Superintendent Todd Carlson of Shawano High School in Shawano, Wisconsin is sorry a student observed his First Amendment rights and had his article published in the school newspaper that denounces homosexuals adopting children. And so Superintendent Carlson is making amends by punishing this Christian kid for being so darn Christian. Superintendent Carlson has also decided in his infinite wisdom to censure this article by having it sent down the memory hole so that no one else will be confronted with this evil Christian’s views.

That’ll show that darn Christian kid, won’t it?

The article, “Should Homosexual Partners Be Bale to Adopt?,” was written by Brandon Wegner who was assigned the task of writing a counter-point to another student’s pro-homosexual adoption article. The piece was then published as an insert in the school newspaper, the Shawano Leader.

Shortly after the newspapers containing the insert were distributed, Superintendent Carlson issued a formal apology to the school and parents, removed the insert from surplus issues of the paper, and censured young Mr. Wegner claiming his article violated the school’s “anti-bullying” policy.

Wegner says that Carlson grabbed him up out of class and began to brow beat him in an attempt to get the kid to disavow his religious-based beliefs. According to Liberty Counsel, a First Amendment law firm, Wegner was quixotically bullied by Superintendent Carlson in an attempt to deter bullying.

Brandon was hauled before the superintendent on charges that he had violated the school’s bullying policy. Superintendent Todd Carlson told him that the column “went against the bullying policy,” and asked him if he “regretted” writing it. When Mr. Wegner stated that he did not regret writing it, and that he stood behind his beliefs, Superintendent Carlson told him that he “had got to be one of the most ignorant kids to try to argue with him about this topic,” that “we have the power to suspend you if we want to” and that the column had “personally offended me, so I know you offended other people!”

Carlson’s action is itself “ignorant.” Ignorant of our American laws, ignorant of tenets of tolerance, ignorant of public comportment, ignorant for abuse of his position as an authority figure, and just plain ignorant in a moral fashion.

Carlson’s bullying also makes the lie to the claim that our schools are meant to teach our children. The truth seems to be that Mr. Carlson simply wants to indoctrinate, not help students come to their own conclusions when offered all sides of the issues.

In fact, the school newspaper deserves kudos for having handled the issue properly. It gave room to advocates of both sides to air their views so that readers could make up their own minds. But Carlson doesn’t want any of this horrid teaching going on. He wants to tell kids what to think based on his own warped, left-wing ideology. None of this freedom of choice nonsense in HIS school, I’ll tell you what.

Superintendent Carlson should be fired. Not because he’s an extremist liberal, but because he has violated this kid’s rights at worst and violated the principals of actual teaching at best. He is no educator. He is an indoctrinator and that is just un-American.

(H/T Moonbattery.com)

Yes, yes, I know that lying on your Internet dating profile is wrong, but let’s not make a federal case out of it. Well, maybe you do want to make a federal case out if it at least if you are the meddlesome Obama, nanny state king, and buttinski extraordinaire. That’s right, Obama wants to make it a federal crime to lie on an Internet dating profile, of all things.

Is there anything this nanny-in-chief doesn’t think is his business?

As CNET.com notes, the U.S. Dept. of Justice is spending its resources to defend anti-hacking laws that would also make it a crime to use a fake name on Facebook or lie about anything — like your weight or height — on an Internet dating service profile.

The DOJ wants to make it a federal crime to violate a “terms of service” policy of the websites and services you join. According to DOJ, the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act must allow “prosecutions based upon a violation of terms of service or similar contractual agreement with an employer or provider,” as Richard Downing, the Justice Department’s deputy computer crime chief, told Congress last week.

Opponents of this point of view say that the “crimes” that the DOJ is worried about are already crimes under other statutes and laws and that this new layer is unnecessary.

During his testimony before Congress Downing also tried to ally fears that the DOJ would be interested in prosecuting people for lying on their Internet dating service profile. “We don’t have time or resources to do that,” he told the committee.

But the fact is, if this law passes without this point made explicit, the power will be there to do so and whether the DOJ intends to prosecute these sort of violations now this does not mean a future administration won’t decide it is a good idea!

