Till our rights expire

It's Sunday

In a normal world, a self-proclaimed historian who published a book so full of errors that the publisher pulled it would not be given any more platforms. But not so with [David] Barton, who continues to influence evangelical leaders.

[...]

[Thomas] Jefferson definitely was not a proponent of Christian nationalism, said Warren Throckmorton, co-author of Getting Jefferson Right, the second edition of a book first published in 2012.

Throckmorton and colleague Michael Coulter first wrote to debunk the widespread inaccuracies of amateur historian David Barton, who the month before had published The Jefferson Lies: Exposing the Myths You’ve Always Believed About Thomas Jefferson. In that book, as in Barton’s oft-quoted works, he fabricated a history of Jefferson that serves the narrative of Christian nationalism.

The inaccuracies were so egregious that Thomas Nelson publishers pulled the best-selling book, explaining: “Our conclusion was that the criticisms were correct. There were historical details — matters of fact, not matters of opinion — that were not supported at all.”

[...]

First Liberty Institute — famous for its role in cases such as that of high school football coach Joseph Kennedy — recently hosted a nighttime tour of the U.S. Capitol that was led by Barton. The group was joined at one point by new Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, who like Barton contends America was founded as a “Christian nation.”

And Family Research Council — the Focus on the Family advocacy spinoff in Washington, D.C. — continues to publish a video tour of the Capitol narrated by Barton.

[...]

“Christian nationalism is on the rise, and we felt the book would be timely if we brought it back out to respond to Barton.

[...]

“Despite the stated reverence for truth in evangelical circles, when it comes to politics, Barton’s got something there,” Throckmorton explained in an interview this week. “If you’re a political entity, you don’t admit errors. It’s all about politics, it’s not about religion. That’s another danger of bringing politics and religion together: you eventually don’t have religion. Winning at politics is your religion.”

[...]

Barton has refused to admit his errors, and he has powerful enablers, Throckmorton said.

“One of the cases I make is there is a conspiracy of silence. A lot of the rightwing influencers know there are problems with Barton’s stories, but he’s too useful to them, to the policies they want to enact, so they don’t do anything about it.”

  Baptist News

Throughout his decades of public life — working for the Republican Party, becoming a darling of Fox News, advising politicians such as new House Speaker Mike Johnson, launching a small propaganda empire, carving out a niche as the American right’s chosen peddler of nostalgic alternative facts — Barton had never been shy about his ultimate aims. He is an avowed Christian nationalist who favors theocratic rule; moreover, he is a so-called Dominionist, someone who believes Christians should control not only the government but also the media, the education system, and other cultural institutions.

  Politico

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Dad? I thought he said she calls him Daddy

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE:

Taxation without Representation

Today Iowa GOP Chairman A.J. Spiker released the following statement in response to the passage of HR-8489, which prohibits state money from being used to finance abortions.  "Many Iowans, including myself, are morally opposed to abortion. It is simply wrong to force an individual to finance something that is against his or her conscience," said Chairman Spiker. "As Thomas Jefferson once said, ‘to compel a man to furnish funds for the propagation of ideas he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.' "I applaud the Iowa House for standing up not only for life but for all Iowans who are morally opposed to their tax dollars being used for abortions."    

I look forward to Mr. Spiker's support for my proposed law prohibiting my tax dollars from going to everything to which I am morally opposed. Let's start with crazy-ass Steve King's salary and go from there.  And the Jefferson quote is ripped competely out of context, torn into tiny bits, and apparently tossed up into the air in front of an electric fan. It comes from the Virginia Statute For Religious Freedom — and the exact quote refers to "opinions" and not "ideas" — and it's about not using public money to promote religion. To wit:

That to compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves and abhors, is sinful and tyrannical; that even the forcing him to support this or that teacher of his own religious persuasion, is depriving him of the comfortable liberty of giving his contributions to the particular pastor whose morals he would make his pattern, and whose powers he feels most persuasive to righteousness; and is withdrawing from the ministry those temporary rewards, which proceeding from an approbation of their personal conduct, are an additional incitement to earnest and unremitting labours for the instruction of mankind; that our civil rights have no dependance on our religious opinions, any more than our opinions in physics or geometry. 

