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et’s return now to Larry Schweikart’s 48 Liberal Lies about American History (That You Probably Learned in School), with two more lies from this solid review of what liberal history profs are doing to revise the past and pollute the minds of the next generation.

Lie #11 – No Terrorists or Weapons of Mass Destruction were Hiding in Iraq

A systematic search found no active production facilities or stockpiles for chemical, nuclear, or biological weapons of mass destruction, refuting one of the basic justifications for the war. – David Goldfield et al., The American Journey

Did the failure to find “active” WMD evidence in Iraq really refute one of Bush’s three justifications for the war? Ever heard of a murder conviction that came without a murder weapon or a body? Of course you have, but David Goldfield et al. would rather ignore the complex and hang on the simplistic – as would many of his colleagues.

First, the lib revisionists need to deal with who else was involved in the WMD “deception” – the French, British, Spanish, Australian, Japanese, German, Israeli intelligence services, the Egyptian and Russian presidents, the king of Jordan, and the United Nations Security Council, all of whom stated that Hussein had or was pursuing weapons of mass destruction.

Then, of course, you’d have to overlook his gassing of the Kurds, which led Hans Blix of the UN to state Hussein had 6,500 WMDs. And there were Saddam’s two sons in law, who during their brief defection testified about Iraqi WMD programs. They were executed upon their foolish return to Iraq. (So foolish that I’ll go ahead and accept that their testimony may be discounted since they were obviously idiots.)

Then there’s little niggles like this:

In 2003, a UN weapons inspector confidently stated that Ira had an ongoing nuclear program, and that he knew personally of uranium reporcessing at a facility six miles from Tarmiya. A twenty-gallon barrel found in northern Ira tested positive for Sarin, and another tested positive for mustard gas.

And Goldfield et al. conveniently ignore the tape recordings found of Hussein discussing his WMD program, and the need to hustle the evidence out of Iraq prior to an invasion – and the 56 “sorties” ‘of commercial jetliners, their seats removed, between Iraq and Syria prior to the war.

As for terrorists in Iraq, Schweikart runs through the same sort of sources – our own State Dept., evidence found in Iraq, respected publications like Janes and less respected news sources like CBS, etc. – to prove that Hussein was supporting terrorists in general and al-Qaeda in particular.

There’s plenty more in this chapter; real, hard evidence, as opposed to cute “Bush Lied, People Died” sloganeering.

Lie #12 – The Founders Envisioned a “Wall of Separation” Between Church and State, Keeping Religious Influence out of Government

The Founding Fathers did not intend to establish the United Sttes of America as a Christian nation [and] the assertion that the United States … was founded as a “Christian Nation” is itself a myth. – Mark Weldon “Whitten, The Myth of Christian America

I found myself using my Kindle’s highlighting function multiple times on every page of this chapter because its stuffed full of rebuttal of the vapid claims of the separation of church and state fanatics. If, for example, America’s founding fathers didn’t see America as a Christian nation, how come the colony’s own constitutions saw it as one. Here’s Virginia’s:

We, greatly commending, and graciously accepting of, their Deisres for the Furtherance of so noble a Work … in propagating the Christian Religion to such People [native Americans] as yet live in Darkness and miserable Ignorance of the true knowledge and Worship of God [establish the colony of Virginia.

The Charter of New England (1620) stated that the main objective of the colony was "the enlightenment of the Chrisitan religion, to the Glory of God Almighty."

Why, if America was not a Christian nation, did some colonies have statutes requiring attendance at church? (The sort of thing correctly precluded by a proper interpretation of separation of church and state.)

In 1812, the Supreme Court ruled that the First Amendment allowed Christianity to "receive encouragement from the state, so far as was not incompatible with the private rights of conscience, and freedom of religious worship." In 1892, SCOTUS found unanimously:

Our laws and institutions necessarily are based upon and embody the teachings of the Redeemer of mankind ... [In] this sense and to this extent our civilization and our institutions are emphatically Christian. … This is a Christian nation.

And it remains one to this day, if you check any national polling or any compilation by government or religious organizations.

The Chapter also delves into Jefferson’s letter, which is the basis of fraudulent interpretations of separation of church and state, effectively dismissing the arguments as misinterpretations or outright frauds.

The Lies They Teach: #9 and #10
The Lies They Teach – #8
The Lies They Teach: #6 And #7
The Lies They Teach: #4 And #5
The Lies They Teach: #1 – #3

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eaven forbid that schools should have a caring environment.