In fact, let’s note an interesting dichotomy about what the DOJ finds that it is its duty to prosecute. While the DOJ is wringing its hands over someone lying on an Internet dating site profile it is uninterested in attempting to stop people from lying about serving in the U.S. military. My friend Duane Lester also notes that the DOJ is also uninterested in prosecuting criminals for “standing outside a polling place with a billy club intimidating people” from voting!

The sad fact is that there is just no way to account for what this partisan DOJ will prosecute so fears that they are adding even more to their power is a justly feared issue. This is yet another power grab from an already too powerful federal government.

Earlier this year the State of Illinois moved to force religious-based children’s services to break their religious principles and give children in their charge to homosexual couples. Organizations such as Catholic Charities have been told by the state that they either break their religious principles or face being shut down by the state. So, pursuant to that agenda, the state has determined that all children currently in the hands of religious adoption agencies need to be removed immediately.

Representing Catholic Charities of three Illinois Roman Catholic Dioceses, the Thomas Moore Society filed an emergency motion to prevent the state from removing all the children in its care. Unfortunately, an Illinois appellate court refused to overturn the trial court’s decision to remove the children during the appeal process in which lawyers are now engaged. (Filings here and here.)

Still, other motions made in the emergency motion were granted. Thomas Moore informs that the matter “is now on an expedited schedule for briefing in the Appellate Court.” The fate of the children remains unknown at this point.

So what was so bad that the State of Illinois felt it necessary to take all children away from religious-based organizations? Have there been cases of abuse? Perhaps children’s services from religious-based groups have been rated lowly? Have adopting parents complained?

None of the above. In fact, there is no substantive reason at all for this attack on religious-based children’s services in the Land of Lincoln. Well, no reason except for a left-wing, pro-homosexual political agenda, that is.

You see, the state received precisely one complaint about Catholic Charities. It was from an activist homosexual who complained that the religious-based adoption agencies in the state would not willingly give children up to homosexual couples.

If there has been before such draconian actions taken by government based on a single, hazy, non-substantive complaint — one that did not entail any abuse of children — I’ve never heard tell of it. But here we have such a case. The complaint of one activist pushing the homosexual agenda was enough for the state to decide to force all religious children’s services to either break religious principles and give children to homosexual couples, or face being shut down by the iron fist of the state.

This overt attack on religious-based children’s services hits with interesting timing, too. This month the Illinois Dept. of Children and Family Services gave Catholic Charities its highest rating for children’s services. Catholic Charities received a Level 1 compliance score and was ranked as one of the best foster care providers in the state.

So on one hand, one state agency says that the services Catholic Charities provided to the State’s most vulnerable children is top notch, yet on the other hand another state agency (the Attorney General’s office) says that Catholic Charities is so bad it must be shut down.

It just goes to show that Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan (a Chicago Democrat) has a political agenda and doesn’t really care what’s good for the homeless children of Illinois.

A middle school in Smyrna, Georgia included in an assignment material that essentially shows 7th grade children that Islamic polygamy is a perfectly legitimate concept and that there is nothing wrong with the strict dress codes used to oppress Muslim women the world over.

The material was presented to the 7th graders at Campbell Middle School as part of a discussion of the school’s dress codes, apparently meant to use the ideas of Islamic culture for women’s clothing as some sort of example to compare how the school regulates clothing for its students in Georgia.

The concepts were presented in the lesson as a letter from a fictional 20-year-old Muslim woman named “Ahlima.” In this letter “Ahlima” tells readers that she wouldn’t mind if her husband took a second wife and also extolled the virtues of the burkha. She claims that American women are “horribly immodest” in the way they dress.

As to polygamy, the fictional Ahlima says, “I understand that some Westerners condemn our practice of polygamy, but I also know they are wrong.”

A father of one of the students was not very happy with the assignment. He complained that the lesson is “promoting or positively depicting their belief that polygamy” is acceptable. He also felt that there should have been some sort of disclaimer that we Americans don’t accept these concepts and he worried that the Muslim ideas were presented as completely acceptable.

Another page of the assignment explained the “seven conditions for women’s dress in Islam,” presenting all of them without discussion and, in essence, endorsing them as acceptable or normal.

The school told the WSB TV, Channel 2 News that it did not create the lesson plan and that it came from the state. The school pledged to review the material to see if it was appropriate.

But, it is not appropriate. Not at all.

