"Nones" a New Voting Bloc?

The Center for Humanist Activism Fund has started the Freethought Equality Fund PAC, creating the country's first ever political action committee dedicated to promoting the rights and concerns of non-believers.  According to The Huffington Post:

The PAC will back humanist, atheist and agnostic candidates at all levels of government. Freethought's coordinator, Bishop McNeill, told The Huffington Post that it would also be open to supporting candidates who identify with a religion if they are committed to protecting the separation of church and state and defending the civil liberties of secular Americans. 

Nonbelievers have expressed concerns about religious lawmakers who are hostile to legislation based on scientific research because it conflicts with their faith.

According to the latest findings from the Pew Forum, about one-in-five adults affiliate themselves as atheist, agnostic, or non-believers ("nones" for short).  That number rises to one-in-three for those of us under the age of 30.

Comparatively, a recent Gallup poll that indicated Americans who identified themselves as Republicans dropped to 25%.  With a five percent difference between Republicans and nones, it would seem that the demographic field between religious conservatives and nones is beginning to even out.  Unfortunately, an earlier Gallup study demonstrated only 54% of voters would be willing vote for an atheist for President.

What can we draw from these numbers?  If the polls are correct, it shows that despite a continuing growth in the non-religious population of this country since the 1980s, nones are still distrusted by a large segment of the American public.  Large enough that the ambition of fielding a candidate for a national office like the presidency is still a premature dream.

However, PACs representing nones like the Freethought Equality Fund could still prove to be useful in other electoral venues.  Many of the issues that concern nones, like science education, government sponsored prayer, and equal access to public forums stem from local elections.  If the FEF and other nones-aligned PACs helped to promote candidates - who were either non-religious or religious but respected a strong separation of church and state - in strategic local races where religious encroachment into politics was a problem, then these PACs could be a start of a larger effort for better political representation for atheists, agnostics, and other non-believers.  

(Hat Tip Roy Speckhardt)

Magistrate Uses Judicial Power to Change Baby's Name for Religious Reasons

In August of last year in Newport, TN Cocke County Child Support Magistrate Lu Ann Ballew ordered a couple to change their newborn's name from Messiah to Martin.  The child's parents originally took the case to court to adjudicate their disagreement on which surname they should give the infant.  

The judge on her own volition decided to rule not that the baby should have the father's surname McCollough, but also that the parents must change the infant's first name to Martin, the mother's surname.   The ruling came as a shock to the parents, since they both agreed that the child's  first name should be Messiah.  Magistrate Ballew said that the name Messiah was inappropriate because:

"The word Messiah is a title and it's a title that has only been earned by one person and that one person is Jesus Christ."

Magistrate Ballew's order was overturned by a higher judge.  After Ballew's ruling was overturned, the parents filed a complaint against Ballew, and the State Board of Judicial Conduct agreed that she improperly let her religious views dictate the outcome of the case.

The magistrate's conduct was unbelievable and without a doubt constituted misconduct.  Her statement that messiah is only a title that has been earned by Jesus is also historically inaccurate.  Messiah means "anointed one," and in the Hebrew Bible it is a title that refers mostly to Jewish kings, but also used for some prophets and priests.  The title itself was expansive enough to be used in Isaiah 45:1 to refer not to the kings of Judah, but to the Persian emperor Cyrus the Great after he freed the Jews from Babylon.

So to Magistrate Ballew:  If you are going to use your position to impose your belief system onto people, you might want to make sure what you are saying at least holds some sort of historical accuracy.

Town Installs Church Sign on Woman's Lawn

A link from Howard Friedman at Religion Clause led me to a peculiar story about Francene Tearpock-Martini, a resident and former councilwoman of Shickshinny, PA, is currently fighting with her town over a church sign that she claims was illegally installed on her property: 

Former councilwoman Francene Tearpock-Martini filed suit in federal court Wednesday against Shickshinny Borough, current council members Michael Steeber, Rosalie Whitebread and James Wido and former councilwoman Jule Moore. 

