Day: August 1, 2012

On Wallbuilders Live today (via RightWingWatch), we get this nugget of wisdom from David Barton:

They [the founders] didn’t know what the word “adolescent” meant. And, by the way, I checked with Rabbi [Daniel] Lapin, he says that is not a word that appears in Hebrew because it’s not in the mind of God. God wasn’t into adolescence, He was in to having you become productive, having you be fruitful, having your produce and so that’s why there was no adolescence in the Founding Era; that’s a modern phenomenon, that’s a progressive liberal phenomenon is adolescence.

This will come as startling news to James Dobson, who wrote “Preparing for Adolescence.” He will have to rename his book: Preparing for the Progressive, Liberal Phenomenon.”

I always thought puberty dealt teens a hormonal deck of cards that was something different than childhood and adulthood. Now that you think of it, hormones probably are liberal.

Aristotle once said, “Youth are heated by nature as drunken men by wine.” Democrat!

Did he just say that God’s mind is limited to Hebrew?

 

 

On August 1, 1791, Robert Carter wrote a deed of emancipation for 452 of his slaves. Although no slaves were freed that day, he set in motion the largest emancipation in the United States until the Civil War. Carter finished the six page document on August 1, and then filed it in the Northumberland Courthouse on September 5, 1791. You can read “the first day of August” in the oval below.

Carter was moved to consider freedom for his slaves after a move toward first the Baptist faith and then Swendenborgianism. He was a contemporary of Thomas Jefferson, although there is no evidence that they ever communicated about Carter’s act of emancipation.

Today, a group of ministers is meeting in Cincinnati to attempt to hold Thomas Nelson publishers accountable for printing a book that whitewashed the record of Thomas Jefferson on slavery. When David Barton declares in The Jefferson Lies that Jefferson was unable to free his slaves due to Virginia law, Barton obscures the virtue of men like Carter who went against the resistance of other slave owners who talked about liberty but didn’t provide it for all. Carter and other emancipation minded people in Virginia took steps against their own interests to do what was right. These stories need to be celebrated and remembered, not hidden due to misguided reverence for the founders.

Wallbuilder’s slogan is “presenting America’s forgotten history and heroes with an emphasis on our moral, religious and constitutional heritage.” In my view, Robert Carter’s deed of emancipation is forgotten history and Carter is a forgotten hero.

For more on Carter click here, here, and (especially) here.

According to a pro-gay website (Freedom and Roam Uganda), there is concern that the Anti-Homosexuality Bill has returned with a new legislative strategy. FARUG reports this morning that amendments have already been made to Section 145 of the Penal Code Act. However, when I talked to Helen Kawesa, spokeswoman for Parliament, she knew nothing of a bill to amend Section 145.  Initially, she thought I was asking about the Anti-Homosexuality Bill which she said is “still in committee.”

Apparently, a new bill has not been tabled yet, but indeed, according to other sources, there is a proposal to achieve the same ends as the Anti-Homosexuality Bill by amending the Penal Code Act. Section 145 now prohibits “canal knowledge of any person against the order of nature.” The proposal would prohibit sexual acts with a person of the same sex and the use of any media in a way that depicted homosexuality in a positive manner. Life in prison and the death penalty are also included according to the FARUG report.

Currently, it is not known who plans to offer the amendment or when it will be offered. A review of the order paper for today finds nothing on the subject. According to Susan Merembe of the Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG), there is no bill at present. On SMUG’s Facebook page, she said

The bill has not yet been tabled. Try to breathe, the info was just an update to keep your eyes open. Political lobbying really, nothing too exciting.

Rumors that changes to the code have already been made are apparently incorrect. However, this political lobbying may signal that a renewed effort is on the horizon.