First of all, this lesson plan is built on lies. The burkha, for instance, is not a requirement of Islam. It is a cultural practice that only some Muslim cultures observe. The burkha has nothing at all to do with Islam directly. Not all Muslims practice polygamy, either, so even that isn’t necessarily a strict Islamic idea, either.

But, worse, the idea that burkhas should at all be acceptable to an American is a slap against our own ideals and promotes the oppressive ideas of enemies to our culture as perfectly acceptable.

The culturally strict proscriptions against freedom forced on Islamic women are a crime against humanity, yet here we have our own schools presenting to our own children the idea that the oppression of women is a perfectly acceptable cultural choice.

It would be exactly the same if they had a letter from a female slave saying that she was OK with being a slave. That it was perfectly acceptable for her to be owned by someone.

We are teaching our children that our own principles are not the optimal principles. We are teaching our children that our own culture, our own ideals are not supreme. We are teaching our children that the oppressive ideas of Islam are just as good as American ideals.

This is a result of liberals trying to make sure Muslims know that we “like” them in a post 9/11 world. With this weak, kow towing we are also making of ourselves a bigger target because there is another cultural ideal in Islam. Muslims feel that such bending over backwards as this is a weakness to be despised. Such kow towing is looked upon as pitiful. Muslims feel that such groveling is not “nice” or “neighborly” but spurs them to imagine that they can easily attack and dominate such a weak-willed culture.

But, even that aside, it shows how the liberals that wrote these lesson plans despise America. It shows that they do not value our own culture. It shows that these liberals are always in search of ways to further tear down the United States and make of her just another nation with just another set of cultural ideas.

If we want to bring America back from the brink of the destruction liberals have led us to we need to take back our educational system and get back to a time where we are teaching our kids why the United States is the best nation on earth.

Unfortunately, today our schools are filled with lessons like this, lessons that teach our own children that the US is nothing special.

An FBI Denver Joint Terrorism Task Force handout being distributed to Colorado military surplus store owners lists the purchase of popular preparedness items and firearms accessories as “suspicious” and “potential indicators of terrorist activities,” instructing store owners to keep records on and report people who:

“Make bulk purchase of items to include: Weatherproofed ammunition or match containers; Meals Ready to Eat; Night Vision Devices; night flashlights; gas masks; High capacity magazines; Bi-pods or tri-pods for rifles”

The FBI handout, entitled “Communities Against Terrorism: Potential Indicators of Terrorist Activities Related to Military Surplus Stores” also instructs surplus store owners to:

“Require valid ID from all new customers; Keep records of purchases’ Talk to customers, ask questions, and listen to and observe their responses; Watch for people and actions that are out of place; Make note of suspicious statements, people, and /or vehicles; If something seems wrong, notify law enforcement authorities.”

The handout also instructs surplus store owners to consider as “suspicious” anyone who “demands identity ‘privacy’” or anyone who expresses “extreme religious statements” and those who “make suspicious comments regarding anti-US, [or] radical theology.”

The “Communities Against Terrorism” flyer closes by stating:

Preventing terrorism is a community effort. By learning what to look for, you can make a positive contribution in the fight against terrorism. The partnership between the community and law enforcement is essential to the success of anti -terrorism efforts.

More HERE

Let me give a more realistic set of terrorism indicators: Possession of a Koran; Getting your butt up in the air 5 times a day; saying “inshallah”, “Allah Akhbar” or “Peace be upon him”; wearing long white coats; being seen inside a mosque.

Posted by John J. Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.). For a daily critique of Leftist activities, see DISSECTING LEFTISM. To keep up with attacks on free speech see TONGUE-TIED. Also, don’t forget your daily roundup of pro-environment but anti-Greenie news and commentary at GREENIE WATCH . Email me here

Once again St. Sabina, the “Catholic” Church on Chicago’s South Side, makes the news for race-baiting and down talking our U.S. Constitution. This time it is Chicago’s new Police Superintendent, Garry McCarthy, who appeared at the church and indulged his inner Father Pfleger with a rant on how the US is filled with racists and how the U.S. Constitution was written to kill minorities.

After the race-baiting “Father” Michael Pfleger left the stage, Chicago’s new top cop took his turn at stirring the race hatred instilled deep in the parishioners by years of Pfleger’s demagoguery. Superintendent McCarthy didn’t disappoint the crowd eager for more race-baiting, for sure.