Tearpock-Martini's claims include that she is being forced to support a particular religion, was denied the right to protest actions of the local government and has lost the full use of her property. 

The suit alleges that in 2008 the pastor of a local church, who is not named in the suit, told Tearpock-Martini he ordered a sign for his church that he wanted to place on her South Main Street property. She told him she did not consent to having any signs on her property, which she says is on the National Historic Register. 

Tearpock-Martini "made clear to the entire council" during a July 8, 2008, public meeting that she did not approve of putting a church sign on her property. However, at the Aug. 5, 2008 meeting, council, with the exception of Tearpock-Martini and former councilwoman Randi Feno, voted to approve installation of the sign. 

Obviously, if the facts of the case are what Tearpock-Martini claims, she will have an extraordinarily easy time in court.  A city cannot force someone to support particular speech, especially religious speech, by installing signs on their property.  It really baffles me in this day and age that a large segment of the population, not to mention government officials, still do not understand that point.  

Imagine if it was not a church, but a mosque that installed the sign with government support.  Xenophobic idiots like Pamela Geller and David Yerushalmi would be foaming at the mouth and spitting diatribes in the middle of rage seizures about how this demonstrates the "Islamification" or "Shariaization" (both of which aren't actual words) of America.  And most people would agree, rightly, that a mosque has no right to force a member of the community to support the mosque by displaying a greeting sign. 

After the sign was installed, Tearpock-Martini tried to reason with the church and government to take the sign off her property, but to no avail.  She then tried to cover the sign up with her own that decried the town and church's violation of her rights:

In protest, Tearpock-Martini put up a sign of her own, stating that "This church sign violates my rights as a taxpayer & property owner. Residential neighborhoods are not zoned for advertisement signs." Borough officials sent her a letter threatening to charge her with a summary offense. 

At one point the church sign fell. Tearpock-Martini took it to the pastor's home "and explained to him that she meant no disrespect to his church, but she did not want the sign on her property where it obstructed her view and diminished the value and enjoyment of that property and her home." 

Apparently without the pastor's knowledge, Shickshinny officials reinstalled the sign with poured concrete so it would not fall or be easily removed. 

Tearpock-Martini is seeking injunctions to have the sign removed and prevent placing or maintaining any other signs on the property, plus punitive damages and attorneys fees and costs.

She is a much better person than I am.  If it were my property, I'm pretty sure I would have covered it with this:  

Freedom of Religion is a wonderful thing

Friday Links

I am about half way done with Fall term.  So far, Sanskrit has been an ultimate time sink, but I've been assured by multiple people that it will make studying Pali next year much less complicated.  But as always, I noticed I have not updated this in a while so I decided to share some links:

• Radley Balko has a piece at the Huffington Post about how both campaigns in the current election have completely ignored criminal justice issues.

• Salon has a great article on how the super wealthy think that losing one's reputation is punishment enough for crime, and therefore they should be spared any actual legal punishment.  

• The Supreme Court will soon decide on whether a dog's bark can cost you thousands of dollars in civil forfeiture.  With the court's gutting of the 4th amendment over the last 25 years, I am not optimistic. 

• On the lighter side of crime, an Oshkosh man argued to an appeals court that, because of his biblical studies, he has come to the conclusion that he is a "man" and not a "person" under the law.  Therefore his speeding ticket for going 71 miles per hour in a 55 zone violated his religious freedom since that law convicted him as a "person."  The court's decision was not surprising.  

• Yes, Chris Matthews, it is comleptely unconstitutional to be rude the president.  It's right next to the part that says that freedom of the press only applies if the journalist yells a lot.  

• Andrew Walker of Australian National College speculates about the differences between agricultural politics in Korea and Thailand.  Surprisingly, Korea's less agricultural economy is more supportive of farmers.  

• I agree with Wise Kwai that Bangkok is now the place to film your Neo-Noir films ala Blade Runner. 