No, scratch that.  Whatever forbid that schools should have a caring environment.  There, that’s suitably secular for this story from the crumbling edges of our civilization.  And the story is just the start of the story; bear with me.

The Freedom from Religion Foundation is bringing a lawsuit against the Cherry Creek schools in Denver because some of the principles taught in the district’s “40 Developmental Assets” program allegedly are drawn from biblical teachings.

For example, Asset 5 in the program, a “caring school climate,” allegedly is related by the institute to the teaching in the New Testament book of Mark, which says, “Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name, welcomes me,” according to a report in the Denver Post.

The program also recommends students spend an hour or more a week in a religious community, and the complaint alleges that is using tax money to promote religion, the report said.

The foundation, based in Madison, Wis., said in an amended complaint in federal court in Denver it has evidence the Cherry Creek program, developed by the Search Institute, is linked to the Bible. (WND)

The Cherry Creek program has been using Search Institute materials for 15 years, not as curricula but “a behavioral framework” promoted by the schools.  Search the Search Institute’s mission page and you have to look very hard to find a reference to religion on it (the word “congregation” appears once), although its history page reveals it started over 50 years ago as a Luthern program.  This is a program that’s sufficiently un-overt to fit in America’s secular classrooms.

Have we come to the point where merely being “linked to the Bible” is enough to trash something?  Are we now at the place where the suspicion that Search Institute’s core beliefs are Judeo-Christian, even if there aren’t Bible verses all over their stuff,  alone is sufficient to fire up the book-burning machine?

America just happens to be “linked to the Bible” (here, for example), so what are we supposed to do to please/appease the tiny number of crackpots at the Freedom from Religion Foundation, aka the Whining Shrilly That Most People Don’t Believe What I Believe Foundation?  Toss in the towel and become secular fodder for Islamists, like Europe?

Well, before we accept that end, perhaps it’s worthwhile to scan down to the bottom of this article and see what’s going on in schools in the vicinity, since WND’s Web site happily puts together links to related stories; in this case, stories on education:

Teacher falsely tells kids they have fatal disease

Campaign launched to liberate ‘speling’

Student says ‘F— off!’ on test, gets better grade

Today’s class: Hating Jews 101

Bilingual, pro-American book ‘unfit’ for L.A. schools

Female teacher arrest for 9 flings with student

6th-grade survey: Classmate most likely to get pregnant

3rd-graders asked to help classmate in gender change

Children’s hospital launches sex change for kids program

Voting rights challenged in ‘coed showers’ lawsuit

Lord help us!  If we want more of these kinds of terrible goings-on where we educate our precious children, then yes, let’s continue un-linking America from the Bible!

hat-tip: Jim

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just received this email:

The Exchange Club of Irvine, Irvine Chamber of Commerce and City of Irvine are pleased to announce that the 27^th Annual Thanksgiving Community Prayer Breakfast has been set for Tuesday, November 25, 2008.

This year, we are excited to feature nationally-recognized legal scholar Erwin Chemerinsky as our keynote speaker. As the newly named Dean of UCI Law, Dean Chemerinsky will help us celebrate our community with this important breakfast.

For those of you who don’t listen to the Hugh Hewitt show or otherwise are unfamiliar with Chemerinsky, he routinely stakes out the Left’s limits of the law – including being a separation of church and state hawk, as evidenced by this WaPo op/ed he authored:

With little public attention or even notice, the House of Representatives has passed a bill that undermines enforcement of the First Amendment’s separation of church and state. The Public Expression of Religion Act – H.R. 2679 – provides that attorneys who successfully challenge government actions as violating the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment shall not be entitled to recover attorneys fees. The bill has only one purpose: to prevent suits challenging unconstitutional government actions advancing religion. …

Such a bill could have only one motive: to protect unconstitutional government actions advancing religion. The religious right, which has been trying for years to use government to advance their religious views, wants to reduce the likelihood that their efforts will be declared unconstitutional.

Granted, it’s possible to believe religion has no place whatsoever in the public square and still be religious. But it’s rare. I would love to attend a prayer breakfast featuring an attorney like Jay Sekulow, who stands up for religion’s right to exist broadly and robustly in American society, but Chemerinsky? I think it might be better to pray for him than with him.

