Michael P. O'Connor

PowerBall is running an article how the ACLU failed to push their agenda this time. The judge ruled that the 1st amendment does not create a wall of separation between church and state. Lets look at what the First amendment really says
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
From that the only part that is important is
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;
I don’t see a wall there, I just see that the government can not institute a state religion, or say to someone they can not be a member of a particular religion. There is nothing about “separation of church and state” nothing about not allowed to mentioning anything remotely religious (see Dover pa) or anything about “freedom from religion” All I see there is Freedom of religion.
Aka you can be what ever Christian (Lutheran, Catholic, Easter Orthidox, Baptist, etc), Jewish, Muslim, Agnostic, Atheist, Secular Humanist, Buddhist, Hindu, what ever, but you can not use the law to force some one from another faith out of the public square, or force them into hiding.
Christians have as much right be heard in the public square as any one else.

The Pennsylvania Academic Standards require students to learn about Darwin’s theory of evolution and eventually to take a standardized test of which evolution is a part.

Because Darwin’s Theory is a theory, it is still being tested as new evidence is discovered. The Theory is not a fact. Gaps in the Theory exist for which there is no evidence. A theory is defined as a well-tested explanation that unifies a broad range of observations.

Intelligent design is an explanation of the origin of life that differs from Darwin’s view. The reference book, Of Pandas and People is available for students to see if they would like to explore this view in an effort to gain an understanding of what intelligent design actually involves.

As is true with any theory, students are encouraged to keep an open mind. The school leaves the discussion of the origins of life to individual students and their families. As a standards-driven district, class instruction focuses upon preparing students to achieve proficiency on standards-based assessments.
I wonder how this can be thought of “teaching” Intelligent design, in fact all it says is “keep an open mind” well I thought that was what Science was all about.
People on the left complain that religious people does not like their beliefs to be questioned, well the way the left is going it looks like evolution is their religion because they get all angry and sue when you question evolution.

Well it is a victory of narrow mindedness. A US court has ruled it is unconstitutional to mention that some one may not believe what is taught in schools. In this case it is evolution. All it was, was a two minute statement to the student that there are those out there that do not believe in evolution, that is only 2 minutes out of 1 day that is 7 hours long and there are 180 of those days. (that is 75600 minutes, or 2.6455026455026455026455026455026e-5% of the school year and for those of you that don’t know scientific notation that is .000026455026455026455026455026455026%)
I have seen some liberals say that people that don’t believe in evolution can never do well in any of the science fields. I will say that, that statement is wrong. I don’t believe in evolution. And I have a job that I like as a programmer at CMU. Correct me if I am wrong but is not computer programming considered to be in the science field?
Also going back to when I was in high school, I remember that in my 10 grade bio class when the subject came up, I just asked some questions about it, I did not even bring up ID. The teacher could not answer them. Ok no big deal but her “answer” was bad, and it was, “because I said so”. And the other students got on my case after class saying “she is right because she is the teacher”. To that I say, oh ya, just because some one is a paid teacher does not make them right, back in the Middle Ages I am sure there paid teachers that taught that the world was flat but they were not right just because they were the teacher.
Well these students will be not be prepaid to enter the world, were every one does not believe in the same thing, they are being taught now that every one has to believe the same thing (or so says the state) and those that don’t believe the same thing the state believes are to be discriminated against. What ever happened to the liberals “tolerance” for people that are differentiate.

Well today, Rush has started the first installment of the Video Podcast that he is doing. Basicly what it is, is he is doing a video recording of himself recording the Morning Update. It is basicly a very short monologue, about one topic. Not half bad, I first signed up for Rushes 24/7 site, when I was in an office where I could not get KDKA (this was back when Rush was still on KDKA) But over time I started to listen to more and more Podcast, and having to listen to Rush at a appointed time was not going to work for me, but I love listening to him, and about that time he came out with his Podcast, it is not as great as listening to him live on his web site, but it fits my life better. Now he adds more value to the $7 I pay a month for access to his site. It will be a nice minute and a half to watch before I head out for work.