Below The Beltway

Every year around this time, there’s a story about some controversy involving an official government recognition of Christmas, or Hannukah. On one side are those who are offended by the use of taxpayer dollars to promote what are clearly religious holidays. On the other are those who look at those objections as yet another example [...]

John F. Kennedy on September 12, 1960:
I believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute–where no Catholic prelate would tell the President (should he be Catholic) how to act, and no Protestant minister would tell his parishoners for whom to vote–where no church or church school is granted any public [...]

Back in February, here and here, I wrote about the case of Kareem Amer, 22 year old Egyptian blogger who has been held in prison for nearly a year for the “crime” of allegedly “insulting” Islam and the President of Egypt, one of our supposed allies.
In February, Amer was sentenced to four years in prison [...]

Today’s Washington Post reports that a government agency is recommending that a private school funded in part of the Saudi Government be shut down:
McLEAN, Va. — A private Islamic school supported by the Saudi government should be shut down until the U.S. government can ensure the school is not fostering radical Islam, a federal panel [...]

Well, not really, because it doesn’t really exist:
CAIRO, Egypt — An Egyptian Muslim who converted to Christianity and then took the unprecedented step of seeking official recognition for the change said he has gone into hiding following death threats.
Mohammed Hegazy, who sparked controversy when pictures of him posing with a poster of the Virgin Mary [...]

I’ve written in more detail at The Liberty Papers about the major cases that came out of the Supreme Court today, but here’s a roundup.
In FEC v. Wisconsin Right To Life, the Court declared unconstitutional those provisions of the McCain-Feingold law that restrict advertising that specifically mentions a candidate for office 30 days before a [...]

The Congressman from Virginia’s 5th District has spoken again, and just made himself look worse. My take on Goode’s latest statement at The Liberty Papers.

I wrote earlier this week at The Liberty Papers about talk-show host Dennis Prager’s apoplectic reaction to the fact that Keith Ellison, the first Muslim member of Congress, might be sworn in with his hand on the Koran rather than the Bible.
Yesterday, Paula Zahn’s show on CNN featured a debate between Prager and UCLA Law [...]

There are few symbols of Islam that arose more controversy in the West than the burqa, a covering that some Islamic women wear, either by force or by choice, that completely covers their body and hides even their eyes from public view. In what may well be a sign of things to come in Europe, [...]

Florida Congresswoman Katherine Harris, who is currently running for Senate in a campaign nearly every Republican in the state wishes she would abandon, has revealed just how big an idiot she really is:
ORLANDO, Aug. 25 — Rep. Katherine Harris (R-Fla.) said this week that God did not intend for the United States to be a [...]