Last fall, Lisa Biron, a New Hampshire lawyer who had done some work with the Alliance Defending Freedom (formerly the Alliance Defense Fund), was indicted on federal and state charges of exploiting her own 14-year-old daughter. Among other things, Biron filmed her daughter on several occasions while she engaged in extremely graphic sexual activity, and even took her to Canada to have sex with a guy she’d met on Craigslist. She was convicted on seven federal charges back in January. Yesterday, Biron was sentenced to 40 years in prison.
The Alliance Defending Freedom is located in Scottsdale, AZ.
One more time: thanks for screwing things up for me.
If you're the Speaker of the House and you imply criminality in the IRS-Tea Party kerfuffle THEN summon the IRS official in question to testify before a Congressional committee, then don't be surprised when said IRS official denies that she had broken the law before pleading the Fifth Amendment, dumbass.
Yeah, that sucks because I was going to send a petition to Lerner, too. How do we get the IRS to act on organizations with tax-exempt status that are violating the laws now?
Way to go, Orange Man.
U.S. Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) and other members of Congress are sponsoring an event to celebrate the 224th anniversary of the inauguration of Washington. The event is called "Washington: A Man of Prayer."
That works only if you don’t know anything about history. The evidence simply doesn’t back up the Religious Right’s claims about our first president. Consider this material, drawn from Brooke Allen’s book Moral Minority: Our Skeptical Founding Fathers:
- “[Washington] paid little attention to the Sabbath or any other outward manifestation of religiosity. We have various eyewitness accounts of life at Mount Vernon which do not much feature religious observance.”
- Ona Judge Staines, who had been a slave at Mount Vernon, did not report a lot of religious activity there: “The stories of Washington’s piety and prayers, so far as she ever saw or heard while she was his slave, have no foundation. Card-playing and wine-drinking were the business at his parties, and he had more of such company Sundays than on any other day.”
- As president, Washington attended religious services regularly but more or less stopped once he was out of office. During the last three years of his life, he attended services a grand total of three times.
- Washington’s aversion to communion is well known. When he did attend services, he would routinely leave services before communion was offered.
- On his deathbed, Allen writes, Washington spurned suggestions that he receive a visit from a clergyman. Allen writes, “Washington requested no such supernatural aid in his final hours, though he was well aware he was dying. His last act on earth, in fact, was to take his own pulse, the consummate Enlightenment gesture….”
But what about that famous painting of Washington praying in the snow at Valley Forge? The painting in question was created by an artist named Arnold Friberg in 1976 to celebrate the Bicentennial.It’s based on a story about Washington being seen deep in prayer at Valley Forge that comes from one man, Isaac Potts, who is not considered reliable. In 1918, the Valley Forge Park Commission refused to erect a marker on the spot where Washington allegedly prayed because they considered the story a legend.
But Washington added “So help me, God” to the presidential oath of office! He must have been deeply devout, right?
Once again, there is no evidence that Washington ever did this. We at Americans United got so tired of hearing this story that a few years ago we asked Philander D. Chase, senior editor of the Papers of George Washington at the University of Virginia, to weigh in on the matter.
Here is what Chase said: “[N]either we at the Washington Papers nor any other historians, to our knowledge, have been able to find any eyewitness accounts saying that Washington added the words `So help me God’ to the presidential oath at his first inauguration (or at his second inauguration, for that matter). “
Chase added, “I and some other historians think that, given Washington’s notably strong commitment to adhering as closely as possible to the Constitution, it is unlikely that he would have taken it upon himself to add the words `So help me God’ to the presidential oath.”
The people who live here made this possible:
I’ll start with an admission: this photo is more likely demagoguery than not. I could see 9 year-olds being fed this crap much to their detriment by private, protestant schools. Unfortunately, this republic has made the difficult decision to allow parents to fill their minds with garbage like creationism instead of science and fact to hold on to the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.
That’s not to say that there aren’t theocrats who would like to see all schools instruct children with rubbish like this who lack political clout to advance such causes.
Marriage, not to be confused with Holy Matrimony, is a legal contract requiring a license issued by the state. As such, it is inherently unconstitutional to deny same-sex couples the right to enter into such a contract that is afforded every other consenting couple of legal age.
How 19-year-old activist Zack Kopplin is making life hell for Louisiana’s creationists
…Kopplin is a passionate defender of scientific inquiry, and vociferously rejects the notion that creationism and evolution should be taught side-by-side.