Mayor Tonya Hoeffel Doesn't Understand the First Amendment

After this post and the previous post, I think I just might turn this blog into a Rogues Gallery of sorts, populated by people who clearly don't understand Constitutional Law, but should.  And not in depth analyses of pertinent though obscure case law, but a basic understanding of well known constitutional  principles.  

Like the fact you, as a mayor, cannot walk into a store and start throwing things into the trash because you think they make baby Jesus cry:

Less than one month after of the massacre of Sikhs in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, Mayor Tonya Hoeffel of Garrett, Indiana has further offended the Sikh community. Mayor Hoeffel walked into a local convenience store, observed pamphlets about the Sikh religion on the store counter, and picked them up before throwing them in the trash bin.When manager and part-owner of the store Kulwinder Singh Nagra asked Mayor Hoeffel why she threw out the informational pamphlets, she replied, "It's against my beliefs. This is against Christianity."Although Mayor Tonya Hoeffel has since apologized, her behavior demands more thoughtful analysis and response. We must demand more from our elected officials and hold them accountable for their actions....After being called out by the local media, Mayor Tonya Hoeffel met with Kulwinder Singh Nagra to apologize for her mistake. She explained: "I personally believe if you do something wrong, you go to that person. I apologized for offending them [Sikhs]. I said I know they are a peaceful people."

If she really wanted to apologize, she would immediately leave office to spare the city from further embarrassment 

(Hat tip to Ed Brayton)

St. Martinville High School Graduates are Still Not Too Sure About This 'Brown v. Board' Thing...

St. Martinville High School Class of 1973, whose members were born after the Supreme Court ruled against segregated public schools, decided to hold its first ever desegregated high school reunion:

For nearly 40 years, graduates from the St. Martinville, La., Senior High School Class of 1973 have been holding racially segregated class reunions.But this year, ABC affiliate KATC reports that the graduates decided to change that tradition, making the reunion a non-segregated affair.

It boggles the mind that they only now decided to play catch up to the rest of the country in some respects.  But that doesn't mean they are ready to get rid of all of their old timey ways:

However, a letter announcing the change included an after party for "white graduates only." 

According to reports, a reception is going to be held at the school at the end of September, followed by the homecoming football game. The letter notes that "all graduates are welcome to attend" those events.

After the game, however, "white graduates only" have been invited to gather at a classmate's home. Invitees are encouraged to bring a "food dish to share."

 And racism.  You absolutely cannot forget to bring that. 

Kevin Seifert on Matthew Stafford

Kevin Seifert writes about how the Detroit Lion's choice to draft Matthew Stafford three years ago was controversial at the time, but panned out:  

Was it just three years ago when we were all arguing about who the Detroit Lions should select with the No. 1 overall pick of the 2009 draft? The Lions narrowed their options to Georgia quarterback Matthew Stafford, Baylor offensive lineman Jason Smith and Wake Forest linebacker Aaron Curry.  

Curry was the choice of Lions fans wary of highly-drafted quarterbacks and desperately hoping for an improved defense.  

Traditionalists wanted to draft Smith to replace what seemed to be an aging Jeff Backus.  

The Lions, as it turned out, were sold on Stafford for months before the draft and negotiated with Smith and Curry only to aid their leverage with Stafford's agent.  

I was reminded of those times this week when the St. Louis Rams, who drafted Smith No. 2 overall, demoted him to second-team right tackle. Curry, drafted No. 4 by the Seattle Seahawks, moved to the Oakland Raiders last season and is sidelined for the moment by a knee injury he reportedly sought stem-cell treatment for.  

Stafford, I'm told, threw for 5,038 yards and 41 touchdowns last season.  

To be clear, there weren't many people arguing from a public perspective that Stafford was the slam-dunk choice, myself included. It's hard to argue with it now.

