Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Child Abuse

The Statesville Christian School thinks it's just fine & dandy to have this woman teaching little children about the meaning of the American Constitution. According to Jim McNally in the Statesville Record & Landmark, Virginia Foxx confirmed the local prejudices that this is a Christian nation, divinely inspired yada yada yada to do unto others as we freakin' well please.

Foxx advised the students that they should read the Constitution. Amen to that. But she suggested that because the Constitution does not mention an Air Force, which should be a prerogative left up to the states, according to the 10th Amendment, the U.S.A.F. is therefore unconstitutional. No, wait. She said Obama's health care reform isn't in the Constitution, and therefore we have no right to expect insurance, unless we happen to get elected to the U.S. Congress, and then we can have it.

(Marvelous thing, that 10th Amendment! If guvmint activity ain't spelled out there, specifically and explicitly, then we lazy socialists got no right to expect it. 'Course, the Foxx cum Tea Party "constitutionalist" philosophy does conveniently ignore the Preamble to the Constitution, with all that gooey "promote the general Welfare" stuff, but never mind. Now, about that Air Force...)

After defining what was and was not in the Foxx version of the Constitution, you know what Madam Foxx told the little children? That they should read the writings of one David Barton, a fairly notorious Texas Christian conservative and Republican activist who's been rewriting American history to claim that our Founders never intended the separation of church and state. Old Thomas Jefferson was really all about establishing Christianity, saith Brother Barton, and Foxx thinks that kind of propaganda would be educational nourishment for tender minds.

Foxx is the sort of Constitutional "expert" who not long ago (April 15, 2008) told a reporter for the High Country Press that the 16th Amendment is "unconstitutional." There's a keen legal mind at work! Let's see, a duly and properly ratified Amendment to the Constitution, done following the procedures laid out in the Constitution for amending the document, is "unconstitutional." About as sound in its reasoning as suggesting that Thomas Jefferson was really Jerry Falwell in a wig.

Come to think of it, Virginia Foxx may be Jerry Falwell in a wig.

33 comments:

Libby Spencer said...

Gah. She needs a Bozo the Clown wig for that speech. I can't believe they subject little children to that level of pure misinformation. It's frightening.

RV said...

I'm sure they invited her because they knew what she would say. Those children have no doubt heard such as this before.

Anonymous said...

If this is not a Christian nation, then what kind of nation is it? Muslim because of Obama?

bridle said...

Anonymous - Read the treaty of Tripoli. Focus on article 11.

We are not a theocratic nation. We are a democratic nation. Democracy comes from the Greek for 'people'. That means all the people, in this country comprising Jews, Christians, Muslims, Hindus, atheists, Bhuddists, and many other groups.

BikerBard said...

Any fool who still promotes the idea of President Obama as a Muslim is ignorant and should remain, as all cowards, "Anonymous."

Anonymous said...

We are not a Democracy. We are a Republic.

Anonymous said...

I did not say he Obama was Muslim. He said the United States was.

In an interview with Laura Haim on Canal Plus, a French television station, Mr. Obama noted that the United States also could be considered as “one of the largest Muslim countries in the world.”

BikerBard said...

Lame.

Anonymous said...

WTF!!!!!! The constitution says nothing about having a Air Force?

This republican tea bagging reverse history has really gone off the wheels of Sanity. However, knowing the Foxx, she will say that the French had a air force [ Hot Air Balloon] during French revolution and it was blown apart by the hot air of the communists

Where does god find the republicans besides the Glenn Beck show?

Anonymous said...

In an interview with Laura Haim on Canal Plus, a French television station, Mr. Obama noted that the United States also could be considered as “one of the largest Muslim countries in the world.”* Anonymous Palin Freak

Did Not!!!!!!! 1/2 Republican tea bag governor Sara Palin said that on the old Gong show

No Compromise said...

Bridle,
There is no article 11 in the original Treaty of Tripoli, which was written in Arabic, only a rambling letter from one of Yussuf Pasha's secretaries.

The U.S. was clearly referred to throughout the treaty as a Christian nation. For instance, article 3 says (I have translated the Arabic into English), "Glory be to God! Declaration of the third article. We have agreed that if American CHRISTIANS [caps. mine] are traveling with a nation that is at war with the well-preserved Tripoli, and he takes prisoners from the Christian enemies and from the American CHRISTIANS [again caps. mine] with whom we are at peace, then he sets him free; neither he nor his goods shall be taken."

RV said...

Anonymous, would you prefer for your republic to be Methodist or Baptist? Because if America becomes a "Christian nation", that will be the next big controversy.

RV said...

Anonymous, do you want your republic to be Methodist or Baptist? If America becomes a "Christian nation" that will be the next controversy.

Anonymous said...

I do not care what kind of nation it is as far as religion is concerned. I just find it funny that some people on this blog do not like the country being described as Christian, but don't have a problem when their hero Obama describes it as Muslim.

I do not care what religion Obama claims to be either. I know he attended the hate church of Reverend Wright and that his elementary school registration papers listed him as being Muslim. His religion is his business.

Anonymous said...

I do not care what kind of nation it is as far as religion is concerned. I just find it funny that some people on this blog do not like the country being described as Christian*Christian secret society Anonymous

As a member of the Reverse Venus Atheist Cult, I find your remark to be that of a Knights Templar who loves to procreat with Pagan Neo-con Sara Palin Republican Goats on the weekends...