“Creationism is not science, and shouldn’t be in a public school science class — it’s that simple,” he says. “Often though, creationists do not, or are unwilling, to recognize this.” Science, he argues, is observable, naturalistic, testable, falsifiable, and expandable — everything that creationism is not.
But what also drives Kopplin is the inherent danger he sees in teaching creationism.
“Creationism confuses students about the nature of science,” he says. “If students don’t understand the scientific method, and are taught that creationism is science, they will not be prepared to do work in genuine fields, especially not the biological sciences. We are hurting the chances of our students having jobs in science, and making discoveries that will change the world.”
He worries that, if Louisiana (and Tennessee, which also has a similar law) insists on teaching students creationism, students will not be the ones discover the cure to AIDS or cancer. “We won’t be the ones to repair our own damaged wetlands and protect ourselves from more hurricanes like Katrina,” he says.
Moreover, he’s also concerned that teaching creationism will harm economic development.
“Just search creationism on Monster Jobs or Career Builder and tell me how many creationist jobs you find,” he asks. Kopplin tells us about how this past Spring, Kevin Carman, the former Dean of LSU’s College School of Science (now the Executive Vice President and Provost for the University of Nevada, Reno) testified in the Louisiana Senate Education Committee about how he had lost researchers and scientists to other states because of the Louisiana Science Education Act.
“But it also violates the separation of church and state,” he says. “Teaching Biblical creationism is promoting one very specific fundamentalist version of Christianity, and violating the rights of every other American citizen who doesn’t subscribe to those beliefs. So it would be stomping on the rights of Catholics, Mainline Protestants, Buddhists, Humanists, Muslims, Hindus, and every other religious group in the country.
These creationists, he argues, would be horrified to see the Vedas being taught in science class. “And they would have every right to be,” he says, “That’s how the separation of church and state works and it’s the foundation of our country.”
This is sign is posted on Seckman Road in Imperial, Missouri. Its not only down the street from my home but not even half a mile from Seckman schools. It saddens me to think of all the children exposed to such hatred on their way to school this morning. And these people call themselves Christians.
Christians, and in turn, theocrats they may be, but they aren’t citizens because they have no regard for our nation’s secular heritage or a clue about what really matters to the nation.
And if you want to keep health care for women this way, see voteforchoice.org
Pastor: I wanted to slap her | Local News - KCCI Home
Politics and religion have collided at a Burlington church after a pamphlet encouraging people to vote to remove an Iowa Supreme Court justice surfaced at a Sunday service.
A woman who attended the City Church service on Sept. 30 told the pastor it was illegal for the church to display the pamphlets.
The Internal Revenue Service could revoke a church’s nonprofit status for promoting candidates or ballot issues.
The incident has been reported to the IRS, which declined to comment.
Pastor Steve Youngblood says the woman’s rebelliousness isn’t proper Christian behavior. In a sermon Oct. 7, he acknowledged wanting to slap her.
Justice David Wiggins faces a retention vote Nov. 6. Social conservative groups have sought his ouster because he joined in a unanimous 2009 decision legalizing gay marriage.
WWJD, AMIRITE?!
“Yea, I say unto thee: When the women become disagreeable, it’s time to slap a trollop,” said Jesus Christ never.
I’m just sayin’. And it’s about damn time to report this bullshit. You wanna be political, pay taxes. Render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s. Otherwise, stick to the business of pushing your brand of all-knowing, invisible sky-dad.
Churches and other 501(c)3 (charity) organizations can gather more contributions from their members because those members get to deduct those contributions from their tax returns. In trade, they agree not to promote candidates at all, nor to engage in “significant” activities in support or opposition to specific initiative propositions or other laws.
How to complain:
- Use IRS Form 13909 to submit to the IRS. (To avoid difficulty, first save this PDF file to your computer and open in Acrobat before you fill it out.)
- Save the completed form to your computer with the name of the church that is in violation. Easiest way to submit is to email it in.
- SUBMISSION AND DOCUMENTATION: The completed form, along with any supporting documentation, may be mailed to IRS EO Classification, Mail Code 4910DAL, 1100 Commerce Street Dallas, TX 75242-1198, faxed to 214-413-5415 or emailed to eoclass@irs.gov.
