Well, surprisingly, good for him. He gets today's "Having a Set" award.
Posted on 10/14/2005 6:53:27 AM PDT by FlowJo
BABYLON TOWN Supervisor denies request to pull banners BY CHRISTIAN MURRAY STAFF WRITER October 14, 2005 Two national secular groups want to tear down the Town of Babylon's two banners that include the words "God Bless America," arguing that the banners violate the constitutional amendment that separates church from state. However, Babylon Supervisor Steve Bellone, a Democrat, has refused the request, noting that the banners were hung two months ago. He said the larger, 11-foot banner that hangs from the front pillars of Town Hall is there in support of the military families in the town. The banner reads: "Thank you to our troops, God Bless America."
(Excerpt) Read more at Newsday.com ...
The second group involved is the: Center for Inquiry - Long Island Community Box 119, Greenlawn, NY 11740 Phone 516-742-1662 Email: LISecHum@aol.com E-mail: gdantone@cfimetrony.org
Their argument is that the banners were insensitive to atheists and groups such as Hindus, that believe in many Gods. "How would people feel if the banner read, "Jesus Bless America", asked Gerry Danton from the Center for Inquiry. "That would upset the Jews". As an atheist, he takes similar offense when he sees, "God Bless America.
So far the Town of Babylon isn't backing down. http://www.townofbabylon.com
Can they please put a sock in it for crying out loud!
Sadly this is my town. The supervisor is a Democrat, Bellone. They sent him down to the Gore Fiasco in 2000. Shall be interesting to see how this ends up.
There we have it...proof that Atheism is a religion.
Why do democrats hate God?
Steve Bellone, a Democrat, has refused the request,
I live in Medford, just read about this today. Don't you feel like you are the sole voice of sanity on Long Island sometimes?
Don't you feel like you are the sole voice of sanity on Long Island sometimes?
Quite often : )
In the mind of a Democrats, they ARE God.
Well, surprisingly, good for him. He gets today's "Having a Set" award.
One of my greatest pet peeves is that renters get to vote on school elections when they DONT pay property taxes. This irks me to no end.
And for those of you not on LONG ISLAND we are so overtaxed that my gripe is legitimate.
The First Amendment's Establishment Clause was never meant to apply to the state of NY or any state for that matter
The idea that the First Amendment prohibits states from compelling the Pledge of Allegiance, hanging banners that say "God Bless America" or even from establishing their own official state religions is probably the most easily proved lie of the many the Supreme Court has issued through the years.
The First Amendment, as made applicable to the states by the Fourteenth...commands that a state 'shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.
--Justice Hugo Black, Everson v. Bd of Education of Ewing Twp., 330 U.S. 1 (1947)
This declaration by the Supreme Court was the first time it informed everyone that the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment was applicable to the states. Before that time, state-religion issues were not the province of the US Constitution or the federal courts. But was the Supreme Court right? Did the 14th Amendment make the Establishment Clause applicable to the states?
Go back to 1875 (7 years after the 14th Amendment was ratified)...President Grant asks Congressman James Blaine to introduce a proposed amendment that will provide in part:
No state shall make any law respecting the establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof
The Blaine Amendment (which would have been the 16th Amendment to the US Constitution passes the House but fails in the Senate. Senator Frelinghuysen of NJ, in introducing the amendment in the Senate states:
The [Blaine Amendment] very properly extends the prohibition of the first amendment of the Constitution to the States. Thus the [Blaine Amendment] prohibits the States, for the first time, from the establishment of religion, from prohibiting its free exercise, and from making any religious test a qualification to office.
Senator Eaton of Connecticut, in objecting to the Blaine Amendment states, on the Senate floor:
I am opposed to any State prohibiting the free exercise of any religion; and I do not require the Senate or the Congress of the United States to assist me in taking care of the State of Connecticut in that regard.
Senator Whyte agreed:
The first amendment to the Constitution prevents the establishment of religion by congressional enactment; it prohibits the interference of Congress with the free exercise thereof, and leaves the whole power for the propagation of it with the States exclusively; and so far as I am concerned I propose to leave it there also.
The Congressional record during the debates over the Blaine Amendment shows that not one member of Congress...many of whom were in the Congress that passed the 14th Amendment or the state legislatures that ratified it...not a single one...mentioned that the Blaine Amendment was unnecessary...it seems that none of the Congressmen who ratified the 14th Amendment knew that they thereby incorporated the Establishment Clause against the states...the Everson case must be another fine example of Constitutional fiction...I mean..."interpretation"
Unfortunately, on the current Supreme Court, only Justice Thomas takes the historically correct position that the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the US Constitution does not apply to the states...that's why it is so vital that we really do get Justices in the mold of a Clarence Thomas...the Justice who far more than any other applies the actual Constitution...not previous Courts' bastardizations of it
I’d like someone to explain to me how hanging a banner with the word “God” has anything to with “CONGRESS shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof”.
Which amendment might that be? The one that says:"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof"? How does a banner constitute a law made by "Congress"?
I think that you are painting with too broad a brush, but I do think that you could rightly say, "Why is it that almost everyone that hates God is a dimocrat?" I wouldn't mind too much, but my wife is a flaming liberal dim that does not hate God.
When I decide on the amount to charge for rent, I make sure it also covers the real estate taxes I'll be charged. That might not be true for everyone; but, I don't think it's fair to say no renters pay property taxes.
1.)Renters have school children, too.
2.)The cost of property taxes is passed along in the rental rate, so they pay them indirectly.
>>>One of my greatest pet peeves is that renters get to vote on school elections when they DONT pay property taxes.
Yes, it sure is nice of those landlords not to pass the cost of property taxes onto their tenants in the form of higher rents. s/
Do you really think the landlords just eat that cost and don't consider it when setting their rental prices?
You don't know much about renting apparently, either as a tenant or landlord. You might want to rethink your statement.
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