ACLU, Christianity, Prayer, Government Meetings, dum-dum bullets

If you don't want to be controversial and don't want to start a fuss, you should not discuss religion or politics.

Too bad.

That wunnerful group of confused lawyers, aka the ACLU, American Civil Liberties Union, has convinced some high end judges that it should be ILLEGAL for any government body to pause for prayer during a government meeting.

One step for man, one giant leap for mankind. Sometimes, even those high end judicial figures take a nosedive when going after a giant leap. Perhaps it's time they go back in time... way, way back...and start taking a few baby steps.

From today's edition of the Jacksonville (NC) Daily News: 

The Onslow County Commissioners called on County Manager Jeff Hudson to give the invocation during the regular meeting, as he had during the Aug. 1 meeting, but referencing a recent U.S. Court of Appeals ruling over the issue of invocational prayer, Hudson refused to give an invocation.

County Attorney Lesley Moxley in a two-page memorandum informed commissioners Monday afternoon about the Court of Appeals ruling in Joyner, et al. v. Forsyth County, N.C.

...nearly 80 percent of the prayers used to open board meetings contained explicit references to the Christian faith.

If there is anyone who needs spiritual guidance at this time, it's certainly every governing body out there. Judging by our current condition, nothing else has helped, that's for sure.

The ACLU (don't get me started on those clowns...what the heck...I will, at the end of this ranting) says that prayers at government meetings reference Christianity. Yeah, I think. What's the problem with that. Might be the way I was brought up, but it seems to me that the majority rules concept should apply. When county commissioners take a vote on any topic, the majority rules. When politicians are elected to public office, they're there because they received a majority of the votes cast.

When checking out Christianity, I found that, in the 20th century, up until 1990 or so, that 87-percent of U.S. citizens said they were christians. A majority, by anyone's definition. Since 1990, that number has dropped. Today, it's estimated that 76-percent still say they are christians. Unless you're dealing with some of that fuzzy math, still a majority. A clear cut one, too.

Of those who no longer claim to be christians, one report goes on to say that it's not because they've switched religions. It's because they've given up on all religions. They've become secularists. Maybe they've become confused because of the likes of the ACLU.

The ACLU. The only thing I'll say is that I have some, but not much, respect for them. Some because they do stand up for the little man, regardless of the odds. Not much because I think they've gotten a big head, live in a little world of their own, and have no idea what the real world is all about.

I remember, back in the 1970's, a big argument against the use of what the ACLU called dum-dum bullets by police. In the last quarter of the 19th century, the Dum Dum Arsenal, a British company in India, experimented with, then produced, expanding bullets. Hollow-point bullets, and the like. They were designed to expand to a larger size once they came into contact with the intended target.

Well, the ACLU said that it was not fair for police to shoot bad guys with these things because they caused excessive damage.

WHAT!?!?

Excessive damage? Again, a do-gooder group that had no idea what it was talking about. Cops don't around shooting bad guys for the fun of it. They shoot bad guys who are either trying to hurt the cops or someone else. Whether they shoot them with a 9 mm, a .45, or a .50 caliber machine gun makes no difference. They have one thing in mind: to stop the assault of a dangerous nut.

For those who might not understand, the hollow point bullet does expand. And, it does create more damage to the bad guy. More bang for the buck, if you will. However, it's also MUCH safer to innocent people. A bullet carries x-amount of energy. A lot of work has gone into designing bullets that have enough energy to get the job done in a variety of scenarios. In the law enforcement arena, cops deal with one bad guy in the middle of a lot of good guys. A bullet with enough energy to render a bad guy neutral (aka dead) often has enough energy to continue on its journey, exiting the bad guy's torso, and injuring those innocents I mentioned.

An expanding bullet quickly loses it energy. Actually, it transfers its energy to it's target. The bad guy. Less likely to exit the torso and hurt anyone else.

By transferring, quickly, all of that energy, it provides additional safety to a vulnerable officer. It is likely to immediately render the assailant incapable of continuing the assault. That becomes even more important when the bad guy has a shotgun or other weapon of mass destruction. Last thing you want is for a wounded assailant who can return fire.

Maybe the ACLU should take a lesson in real life,  and let the majority rule.  

First, though, let's bow our heads and Say a Little Prayer for Me. Wonder if they plan to censor Dionne Warwick's 1970's hit song?