — The Creation Museum in Petersburg, Kentucky, is NOT a science museum. It is a tool to publicize a narrow religious view of the world and our place in it.
Thus, I found this comment by a Kentucky State Department of Education official particularly disturbing. [From the Louisville Courier-Journal]
Kentucky Department of Education spokeswoman Lisa Gross said nothing in state law would bar public schools from visiting, if it were part of “a lesson” on “how some perceived the world’s beginnings.”
Kentucky does not require the teaching of evolution or creationism (or even science at all) in private schools. And public-school science teachers aren’t prohibited from mentioning creationism, but lessons often include concepts behind evolution, Gross said.
Maybe Ms. Gross was tiptoeing around the religious bias of Kentucky’s bureaucrats, legislators and population. Maybe she has never been to the Creation Museum. Maybe she is just plain stupid. Whatever the case, there should be no reason to bring any public school group to the museum, unless that purpose is to indoctrinate the students in an overtly religious world view.
If a high school teacher, having done a LOT of preparation, intended to use the museum as an example of propaganda or dogmatic religious instruction, then perhaps such a field trip would be worthwhile. I am just not sure how many teachers have the time and inclination to undertake such a lesson, though.
This is a preview of Kentucky’s Creation Museum, a young Earth propaganda tool . Read the full post (2006 words, 1 image, estimated 8:01 mins reading time)Possibly related posts:
JISHOU, HUNAN — I used to live in Kentucky. It’s a beautiful state, full of great people, but afflicted with legislators who are mostly terminally stupid.
In that, I suppose, the Bluegrass State is not unique. There’s a whole lotta stupid goin’ on. (Take Zimbabwe, for example.)
Kentucky’s latest contribution to stupidity was the inclusion of “Almighty God” in two state statutes a few years back dealing with the state’s homeland security. Someone finally caught wind of the terminology and has filed suit in state court to have the offending laws rewritten.
The someone is the group, American Atheists. So you can already predict how the religious right and right-wing radioheads will react: “Godless atheists are trying to destroy our Christian nation! Blah blah blah …!”
I mean, the American Atheists have a point, but why couldn’t the plaintiffs been someone less obvious a target for right-wing vitriol, like maybe the Presbyterians headquartered in Louisville?
The right-wing blather will only obscure the real issue, which I hope the courts will settle quickly. Our laws cannot invoke God without running afoul of the US Constitution, specifically this part:
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.
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Bloomfield Middle School officials had to tell a seventh grade science teacher that she could not teach Intelligent Design (ID) after they received a warning from the Kentucky chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
The ACLU letter advised them that the teaching of ID was contrary to “the substantial legal authority establishing the illegality of teaching a religious doctrine within a science curriculum.” The Panda’s Thumb reprinted part of that letter yesterday.
The teacher in question, Adonna Florence, confirmed the gist of the report to me today. I am awaiting details from her, the BMS principal and the ACLU.
Technically, Florence’s introduction of ID into her science classes is not contrary to Kentucky state law.
At one point in history, Kentucky law expressly permitted, but did not require, the teaching of the Biblical creation of Earth and the organisms on it. As part of the Kentucky Education Reform Act, that statute, KRS 158.177, was effectively repealed in 1990 and re-enacted with substantially the same language as before:
This is a preview of Intelligent Design pops up (briefly) in Bloomfield, Ky. . Read the full post (1140 words, 1 image, estimated 4:34 mins reading time)Possibly related posts:
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