Some politicians don’t understand that the Constitution covers freedom of religion but also freedom from religion. (I’m looking at you, Rick Perry.)
There are two parts to the 1st amendment. The Free Exercise Clause allows you to worship in your own way (well, within the laws that apply to everyone). But there’s also the Establishment Clause, which says that the government cannot promote religion or favor one religion over another. 
This is the one that many Christians ignore. “Well, they don’t mean our religion!” they argue illogically. They think that it’s perfectly fine to have government promote their religion and their religion’s laws concerning, say, abortion or gay marriage, but scream angrily at any thought of someone else’s religion being imposed through our laws (or no religion at all).
Lately, other religions (and non-religions) are demanding equal rights, as the Constitution provides. If a Christian group is allowed to put a monument to the Ten Commandments up in a public park, then the atheists cannot be denied the right to place their own monument up in the same park.
The latest incident is occurring in Oklahoma, where both Satanists and Hindus are demanding equal space on the State House grounds after the announcement of a huge Ten Commandments display. This has astounded some politicians who have never read the Constitution.
Oklahoma legislators are outraged at this. “This is a Christian nation and Oklahoma was founded on Christianity!” they say, ignoring the fact that (a) the United States specifically was not founded on Christianity and (b) Oklahoma specifically was formed as an American Indian state (well, at first…).
If you don’t want to see satanist or atheist displays on our public property then the obvious solution is to stop placing your own religious monuments there. The Establishment Clause requires that the other beliefs get equal time. Instead, use the money that would have been spent on this monument in other ways — you know, feed the poor or establish an orphanage. Wouldn’t that be the Christian thing to do?
And best yet, because of the Free Exercise clause, the government would not be able to do anything about it.
Let’s take a break from the serious stuff today and listen to a funny Lennonesque Christmas song, which just happens to be by my brother Philip.
“Santa’s Coming” is from the CD he made under the name “Inspector Muffin” — a psychedelic tribute to 60s music (and I play bass and co-wrote one song).
“Santa’s Coming” is not necessarily a song you would play for your kids if they are old enough to get the double entendres. Lyrics are below.
Santa comes only once a year
So when its time for him to come, everyone stand clear
His sack is full with good things for me and you
and if you’ve been a real good boy, he’ll drop a load or two on you
Everyone beat the Christmas drums
Everyone’s glad when Santa comes
When he comes
Santa’s coming
All over the world for all the boys and girls
Santa’s coming
Don’t be shy; Santa’s quite the handsome chap
You can feel the love he brings by sitting in his lap
So sit right down, there’s a package just for you
but don’t open til Christmas day or Santa’s gonna come too soon
Santa will bless the old and young
If your stocking is well hung
When he comes
Santa’s coming
All over the world for all the boys and girls
Santa’s coming
Before you go down, please make sure the chimney’s clear
If its too tight, you should go ’round back and enter from the rear
For the climax of the year
Christmas day the bells have rung
Santa Claus on every tongue
When he comes
Santa’s coming
All over the world for all the boys and girls
Santa’s coming
Download it here.
OK, here’s my challenge:
Find me one example of anyone trying to prevent people from celebrating Christmas.
What you’ll find are a bunch of whiners complaining that they don’t get to force their religion on everyone else.
Every example Fox News gives for a “War on Christmas” always boils down to something like “They won’t let us force kids to sing our religious songs!” or “They want to be polite and acknowledge that not everyone is a Christian by saying ‘Happy Holidays'” or “They are refusing to allow us to use taxpayer dollars for a religious display.” (And yes, I used Fox News specifically because absolutely no one spoke of a “War on Christmas” until Fox invented it and saw their ratings boost.)
I submit to you that every so-called attack on Christmas is, in reality, fought in defense and wouldn’t even exist if these Christians weren’t trying to require everyone to obey their beliefs.*
Instead, there are some Christians who apparently are so insecure in their beliefs that if you say something like, “I respect your beliefs even though I do not share them and sincerely hope you have a happy holidays,” they are convinced that you are out to destroy everything they believe in.
So there’s my challenge. Find me an example where that’s not the case — where someone is trying to prevent Christians from celebrating Christmas.
(And I mean real examples, because no matter what, there will always be some lunatic who is trying to prevent his neighbors from displaying a religious symbol because they wrongly think the Constitution requires it or because aliens told him to or something. No matter what, there will always be one or two idiots on every issue.)
* and yes, I acknowledge that most Christians are good people who do not act this way, and are more concerned with keeping the Christ in “Christian” than the Christ in “Christmas.”
I have absolutely no problem with debating whether Obamacare is a good idea or not. We can discuss whether the government should be providing this care or if it should be left to the private market; we can compare the advantages and disadvantages of it; 
we can even argue over the moral implications.
Just don’t lie.
