Wednesday, August 04, 2010

80 Billionaires Pledge to "to give "the majority of their wealth to the philanthropic causes and charitable organizations of their choice either during their lifetime or after their death."Well, isn't that special? It's probably better than letting the government tax away half of it, but if you want to impress us with your love of mankind, give it now and in secret.

A federal judge in San Francisco has ruled that California's prohibition of gay marriage is unconstitutional under the federal Constitutiona, overturning a vote by the people.

I don't believe that marriage is a right, except in the sense of it being a contract. People all have the right to make contracts that aren't the illegal. My main concern is that if courts make same sex "marriage" a legal right, the next demand from gay groups will be to force churches to solemnize such marriages, basically violating the freedom of religion clause of the First Amendment. Their aim is to validate homosexual acts as being the same as heterosexual intercourse. Not only is that objectively false, it will hurt the basic structure of society which is already under attack on every hand. Societies don't self-destruct over night. They just lose cohesion and divide into incompatible groups. Over time, these cracks weaken the bonds that hold it together. Values are no longer shared, and the ideas of equality disappear, classes become restrictive and divisive, the things that separate members of society become more important than the things that hold them together. When people get too angry and overbearing about "rights" that have never had legal force, the end result is anger hatred and division. As necessary as the civil rights movement was, it has been used by demagogues to build racial hatred. Liberals falsely denounced George W. Bush for trying to establish a "theocracy," when all he really did was try to increase tolerance. Our courts have substituted new rights for tolerance.

A lot of things are already undercutting our strength, such as the rise of abortions, unwed motherhood, single parent homes, bankrupting government and so forth.

Sharon Angle will be roundly denounced for saying that the American welfare state violates the First Commandment by making "government our God." Whether you believe in the Ten Commandments, she's right about liberalism and its allied movements that promote big government being religions. They may or may not claim to worship God, but they all think that earthly power, which they lust for in order, they think, to guide us all to better health, cradle to the grave financial security, heath care, a pristine environment, and so on is the way to bring about the perfect society, Heaven, if you will. The catch is that they believe that government has to have the power to dictate our lives in order to achieve these goals. Every time you point out a failed liberal program, the answer is always that we didn't spend enough or give government enough power. It's an article of faith.

So whatever you think of her religious faith, Sharon Angle is exactly right about government being a false god, an idol. If people want to worship idols, gods, God or be atheists, they have that right, as long as they don't impose it on others or insist that taxpayers support it beyond granting tax exemptions.