So, it's becoming quite an exciting time for people who despise the Constitution.
First, we have Congress passing a law stripping people of habeas corpus.
Then we had Congress pass a law saying, basically, that if people are violating the establishment clause of the Constitution, they are exempt from a number of legal punishments. One among these is having the loser of a court case pay for the expenses:
So what Bambenek is really saying, though he may not realize it, is that when the government arrests someone for preaching on a public sidewalk, for example, that person should have to pay up to millions of dollars in order to get the government to stop doing that. When a school tells a 6th grader that he can't pass out candy canes with a religious message on them, and thus violates the student's rights, that child's family should have to pay the full cost of making the school stop violating his rights. And if the family can't afford it? Well, that's just too bad.
And now I find out that South Dakota is contemplating teaching creationism in its schools. Not intelligent design, mind--creationism. They're not even playing at subterfuge anymore.
Resolution 16 was approved by the Republican State Convention this year:
Whereas, education on species origin is a vital aspect in the understanding of nature and the purpose of human life; and,
Whereas, evolution is a theory that is taught in public schools as fact and at the exclusion of all other theories; and
Whereas, the South Dakota Republican Party believes there are other plausible theories, including creationism;
Therefore, be it resolved, the South Dakota Republican Party supports efforts to expand beyond evolution the knowledge, scope, and debate in public education on the theories of species origin.
It's not as if these people are unaware of the unconstitutionality of their actions, either:
Gov. Mike Rounds' spokesman, Mark Johnston, also pointed out there would be legal roadblocks, noting that both the state constitution and state law frown on religion in schools. Of course, that didn't stop Rounds from signing the abortion ban, acknowledged by everyone to be counter to U.S. Supreme Court rulings.
See that? They simply don't care about the Supreme Law of the land. They don't care about the separation of powers. The legislative branch thinks they should be able to ignore the judicial branch, and the executive branch thinks they should be able to ignore the legislative and judicial branches.
And guess what? That's not all! No, in South Carolina--not to be outdone by anyone--a city official of Charleston is calling for the sterilization of bad parents:
A City Council member, reacting to a video store holdup believed to have been carried out by children, says parents who can't properly care for their kids should be sterilized.
"We pick up stray animals and spay them," Larry Shirley said in a story published Saturday by The Post and Courier of Charleston. "These mothers need to be spayed if they can't take care of theirs. Once they have a child and it's running the street, to let them continue to have children is totally unacceptable."
Now, of course, this is just one man, as opposed to an entire congress. I don't think he's even proposed any bills towards those ends. But how crazy do you have to be to recommend sterilizing people? What is this, the 1920s?
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