Pantywaists

San Diego decides not to appeal an unfavorable court decision over the Boy Scouts' leasing of Balboa Park.

The ACLU sued the city three years ago to terminate the $1-a-year lease because of the Scouts' national policy of not hiring homosexuals and requiring members to state their belief in God by reciting the Pledge of Allegiance.

"San Diego has finally taken itself out of the business of endorsing the exclusion of many of its residents from their own parks," ACLU legal director Jordan Budd said. "The end result is a victory for every San Diegan who cares about tolerance and equality."

You know, it makes me ill every time I see these leftist yahoos presumptively equating sexual proclivities to race, ethnicity or national origin. Even though they shouldn't have to, sooner or later the courts are probably going to have to definitively decide the issue.

God is Responsible for Homosexuallity

So says Dem frontrunner Howard Dean.

"The overwhelming evidence is that there is very significant, substantial genetic component to it," Dean said in an interview Wednesday. "From a religious point of view, if God had thought homosexuality is a sin, he would not have created gay people."

Yeah, right Howie, and Bush had foreknowledge of the 9/11 attacks. Oh, wait, you believe that as well, don't you? Nut.

Light Blogging

Due to my transition from a worker bee to a solo practitioner, I won't be blogging too much for the next couple of weeks. In the meantime, ruminate on the greatness of the Catholic Church, and how USC would be the consensus national champion in college football if the BCS didn't exist.

So Far, So Good for 2004

USC 28 Meechigan 14

Marketing Etiquette

Anybody know whether attorneys ever buy advertising space in a parish bulletin? Would it be too crass?

Adios Sacto

Today marked my final day as a resident of the northern portion of the central valley of California. After 2 1/2 years of enduring some of the most extreme hot and cold weather in my life, I'm off to the Bay Area to open up my own law practice. The idea is to focus on employment law, but the need to generate some revenue may force me to do some "slip and fall" cases.

One thing I will miss about Sacto, however, is St. Stephen's parish, which is run by the Fraternal Society of St. Peter and exclusively celebrates the Tridentine Latin Mass. Thanks, though, to the power of the Internet, I was able to find St. Margaret Mary in Oakland which offers the Tridentine Mass once every Sunday.

The "We Hate Christianity Judicial Tour" Rolls On

The Muslim version of Michael Newdow may get his day in front of the SCOTUS, which in case you already didn't know, begins its sessions with the proclamation of "God save the United States and this honorable Court.

Since 1894, Mississippi's flag has contained the Confederate battle emblem, a blue X with 13 whites stars over a field of red. Experts differ on whether the X in the Confederate battle emblem is the St. Andrew's Cross.

David Sansing, professor emeritus of history at the University of Mississippi, said Monday that people have claimed erroneously for years that the cross is the St. Andrew's Cross.

"What is in the Confederate battle flag is a blue saltier. The St. Andrew's Cross is a white diagonal cross on a blue field," Sansing said. "The man who designed the (Confederate battle) flag makes no reference to the St. Andrew's Cross."

Religious Liberty Year in Review

The article here provides a pretty decent summary. Although there's been some victories, I'd say that in the near future, things are going to get worse for First Amendment jurisprudence before they get better. This will especially be the case if Bush doesn't win reelection and get all of his appellate court nominations approved.

Devilish

Maybe I'm being a little uptight, but this just doesn't seem to be the kind of picture that a parish should be using to promote its young adults group.

A Day After the Feast of the Holy Innocents

Moloch is alive and well for 2004, as a federal District Court judge in New Hampshire declares that requiring parents to be notified of their daughter's intent to obtain an abortion is unconstitutional.

Matter Matters

Some nice sentiments and reflection by P.S. Bradley on the significance of the Feast of the Incarnation (or is it the Feast of the Nativity?).

Mele Kalikimaka!

Now, Back to Christmas

For all you baseball enthusiasts out there (like me) the highly publicized A-Rod for Manny Ramirez trade is now officially dead. In related news, the Red Sox are still cursed and the Dodgers, who were in line to possibly acquire Nomar Garciaparra if the A-Rod deal went through, still don't have a lineup that can hit the baseball. Harumph.

