and we pay these jackasses to boot…?

Posted on May 25, 2013 by PAUL MILLER

… and we pay these jackasses to waste time on this stuff … I call that stupidity … on our part …

Religious bigotry rears its ugly head at the Arizona Capitol

Posted: 23 May 2013 01:56 PM PDT … Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

"[N]o religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States." – Article VI, Paragraph 3, U.S. Constitution.

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…" – First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

"The liberty of conscience secured by the provisions of this constitution shall not be so construed as to excuse acts of licentiousness, or justify practices inconsistent with the peace and safety of the state. No public money or property shall be appropriated for or applied to any religious worship, exercise, or instruction, or to the support of any religious establishment. No religious qualification shall be required for any public office or employment, nor shall any person be incompetent as a witness or juror in consequence of his opinion on matters of religion, nor be questioned touching his religious belief in any court of justice to affect the weight of his testimony." – Article 2, Section 12, Arizona Constitution.

Rep. Steve "Secession" Smith (R-Maricopa) from District 11 has been working overtime this session for the title of "Most Offensive Legislator." Dude, if I award you the title now, will you please just go away?

The latest incident involves what should have been a non-event in the 21st Century under American constitutional law. "Rep. Juan Mendez, D-Tempe, acknowledged his secular views as he gave the daily House invocation on Tuesday, urging legislators to look at each other, rather than bow their heads, and ‘celebrate our shared humanness.’" Arizona lawmaker: I’m an atheist:

Rep. Juan Mendez, D-Tempe, who said it was freeing to be open about his secular views, also introduced about a dozen fellow members of the Secular Coalition for Arizona who watched from the House gallery.

[Note: "Atheism" and "Secular humanism" are not interchangeable synonymous terms. Look it up Arizona Republic. Nowhere in his invocation did Rep. Mendez state "I'm an atheist" as you attribute to him in the headline (see below).]

Tuesday’s invocation was to have been given by Serah Blain, executive director of the Secular Coalition of Arizona. But Mendez said House staff had no record of his request to allow Blain’s remarks, so he offered the remarks himself.

“This is a room in which there are many challenging debates, many moments of tension, of ideological division, of frustration,” he said. “But this is also a room where, as my secular humanist tradition stresses, by the very fact of being human we have much more in common than we have differences.”

Transcript of Video of Rep. Juan Mendez’s Godless Invocation in the Arizona House of Representatives:

Most prayers in this room begin with a request to bow your heads. I would like to ask that you not bow your heads. I would like to ask that you to take a moment to look around the room at all of the men and women here, in this moment, sharing together this extraordinary experience of being alive and of dedicating ourselves to working toward improving the lives of the people in our state.

This is a room in which there are many challenging debates, many moments of tension, of ideological division, of frustration. But this is also a room where, as my Secular Humanist tradition stresses, by the very fact of being human, we have much more in common than we have differences. We share the same spectrum of potential for care, for compassion, for fear, for joy, for love.

Carl Sagan once wrote, “For small creatures such as we, the vastness is bearable only through love.” There is, in the political process, much to bear. In this room, let us cherish and celebrate our shared humanness, our shared capacity for reason and compassion, our shared love for the people of our state, for our Constitution, for our democracy — and let us root our policymaking process in these values that are relevant to all Arizonans regardless of religious belief or nonbelief. In gratitude and in love, in reason and in compassion, let us work together for a better Arizona.

House lawmakers appeared to have no reaction to Mendez’s remarks. . . until the next day when Rep. Steve "Secession" Smith and his religious bigotry reared its ugly head at the Arizona Capitol. Arizona legislators spar over use of daily prayer time:

The dust-up stems from the decision by Rep. Juan Mendez, D-Phoenix, a self-professed atheist, to use his turn Tuesday offering the traditional prayer at the beginning of the House session. He started out by urging colleagues "not to bow your heads.”

Filed under: Blogroll | Leave a Comment »

S	M	T	W	T	F	S
« Apr
			1	2	3	4
5	6	7	8	9	10	11
12	13	14	15	16	17	18
19	20	21	22	23	24	25
26	27	28	29	30	31

Recent Posts

Archives

Tags

Calendar

Blogroll

Recent Posts

Archives

Tags

…just provide to the public full disclosure and transparency on GMO allowing each of us to determine for ourselves what we choose to believe…

…wonder which corporate fossil fuel energy giant will gobble and bury this technology…?

…slowly but surely HEMP is finding legitimacy in America…

…In February 2003, a Florida Court of Appeals unanimously agreed with an assertion by FOX News that there is no rule against distorting or falsifying the news in the United States … so how our free “press” reports ones death is simply a matter of corporate choice…

…under a specific set of circumstances … water … can become a weapon of biowarfare if it hasn’t already…

…something to think about…

… and we pay these jackasses to waste time on this stuff … I call that stupidity … on our part …

"[N]o religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States." – Article VI, Paragraph 3, U.S. Constitution.

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…" – First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Rep. Steve "Secession" Smith (R-Maricopa) from District 11 has been working overtime this session for the title of "Most Offensive Legislator." Dude, if I award you the title now, will you please just go away?

Rep. Juan Mendez, D-Tempe, who said it was freeing to be open about his secular views, also introduced about a dozen fellow members of the Secular Coalition for Arizona who watched from the House gallery.

[Note: "Atheism" and "Secular humanism" are not interchangeable synonymous terms. Look it up Arizona Republic. Nowhere in his invocation did Rep. Mendez state "I'm an atheist" as you attribute to him in the headline (see below).]

Tuesday’s invocation was to have been given by Serah Blain, executive director of the Secular Coalition of Arizona. But Mendez said House staff had no record of his request to allow Blain’s remarks, so he offered the remarks himself.

Transcript of Video of Rep. Juan Mendez’s Godless Invocation in the Arizona House of Representatives:

House lawmakers appeared to have no reaction to Mendez’s remarks. . . until the next day when Rep. Steve "Secession" Smith and his religious bigotry reared its ugly head at the Arizona Capitol. Arizona legislators spar over use of daily prayer time:

The dust-up stems from the decision by Rep. Juan Mendez, D-Phoenix, a self-professed atheist, to use his turn Tuesday offering the traditional prayer at the beginning of the House session. He started out by urging colleagues "not to bow your heads.”

…and of course they provide us independent 3rd party evidence … say what … no proof…?

…and a damn profitable one for America’s military-industrial-corporate-congressional-complex which “we” obediently $upport…

…a provocative statement … you need to determine with your own research if it is true … soundly reasonable based on joined at the hip legacy between AMA and “big-pharma”…

Calendar

Blogroll

Follow “Authentically Wired”

…and of course they provide us independent 3^rd party evidence … say what … no proof…?