I have core differences of belief with the North Austin Muslim Community Center. Why then did I encourage my church, Live Oak Unitarian Universalist Church to make a special offering to help NAMCC build their Mosque? Why am I pictured in this video proudly presenting a check to them? Simply and clearly stated, there is a greater principle at stake.

I am weary to the bones of making statements protesting the brokers of intolerance in America. Their verbal AK 47’s are spraying out fear and falsehoods so quickly I become dizzy trying to decide which bullet to fend off…We have done enough talking. We have been on the defensive for too long. It is way past time to do something positively prophetic!

“Courage calls us to the maturity, wisdom, and discretion to find a balance between protection and principles. How can we protect ourselves and those we love without renouncing our principles? How would you like your religion to be judged by the worst of its adherents?

For 28 weeks in late 2008 and 2009 I wrote a series on the Constitution. It grew out of a realization that while I knew a couple of the Amendments I had never really read the whole thing. Worse I had never taken the time to think about it in part and as a whole. If you’re interested you can find the last one here, and there are links to all 27 of the others. The point is not the series but what I learned from doing it.

There seems to be a failure by many of our fellow citizens to understand that the Constitution is not a Chinese Buffet where you can go straight for the sweet and sour chicken but leave off the bean sprouts. Our Constitution is more of a tapestry, where if you pull out one string that offends you the whole thing is weakened.

"Originally posted at Squarestate.net"

If one wants the protections of a particular Amendment, then one has to support the whole thing. There is no getting around that. If you are a big fan of the idea that the State should not be able to view or seize your private papers and files, then it follows that you must support the 2nd Amendment and its provisions for the ownership of guns by private citizens.

Somewhere along the way a mutation was engineered. You are now a Consumer. You have deformed into a buying machine. A Consumer is a Subject. In the days of Kings the Subjects had no choice. They were ruled by a superior social order or military force. In our day we actively accept being Subjects.

The anti-war movement seems to be at a crossroads these days. The rapid contraction of anti-war activism after George W. Bush left office caused many skeptics, including activists themselves, to wonder if most of the protesters had been more anti-Bush than anti-war. However, there are signs that the ranks of Americans who are determined to protest the evils of war, no matter which party controls the White House, is growing.

The Texas Board of Education is considering removing Thomas Jefferson from the Texas curriculum and “replacing him with religious right icon John Calvin.” And that’s not all.

The Roberts Court–Giving a Wedgie to the Bottom of Democracy

Friday night Bill Moyers hosted a fascinating debate on the Senate’s health care bill between Matt Taibbi, contributing editor for Rolling Stone, and Robert Kuttner, co-editor of the American Prospect. (The video can be viewed here: Bill Moyers Journal). Taibbi and Kuttner both describe the just-passed health care bill as disastrous. They outline how it is a complete giveaway to the health insurance industry, how it will do nothing to lower costs, and how it will be extremely unpopular to the American public once it’s implemented…

Aiding the Conservapedia Bible Project–The Eight Conservative Beatitudes