I'm going to go way out on a limb here and assume that Mr. Spiker is not altogether a supporter of that last bit.

If he is, then I'm going to assume he's outraged by the new law passed in Arizona — State Motto: If It's Crazy, We Got There First! — whereby they'll be teaching the Bible on the public's dime in the public schools:

It also creates an exemption for the Bible from a law that says "all books, publications, papers and audiovisual materials of a sectarian, partisan or denominational character" are prohibited from public schools and their libraries.

Darn, and I was dying to see what happened when they got to the unit on the Koran. Mr. Jefferson just threw a glass of Madeira at the wall in the Beyond.

  Charles Pierce

Till Our Rights Expire

The Obama administration and The New York Times are teaming up to expose and combat the grave threat posed by a Twitter account, purportedly operated by the Somali group Shabab. [...] This latest tale of Dark Terrorist Evil began on December 14 when the NYT‘s Jeffrey Gettleman directed intrepid journalistic light on the Twitter account maintained under the name “HSMPress” [...]

But terrorism experts say that Twitter terrorism is part of an emerging trend and that several other Qaeda franchises — a few years ago the Shabab pledged allegiance to Al Qaeda — are increasingly using social media like Facebook, MySpace, YouTube and Twitter.

[...]

That has to be the single most amusing phrase ever to appear unironically in the Paper of Record: Twitter terrorism.

  Glenn Greenwald

Our government leaders will not be happy until they have blocked every path of dissent or, what’s worse for them, exposure.

Toward the end of the article, Gettleman tacked on what he and his editors apparently considered to be an unimportant afterthought: “Of course, it is impossible to know who exactly is operating the Twitter account.” Of course: but there’s no reason to let that small fact deter anyone.

[...]

Gettleman is back today with a new article detailing the response of the U.S. Government to his exposé. Headlined “U.S. Considers Combating Somali Militants’ Twitter Use,” the article reports:

The United States government is increasingly concerned about the Twitter account of the Shabab militant group of Somalia, with American officials saying Monday that they were “looking closely” at the militants’ use of Twitter and the possible measures to take in response. . .

[S]ome American officials said the government was exploring legal options to shut down the Shabab’s new Twitter account, potentially opening a debate over the line between free speech and support for terrorism. . . .

American officials say they may have the legal authority to demand that Twitter close the Shabab’s account, @HSMPress, which had more than 4,600 followers as of Monday night.

[...]

Presumably, the Obama administration could consider Twitter’s providing of a forum to a designated Terrorist organization to constitute the crime of “material support of Terrorism.”

[...]

What is more likely than compulsory action is thuggish extra-legal intimidation aimed at Twitter to “voluntarily” close the account. That path is less overt but just as insidious, if not more so. That is how government officials such as Joe Lieberman succeeded in cutting off all of WikiLeaks’ funding sources and web hosting options without the bother of charging that group with a crime: by demanding that Amazon, Master Card, Visa, Paypal and others “on their own accord” terminate WikiLeaks’ accounts and refuse to provide the group with any services. As EFF’s Trevor Timm asked today: “How fast does Joe Lieberman release a statement today saying we should censor the Net in the name of national security? I bet before noon.”

[...]

Having the government shut down social media accounts is laughably ineffective — it would take Shabab about 30 seconds to open a new one — but the theories embraced to justify that power are purely tyrannical.

And the only effective logical step would be for the government to crack down on the internet altogether. China is leading the way.

Our rulers will become corrupt, our people careless. A single zealot may commence persecutor, and better men be his victims. It can never be too often repeated, that the time for fixing every essential right on a legal basis is while our rulers are honest, and ourselves united. From the conclusion of this war we shall be going down hill. It will not then be necessary to resort every moment to the people for support. They will be forgotten, therefore, and their rights disregarded. They will forget themselves, but in the sole faculty of making money, and will never think of uniting to effect a due respect for their rights. The shackles, therefore, which shall not be knocked off at the conclusion of this war, will remain on us long, will be made heavier and heavier, till our rights shall revive or expire in a convulsion.

~~ Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia, Query 17, 1781–1782

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.