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o Sunday Scan this week – more on that in my next post – but before getting to that, I had to share with you a bit of what those who hold the radical view that there should be no religion in politics said about yesterday’s McCain/Obama Saddleback Forum.

There are zillions of examples because the blogosphere skews left, but I chose as my one Salon editor in chief Joan Walsh’s Are We Now Officially a Christian Nation? Walsh does not feel Obama should have attended the forum at all:

I’m not sure why Obama voluntarily sat down for a nationally televised conversation about his private religious faith with a relatively conservative Christian leader, as though that’s a reasonable station of the cross, so to speak, for a major American presidential candidate.

If we take the incredulous question of her column’s title at face value – that America is not a Christian nation “officially” – perhaps Walsh has a point. If we must “officially” be a Christian nation in order to talk about faith, then we have a problem because we have no official religion. However, we are undeniably a nation made up overwhelmingly of Christians, not an official Christian nation, a truth the secularists try hard to avoid.

Their decades-long effort to reinterpret “separation of church and state” has made normal conversations and exhibits of faith a social faux pas, necessitating the need for things like the Saddleback Forum, which will help to nudge the pendulum back to a more natural state.

What’s strange about Walsh’s column, and the Left’s take on the Forum generally, is how off the perception is:

And while “Pastor Rick” went out of his way to say Obama and McCain were his personal friends, I personally perceived Warren as mildly pro-McCain. I thought Warren hurried Obama through his answers. Maybe not intentionally. He sat there and went “um-hm” and “hmmm” and “OK” and “yeah” literally every few seconds throughout a lot of Obama’s early answers — maybe trying to be fair, to show empathy; maybe because he himself wasn’t quite comfortable. Either way, it had the effect of feeling as if he was rushing Obama.

Obama was rushed? His rambling answers in search of a position went so long that McCain actually had the chance to answer two questions Pastor Rick Warren didn’t have time to ask Obama. If Warren had rushed Obama, he might have had the chance to answer these questions.

On the other hand, Warren didn’t have time for a “hmmm” or “um-hm” while McCain shotgunned his direct answers.

For all her odd perspective, Walsh got two things right:

While I appreciated Obama declaring himself pro-choice before this crowd, I thought by far his worst answer was on the question of when life begins, when he replied: “Answering that question is above my pay grade.” That quip could haunt him; nothing is above the president’s pay grade.

She got that right. Google coughed up 242,000 hits this morning for “Obama above my pay grade.”

The other thing she got right?

Still, I’d call McCain the winner tonight. He used the forum to punch home his message, while Obama delivered a soft getting-to-know-you pitch.

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“The court finds the memorial at Mt. Soledad, including its Latin cross, communicates the primarily nonreligious messages of military service, death and sacrifice. As such, despite its location on public land, the memorial is constitutional.”

-U.S. District Judge Larry Alan Burns

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t’s a shame something so simple as placing a cross in an overwhelmingly Christian nation has become so difficult, and can be allowed only by so narrow a definition as this fine-grained parsing by Judge Burns. But still, a victory is a victory and the Soledad cross lives on.

And so does its opposition. According to the LA Times, the ACLU is considering an appeal to the very liberal 9th Circuit.

Ironically, it was another version of the sort of liberal craziness we see from the ACLU and the 9th Circuit that turned Judge Burns’ decision:

In his ruling Burns agreed that the cross is the preeminent symbol of Christianity, but said “it does not follow the cross has no other meaning or significance.” He pointed to the exhibits on public beaches, such as Santa Monica’s, where the group Veterans for Peace uses crosses in the sand to represent U.S. service members who died in Iraq.

Apparently the Vast Left-Wing Conspiracy isn’t coordinating its messaging strategies effectively.

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The tale of Dr. James Corbett and his frothings against Christians and Conservatives before his high school Advanced Placement classes is big news — it’s now up to 398,000 hits on Google’s blog search engine. And as you can imagine, those who believe in Secularism but are rabidly anti-religion nonetheless, have a lot to say.

Let’s start with a post at The Seven Solitudes called, ahem, Dr. James Corbett is an American Hero:

It isn’t enough that the school system is still a breeding ground for religious indoctrination, and non-believers and other people who would rather teach their kids at home about religion have been ostracized and having failed previous attempts to bring these lawsuits to the courts, this Fascist Law Firm decides to copy the work of organizations like the ACLU. In these previous cases we, the secular taxpayers, have been found to not have standing. Our only victory was erasing mandatory prayer from school and the occasional Lemon Test success, but Christian proselytizing from the podium is not a phantom. If this brings about the demise of teacher’s personal freedoms of ranting about religion from either way… it is a victory for us.

