A mandate on ‘Merry Christmas’? By Allen G. Breed

Religious conservatives are pushing to make Christ the only reason for holiday season.

Emboldened by their Election Day successes, some Christian conservatives around the country are trying to put more Christ into Christmas this season.

In Terrebonne Parish, La., an organization is petitioning to add “Merry Christmas” to the red-lighted “Season’s Greetings” sign on the main government building and is selling yard signs that read, “We believe in God. Merry Christmas.”“We’re not going to allow the country to continue this downward spiral to the left.”

In California, a group called the Committee to Save Merry Christmas is boycotting Macy’s and its corporate parent, Federated Department Stores, accusing them of replacing “Merry Christmas” signs with ones wishing shoppers “Season’s Greetings” or “Happy Holidays.” The organization cites “the recent presidential election showing political correctness is offending millions of Americans.”

‘Downward spiral to the left’? Looks like a downward plunge to the right. I can’t wait for the Rapture to claim these people. mjh

The Daily Outrage
—–
Lines from “The Everlasting Gospel,” by William Blake.

The Vision of Christ that thou dost see
Is my Vision’s Greatest Enemy
Thine has a great hook nose like thine
Mine has a snub nose like to mine
Thine is the Friend of All Mankind
Mine speaks in parables to the Blind
Thine loves the same world that mine hates

Thy Heaven doors are my Hell Gates
Socrates taught that Melitus
Loathd as a Nations bitterest Curse
And Caiphus was in his own Mind
A benefactor of Mankind
Both read the Bible day & night
But thou readst black where I read white

The Writer’s Almanac – DECEMBER 13 – 19, 2004

FEMA: Giving Peace Of Mind

“The holidays are a great time to give important, inexpensive gifts that say: ‘I care!’ and reduce risk exposure for friends and loved ones,” said Pennington. “Disaster-ready gifts can save lives and are a wonderful way of making 2005 a more disaster-resistant year for everyone.”

Emergency and preparedness items that might make great gifts this Holiday Season include:

# Pet Disaster Kits (food, water, leashes, dishes and carrying case or crate).
# A camp stove with extra fuel.
# an Uncle Samta

I’m reminded of disaster-preparedness advocated in the 60’s: in case of nuclear attack, put your head between your legs and kiss your ass goodbye. mjh

Illegal Abortions Rampant in Latin America By Jen Ross

Five thousand women die from clandestine abortions every year in Latin America. It has one of the highest abortion rates in the world, despite its near-universal illegality. …

Abortion is prohibited across most of Latin America. Cuba and Puerto Rico are the exceptions. While some countries allow abortion in cases of rape or danger to the mother’s life, there are no exceptions in Chile, Colombia and El Salvador. These countries prosecute hundreds of women for having abortions. …

“The political elite, or the people who have money, happen to have access to abortions under optimal conditions, a doctor, a clinic, anesthesia . . . or they can even go to Miami to a clinic, so it’s not an issue for them. Poor women risk their lives.”

Judge’s religious robe on trial By Kim Henderson

Circuit Court Judge M. Ashley McKathan’s move to adorn a robe embroidered with the Ten Commandments has sparked a nationally frenzy. …

Judge McKathan first began wearing the robe, which he had embroidered by a local woman, this Monday.

He wears it on the bench during hearings and other cases. …

“The message I hope it sends is that you cannot divorce the law away from the truth and get justice,” remarked Judge McKathan. “I’m not worthy to do what has to be done, to carry that message to others, but I don’t think anybody is. It has to be done, though.

“I plan to continue to wear the robe.”

The Road To Environmental Apocalypse by Glenn Scherer

Forty-five senators and 186 representatives earned 80- to 100-percent approval ratings from the nation’s three most influential Christian right advocacy groups — the Christian Coalition, Eagle Forum, and Family Resource Council in 2003. Many of those same lawmakers also got flunking grades — less than 10 percent, on average — from the League of Conservation Voters last year.

