What’s interesting in the news today?
Open thread, with a few to start things off.
1. The Obama admin is promoting Islam in foreign lands. And we’re paying for it.
From TheGatestoneInstitute “The Czech government has approved a new project aimed at promoting Islam in public elementary and secondary schools across the country.
The project—Muslims in the Eyes of Czech Schoolchildren—is being spearheaded by a Muslim advocacy group and is being financed by American taxpayers through a grant from the US Embassy in Prague. (The US State Department is also promoting Islam in other European countries.)
The group says the Czech Ministry of Education has authorized it to organize lectures and seminars aimed at “teaching Czech schoolchildren about Islamic beliefs and practices” and at “fighting stereotypes and prejudices about Muslims.”
But critics—there are many—say the project’s underlying objective is to convert non-Muslim children to Islam by bringing proselytizing messages into public schools under the guise of promoting multiculturalism and fighting “Islamophobia.”
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2. Let the lawsuits begin!
From TheAdvocate “Louisiana legislators advanced a bill Thursday that would make the Holy Bible the official Louisiana state book, despite concerns the move could prompt litigation.
“You cannot separate Christianity from the Bible,” said state Rep. Wesley Bishop, D-New Orleans, a lawyer and the son of a preacher. “If you adopt the Bible as the official state book, you also adopt Christianity as the state religion … We are going to open ourselves up to a lawsuit.”
The House Municipal, Parochial and Cultural Affairs Committee voted 8-5 to recommend the legislation to the full House.
State Rep. Thomas Carmody, R-Shreveport, countered that naming an official state book doesn’t equate to establishing a state religion, which is specifically prohibited in the U.S. Constitution. “The Holy Bible would be appropriate for the state of Louisiana,” he said, particularly given the state’s strong religious ties.”
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3. The IRS continues to target conservative groups. But this time they’re meeting some resistance to their tactics.
From TheWashingtonExaminer “Ron Paul‘s nonprofit Campaign for Liberty will fight the Internal Revenue Service’s demand that it reveal its donor list to the agency, despite having already been fined for refusing to do so.
“There is no legitimate reason for the IRS to know who donates to Campaign for Liberty,” Megan Stiles, the communications director at Campaign for Liberty, told the Washington Examiner in an email on Tuesday. “We believe the First Amendment is on our side as evidenced by cases such as NAACP v. Alabama and International Union UAW v. National Right to Work. Many 501(c)(4) organizations protect the privacy of their donors in the very same way as Campaign for Liberty. For some reason the IRS has now chosen to single out Campaign for Liberty for special attention. We plan to fight this all the way.”
“Ron Paul suggested that the group will refuse to pay the IRS fine in an fundraising email to supporters about the agency’s request for information.
“Paying this outrageous extortionist fine — just to exercise our rights as American citizens to petition our government — may even be cheaper in the short run,” he wrote. “But it’ll just embolden an alphabet soup of other federal agencies to come after us.” Paul’s email said that the rule requiring that 501(c)(4)s list their donors is “rarely enforced.”
And never against liberal groups.
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The federal government has developed a new platform for American education: the Common Core Curriculum.
The leftists have been promoting it across the liberal mainstream media. There is a minor hole in the media’s coverage of Common Core; they never ask the ones being affected by this platform: the students. In order to establish my future statements, I am a sophomore in high school; I am an honors student participating in the college prep course.
Read more at http://eaglerising.com/5668/illinois-cooking-books-common-core/#eImmqCWePc2PlCtx.99
The federal government has developed a new platform for American education: the Common Core Curriculum.
The leftists have been promoting it across the liberal mainstream media. There is a minor hole in the media’s coverage of Common Core; they never ask the ones being affected by this platform: the students. In order to establish my future statements, I am a sophomore in high school; I am an honors student participating in the college prep course.
Read more at http://eaglerising.com/5668/illinois-cooking-books-common-core/#eImmqCWePc2PlCtx.99
The federal government has developed a new platform for American education: the Common Core Curriculum.
The leftists have been promoting it across the liberal mainstream media. There is a minor hole in the media’s coverage of Common Core; they never ask the ones being affected by this platform: the students. In order to establish my future statements, I am a sophomore in high school; I am an honors student participating in the college prep course.