“So here’s what I want to tell you…,” McCathy said warming to his theme. “Slavery. Segregation. Black codes. Jim Crow. What, what did they all have in common? Anybody getting’ scared? Government sponsored racism.”

Then he really got into the weeds…

Now I want you to connect one more dot on that chain of the African American history in this country, and tell me if I’m crazy. Federal gun laws that facilitate the flow of illegal firearms, into our urban centers across this country, that are killing our black and brown children.

The NRA does not like me, and I’m okay with that. We’ve got to get the gun debate back to center, and it’s got to come with the recognition of who’s paying the price for the gun manufacturers being rich and living in gated communities.

This cretin hit all the prosaic, left-wing, demagoguing talking points, didn’t he? What is he, running for Democrat nomination for president here? In fact, it most certainly seems that McCarthy is angling for politics instead of law enforcement with this pandering nonsense, doesn’t it?

So, the Constitution is made to kill blacks and browns and gun manufacturers are nothing but eeeevil rich people. Yep, all the left’s favorite tropes.

What is it with big cities that attract so many anti-American liars like this McCarthy to them?

Ah, but Garry “Joseph” McCarthy had another talking point for more slanderous wallowing. You guessed it, he went after Sarah Palin.

Superintendent “Joseph” McCarthy said he had been watching an episode of Sarah Palin’s Alaska and her caribou hunting episode made him furious, or something.

She was caribou hunting and talking about the right to bear arms. Why wasn’t she at the crime scene with me?

Um… maybe because she isn’t a Chicago cop, you idiot?

But let me make a supposition, here. I will guarantee that “Joe” McCarthy has never in his demagoguing life seen an episode of Sarah Palin’s Alaska. You got it. I am calling this man a liar. And a panderer.

Finally, it looks like we might be expecting Garry “Joseph” McCarthy to be a law-breaking top cop. If he is so against the Second Amendment, my guess is that he’ll be violating the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decisions that run against his un-American point of view and he’ll find ways not to enforce the Court’s decisions.

With the City of Chicago already running into major trouble with roving bands of black gangs attacking and robbing people in broad daylight in wiliding incidents (and it’s only a matter of time before they start killing people) we have a top cop more interested in appearing at racist churches making race-baiting speeches than doing his job. Emanuel better watch out because what we obviously have here is just another arrogant jack-booted thug that thinks he should be allowed to make up his own laws instead of enforcing the laws actually on the books.

Rahm Emanuel better quickly rein in this man who seems to be running for some political position instead of doing his job as the city’s highest police official.

“A New York street vendor has been arrested once again for selling condoms in wrappers bearing the image of President Barack Obama.

Jose Andujar, 43, was arrested on Friday in Times Square for selling his “Obama” condoms. It was his third arrest in a year for unlicensed peddling, police said, reported the New York Post.

The arrest came despite a State Supreme Court justice ruling that Andujar’s condoms are protected by the Constitution’s guarantee of free speech. The decision said the condom wrappers should be treated like books, which do not require a vending license.

The city vowed to continue to bust Andujar, pending the outcome of an appeal.

Andujar typically titillates tourists with his slick sales pitch, “It’s the ultimate stimulus package for hard times.”

Source

They would seem to be setting themselves up for a substantial damages award

Posted by John J. Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.). For a daily critique of Leftist activities, see DISSECTING LEFTISM. To keep up with attacks on free speech see TONGUE-TIED. Also, don’t forget your daily roundup of pro-environment but anti-Greenie news and commentary at GREENIE WATCH . Email me here

Calif. – Students banned from a Central Coast school for wearing a white t-shirt. On Wednesday, Soquel High School suspended at least two students. The students say it’s because of allegations, they’re part of a white supremacist group.

Source

Posted by John J. Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.). For a daily critique of Leftist activities, see DISSECTING LEFTISM. To keep up with attacks on free speech see TONGUE-TIED. Also, don’t forget your daily roundup of pro-environment but anti-Greenie news and commentary at GREENIE WATCH . Email me here

Indiana’s highest court has turned against our rights and the Constitution of the United States. The Supreme Court of Indiana has just decided that the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution does not apply to the citizens of Indiana.

The court has decided that Hoosiers have no right to be safe in their own homes from illegal entry, search, and seizure by police. Indiana’s highest court has just said that Hoosier stormtrooers can invade any home at any time and citizens have no right to resist because it is “against public policy.”

