The ACLU is pushing their adgenda on right wing conservatives...I don't think that is being free!  They are also trying to take our BIBILES away, that is NOT FREEDOM!  They are also taking our crosses away...where is the freedom in that?  And to do with you body as you wish, be my guest.  I for one, honor my body.

When socialism hits hard (which is on the way) you will wonder what freedom really was.  I love all people and I am not a bigot.  And I think the child in the womb also was created to enjoy the so-called freedoms of our country.  This country was based on Judeo-Christian beliefs, not Buddism, Islam or whatever religion you can think of.  I tolerate all religions however, I do not want people that are atheists to shove their unbeliefs down my throat.  I don't like evolution taught in school, there is NO basis for it..  I am a strong believer in the BIBLE..  We sing GOD Bless America, our laws are based on the 10 Commandents, which are from the JEWS, the chosen people of GOD.  Have other religions contributed to the founding of this great country?  I really don't think so.

The ACLU was started in order to make this country secular.  It was designed to take away our laws and GOD away.  Try reading the ACLU vs. America and then you will see what they are all about.  I work under the guidelines of the ACLU.  And it is NOT pretty.  They defend the rights of the NAMBLE.  Read the article below and you will weep.  I suggest you may want to do some research on the ACLU.  Please do not take my word for it.  After you've done your research, get back to me, I will be glad to read your thoughts on them.

I'm for 8 out of the 10.  Thus, ACLU does much good as far as I can see.   I like the idea that we are all created equal.  I don't think some people are better than others.  I also believe all Americans should have the same rights.

Excluding some people from the same rights as we get simply because they are different is pathetic and small minded.  I also believe we all should have a right to choose what we do with our own bodies.  Also, forcing religion in schools takes away our freedom of choice, I don't want someone's religion forced on me, or anyone else for that matter,  LIVE and Let LIVE.  

Extremist need to stop trying to control Americans... this is a free country... get used to it. 

Join the majority of America, be more liberal, be free, and allow others their freedom.

I've had a few drinks so excuse me if I'm perhaps not as coherent as I might otherwise be, but my response to you moonshadows1949, would be, a) I took biology so I'm quite aware of the stages, b) until late term all the line items you list are attributable to nerve responses, same as when you squish a bug and its limbs keep moving -- which even I will be the first to admit is an unpleasant analogy, yet it's true just the same, c) God doesn't create babies, people do (or technically sperm from men and eggs from women), d) there is a significant difference between morals and ethics and one does not equal the other, e) I pretty much made the claim that the child in the womb is not a child in the womb until late term, and lastly, f) you might feel that you report to some higher power but no one else necessarily does or even has to believe you.  Especially when you can't prove it.

Believe it or not, I actually agree with you that abortion should absolutely not, under any conditions, be used as a form of birth control.  I made my opinions clear as regards to when, in my view,  abortion is acceptable.  I believe this despite my lack of belief in your God.  So would you call that an ethical or a moral view?

Oh, and yes, before late term I was just a blob of cells too.

I'm not even going to touch on the Church and State thing again.  Its not even an issue.  It's really not even up for argument when there is nothing new to add after 225+ years.

Scottso: I think that you are blessed that you have a mother that loved you enough to keep you and raise you.  Now, are you telling me that you were a blob in your mother’s womb? And are you telling me that the child in the mother’s womb has NO right to life? Here is a lesson in biology to disprove your theory: The child enters the womb at the time of conception. With the aid of modern science we can actually see the child starts to develop from the very moment of conception. At the time of conception the father’s semen and the mother’s discharge emulsify into a pea like form which grows day by day. It is described that first seven holes develop and these holes gradually become the different senses; the mouth, the eyes, the nose, the ears, the genitals and the rectum. These are the seven holes in the body. Therefore, from the pea shaped form the child develops seven holes and gradually these holes develop into the senses and in this way the body of the child is formed. When the "blob" as you so call the baby, is of seven months, the child becomes conscious within the womb of the mother. The child can actually think and perceive his surroundings and the mother can feel the child developing within her womb. Here is what transpires in the mother’s womb at conception (from the website of Life Homilies):

