Judge: ‘I Believe’ license plates with cross unconstitutional

Federal judge rules that South Carolina can not issue license plates that “endorse specific sect”

AP: Judge Nixes S.C. License Plate with Cross

A federal judge ruled Tuesday that South Carolina can’t issue license plates showing the image of a cross in front of a stained glass window along with the phrase “I Believe.”

U.S. District Judge Cameron Currie said in her ruling that the license plates was unconstitutional because it violates the First Amendment ban on establishment of religion.

“Such a law amounts to a state endorsement not only of religion in general, but of a specific sect in particular,” Currie wrote.

Her ruling also singled out Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer, who had pushed the bill approving the license plates through the state Legislature. Christian advocates tried to get the same license plate approved in Florida, but the bill did not pass its Legislature…

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Goldberg: ‘Lamestream media’ runs with 2nd-hand stress angle

Most news agencies avoid the possibility that the Fort Hood massacre was a terrorist act, says media analyst Bernie Goldberg

While prayers go out to the families and survivors of those killed or injured during the worst mass shooting on an American military base, I can’t help but notice that the the majority of the rampant speculation as to what the motive might have been for Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan is flat out spin.

The investigation of the rampage which included more than 100 shots that left 13 dead and more than two dozen wounded, including the alleged shooter, Army psychiatrist Hasan, should not be about making sure we are politically correct.

There is a wealth of information that now shows that Hasan premeditated this attack … all the while spewing U.S. policy hate and Muslim jihadist verbiage.

“We shouldn’t jump to conclusions,” said President Barack Obama yesterday. Well, we shouldn’t jump to naive theories either.

Hasan may have acted alone, but he did have a team of enablers co-signing his rants. Now, the question remains … Can America continue to absorb those that hate the very host that harbors them?

Kentucky Governor changes name of Capitol Christmas tree

‘Holiday tree’ terminology is “intended to be inclusive” says Gov. Steve Beshear spokeswoman

SCROOGE ALERT LEVEL: HIGH

AP: Christmas jeer: Kentucky governor’s ‘holiday tree’ angers critics

FRANKFORT, Kentucky — Gov. Steve Beshear has angered some Christians with his yuletide terminology.

A giant evergreen that will brighten the Capitol lawn this winter won’t be called a Christmas tree. Instead, the Beshear administration has dubbed it a “holiday tree.”

The Rev. Jeff Fugate, pastor of Clays Mill Baptist Church in Lexington, said Christians find the change troubling.

“If you call it a holiday tree,” Fugate asked, “which holiday are you talking about? We don’t put up a holiday tree for Easter or New Year’s or Thanksgiving. We put a tree up for Christmas.”

Beshear administration spokeswoman Cindy Lanham said the tree will be in celebration of a variety of winter holidays, including Christmas and Hanukkah…

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Nativity scene gets axed before Halloween

Separation of church and state paranoia hits Michigan’s Satawa County

SCROOGE ALERT LEVEL: HIGH

WorldNetDaily: OK for 63 years, now Jesus in manger gets dumped

John Satawa’s family has displayed a nativity scene on a street median in Warren, Mich., virtually every Christmas season since 1945, but following an intimidating letter sent by the Freedom from Religion Foundation, Satawa’s county has put stop to the 63-year-old tradition.

The Wisconsin-based Freedom from Religion Foundation proclaims its purpose in the letter to the Road Commission of Macomb County was to “protect the fundamental constitutional principle of separation of church and state.”

But Satawa contends there’s nothing unconstitutional about his privately owned and maintained Christmas display. With the help of the Thomas More Law Center, Satawa has filed a case in U.S. district court asking the judge to declare the county’s crèche rejection unconstitutional instead and order officials to permit its display.

Richard Thompson, president and chief counsel of the Law Center, commented in a statement, “Every Christmas holiday, militant atheists … use the phrase ’separation of church and state’ – nowhere found in our Constitution – as a means of intimidating municipalities and schools into removing expressions celebrating Christmas, a national holiday. Their goal is to cleanse our public square of all Christian symbols…

FULL STORY

American Family Association Action Alert

Re-Twitter: @ScroogeReport PETITION: Ask Macomb County 2 recind their order removing a privately maintained Nativity scene http://bit.ly/10OdA0 #tcot #Christmas

Houston woman slaps city with lawsuit against opening prayer

This Week’s Top Scrooge feature has been in hiding for quite some time. I think it’s time to resurrect the dishoner at least one more time.

THIS WEEK’S TOP SCROOGE – OCT. 23, 2009

This from local ABC news (KTRK-TV):

HOUSTON — There’s another battle brewing in the fight over the separation over church and state. A Houston woman says she believes the city council is violating the constitution by beginning their meetings with a prayer.

Plaintiff Kay Staley and her attorney, Randall Kallinen, have slapped the city of Houston with a federal lawsuit, arguing that the long held tradition of saying a prayer before city council meetings is unconstitutional.

“Just because it always has been doesn’t make it right,” said Staley. “There are lots of people who feel exactly the same way I do. Most people are afraid to come out and say anything because of their jobs or their friends.”

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