Anonymous said...

Well, I guess there was no reply you could make to my comments, so there is no way to keep the conversation going. The logic on this blog is really something - not!

bridle said...

No Compromise, What the heck are you talking about? The Treaty of Tripoli which was ratified unanimously and signed by President Adams was in English, and certainly included article 11. As well educated as those men were, I doubt they read Arabic fluently.
Do you want more evidence that the US was not founded to be a theocracy? There is plenty available and if you are too lazy to research, I can supply the citations (sigh). But here's the real question; is there any possibility of evidence making a difference in your mind or are you permanently frozen in your mindset?

No Compromise said...

Bridle,

You don't know what you're talking about. Yussuf Pasha only signed the Arabic version of the treaty.(I used to live in Tripoli, and the original version of the treaty is on display at the Triploitania Museum, which is located at Yussuf Pasha's old castle.)

The version that Congress was given was in English and it was completely different than the original. Congress was hoodwinked by the fact that they couldn't read Arabic. Of course you probably believe that our country would NEVER tell its people one thing and a foreign country just the opposite! [sarcasm off]

BTW, if you know of the existence of an Arabic version of the treaty with an article 11, I'm sure there are quite a few historians who would be interested in your find. Maybe you might even get rich selling it. In the meantime,read up on your history, and then maybe you might be taken seriously.

RV said...

Interesting point, Anonymous. I have to agree with you in the sense that America is a country in which all varieties of religious expression and the non-religious vantage point are permitted. I don't think Obama meant that this is an exclusively Muslim country, but just that there are many Muslims living and worshiping freely in America.

BikerBard said...

Oh, don't waste your time explaining it, RV. Mouse just needs to vent his anti-Obama BS.

No Compromise said...

Bridle,
This from the Tripolitania Museum site: "The translation of the Treaty of Tripoli by Barlow has been found faulty, and there is doubt whether Article 11 in the version of the treaty ratified by Congress corresponds to anything of the same purport in the Arabic version."

bridle said...

No Compromise,
What the Arabs signed or thought they signed, has no relevance to this discussion. The fact that congress ratified, and President Adams signed the treaty with the aforesaid article 11, supports the thesis that the US was founded as a secular nation. There is plenty of other evidence to support that thesis.
By the way, would you really want to live in a theocracy?

No Compromise said...

Bridle,

Why don't you read what I have posted, instead of making your assumptions using your own liberal stupidity? I challenge you to paste anywhere where I am arguing whether or not the U.S. is a secular nation.

BTW, contrary to what you have been told in your government-controlled schooling, the U.S. is NOT a democracy; it is a representative republic. (As in "and to the REPUBLIC for which it stands...")

BikerBard said...

No Comp:

Wait a minute. I thought conservatives had the market cornered on stupidity. Witness witless Palin, dumber than a bag of rocks!

bridle said...

No Comp- With regard to the Treaty of Tripoli, if you believe that the US is a secular nation, what are you arguing about?
You are correct about our form of government as a Republic, however, it has also been defined as a representative democracy. The word democracy derives from the Greek, meaning rule of the people. Abraham Lincoln, you may recall, referred to this government of the people, by the people, and for the people.
I think you are picking at nits here.

No Compromise said...

Bridle,

I wasn't arguing about whether or not the U.S. is a secular nation. I was only pointing out that what Congress ratified and what Yussuf Pasha signed were completely different documents.

About the U.S. being a democracy, you're right, I'm nitpicking. The only thing I would comment about would be your using Lincoln as a good example. I happen to think that Lincoln was the worst president we've ever had. (In case there are any Republicans reading this, so that you won't think that I'm picking on the Republicans, I also think that FDR was one of our worse presidents -- a Republican AND a Democrat!)

RV said...

Why do you think that, No Compromise? Was it because they both tried to help the people of this nation?

No Compromise said...

RV,
It was because they both illegally used federal power that was not granted to them by the Constitution.

bridle said...

Can you be specific? Ab Lincoln did make a lot of mistakes, including suspending the right to habeas corpus, but he also ended slavery in America and saved the Union. As for FDR, I know many old people who believe he saved the country during the great depression. These were members of the working class who revere him. The plutocracy of that era, the wealthy capitalists couldn't stand FDR and tried to subvert democracy by means of the little known Business plot involving General Smedley Butler. Fortunately, Smedley Butler, who earned the medal of honor, twice, was a true patriot and reported the plot to congress. Oddly enough, nothing was done about the attempted treasonous coup, and it was in fact, covered up.

BikerBard said...

So.....
"No Compromise" admits he was the one who thought Lincoln was the worst. Everyone else on the planet thinks otherwise.
And to think Lincoln was the compromise candidate for president.

Wataga County Anarchist said...

BB say, "Everyone else on the planet thinks otherwise."

WCA says, "BB, you must be a Yankee!"

BikerBard said...

WCA:
Do you really need to affix a label in order to deamonize me?

Just call me a "liberal." That should be enough for you.

"I am no less in blood than thou art, Edmund." - W.S.

BikerBard said...

PS to WCA:

GET OVER IT! The south LOST over 150 years ago! The South got the Allman Brothers and NASCAR. The North got Billy Joel and Broadway.

Move on!