What school district does this guy go to? Is he a time-traveler or something, perhaps confusing 2007 with 1907? I wasn’t aware that Secularist home-schooling was a trend, and haven’t heard of any public school districts that were forcing Christianity into, instead of out of, the schools.

Admittedly, Capo Unified, my district and Dr. Corbett’s, isn’t utterly devoid of Christianity. When Incredible Daughter #1 was in Jr. High chorus, they sang (beautifully) medieval vocal pieces with religious themes, and we even had an entirely voluntary parent-student Hallelujah Chorus one year. She also got a good grade on a paper on Abraham’s travels for an ancient history class.

This seems to me appropriate in all ways because no one can deny the power of the church in the formation of our musical heritage, and the Abraham paper was a research exercise whether one were to agree the source material was historical or not.

What is wrong with Seven Solitudes, and indeed most of these posts, is that they don’t want “Christian proselytizing” in the schools, but very clearly are comfortable with Secularist proselytizing, whether Christians are made uncomfortable or not.

A blog with the uncondensed name of Esoteric Dissertations of a One Track Mind fisked my most recent post on Corbett in a post called On the Religious Reaction to Dr. Corbett. The writer makes such universal statements like:

First, I find it rather inarguable that religious conservatives want to control women’s reproductive capacity.

I find this extremely funny, given the “anti-breeder” pressure that the Left slams parents with. Who, in fact, wishes to control women’s reproductive capacity? He thinks conservative men dictate to their women, “Thou shalt calve,” whereas in Christian circles the number of children is a decision husband and wife come to through discussion and prayer.

To compare fundamental Islamic childbirthing trends to Christian trends is silly because in dirt-poor Islamic countries, where humans and animals are the main means of production, the economics of child-bearing are entirely different.

Over at the “revolutionary” blog (Why would we want a revolution? So we could have what sort of system instead?) Blogging the Collapse, there’s a post called Heroes and Zeros. Guess which one the blogger thinks Corbett is?

As you’ve seen, I have a general revulsion for all gods, prophets, angels, and higher powers in general. The wisdom that I would like to see kids arrive at through education is that there is no such thing as a cosmic hierarchy (which makes other hierarchies, such as corporate or governmental hierarchies, all the more meaningless); and that the universe doesn’t work through power or control.

How does he know this, if not by faith? Where is it written that there is no higher power in the universe?

I’ve saved the worst and the funniest for last because there is nothing sillier than a hater of intolerance being intolerant. Here’s Dr. Naysay’s Nay of the Day, Chad Farnan is a Douche and his Parents are Evil:

This piece of Orange County s*** hails from San Juan Capistrano and attends Capistrano Valley High School where he is enrolled in Dr. James Corbett’s Advanced Placement European History class.

Recently this little f***ing twit and his parents filed a FEDERAL lawsuit claiming that Dr. Corbett violated his Constitutional Rights. How does a High School history teacher pull off such a feat you might ask?

By allegedly making statements that Mr. Farnan (and his evil parents) feel “make religious students feel like second class citizens.”

I think Dr. Naysay makes a pretty darn good case for why morality and values ought to be taught more in school, because the Judeo-Christian tradition certainly teaches a greater deal of brotherly love, understanding and compassion than Dr. Naysay has picked up along his troubled way.

In closing, let’s go back to the top post and the allegation that “the school system is still a breeding ground for religious indoctrination.” In case you haven’t been keeping up on your reading of The Bismark Tribune over the Christmas holidays, I offer this:

A Simle Middle School teacher has been suspended without pay after parents complained about a video he showed in a class.

Superintendent Paul Johnson outlined the investigation and discipline at the Bismarck School Board meeting Monday.

Teacher Michael Nider will be on unpaid leave starting today until Jan. 1. He showed a video called “A Letter from Hell” that he had found on Godtube.com in his fourth period eighth-grade health class Wednesday. It was not shown in any other classes.

In addition to the unpaid leave, Nider also must take a sensitivity training class by May 30. A letter of reprimand is part of his personnel file, and if he violates the school policy again, he will be fired. A new teacher will be assigned to the fourth period eighth-grade health class.