A Word on the State of Faith

Courtesy of Michael Novak.

Recently, British scientist Richard Dawkins was described as "an atheist, and a strenuous and militant and proud one." (One does not hear often of humble atheists, but they do appear.) "He thinks religious belief is a dangerous virus, and that it is a crime to infect the mind of a child with it." He calls religions "dangerous collective delusions" and "sinks of falsehood." He especially regrets the public influence of religion: "He is made apoplectic by the pontifications of religious 'leaders' on such questions as whether human clones would be fully human." For Dawkins, in short, "Religion is superstition, like astrology, alternative medicine, and the rest."

According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, about ten percent (or a little less) of the world population is atheist or agnostic. So however upscale the views of Professor Dawkins, he has his propagating work cut out for him. Most nonreligious, secularist people, it appears, actually believe in God; they just don't like organized religions.

Is Gonzaga Catholic?

Increasingly, and sadly, no.

A Little Message From You Know Who, Perhaps?

One-third of San Francisco experiences a power outage; cause is still a mystery. Metaphorically, of course, San Francisco has been "dark" for decades.

Looks Like the NFL Hasn't Heard of Title VII

Jon Kitna of the Cincinnati Bengals is fined by the NFL for wearing a hat with a cross on it during a post-game press conference. (link via Mark Shea)

Ann Coulter's Man O' the Year

And it is former Alabama Supreme Court Justice Roy Moore.

The ACLU began its onslaught against then-Etowah County Circuit Court Judge Moore in 1995, when an ACLU lawyer, apparently depressed that he was not chosen to play Mrs. Claus in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade that year, wrote a letter to all the state judges in Alabama protesting their practice of having a prayer in the courtroom every few weeks. (Obviously you can't have prayer in court: It might distract all the people holding their hand over a Bible and swearing before God Almighty to tell the truth.)

Everything had been going just fine in Alabama -- no defendant had ever complained about the practice -- but upon receiving a testy letter from the ACLU, all the other Alabama judges immediately ceased and desisted from the foul practice of allowing prayer in court. Judge Moore did not.

Chutzpah

The city of Palm Beach is ordered to submit a formal argument in defense of its position that a Jewish menorah ceases to have any religious significance when it is placed next to a Christmas tree. I expect Palm Beach will engage in an extensive distortion of the Supreme Court's ruling in Lynch v. Donnelly.

Bias Against People With Religious Beliefs

Trial lawyers recommend against selecting as jurors in personal injury cases, individuals with "personal responsibility biases." People with such biases are apparently not compassionate enough.

"It is helpful to divide the jurors into two groups: the personal responsibility group and compassion-altruistic group," Wenner wrote. "Jurors who are extreme on the personal responsibility bias, or who have a high need for personal responsibility, will strongly favor the defendant. In contrast, jurors who are extreme on the compassionate-altruistic bias, or who have a high need for compassion, will strongly favor the plaintiff." (...)

"The personal responsibility jurors tend to espouse traditional family values," Wenner continued. "Personal responsibility jurors often believe that when someone harms you,
the best response is to turn the other cheek. A lawsuit is viewed as revenge and unproductive ... often, these jurors have strong religious beliefs."

WWJD

A lot of Catholic anti-war types have been posting inane comments in the blogosphere about the alleged moral inconsistency and hypocrisy of United States policy toward Iraq and Saddam Hussein. More specifically, some people are implicity suggesting that since the U.S. at one point in time actually provided military support to Saddam (how much and why, they never say) we ought not to be claiming any kind of moral victory in his toppling and capture.

In response to comments like this, I'll usually say that it's a good thing that geopolitics isn't religion, and rhetorically ask if we should just go ahead and put Saddam back in power with a written apology. However, since the remarks are coming from Christians, Catholics in particular, I think a more apropos and effective response would be to rhetorically ask if Jesus should also be condemned for moral hypocrisy since He effectively enabled someone whom He knew was going to act in an evil manner (Judas).