"Separation of Church and State" depends on whose Church it is…

Thanks to Investor's Business Daily for this one:

In a recent federal decision that got surprisingly little press, even from conservative talk radio, California's 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled it's OK to put public-school kids through Muslim role-playing exercises, including:

• Reciting aloud Muslim prayers that begin with "In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful…"


• Memorizing the Muslim profession of faith: "Allah is the only true God and Muhammad is his messenger."


• Chanting "Praise be to Allah" in response to teacher prompts.


• Professing as "true" the Muslim belief that "The Holy Quran is God's word."


• Giving up candy and TV to demonstrate Ramadan, the Muslim holy month of fasting.


• Designing prayer rugs, taking an Arabic name and essentially "becoming a Muslim" for two full weeks.

"Merry Christmas"? Dangerous.

"Praise be to Allah." No problem…

What if you want to illegally cross the border INTO Mexico?

From the fine folks at Human Events, a quick look at few of the provisions of Mexican immigration laws (among the highlights - illegal immigrants are guilty of a felony under Mexican law, and those who help them in any way are also committing a crime):

* Foreigners are admitted into Mexico "according to their possibilities of contributing to national progress." (Article 32)

* Immigration officials must "ensure" that "immigrants will be useful elements for the country and that they have the necessary funds for their sustenance" and for their dependents. (Article 34)

* Foreigners may be barred from the country if their presence upsets "the equilibrium of the national demographics," when foreigners are deemed detrimental to "economic or national interests," when they do not behave like good citizens in their own country, when they have broken Mexican laws, and when "they are not found to be physically or mentally healthy." (Article 37)

* The Secretary of Governance may "suspend or prohibit the admission of foreigners when he determines it to be in the national interest." (Article 38)

* Federal, local and municipal police must cooperate with federal immigration authorities upon request, i.e., to assist in the arrests of illegal immigrants. (Article 73)

* A National Population Registry keeps track of "every single individual who comprises the population of the country," and verifies each individual’s identity. (Articles 85 and 86)

* A national Catalog of Foreigners tracks foreign tourists and immigrants (Article 87), and assigns each individual with a unique tracking number (Article 91).

* Foreigners with fake immigration papers may be fined or imprisoned. (Article 116)

* Foreigners who sign government documents "with a signature that is false or different from that which he normally uses" are subject to fine and imprisonment. (Article 116)

* Foreigners who fail to obey a deportation order are to be punished. (Article 117)

* Foreigners who are deported from Mexico and attempt to re-enter the country without authorization can be imprisoned for up to 10 years. (Article 118)

* Foreigners who violate the terms of their visa may be sentenced to up to six years in prison (Articles 119, 120 and 121). Foreigners who misrepresent the terms of their visa while in Mexico — such as working with out a permit — can also be imprisoned.

* "A penalty of up to two years in prison and a fine of three hundred to five thousand pesos will be imposed on the foreigner who enters the country illegally." (Article 123)

* Foreigners with legal immigration problems may be deported from Mexico instead of being imprisoned. (Article 125)

* Foreigners who "attempt against national sovereignty or security" will be deported. (Article 126)

* A Mexican who marries a foreigner with the sole objective of helping the foreigner live in the country is subject to up to five years in prison. (Article 127)

* Shipping and airline companies that bring undocumented foreigners into Mexico will be fined. (Article 132)

But no, we can't enforce our own immigration laws because that would be wrong…

Why tell the truth when you can make up whatever you want?

Ah, the mainstream media has a fit over the NSA yet again.

The NSA is the MSM's favorite agency to hate now. It can't be the CIA any more, given how many hard left folks we now know inhabit its halls.

OK, for anyone with half a brain, here's a quick summary of what you need to know:

• The NSA's "Domestic Wiretapping" program
  There is no Domestic Wiretapping program. The NSA has been listening to calls from people located in the US placed to known Al Qaeda operatives located overseas. Note, overseas. That makes it International wiretapping, not Domestic.


• The NSA Call Records "Scandal"
  The NSA is using call records, purely as bulk data, to find patterns ("Wow, an awful lot of people in New York have suddenly started calling Iraq over the past two weeks. That might be indicative of something.") They're not listening to your calls. They're not keeping track of who's calling whom. They don't care if you are calling your Mom, or your wife, a hooker, whomever. It's just data analysis. (Oh, and this new "scandal" has actually been reported on in the press for almost six months now; it just wasn't on the front page of USA Today.)
  
  Sort of like the way members of Congress who had been briefed on the program now express shock, shock that such analysis is occurring…

Why is this so difficult to understand? See, it's not. Except the mainstream media will not tell you any of it; it's suits their purposes so much better to make you believe the NSA and President Bush are evil and want to create a database of your activities for their purposes.

It's sheer vanity to believe the NSA is concerned enough about what any of us does in our boring little lives to create some type of dossier on us. Meanwhile, we continue to hamstring our intelligence agencies and will pillory those same agencies for not detecting the next terrorist attack that occurs. It was not without a sense of irony that I noticed the top two stories on the NBC Nightly News for May 11 were the NSA Call Records story, followed by Britain's admission that they knew about the London bombers but didn't have the funding or staff to track them.

Personally, I'm thankful to know the NSA is actually doing something to keep us safe. Certainly more than I could say for Nancy Pelosi or Ted Kennedy.

Read President Bush's response to the USA Today article here.

To whom is the Border Patrol REALLY beholden?

Well, no real surprise here, but the latest controversy brewing is that the U.S. Border Patrol is, when they become aware of the location of Minutemen volunteers, reporting their location to the Mexican government.

There's just so much here I could say, but it's far easier to just point you to Michelle Malkin's coverage.

United 93

OK, this one will be short but sweet:

Every American should see United 93.

There's no perceptible agenda, no attempt to blame nor praise Bush or the government. Simply a documentary-like presentation of what really went on the morning of September 11, 2001.

High School classes should go to see this movie. When it's released on DVD, copies should be in all school classrooms.

Of course if schools did show it it would most likely be prefaced by a nice speech by the teacher about how the events of that day were "payback for America's arrogance" or similar B.S., but hopefully seeing what ordinary Americans went through as that day forever changed our thinking would burn stronger and hotter into young minds than anything their teachers said.

I understand for some it is "too soon." I further understand that some would not be able to handle the intensity of the presentation.

But for anyone else, go see this movie. You owe it to yourself and short of reading the 9/11 Commision's report, it's the best take on the events of that day I've yet to see.