Rev. Rob Schenk of the National Clergy Council in D.C., Rev. Patrick Mahoney of the Christian Defense Coalition, and Grace Nwachukwu, general manager of Faith and Action were barred on Thursday from entering the hearing room where the Senate Judiciary Committee will be holding a confirmation hearing for Samuel Alito’s nomination to the Supreme Court on Monday. They were permitted to bless the doors–reading three Psalms, kneeling to say the Lord’s Prayer in front of the doors, and marking a cross in oil on a door. They also said that they had actually entered the hearing room a day earlier to anoint the seats with oil. “We did adequately apply oil to all the seats,” said Schenk. Schenk and Mahoney say they had done the same prior to the hearings for Chief Justice John Roberts and were pleased with the results.

The Boston Globe reports that the “signing statement” issued by George W. Bush after signing the bill outlawing the torture of detainees contains caveats that indicate that the restrictions in the law can be bypassed in situations where he sees fit. Bush seems to be under the impression that executive powers granted to him as president allow him to violate any law he deems inconvenient. It’s high time for this corrupt, dishonest president to be impeached. ...

This story, which came to my attention via the No God Zone, has me incensed. When you first read it, you get the impression that the adamantly anti-gay Pastor offered money for homosexual sex (the word “soliciting” along with the word “prostitute”, seen in some versions of the story, conveys exactly that, to me). While you might agree with me that such an act is entirely harmless, it is clearly illegal, so the arrest of the Pastor comes as no surprise (and in spite of the ultimate injustice of such laws, in the case of this particular Pastor, I can’t help but exclaim a rousing rendition of Nelson’s “Ha-ha!” - especially if he’s even half as out of his mind as this wacko). However, as the No God Zone points out, no such offering of money took place. So, while the Pastor may be - nay, is - a hypocritical asshole, he apparently was arrested and had his car stolen (a.k.a., “civil forfeiture”) for simply asking another guy if he wanted to have sex. The real assholes in this story are the cops, who, it seems, just wanted to harass gays out for a good time in Tulsa, while padding their department budget. ...

A four-year-old had trouble getting on a plane in December: “I don’t want to be on the list. I want to fly and see my grandma,” the 4-year-old boy said, according to his mother. Sijollie Allen and her son had trouble boarding planes last month. “Is this a joke?” Allen recalled telling Continental Airlines agents Dec. 21 at Houston’s Bush Intercontinental Airport. “You can tell he’s not a terrorist!" She said it took several minutes of pleading and a phone call by the ticket agent to get on the plane to New York. Allen, a Jamaican immigrant, said workers at La Guardia Airport were even more hard-nosed before their Dec. 26 flight home. She said a ticket agent told her: “You’re lucky that we’re letting you through instead of putting you through the other process."

"They were looking for things to do," Det. Ken Kelly said. "They told us, `We were going to have a baby Jesus burning party.'" One suspect told detectives, "We just wanted to see their heads burning," Kelly said. The baby Jesus figures, now at the police station, were probably stolen from homes and churches around the Sayreville area within the past few weeks, officers said. "It looked like a maternity ward," Lt. Glenn Skarzynski said of the figurines. He added, "Anyone able to identify their particular baby Jesus will be able to be reunited."(From Jamie Zawinski's blog.) Historical Comments Steven Carr (2006-12-09): A report in the London Times said that many girls in Britain have more than one Barbie doll, and that a great number of them were subject to decapitation, burning and all sorts of cruelties. Burning effigies is quite common, as is defacing of posters of people.What is it about humans and their desire to mistreat and destroy representations of the human form? ...

More on the implications of massive data-mining and computerized interception of voice calls, from FuturePundit and David Friedman. FuturePundit asks the question, “Would you rather be watched by computers or people?” and suggests that the former is better–but fails to examine the question of whose computers are doing the monitoring and whether they can be trusted not to abuse it. Historical Comments Einzige (2006-12-09): Are the Friedmans really statists in disguise?I mean, first Milton gives the government the idea for income tax withholding (for which, IMHO, he should forever remain on every libertarian's shit list), and now David goes and does this!What gives? ...

The Boston Herald’s front page proclaimed “MINER MIRACLE! America’s prayers answered, TWELVE FOUND ALIVE.” The media regularly proclaims any glimmer of positive in a disaster as a miracle for which credit should be given to God, but never pins anything negative on him. But will the Herald issue a retraction? More at Pharyngula. Historical Comments Einzige (2006-12-09): I guess it's a (minor) miracle that I made it home from work tonight alive, then.Thanks, God, for not putting crazy drivers in control of large vehicles in my way. ...

He was in favor of states deciding the issue for themselves, until he was against it. There are lots more examples of this kind of hypocrisy across a wide range of issues documented in James Bovard’s The Bush Betrayal. Above link is to Dispatches from the Culture Wars, where readers have offered additional examples in the comments.

While it’s not quite as spectacular as the story in James Morrow’s Blameless in Abaddon, in which God is put on trial before the International Justice Court for crimes against humanity, an Italian court will be having a hearing to see if atheist Luigi Cascioli can proceed with a case against priest Enrico Righi. The charges are violations of “Abuso di Credulita Popolare” (abuse of popular belief, a law designed to protect against con artists) and “Sostituzione di Persona” (impersonation). Cascioli, who, like defendant Righi is a man in his seventies from the town of Bagnoregio, accuses the priest of fooling the people by teaching that Jesus was a historical figure and that he’s his representative. Cascioli is the author of a book, “The Fable of Christ,” which argues that Jesus never existed. The view that Jesus didn’t exist is a minority position even among atheists–advocates include G.A. Wells and Earl Doherty (whose book, The Jesus Puzzle, is critically reviewed here by Richard Carrier).

Ed Brayton gives a rebuttal to what is perhaps the most egregiously dishonest critique of the Dover decision so far, by Phyllis Schlafly. John West of the Discovery Institute links to the Schlafly piece with approval. Two examples which support the heading I’ve chosen: Schlafly writes of Judge Jones: He smeared “fundamentalists,” impugned the integrity of those who disagree with him by accusing them of lying and issued an unnecessary permanent injunction.Judge Jones’ accusations of lying were directed at two individuals who testified in the trial, Dover board members Alan Bonsell and William Buckingham, not at “fundamentalists” or “those who disagree with him.” And he made the accusations because those two board members were lying, as I’ve previously described (about Bonsell here, about Buckingham here, and there’s more in the decision here) and may end up facing perjury charges. Schlafly further expands upon her misrepresentation of Jones’ criticism of these two dishonest board members: He lashed out at witnesses who expressed religious views different from his own, displaying a prejudice unworthy of our judiciary. He denigrated several officials because they “staunchly and proudly touted their religious convictions in public."Jones never mentions his religious views, and does not denigrate these board members for expressing religious views different from his own, but for lying. Here is the passage from Jones’ decision that Schlafly is dishonestly commenting on: It is ironic that several of these individuals, who so staunchly and proudly touted their religious convictions in public, would time and again lie to cover their tracks and disguise the real purpose behind the ID Policy. (p. 137 of the decision)Ed addresses more of Schlafly’s dishonesty at Dispatches from the Culture Wars.