Read more at http://eaglerising.com/5668/illinois-cooking-books-common-core/#eImmqCWePc2PlCtx.99
The federal government has developed a new platform for American education: the Common Core Curriculum.
The leftists have been promoting it across the liberal mainstream media. There is a minor hole in the media’s coverage of Common Core; they never ask the ones being affected by this platform: the students. In order to establish my future statements, I am a sophomore in high school; I am an honors student participating in the college prep course.
Read more at http://eaglerising.com/5668/illinois-cooking-books-common-core/#eImmqCWePc2PlCtx.99
Wandering Views 
#2 Good.Grief. Don’t they have anything more important to do than to designate a “state book?” A state book? Good grief.
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There are state and national everything–plus all the day that are focused on this and that. That is why we need part-time legislators–less time for such nonsense.
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It is unconstitutional for the government to promote any religion. Some of our Congressmen need to look into that. Re. #!.
I agree about the “State book” business. Never heard of a state book.
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This was interesting:
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/04/15/carson-wh-says-his-prayer-breakfast-speech-offended-obama-asked-for-apology/
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Donna, somehow there must be a racist agenda in there. I guess we have to wait and see what it is.
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1. I have little fear of Czech children converting en masse to Islam — its probably the most secular nation in Europe. But I don’t see America’s national interest in this program.
2. Wow …..
3. If you break the law, you break the law. When I’m pulled over by the police, pointing out the excessive speed of others is not an excuse. Even if the policeman is only pulling over middle aged white guys driving Nissans, I still don’t have an excuse — I broke the law. If the IRS finds something wrong with these organizations, then so be it. They need to stop whining and face the consequences of breaking the law.
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Democratic or Republican, public or private, Wall Street or Hollywood, it really does matter. the elites won’t be held accountable. Social Security will chase you down for your grandmother’s misdeeds but meanwhile senators and representatives can retire with wealth they can’t explain. Cocaine street dealers get at least 10 years in jail while the bank officials who launder drug money receive multi-million dollar bonuses. According to a recent study, America is being ruled by an oligarchy not a democracy and the lack of accountability is a symptom.
http://www.policymic.com/articles/87719/princeton-concludes-what-kind-of-government-america-really-has-and-it-s-not-a-democra
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HRW, Humans are by nature religious. If they are not worshiping the true God, they will worship idols or join false religions. The Czech Republic may be very fertile ground for Islam because it is so secular.
I don’t understand why item 2 got a “Wow” and item 1 did not. It seems to me that teaching a religion in public school is more objectionable than naming the Bible as the state book. No one cares about the state book, state flower, bird, etc.
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Sometimes HRW and I agree.
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HRW – Re: your comment on item #3 – I don’t think the IRS has proven that any of these conservative groups actually have broken the law.
As for your second comment, about the current United States gov’t, I agree. We are in quite a mess, with corruption, insane regulation in virtually every aspect of our lives, etc. I think I have become a Libertarian.
Take a look at this stupidity…
http://reason.com/archives/2014/04/16/the-dumbest-federal-policy-youll-read-ab
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The latest news from the Ukraine is really funny. The Ukrainian troops performed as well as the Dutch did in Yugoslavia. I think they are diverse enough to join NATO.
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Who trained those Ukrainians? The French, the Italians or some of our new LGBT officers? Maybe the Ukrainian army is unionized and they had already put in their 6 hours for the day when they met the pro-Russian militia.
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These Ukrainians probably had no desire to be there — the elite paratroopers were from the eastern Ukraine and probably had some sympathy for the pro-Russian militants. Some of the militants might have been former compatriots in the Army. Its a internal dispute — and its difficult to get people to fire on friends, family and colleagues. Their actions don’t reflect their training but the complexity of the disputes in the Ukraine.
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I would think secular people are more open to some type of ambiguous spiritualism/new ageism than some socially restrictive religion such as Islam.
My initial reaction to Louisiana was the same as many people here so I just type in Wow…
Ethanol as the article states is where ideological opposite agree … its a waste of money and food. However, we don’t need to give up on government. When faced with oligarchy that rules according self-interest, we can either take the gov’t back or we can give up and dismantle it. I prefer the former the libertarians prefer the latter.
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HRW, I didn’t really think the French, Italians or homosexual Americans had trained the Ukrainians to abandon their armored vehicles and run away, but I suspect Putin is probably making that same joke tonight.
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