• At conception a new human being begins, complete with his or her own unique set of DNA, this is present from the first day of life. The new little person’s sex is also determined from the beginning.
• Eighteen days after conception the baby’s heart is beating.
• During the first month the baby grows to 10,000 times his/her size at conception.
• S/he moves six weeks after conception though the mother does not yet feel the movements.
• At eight weeks every part of the body found in an adult is already in the baby.
• At eleven weeks after conception the baby has fingerprints and the fingernails are growing.
• At twelve weeks the baby’s lips open and close. S/he can wrinkle his/her forehead, raise his/her eyes, and turn his /her head, smile and frown.
• At sixteen weeks s/he reacts to sound, sucks and swallows, may get hiccups, yawns and stretches.
• Although moving since six weeks, at eighteen weeks the mother now feels the movements. The baby pushes with his/her feet and head to exercise and tone his/her developing muscles and also sucks his/her thumb. His/her toenails, hair, eyebrows, fringe of eyelashes on closed eyelids are growing.
• At twenty weeks the baby sleeps and wakes and is fully able to hear.
• At twenty-four weeks the baby may possibly dream and can make a fist and punch it against his/her mother.
• By twenty-five weeks the baby in the womb has the ability to hear like that of an adult and can discern the moods and attitudes of its mother.
• The baby from an early stage can show the usual symptoms of pain during a pre-birth operation and even release the chemicals associated with adult pain but nobody can judge definitively whether it is in pain or not.

The beautiful thing about life is that GOD creates it. We should have great respect for human life. The right to life is the most fundamental of all rights.  I guess you are telling me that a child in the womb has no right to life, but you did and still do?

In addition, I know that the Ten Commandments says that "Thy Shall Not Kill." I am not restricting you or anyone else.  Morals come from the conscious of the person. If you choose death over life, and think aborting a baby isn’t murder, then that is you business.  I however, disagree. I don’t think we should abort babies for the sake of birth control. And I do NOT believe in abortion or clubbing a child over the head. The thought of it makes me sick. I believe that I report to a higher authority and HIS name is GOD. I would rather live my life as if there is a GOD, and die to find out there isn't, than live my life as if there isn't, and die to find out there is a GOD.

And RM6, where does it say there is separation of church and state?  IT DOESN’T!!!!  This is a ploy by elitists and they are trying to take GOD away from us so we can become a secular nation.

"Public computers at Tulare County libraries have software to filter out adult or pornographic Web sites. But Lindsay Police Capt. Rich Wilkinson said Chrisler brought up images attached to an e-mail, bypassing the filters." 

People with this type of devious mind always find ways to outwit the controls or rules.  Glad he was arrested!

There were filters in place.  And I am still waiting for a list of public schools and libraries that have unfiltered internet.  There are vague reports of schools that have unfiltered internet  but the actual names of the schools have never been released.

One of the problems with internet filters is the filtering of material and information that is not really porn, and there is no way to easily disable it to get to the appropriate website. I installed SBC yahoo parental controls on my teens computer but it ran extremely slow (if at all) and blocked too many sites.  I "loosened up" the controls but still had the same problems.  So instead I re educated the kids on approp internet use and left the computer out in the open so I could check sites as I walked by.

Post the list of schools and libraries not using filtering.  I'll look foward to seeing how many there really are.

Not only do many libraries NOT use internet filters, and not only does the American Library Association actively oppose their use, awsmom, but just up the road, in Lindsey, a librarian was fired for reporting a child-porn surfer to police.  Check it out for yourself here.

 http://www.visaliatimesdelt...

Nice article, Starbucks1, but the Supreme Court does not agree with that interpretation (and neither do I).  Your source site for that article is a Christian funamentalist site, attempting to disguise itself as a "source of history."  The people who run and post on it also happen to run, allaboutgod.com.  Convenient. ;)  The article you posted is full of conjecture.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wik...

Under the United States Constitution, the treatment of religion by the government is broken into two clauses: the establishment clause and the free exercise clause. While both are discussed in the context of the separation of church and state, it is more often discussed in regard to whether certain state actions would amount to an impermissible government establishment of religion.

The key phrase is impermissible government establishment of religion, which is the basis for not allowing anything religious with regards to the government.

This is interesting reading as well:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wik...

thats who I was referring to...the author of this blog

Separation of Church and State - The Metaphor and the Constitution
"Separation of church and state" is a common metaphor that is well recognized. Equally well recognized is the metaphorical meaning of the church staying out of the state's business and the state staying out of the church's business. Because of the very common usage of the "separation of church and state phrase," most people incorrectly think the phrase is in the constitution. The phrase "wall of separation between the church and the state" was originally coined by Thomas Jefferson in a letter to the Danbury Baptists on January 1, 1802. His purpose in this letter was to assuage the fears of the Danbury, Connecticut Baptists, and so he told them that this wall had been erected to protect them. The metaphor was used exclusively to keep the state out of the church's business, not to keep the church out of the state's business.

The constitution states, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." Both the free exercise clause and the establishment clause place restrictions on the government concerning laws they pass or interfering with religion. No restrictions are placed on religions except perhaps that a religious denomination cannot become the state religion.

However, currently the implied common meaning and the use of the metaphor is strictly for the church staying out of the state's business. The opposite meaning essentially cannot in be found in the media, the judiciary, or in public debate and is not any part of the agenda of the ACLU or the judiciary.