These statistics are puzzling at first. … [A] scripture-based justification for anti-environmentalism — when was the last time you heard a conservative politician talk about that?

Odds are it was in 1981, when President Reagan’s first secretary of the interior, James Watt, told the U.S. Congress that protecting natural resources was unimportant in light of the imminent return of Jesus Christ. “God gave us these things to use. After the last tree is felled, Christ will come back,” Watt said in the public testimony that helped get him fired. …

Like him, many Christian fundamentalists feel that concern for the future of our planet is irrelevant, because it has no future. They believe we are living in the End-Time, when the son of God will return, the righteous will enter heaven, and sinners will be condemned to eternal hellfire. They may also believe, along with millions of other Christian fundamentalists, that environmental destruction is not only to be disregarded but actually welcomed — even hastened — as a sign of the coming Apocalypse.

We are not talking about a handful of fringe lawmakers who hold or are beholden to these beliefs. The 231 legislators (all but five of them Republicans) who received an average 80 percent approval rating or higher from leading religious-right organizations make up more than 40 percent of the U.S. Congress. …

Today, most of the roughly 50 million rightwing fundamentalist Christians in the United States believe in some form of End-Time theology.

Those 50 million believers make up only a subset of the estimated 100 million born-again evangelicals in the United States, who are by no means uniformly rightwing anti-environmentalists. In fact, the political stance of evangelicals on the environment and other issues ranges widely; the Evangelical Environmental Network, for example, has melded its biblical interpretation with good environmental science to justify and promote stewardship of the earth. But the political and cultural impact of the extreme Christian right is difficult to overestimate. …
Continue reading scripture-based justification for anti-environmentalism →

What’s New in the Legal World? A Growing Campaign to Undo the New Deal By ADAM COHEN , NYTimes

[S]tates’ rights conservatives are making progress in their drive to restore the narrow view of federal power that predated the New Deal – and render Congress too weak to protect Americans on many fronts.

We take for granted today the idea that Congress can adopt a national minimum wage or require safety standards in factories. That’s because the Supreme Court, in modern times, has always held that it can.

But the court once had a far more limited view of Congress’s power. In the early 1900’s, justices routinely struck down laws protecting workers and discouraging child labor. The court reversed itself starting in 1937, in cases that led to Wickard, and began upholding these same laws.

States’ rights conservatives have always been nostalgic for the pre-1937 doctrines, which they have lately taken to calling the Constitution-in-Exile. …

In pre-1937 America, workers were exploited, factories were free to pollute, and old people were generally poor when they retired. This is not an agenda the public would be likely to sign onto today if it were debated in an election. But conservatives, who like to complain about activist liberal judges, could achieve their anti-New Deal agenda through judicial activism on the right. Judges could use the so-called Constitution-in-Exile to declare laws on workplace safety, environmental protection and civil rights unconstitutional. …

The court will not return to the pre-1937 Constitution in a single case, but it seems likely to keep whittling away Congressional power and federally protected rights. If it does, what President Franklin Roosevelt declared in 1936 – after two key New Deal programs were struck down – will again be true: “It was not the wage earners who cheered when these laws were declared invalid.”

Daily Howler: George Bush won’t stop disinforming Gen X. Neither will CBS’ John Roberts

BUSH (12/11/04): While benefits for today’s seniors are secure, the system is headed towards bankruptcy down the road. If we do not act soon, Social Security will not be there for our children and grandchildren.

President Bush is lying again — and scribes like Roberts stare into air. Social Security is not ”headed towards bankruptcy,” and it’s absurd to say that the program ”won’t be there” if we don’t take emergency measures now. Why is Naja so misinformed? Because people like Bush keep misinforming her. In a rational word, journalists like would challenge Bush’s remarks. In our world, they rush hacks on the air to repeat them. …

Has there ever been a policy issue driven by so much disinformation?