Blogger Bruce McQuain said this appalling incident in Indiana is an example of, “why you have to constantly protect your rights daily from attacks from within,” and boy is he right.

NorthwestIndiana.com pinpoints the problem perfectly.

Overturning a common law dating back to the English Magna Carta of 1215, the Indiana Supreme Court ruled Thursday that Hoosiers have no right to resist unlawful police entry into their homes.

The Supreme Court has decided that the right to be safe in one’s own home is not as important as the state being allowed to batter down people’s doors at will. Justice Steven David averred that there are enough protections of homeowners after they are accosted illicitly by police, after they’ve been arrested and possibly physically harmed, and after the state has caused them to spend untold thousands of dollars on their own bail and defense in the courts.

“We believe … a right to resist an unlawful police entry into a home is against public policy and is incompatible with modern Fourth Amendment jurisprudence,” David said. “We also find that allowing resistance unnecessarily escalates the level of violence and therefore the risk of injuries to all parties involved without preventing the arrest.”

This turns natural rights on its head and alters the basic compact between citizen and government in the USA. It takes us from an “innocent until proven guilty” premise to one where citizens have no rights at all unless the state deigns to allow them.

Now, the argument that the anti-constitutionalists make almost sounds sensible at first blush. This ruling, they say, is merely meant to prevent any chance that the actions of a homeowner in a given situation will “escalate the level of violence.” If homeowners sit meekly by and allow police to illegally enter their home, why the level of violence won’t grow. We need to protect the lives of our police, right?

Almost logical, eh?

The problem is that with a rule such as this in place, the police have no real reason to be sure that they are in the right when battering down a homeowner’s door in the first place. Freed from this onerous requirement to be 100% sure, they will find themselves battering down doors with little provocation because, hey, THEY are covered by the law from being wrong. THEY don’t need to be sure that the home they are invading is the right home, one inhabited by real criminals. Why, it can all be cleared up later, right? So the citizen can just shut up, sit down, and take this violation of his rights.

That’s right, you, the citizen, can just shut up, taste the cop’s boot heels, and maybe (if you are lucky) some judge down the line might agree with you that your rights were violated and, gosh, they need to mumble an apology to you sometime.

As McQuain said, this is proof of why we need to zealously protect our rights and fight for them every day.

It is also proof that our legal system is badly breaking down. It is proof of yet another thing, too. It is proof that these “judges” have no fear of the people. The Indiana Supreme Court judges that voted in support of this outrageous decision should all be thrown off the bench if not by outright impeachment, then at least in the next election.

But, I’d rather see impeachment, as opposed to election turnovers. Our elected politicians need to begin to systematically eliminate judges of this sort who have turned against the US Constitution. These people need to fear for their jobs. Impeachment of these un-American monsters has never been used enough and we should start doing it ASAP.

When even a red state such as Indiana starts turning against our natural rights, we know our governments have turned against we the people.

The U.S. military’s success in Pakistan this week proved the importance of maintaining a team focused on accomplishing dangerous missions. Others on the left prefer to look upon the armed forces as a playground to experiment with fringe ideas. Take the Air Force Academy which reportedly held a ceremony on Tuesday to dedicate a pile of rocks in the academy’s “worship area for followers of Earth-centered religions.”

This is a space cadets can use to perform rituals if they happen to be witches, warlocks and tree-worshipers. Overlooking the visitor center, the stone circle is designed for the benefit of a handful of those claiming to be Wiccans or Druids.

Personally, I don’t have a problem with that. They aren’t really going to turn you into a newt, and their religion is much more peaceful than another religion I could mention. The Washington Times does have an issue with respecting Wiccans and Druids, and continues to be rather derogatory over the issue, claiming it is all about extreme Leftists. But, then they drop this one

The Air Force is not alone in pandering. At Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland on Wednesday, the Army hosted a live-fire demonstration of its new M855A1 ammunition which boasts an “environmentally-friendly projectile.” The new copper-tipped round gives military brass the opportunity to brag to members of Congress that they are “doing something” to heal the planet while waging war. This opens an interesting question: Did SEAL Team Six use “green bullets” to take down Osama bin Laden, or will the Navy have to offset the carbon footprint of its highly successful mission?

Seriously?