This is the first time in the four years Nider has taught with the district that he has been disciplined, and he has had good evaluations. He has taught 20 years prior to coming to the Bismarck district. Two messages were left Monday night on an answering machine at Nider’s home. He did not attend Monday night’s meeting.

Parents Steve and Hannah Balaban heard about the video from their daughter, who was in Nider’s class. They sent a letter of complaint to the teacher, principal, school board, superintendent and other community members, because of their concerns about its religious content.

Let’s review, class:

• Nider has a 20-year-plus teaching record without complaint. This is the third time Corbett’s radical Secularism has caused trouble at Capo Unified.
• Nider showed one film in one class. Corbett routinely blasts Christians and their beliefs in his classes and has for years.
• Nider was suspended without pay. Corbett is still teaching with pay.
• Nider has to take sensitivity training, has a letter in his file, and will be fired if anything like this happens again. While it’s early in the process still, no such action has been taken against Corbett.
• The action against Nider was taken because one set of parents called to complain. Corbett continued to teach following many such complaints, including parents pulling their children from his class.

Again, the model that should be followed is that the teacher in a class like AP European history should, as Corbett did, encourage their students to think hard on provocative questions, but he should do so by asking pointed questions from all points of view, so his students have no idea what his personal beliefs are.

These beliefs should not be a factor. Students should learn from a teacher’s character and qualities, not his political diatribes.

Update: The Capo Unified School District apparently feels the same way, according to this OC Register editorial summarizing its policies:

It shouldn’t take a lawsuit to force a public school system to consider whether a teacher lives up to district policy, which requires that staff neither promote a religious viewpoint nor “interfere with the philosophical/religious development of each student in whatever tradition the student embraces.” According to a Register report, district policy also calls on teachers “to ensure that all sides of a controversial issue are impartially presented with accurate and appropriate factual information.”

I don’t advocate that Corbett be fired, only that he be forced to follow these policies, and that the District itself develop a method for seeing that the protocols are followed. If Corbett isn’t comfortable with that, then he doesn’t have to continue taking a publicly funded paycheck.

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This is the most bizarre separation of church and state shenanigan I’ve heard in quite some time:

“Southwestern Oklahoma State University (SWOSU), has issued a disturbing policy which requires all employees to refrain from using the word ‘Christmas’ in oral or written form. This directive was given by the university upon legal advice of the Oklahoma Attorney General, W.A. Drew Edmondson. Liberty Counsel sent a demand letter to SWOSU following a complaint from a university affiliate.

The statement was issued by The Liberty Council and is posted in its entirety at Tapscott’s Copy Desk. It continues:

John Misak, the [SWOSU] Director of Human Resources [definitely not the Director of Human Intelligence], recently visited various university departments and employee groups and informed everyone that any decorations featuring the word ‘Christmas’ in any work or public areas of the university must be immediately removed. He also instructed everyone to discontinue the use of the term ‘Christmas’ in their speech while on the job. This censorship specifically includes exchanging greetings of ‘Merry Christmas’ among employees or with non-employees, whether initiated by a non-university employee or not. Christmas remains a legal holiday for state employees, including those at SWOSU. The directive does not include any other legal holidays such as Thanksgiving or New Year’s.

Folks, this is at an institution of higher learning, showing just how oxymoronic that term has become.

SWOSU tried to deny the charge for a while today, but employees have confirmed to Tapscott that it’s true:

A veteran administrative employee of SWOSU confirmed that she and her colleagues in her department were told by their boss “to take the word ‘Christmas’ off of our email signatures and not to use that word in any official correspondence.”

Connie Phillips, SWOSU’s admissions coordinator, said she refused to comply. “I told them they could write me up but I was not going to take it off my signature.”

But the next sentence is the real kicker:

Other SWOSU employees were resisting the orders as well. “The people in the business office had a decoration up with the word ‘Christ’ in it and they were told to cover it over. They did but then they took it off. It’s been on and off about three times now, I think.”

Can you imagine a better example of a skirmish in a culture war?

Expect a howl, a big howl, especially since Atty Gen Edmonson is already an infamous rights-tromper for prosecuting three men for the heinous crime of advocating fiscal responsibility from elected leaders. This is a man who apparently lacks any concept of the Constitution, the Federalist Papers, Freedom of Religion or Freedom of Speech.

If you would like to call Edmonson and wish him a Merry Christmas, you can reach him at 405-521-3921.

hat-tip: memeorandum

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