The Bravest, Smartest Girl In Rhode Island

The Providence Journal profiles the student behind the Cranston first amendment case; I’d be awfully proud of her if she were my kid.

As a high school freshman, Jessica Ahlquist wore shiny braces, read books and never missed an episode of “Dr. Who,” a TV show about a time-traveling alien who saves civilizations, helps people and rights wrongs.

“I was very shy,” says the 5-foot-tall student.

Hardly anyone noticed her — until she spotted a school prayer affixed to a wall in the auditorium of her new school, Cranston High School West.

She recognized that the mural violated the establishment clause, and began speaking about it at school meetings.

“I didn’t want to talk. I was terrified of saying I was an atheist. When I spoke, I heard a gasp. I knew then that people didn’t share my beliefs. It was an unwelcoming atmosphere. People belittled me and treated me like a little kid.”

She stuck to her guns, showing more intelligence and considerably more courage than her detractors, whose actions say this is a religious fight, but whose rhetoric claims it is an attempt to preserve the school’s traditions and not cave in “because one person in the history of the school objects.”

In this attempt to preserve the school’s traditions…

Since then, she says, students and adults have called her a “stupid atheist,” an ACLU tool, a witch and a “media whore.” They’ve also threatened her through e-mails or at school, she says.

A former classmate told her that, if she knew what he really thought of her, she would kill herself, she says.

Fortunately, some people see a brave girl on the right side of the law, and recognize her for it:

Next month, the ACLU will present her with the William G. McLoughlin First Amendment Award, named after a Brown University history professor and liberal activist.

Read the whole article–these snippets are a small fraction–and add Jessica Ahlquist to your list of real world heroes. It also includes an excellent summary and timeline of the case.

eta:
And read at least a few of the comments afterward–one in particular is from the mom, unnamed but also joined in the suit, who (quite reasonably) goes unnamed to prevent her own child from being harassed like Jessica has been, and you’ll see how ugly a majority can be, and how important rights are for protection against that ugliness.

Tales Told By Idiots

The contenders ‘round the table pushed their policies and plans;
Their attacks aimed at Obama were quite ruthless
Though they rang with sound and fury (well, according to their fans)
When examined, they were often nearly truthless

The claims made to a wide audience will stick around, even when they don’t hold up to examination in the harsh light of reality. Still, it is nice to see that someone is actually checking the truthfulness (vs. truthiness) of those claims.

No matter who the eventual winner, we can expect to see these claims again, and ought to be prepared. Of course, being prepared is not always enough (those of us old enough to remember Mondale’s response to Reagan’s “there you go again” are keenly aware of this).

The False Divide

The faithful and the faithless are identical, in ways,
And it’s silliness to tease the two apart
The parsing of their language, the dissection of a phrase,
Needn’t mean they take these differences to heart
Denying evolution, or contending God’s behind it
Is just one of many issues, don’t you see?
If you simply look around you, why, agreement’s where you find it
And there’s lots of stuff on which we all agree.

Why, there’s levers, wedges, pulleys, all that simple physics stuff,
And the useful things that chemistry can find
And cellular biology—and isn’t that enough?
The important things that God Himself designed!
Though the evidence is plentiful, we part at evolution
And the big bang theory’s more than we can take
If we say that God’s behind it, that’s a reasonable solution
Though that’s not a move the atheists might make

Yes, the faithful and the faithless are identical, in ways,
Like bipedal locomotion, for a start.
There appears to be an equal part their nervous system plays
And they mostly have four chambers in their heart
We can list the similarities, though most of them are trivial,
Cos “trivial” is not the same as “wrong”
And claim that there’s no reason that we can’t all be convivial
No reason that we cannot get along

The majority of Christians have no qualms respecting science
Which apologists take pains to often note
The problem is, their tribal faith is where they put reliance
When their leadership reminds them how to vote.

Context and blather, after the jump:
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The Values Voter Summit

We must elect a president, to start a revolution,
Who’s bold enough, and brave enough, to question evolution!
Whose moral code is biblical, immune from all depravity,
Who won’t give up the fight till we repeal the law of gravity

We need a Christian president—that’s one thing that I know—
Whose values for our future grew two thousand years ago!
Whose thinking starts and finishes inside a holy book
Who doesn’t know of science, and who doesn’t want to look

We need a man for president, a man who holds dominion
Whose superior position is a fact, and not opinion
The Values Voter Summit knows Republicans can’t lose
So long as we’re consistently against a right to choose!

We need a fucking troglodyte, a knuckle-dragging freak
Whose knowledge of the bible trumps ability to speak
The voters don’t want brains at all, so much as they want nerve…
They say, in a democracy, you get what you deserve.

What Goes Around…

What goes around, comes around.

Cases are making their way through the courts, and churches that broke with the Episcopalian Church over their consecration of their first openly gay bishop are finding that there are unexpected consequences to their bigotry actions. It’s a slow-moving train wreck in the courts. Bring popcorn. Story, after the jump:
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Headline Muse, 10/7

There’s a pastor whom Perry consults
And they talk about stuff like adults
Like how Jesus Christ chooses
Who wins, and who loses
And how other religions are cults

Headline: Perry Ally Calls Mormonism ‘A Cult’

The Baptist pastor endorsed Rick Perry, called Mitt Romney a non-Christian, and renounced his church’s tax-free status so that his political statements could be viewed as the campaign contribution they were intended as.

Do I need to tell you I’m just kidding about that last bit?

Oh–Jesus and Mo is, as so often, appropriate here.

Getting Out The Dominionist Vote

There are demons in the water
There are demons in the air
There are demons in the people
There are demons everywhere!

Let us cast away your demons—
We can put them in a goat—
You can safely go to heaven;
It will only cost your vote.

On the eve of the elections
We are putting out the call:
It’s Dominionists or Demons;
Only one can rule us all!

Don’t you want to go to Heaven?
Don’t you want to be God’s child?
You must vote the way we tell you…
And the devil slowly smiled.

Important cool stuff, after the jump:

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Christians, Uniting

When I was in grade school, the young boys would fight
In the playground, to see whose religion was right
The Baptists, the Lutherans, the Methodists, too,
A handful of Catholics—well, more than a few—
A couple of Mormons, and some I-don’t-knows
Would argue religion, and soon come to blows

Too young to have had a good grasp of their fables
This battle of faiths was a fight between labels
“You’re wrong, and I’m right!” “I’m right and you’re wrong!”
We’d huff and we’d puff, and it wouldn’t take long
Before someone would lose it, and then throw a punch—
In the end, bloody noses, and icepacks at lunch.

Religion means splitting, and schisms and sects,
Perhaps inquisitions (which no one expects)
It’s in-group and out-group in sanctified form
Where “us versus them” is accepted as norm
Believers may gather as sisters and brothers
But often to join in a fight against others

So when did it change? When did Christians unite?
When did so many sects come together to fight?
It’s the strange sort of bedfellows politics makes
When the Truest of Christians align with the fakes
All good politicians, like God, will take notes—
And it’s all about winning. It’s all about votes.

Context, after the jump:
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