Al Gore is at it again. This time, he has called the Bush administration "a renegade band of right-wing extremists." This leads me to believe that Al Gore wouldn't know a right-wing extremist if one slapped him across the face. Compared to George Bush, I'm a right-wing extremist. Now, it's true that if George W. Bush were in Europe, he could easily be considered a right-wing extremist...but that just is not true in the United States. As Rush Limbaugh just said, if President Bush were a right-wing extremist, a lot of conservatives would be a lot happier than they are. Personally, I wish the President leaned more to the right than he does.
In other, Al Gore-related news, scientists studying ice cores taken from the Arctic have found that the frozen land was once a tropical paradise...about 55 million years ago. So, if man-made global warming is such the threat that Gore makes it out to be, then how is it that the tropical Arctic froze over long before such things as SUVs even existed? Just a thought.
The other item that concerns me is this: on Monday (Memorial day), President Bush signed a law making it illegal for people to protest at the funerals of soldiers. This law was written and signed in response to the Westboro Baptist Church members who have been protesting soldiers' funerals, saying that the soldiers died because God hates America due to the US's acceptance of homosexuality.
Now, my knee-jerk reaction is to say that this law is a good thing - these Westboro Baptists are wackos who pervert the Christian faith and are an insult to true Christians. As a Christian, it offends me to be associated with them through the title of Christian. From this perspective, and my belief that soldiers should be thanked and respected for their sacrifice, I have no problem with this law. However, if you take a look at the First Amendment of the Constitution, it says that "Congress shall make no law...abridging the freedom of speech." So, this law is unConstitutional. The law bars people from protesting within a certain distance from a national cemetary while a funeral is going on. National cemetaries are public property. As much as I agree with this decision, the law itself is illegal - it is superceded by the First Amendment.
I say that if our legislators really want to make these protests illegal, then they should start the process of amending the Constitution. I hope that someone sues to have this law overturned. I hope it goes all the way to the Supreme Court. And I hope the law is overturned. Not because I want the Westboro Baptists out there spouting their hatred, but because there are right ways and wrong ways of doing things in America, and this time, they're doing it the wrong way. Our government has been abusing its Constitutionally defined powers for far too long, and if this is where the line must be drawn, then I welcome the fight.
No comments:
Post a Comment