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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
 Posted - 02/19/2009 : 12:54:07
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Found this at PZ's place:
"Washington state kook wants a law to discriminate against atheists
Category: Godlessness • Kooks
Posted on: February 19, 2009 8:07 AM, by PZ Myers
While Arkansas takes a small step forward, a few people in my home state of Washington want to take a great leap backwards. Some crank named Kimberlie Struiksma, who is apparently associated with education, has proposed to put a remarkably clueless measure onto the ballot. Behold Initiative Measure No. 1040:
Ballot Title
Initiative Measure No. 1040 concerns a supreme ruler of the universe.
This measure would prohibit state use of public money or lands for anything that denies or attempts to refute the existence of a supreme ruler of the universe, including textbooks, instruction or research.
Should this measure be enacted into law? Yes [ ] No [ ]
Ballot Measure Summary
This measure would require state government not to use public funds or property for anything that denies or attempts to refute the existence of a supreme ruler of the universe, including but not limited to appropriations for displays, textbooks, scientific endeavors, instruction, and research projects. The measure would provide that no person shall be questioned based on their personal values, beliefs, or opinions regarding the existence of a supreme ruler of the universe.
That's just the abstract, and if you're a masochist, you can read the whole thing; it's long and tedious. You can get the gist of it, though, in a few paragraphs. It's a weird document that tries to explicitly silence atheists and cut off any representation of godlessness, but at the same time flounces about and insists that this isn't discrimination. It's going to exclude atheists from everything.
Respecting no establishment of religion, yet with respect to the Supreme Ruler of the Universe, whose existence has been declared in the preamble to the Constitution of the state of Washington, the state shall make no appropriation for nor apply any public moneys or property in support of anything, specifically including, but not limited to, any display, exercise, instruction, textbook, scientific endeavor, circulated document, or research project which denies or attempts to refute the existence of the Supreme Ruler of the Universe."
I love this sort of thing, when the religiously deranged emerge from their dank caverns and out into the sunlight. I wonder if Ms. Struiksma grasps that this is so far beyond the US Constitution, which takes preference over the state's, that it is lost over the horizon.
But good for a larf, as most of spewings of the more rabid sectarian troglodytes are.
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist! 
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Hittman
Skeptic Friend
134 Posts |
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The Rat
SFN Regular
Canada
1370 Posts |
Posted - 02/19/2009 : 16:11:15 [Permalink]
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| Such a law, if enacted, is so stupid that it should not simply be ignored, but openly defied. |
Bailey's second law; There is no relationship between the three virtues of intelligence, education, and wisdom.
You fiend! Never have I encountered such corrupt and foul-minded perversity! Have you ever considered a career in the Church? - The Bishop of Bath and Wells, Blackadder II
Baculum's page: http://www.bebo.com/Profile.jsp?MemberId=3947338590 |
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Simon
SFN Regular
USA
1992 Posts |
Posted - 02/19/2009 : 16:49:47 [Permalink]
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But, what to make of the sentence:
| The measure would provide that no person shall be questioned based on their personal values, beliefs, or opinions regarding the existence of a supreme ruler of the universe. |
How will they know that somebody or something is atheistic without asking? Even the American Atheist Association. It's name suggest that it is... but how to be sure?
And I am not even comment on the bit about Science. NOMA and all that. |
Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there – on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.
Carl Sagan - 1996 |
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Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26022 Posts |
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
Posted - 02/19/2009 : 17:44:33 [Permalink]
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Ah, I see, I see; the scales have fallen from my eyes -- it is only the children at play. They don't have a dingo's kidney of a chance of getting this cannonball on the ballot and know it perfectly well. They'll be home in time for supper, I'm sure; in the meantime, it'll keep them safely out of the opium dens.
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist!
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Valiant Dancer
Forum Goalie
USA
4826 Posts |
 Posted - 02/19/2009 : 18:08:35 [Permalink]
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Do you doubt the existance of Zorkon from Nebula 7?
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Cthulhu/Asmodeus when you're tired of voting for the lesser of two evils
Brother Cutlass of Reasoned Discussion |
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 02/19/2009 : 18:28:15 [Permalink]
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Having lived a couple of years in Washington State, my impression is that most of its citizens would see the crazy in that ballot initiative. I doubt it will even get onto the ballot.
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
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HOORAY, let's all go to court in Washington State!
