Category Archives: morality

Religious Persecution

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Finland Member of Parliament Päivi Räsänen and Lutheran Bishop Juhana Pohjola stood (still stand?) accused by Finnish prosecutor Anu Mantila of the heinous hate speech crime of quoting from the Bible.

Finnish district courts said, no, and acquitted the two. The prosecutor objected and took the cases to a Finnish appellate court—where the two were once again acquitted. Räsänen:

It isn’t a crime to tweet a Bible verse, or to engage in public discourse with a Christian perspective. The attempts made to prosecute me for expressing my beliefs have resulted in an immensely trying four years, but my hope is that the result will stand as a key precedent to protect the human right to free speech.

Mantila’s weasel-worded rationalization of her decisions:

You can cite the Bible, but it is Räsänen’s interpretation and opinion about the Bible verses that are criminal[.]

Well, no, they’re not, not within any universally recognized concept of free speech and opinion-uttering.

Mantila may well appeal again, to the Supreme Court of Finland. If she does, the case will cease to be a matter of prosecution (if it ever was); it will be naked religious persecution and a parallel direct attack on the principles underlying free speech.

An Anonymous Letter

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A bunch of staffers in a broad reach of offices in the Biden administration Executive Branch have signed a letter. Carefully anonymously.

Four hundred government officials from 40 departments and agencies within President Biden’s administration signed a letter opposing the president’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war and demanded a cease-fire.
The Tuesday letter, first reported by the New York Times, includes officials from the State Department, White House, National Security Council, and the Justice Department. The signatories of the letter remained anonymous to protect against professional retaliation.

They…wish to see…President Biden to

urgently demand a cease-fire; and to call for de-escalation of the current conflict by securing the immediate release of the Israeli hostages and arbitrarily detained Palestinians; the restoration of water, fuel, electricity, and other basic services; and the passage of adequate humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip[.]

It doesn’t matter whether a ceasefire is in any way legitimate, or whether the items demanded are in any way practical to impose.

What matters is the illegitimacy of the letter, via the signatures affixed.

These cowards have hidden their faces, worn masks, ducked behind a wall—whatever metaphor you wish—with their refusal to put their names to their demands. These cowards have put their careers ahead of their morality, which demonstrates that they have no sense of morality.  That alone removes any legitimacy of their position re cease fire or any other matter.

The White House has yet to respond to the letter.

Which Biden and the rest of the Executive Branch should continue to do. The Coward’s Missive is beneath contempt, and it should be beneath notice.

Not Possible

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Qatar and Egypt are, supposedly, working with Hamas to get 15 of Hamas’ 240 and more kidnap victims released in return for a 48-hour “cease” fire.

This shouldn’t be possible. Hamas refuses even to tell these two nations—or anyone else—how many kidnappees they’re holding, much less who they are or what their condition is.

Beyond that, any cease fire won’t involve the terrorist Hamas ending its attacks. Such a foolishness would only enable the terrorists to rest, regroup, and refit to continue fighting from replenished fortifications and from renewed positions behind Gazan human shields.

Such a foolishness also would enable the terrorists to relocate the kidnappees they’re holding, making it more difficult to locate and free them.

There can be no cease fire until there are no more of Hamas at which to fire.

Full stop.

A Censure

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Representative Rich McCormick’s (R, GA) proposed censure of Michigan Progressive-Democrat Representative Rashida Tlaib was passed by the House Tuesday night 234-188. Twenty-two of Tlaib’s fellow Progressive-Democrat Representatives voted to approve the censure, so rank is her bigotry.

Included in the censure resolution that was voted up were such bigotries as these:

Whereas Representative Rashida Tlaib, within 24 hours of the October 7 barbaric attack on Jewish citizens of the State of Israel, representing the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust, defended the brutal rapes, murders, be-headings, and kidnapping—including of Americans—by Hamas as justified “resistance” to the “apartheid state”

And

Whereas on October 18, 2023, Representative Tlaib continued to knowingly spread the false narrative that Israel intentionally bombed the Al-Ahli Arab Hospital on October 17 after United States intelligence, Israeli intelligence, and President Biden assessed with high confidence that Israel did not cause the explosion

And

Whereas on November 3, 2023, Representative Tlaib published on social media a video containing the phrase “from the river to the sea”, which is widely recognized as a genocidal call to violence to destroy the state of Israel and its people to replace it with a Palestinian state extending from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea

Tlaib also is on two subcommittees each of the House Financial Services, Natural Resources, and Oversight and Reform committees. She needs to be removed from those committees and consigned to the back bench.

The Censure Resolution can be read here.

Selfish

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And from that, a Texas bill that would create universal/State-wide school choice—paid for by Education Savings Accounts of $10,500 per K-12 student—is on the brink of failure to pass. Much progress has been made, courtesy of Governor Greg Abbott (R) having convened a special session of the Texas legislature for the purpose. However, here we are on the last day of that session (as I write), and the failure brink is caused by a few rural Republican representatives.

The bill would let any Texas parent withdraw his student child from a public school that parent deemed unsuitable or failing to educate his son or daughter and transfer him/her to a different school (typically charter, voucher, or private) more to his liking.

However.

…some rural Republicans have joined Democrats in resisting ESAs. Their claim is that because their districts have few private schools, education choice doesn’t help their constituents.

Be clear on that. Because a rural Republican’s constituents wouldn’t be helped by universal school choice (I’m eliding the questionability of that claim), no one anywhere in Texas should be allowed that choice.

How very Progressive-Democrat of these selfish rural…Republicans. In the event, Abbott has committed to extending the current special session or calling a new special session, if his school choice bill does not pass in the current session.