It seems Republicans have been inaccurately crediting George Bush with keeping us safe from terrorists since 9/11 (conveniently omitting the anthrax attacks which came from within the US weapons establishment; I guess that means whoever did it wasn't a terrorist). It took a Democrat in the Kentucky legislature to identify the real Protector -- God. And not saying Loud and Proud is against the law. At least in Kentucky:
A lawmaker says the state's Homeland Security office should be crediting God with keeping the state safe.State Rep. Tom Riner, a Southern Baptist minister who was instrumental in establishing that requirement in 2006, disapproves of the fact that Homeland Security doesn't currently mention God in its mission statement or on its Web site.
The law passed under former Gov. Ernie Fletcher, who prominently credited God in annual reports to state leaders. But Gov. Steve Beshear's administration didn't credit God in its 2008 Homeland Security report issued last month.
[snip]
Riner said crediting God with helping ensure the state's safety is appropriate.
"This is recognition that government alone cannot guarantee the perfect safety of the people of Kentucky," Riner said. "Government itself, apart from God, cannot close the security gap. The job is too big for government."(AP)
I'm sorry. Did I just hear you gasp and then ask, "You mean they have a low that requires God be acknowledged as the reason there wasn't an anthrax attack in Kentucky in 2006"? Yes, that would be right. Representative Riner snuck the requirement into a floor amendment passed by the Kentucky legislature last year. Under the law, the Kentucky Department of Homeland Security has a duty to stress "the dependence on Almighty God as being vital to the security of the Commonwealth."
There's more:
Included in the law is a requirement that the office must post a plaque at the entrance to the state Emergency Operations Center with an 88-word statement that begins, "The safety and security of the Commonwealth cannot be achieved apart from reliance upon Almighty God."
I consider this a valuable reminder: not every dumbass fuckwit legislator is a Republican.
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88 word statements have other meanings too...i hope it's a coincidence.
I love this "George Bush has kept us safe since 9/11" meme because it's a clear admission of his failure to keep us safe on 9/11.
"Your honor, I haven't hit her since the last time I hit her."
I do believe a lawsuit is in order. Ten Commandments are one thing -- but openly endorsing a belief such as this borders on the tactics of a theocracy. I'm sorry, whatever your personal beliefs, it isn't necessary or desirable to have a state office have such a blatant statement of religious support.
Atheists and Humanists practice their own religions. They worship themselves, money, materialism and fame. They practice demoralization and unaccountability. Yet, they still cannot prove that God does not exist, or that God did not create everything. It truly doesn't matter whether God created us from dust, primordial goo, or evolved us from apes. This is why God gave us the Cliff Notes of creation in Genesis. He probably did not intend us to use science to mess with nuclear physics, cloning, or abortion, or to find where life came from. He intended us to use science to improve our lives on Earth and to bring us closer to him. We shouldn't even be exploring space and other planets until we learn to stop destroying the earth. All of the advertising, politics, legislation, science, and even moneys spent on promoting or denying God's existence simply does not matter, because God can take care of himself. What matters is, despite whether or not you believe in God, the demoralization of the world. The fall of Rome was due to its demoralization, its focus on self-worship, wealth, materialism, fame, etc. Despite whether you feel that God exists or not, stop wasting your time, money and resources to try and prove and advertise your positions. Instead, you should be investing in good works that will improve humanity, and not destroy it. Let's focus on cures for cancer, stopping the drug trade, eliminating alcoholism, improving education, balancing our country, state and local budgets, eliminating unemployment, reducing the reliance on insurance, the costs of basic survival, and removing the control that the wealthy and the media have over our lives. We should all improve on caring for each other, instead of always drawing lines, taking sides, and eventually resorting to fighting and violence. Peace, caring for and loving each other, and protecting the earth should be our goals, and with faith, God can take care of everything else.
Arthur --
Does your arrogance approach that of the likes of Jim Jones and David Koresh? Or is it only at the level of those such as Sarah Palin, GWB, Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell and others who will likely burn some of Hell's hottest fires (for pseudoChristians) ?
Arthur: I guess your advice doesn't apply to promulgating theistic arguments? Why did you take the time and effort to make the argument instead of doing some good works yourself? Or is what you wrote satire? It's so hard to tell these days.
Arthur--
There is no place for absurdity when trying to formulate an argument. You have a pea brain.
Jesus Christ! What's left for god to take care of after we clean up his mess? If we can do "peace, caring for and loving each other, protecting the earth" without the help of the holy spector then your argument about athiests has just been made void. I sure hope Casper alights someday soon. Until then...stay away from the shellfish its an abomination.
Arthur,
Please do stop, I can't take it any more. You made me laugh so much I fell off my chair. Your take off of religion is hilarious, the fake sincerity, the bleeding heart - fantastic stuff. It was almost real, you sounded as if you were reading from some sort of manual.
Congratulations. You got it in one.
No doubt Arthur won't be back to read any of the comments. If he does return it'll surprise me.
The religious believe, and are taught, that if you minister to the masses that it will win you points with God.
I really think that's what this is about for he has no concept as to how loving and caring atheist's are.
Now that is the truth!
What to do about this:
We need to pass a Federal law that will remove sovereign immunity from lawsuits for elected officials who take actions that "any reasonable person could reasonably foresee" would be found unconstitutional.
Yes, that would allow you to sue the legislature for passing this crap, for recovery of costs plus punitive damages taken out of their individual salaries.
Lawsuit #1: Sue the state on the obvious grounds of establishment of religion. Slam dunk.
Laswuit #2: Sue the legislator who wrote the damn thing and the ones who voted for it. And failure to read what they were signing is no excuse.
Additional outcome:
Legislators could seek court opinions a-priori before introducing or votiing for legislation. Failure to do so would count toward culpability in lawsuit #2 above.
In a practical sense this is about as likely to happen as Bush resigning from office before 2009 January 20. However it would at least be amusing to hear the weasel-words offered to try to defeat it.