This, in conjunction with several other factors, makes the "separation of church and state" metaphor an icon for eliminating anything having to do with Christian theism, the religion of our heritage, in the public arena. One of these factors is the use of the metaphor in place of the actual words of the constitution in discourse and debate. This allows the true meaning of the words in the constitution to be effectively changed to the implied meaning of the metaphor and the effect of the "free exercise" clause to be obviated. Another factor facilitating the icon to censor all forms of Christian theism in the public arena is a complete misunderstanding of the "establishment" clause.

Separation of Church and State - The Establishment Clause in Context
In addition to the "Separation of Church and State" metaphor misrepresenting the words of the establishment clause, the true meaning of the establishment clause is also misrepresented. The "establishment" clause states, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion. . ." Before these words can be put in context and the true meaning of the clause can be correctly identified, we need to examine the word "religion" and put it in America's historical context at the time the constitution was framed. In addition, we need to examine the previous European historical background of the founders of our country to identify what specifically motivated them to place the "establishment" clause in the constitution.

To accomplish this, we need to add more specificity to the word "religion" to clarify both the American and European historical backgrounds and put the word "religion" in proper context. We need do delineate between doctrinal and denominational religion. We also need to understand that the doctrinal religion being discussed is Christian Theism, which is defined by a belief in the Bible. We know what specific Christian denominational religions are.

Separation of Church and State - Constitution Framers Historical Context
The "Separation of Church and State" metaphor blurs the distinction between a doctrinal religion and a denominational religion. This places the doctrinal religion we have embraced in the same basket as an organized denominational religion with potential to merge with the state. The documentary evidence of the doctrinal Christian religion origin of this nation is voluminous. The Supreme Court thoroughly studied this issue, and in 1892 gave what is known as the Trinity Decision. In that decision the Supreme Court declared, "this is a Christian nation." John Quincy Adams said, "The highest glory of the American Revolution was, it connected in one indissoluble bond, the principles of civil government with the principles of Christianity." The founders were definitely Christian for the most part. At least 90 to 95 percentage of them were practicing, Trinitarian Christians. This and the additional supporting evidence below show conclusively that the concern that motivated the framers to include the establishment clause in the constitution was definitely not fear of the doctrinal religion of Christian Theism. It was understood that Christian Theism was the default state doctrinal religion. As opposed to being something to fear, it was something believed to be vital to the success of our government. Consequently, the framers feared a state denominational religion not a state doctrinal religion! http://www.allabouthistory....

and about that woman president?, sure, someday, but not Hillary,not now,

rm6 - you need to reread everything - no one on this blog has advocated restricting anything, quite the contrary. Well, maybe the author of the blog did.

scottso, I am not for late-term abortion either as an "oops, I've decided I don't want this baby afterall" solution - only if it's a medical emergency for the mother once the first trimester is over or the baby is not viable, or deceased in the womb.

Starbucks, no, I don't have a problem with other people praying. But my paternal great-great grandmother's people had traditions that were deeply rooted in this country prior to the arrival of Christianity...

I simply believe in separation of church and state as our forefathers did. I have nothing against traditions or even religions (well, not quite true, I have a problem with organized religions that are nothing more than big business) as long as it is not forced down my throat.

Peace in the middle east? Anything's possible - even a woman president...LOL!

Joty, its a tradition in this country because we are a country rooted in Christianty, in my view,you know, pray to keep the kids safe from injury and stuff like that, and Im not sure what you want me to answer here, seems we agree on this, WOW, we agree!, is peace in the middle east possible??

It is funny Starbucks, and IMO silly, but I didn't say I had a problem with it (omigod, I guess that puts me in with that 90%). Just because I find it silly doesn't mean I care if people do it. BTW, just why is it a "tradition"? And dancer that you are, you didn't really answer me...

so moonshadows, abortion isn't ok when the baby is in the womb, but as soon as it's delivered, we can club it to death??? hahaha...anyway away from the sarcasm, so you're all for restricting the rights of americans then? cuz that's what each one of the things you list is all about

I do like how you think Scottso. I only differ in that I believe that government and/or religion should stay out of the womb, every woman should have the choice (and yes, the way Moonshadow  phrased #2 is simply ridiculous).

Actually I should have clarified, Joty.  I don't agree with late term abortions unless the conditions I mentioned are met.  I'm of the opinion that once a baby is developed enough that it has organs, limbs and a brain, its a little to late to "decide" you don't want it anymore. At that point it really is a living being and should be treated as such.  Thats also an awful lot of time to "think" about an abortion up till then.

Prior to that point I agree with you whole heartedly though.  Its not a being.  Just a blob of cells.  I don't believe "potential human being" is the same thing as human being and government and religion should stay out of the womb.

Starbucks1, seriously, after all I wrote the only thing you can ask me is, "what about praying before football games..." :)   No I don't have a problem with people praying before football games.  Go for it. ;)   Read what I said about it again and you'll see I really answered this already.