Seriously, once you start lying in order to support your argument, you’ve lost. When you continue to lie even after being corrected (I’m looking at you, Sarah Palin) then it’s clear you’re either too evil to care or too stupid to realize. Either way, you’re not worth debating any more.
Here now are the biggest lies about Obamacare. The fact that someone said them on Fox News doesn’t make them true. Click the links if that helps.
There will be government Death Panels that decide who gets care! No, there won’t be. This one has no foundation in fact, but this one is a favorite of Sarah Palin.
Obamacare is socialism. This one is said by people whose entire knowledge of political science appears to be “socialism is bad.” It’s not socialism. It’s forced captialism. And, just to reiterate, it’s a Republican idea that was once part of the Republican platform. It only became evil socialism when Obama endorsed it.
Obamacare is unconstitutional. The Supreme Court, which is the last word on what is constitutional, said that it is. There’s nothing wrong with saying, “In my opinion, the Supreme Court was wrong” (I do that all the time), but then to declare that your opinion equals a fact is just dishonest. That’s like saying “Marijuana is legal everywhere” just because you want it to be.
Congress is exempt from Obamacare. People still repeat this, despite it being absolutely false. Congress is not exempt. Some people say “Congress should have the same plan the rest of us have!” which, of course, was the idea of the Public Option, so we could buy into the federal health care system. Not surprisingly, the same people who fought against the Public Option are often the same ones complaining that we can’t get the same plan as Congress.
Muslims are exempt from Obamacare. This one also ties into the “Muslims are evil and Obama is a secret Muslim” mindset of the loonies. Muslims are not exempt.
Obamacare cuts $716 billion from Medicare. This is one of my favorite lies, because it’s so damned hypocritical and so blatant. Obamcare saved $716 billion; nothing was taken away from anyone’s benefits. (But why is this important to Republicans, who have vowed to dismantle medicare? Don’t they want to defund it? It’s hilarious how they can argue both ways.) Republicans are still repeating this one even after it was blown away in the Presidential debates.
Illegal immigrants will now get free health care! Well, no. No one is getting free health care. That’s the point.
Doctors who went to American Schools will not accept Obamacare. This whopper was said by Ann Coulter, so that alone should let you know it’s not true. Also, Obamacare isn’t a program a doctor opts out of. It doesn’t affect doctors at all; it just makes you have insurance.
The government will be allowed to do warrantless home searches because of Obamacare. This is just another of the tin-foil hat crowd’s paranoia at work. Clearly not true.
Obamacare requires us to have microchip tracking implants installed. Apparently so we can eventually be made a part of the matrix. More loony paranoia.
Babies aren’t covered! Sure they are. This one was based on a Tea Party liar who claimed his child wasn’t covered after he “forgot” to list the child on his application.
There are more, of course. The lies never stop. Do some searches, and find unbiased sources to check these lies before you foolishly accept them.
Which amendments would I like to see made to our Constitution?
After discussing Schwarzenegger’s pledge to run for President a few days ago, I began thinking of them. Here then is my list, in order of preference.
Abolish the Electoral College and replace it with popular vote. This will get rid of “red” and “blue” states, allow for every vote to count, and prevent someone the majority of Americans don’t want from becoming President.
Abolish the requirement that you have to be a natural born citizen to be President. Keep the requirement for citizenship, of course, but there is no reason why someone who became a citizen should not run.
Establish an independent commission to redraw congressional districts every ten years. In order to prevent gerrymandering, we need to take district drawing out of the hands of politicians. Ideally, they should do this for the states too, under the idea of Equal Protection.
Limit Senators to two six-year terms and Congress members to six two-year terms. Come on, it’s not like there aren’t other qualified people out there. Serve your terms and go home. Treat this like a public service instead of a career.
Abolish Washington DC and make Washington part of Maryland. It’s ridiculous that these people do not get a representative in Congress. While there are enough people living there to make DC a state (more people live in DC than in Wyoming), the easiest solution is to just merge it with Maryland.
Define the death penalty as “cruel and unusual punishment” and thus prohibited. It’s time we recognized that the death penalty is prone to mistakes, applied in a discriminatory manner, and doesn’t belong in a modern civilized society.
Then there are some that are needed to overturn Supreme Court decisions, but honestly, a few more votes on the Court would prevent that. Back in the 70s we fought for an Equal Rights Amendment to prohibit discrimination against women. Since that time, the Courts have held that women are, indeed, “people” under the 14th amendment and as such are entitled to protection against discrimination. However, a different court could come along and go back the other way. Therefore, the following amendments would be nice:
Amend the 14th amendment to prohibit discrimination against women, gays, and non-English speaking people. I’m including transgender people and such in this.
Define “people” to exclude corporations. A person has morals and eventually dies. Conservatives who cite the Founding Fathers for anything to support their views are oddly silent on this one.
Define “speech” to exclude money. These last two are needed to overturn the Citizen’s United case.
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