Stafford so far has only played one full season, so it is still too early to tell exactly how his career will pan out.  However, he has a young and talented receiver corp that includes Calvin Johnson, probably the best wide receiver in the game.  His health is still a concern, since in this year's preseason he already injured his hand with a broken blood vessel.  Luckily, doctors say that he will be ready to play by the start of the regular season.

I'm cautiously optimistic with the Lion's future, especially if their running game and secondary improves, which it must if they wish to make a strong run to the post-season.

CIA and Hollywood's Propagandic Collusion

Glenn Greenwald writes about the disturbing relationship between a CIA spokesperson Marie Harf and New York Times intelligence reporter Mark Mazetti.  Fellow NYT columnist Maureen Dowd wrote a piece that mentioned the collusion between the CIA and filmmakers working on a film that details the killing of Osama Bin Laden, and Harf was worried that the information implicating the CIA's relationship with the film would look poorly on the agency.  She contacted Mazetti, who then forwarded her the as-of-then unpublished column without consent or knowledge from the paper or Dowd, for her to review, but asked her to delete the email, since it seems he does have some sense of shame.  

While the media and the government often have a relationship that is too friendly to allow the media to properly act as a adversarial fourth estate, the new levels of collusion between filmmakers Kathryn Bigelow and Mark Boal (the director and screenwriter for "The Hurt Locker," respectively) and the CIA are disturbing, especially since the film was originally scheduled to be released in October, just before the presidential election.  As Judicial Watch has reported:

According to a June 15, 2011, email from Benjamin Rhodes, Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Communications, to then Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs Doug Wilson, then-CIA Director of Public Affairs George Little, and Deputy White House Press Secretary Jaime Smith, the Obama White House was intent on “trying to have visibility into the UBL (Usama bin Laden) projects.”

Compare the treatment of Laura Poitras, a documentarian whose last two films, "My Country, My Country" and "The Oath," have been critical of the United States foreign policy.  She is routinely harassed at airports when she enters the country, questioned by the TSA and FBI agents, and has her electronic equipment seized without a warrant.

This is all par for the course.  Instead of making Washington more transparent, and therefore more accountable as he promised, Obama and his administration have rewarded people who give favorable treatment to the administration with access, sometimes to classified information, while punishing whistle- blowers with harassment and sometimes even prosecution.

Now imagine if this would have happened sometime in 2006, when Bush was still in the White House.  I can almost guarantee that Democrats and liberals would be up in arms about this sort of corruption.  But now that it is their man as the commander-in-chief, most could not care at all.

Back-in-America Links

• The Vatican is running a debt.
• Popehat defends the humanities.
• Juan Cole on how the media treats white perpetrators of mass violence differently than "Arab Terrorists."
• The Mellon Foundation backs area studies at UW-Madison.  My department is afloat for at least another few years.
• Now this is the story all about how/my life got flipped, turned upside down/And I'd like to take minute and sit right there/I'll tell you why I am in Guantanamo watching The Fresh Prince of Bel-air.
• Are human poachers causing a selective pressure that favors intelligence in the gorilla population?
• Finally, my friend looks at the similarity between food and the human body.

Interesting Links

• Hillary Clinton visits Laos in an effort to strengthen ties between Washington and Vientiane during her tour of Southeast Asia and her visit to ASEAN.  The visit is part of the US Government's larger effort to combat America's waning influence and China's interest in the region.  
• Speaking of ASEAN, economic growth looks like it will be much more robust than in many parts of the rest of the world, partially due to some countries, including Thailand, growing more independent from the slowing American and Chinese economies.  However,  the boarder dispute between The Philippines and China over portions of the South China Sea will not be resolved during this year's meeting, which holds promise for oil and natural gas exploration. 
• Adrian Peterson is arrested in a Houston nightclub. I am torn between my dislike of the Minnesota Vikings and my distrust of police.  
• Anonymous proves it can be just as authoritarian and hypocritical as the governments it does not like.  
• A single drop of venom from the Russell's Viper can congeal a wine glass of human blood, which is both horrifying an fascinating.