District Court judge's rules that the 10 Commandments "not religious in nature"
My dad sent me this, an article which says the above title of this post. The 10th US Court of Appeals is supposedly going to rule on the appeal... so what do I think?
Well... the District Court judge said that the 10 Commandments are "primarily secular, and not religious in character; that neither its purpose or effect tends to establish religious belief." The attorney who's planning on filing the appeal says that this particular case is very different because every other 10 Commandment "display" case automatically assumes that the 10 Commandments are religious in nature. And, just to raise the stakes of this whole case, the display of the 10 Commandments being discussed just so happens to be in Salt Lake City (Watch out for those crazy Mormons!). The article states: "The Ten Commandments, the judge said, are 'as much for the benefit of the unchurched or non-religious as for the benefit of more than one evolving religious tradition.'" But, my dear children, is that true? My dad asked, in the email accompanying the article, if displaying the 10 Commandments is the same as erecting a monument with the Bill of Rights on it. I would say it is not... if nothing else (unfortunately) because of what the 10 Commandments connotes. It connotes a Biblical meaning to us. If you want it to not connote the Bible, for it to not be religious in nature, then take "10 Commandments" off of it, and update the language, like this:
1. Um... whoops! We're already into religion, aren't we? How do you rephrase "Thou shalt have no other gods before me"? Well... if we're talking about the United States (which we are), then it should go something like this: 1. "My name is money. Thou shalt have no other gods before me."
Moving on... 2. Um... whoops! We are, again, into religion with this one. How about this, for Americans: "In accordance with the United States Treasury Department, if you print false money we will fucking mess your ass up."
Number 3. Um... whoops! Ah... how about this? "Thou shalt never say 'money damnit!' or else people will look at you funny."
Number 4. Um... whoops! (Are you starting to get the picture?) How about this? "If you don't work on Sundays, you'll fall behind the competition. Only an idiot doesn't work on Sundays."
And at Commandment Five, we actually start getting into the "guidelines" which are "secular in nature". Honoring parents, not killing, not fucking other people's spouses, not stealing, not perjuring... are all good. We fall into another problem when we get to number 10. "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house... wife... manservant... maidservent..." In this country, it should read "Thou SHOULD covet they neighbor's house..." and so on. If we didn't have people coveting other people's property, we wouldn't be the highly consuming country that we are today. I mean, just think about the nature of advertising... it's all about making us covet.
So there you have it, sports fans. There are 5 or 6 of the Commandments which are truly secular... the first four are trouble, if you're trying to convince someone that they're not religious. It is my hope that someone straightens this judge out... and everything is "righted". But you don't have to take my word for it... >cue Reading Rainbow music<

Final score: John 1, Fly 0! Yeah... I finally killed that fly. It was chillin' in my kitchen when I woke up this morning (GROSS!!!). So I totally isolated it in the kitchen and waited for it to land on something... then I got him. I hope this isn't a sign of things to come these summer months... I would hate to have to deal with flies in my apartment. Gross! (And I broke a Commandment! AHH!!! [Even though, if we're to take the Bible as literal, God big-time broke that Commandment with the flood... {but I guess God gets to play by a different set of rules, being God and all.}])
On the lighter side of the news, I see that Linkin Park has a video for "Breaking the Habit". It's an anime-styled video... and I'm really happy with it, because it's one of my favorite songs on Meteora. But I don't like the Beastie Boys' new video... even though I would have found it funny a couple of years ago. With the state of the world right now, I don't think there's anything funny with random acts of violence being glorified like that in a video. I mean, there isn't even a reason why they start fighting each other. It's like every character in the video is saying "Look over there! Weird people we don't know! Let's punch them in the kidneys!" >sigh< I like the song though... they're goofy guys. It's just like they tried to recreate the Sabotage video (one of my favorites of all time), but didn't bother to justify why everyone was fighting this time around. 'Poop in a scoop: Coldstone Creamery'*
*The latest failed slogan