I grew up going to Sunday school and learned a lot of great lessons.  My favorite lessons were to love thy neighbor, materialism is bad and forgiveness is better than revenge. That's why I get upset whenever I see the Christian Right movement pulling out obscure fragments from the Bible and emphasizing that more than the big picture.  In fact it turned me off from Christianity completely. 

The Christian Right wants everyone to accept that the Bible should reign supreme over the Constitution and by extension the American Government.  So in that spirit I would like to announce to everybody the Christian Right's endorsement of slavery!  The bible doesn't even mention abortion and hardly mentions gays so I expect their pro-slavery platform to be at least as prevalent as abortion and homosexuality on their agenda.

 
IF the Bible is supreme over our government,
IF the Bible says it's okay to have slaves
and sex slaves
THUS, it is ok for the government to
legalize slavery!

 1.  However, you
may purchase male or female slaves from among the foreigners who live among
you.  You may also purchase the children of such resident foreigners,
including those who have been born in your land.  You may treat them as
your property, passing them on to your children as a permanent inheritance. 
You may treat your slaves like this, but the people of Israel,
your relatives, must never be treated this way.  (Leviticus 25:44-46
New Living Translation) 

2.  When a man
sells his daughter as a slave, she will not be freed at the end of six years as
the men are.  If she does not please the man who bought her, he may allow
her to be bought back again.  But he is not allowed to sell her to
foreigners, since he is the one who broke the contract with her.  And if
the slave girl's owner arranges for her to marry his son, he may no longer
treat her as a slave girl, but he must treat her as his daughter.  If he
himself marries her and then takes another wife, he may not reduce her food or
clothing or fail to sleep with her as his wife.  If he fails in any of
these three ways, she may leave as a free woman without making any payment. 
(Exodus 21:7-11 New Living Translation)

Stephen Colbert, of Daily Show and Colbert Report fame, has announced that he is running for president last night on his show.  I'm going to HAVE to catch the rerun for that today.  More details on the flip.

I know some of you have anxiously been awaiting my next political entry on the USD Dems blog... but I'm going to have to sort of disappoint you for something only quasi political.  Radiohead has a new album out and they are selling it in a REVOLUTIONAIRY way.  Yes, REVOLUTIONAIRY.  Read on for more details...

One of the big South Dakota stories in the news right now is the Roger  Hunt anti-abortion donor story.  As well all know in 2006 South Dakota voted on a ballot issue-- Referendum 6-- that would ban all abortions in the state.  The controversy centers on an anonymous $750,000 donation funneled through Republican State Rep. Roger Hunt. 

cross posted at Daily Kos

South Dakota has gone a long way since the 1980s when we were the last state to hold out on the 18 year old drinking-- going so far as to take the issue to the Supreme Court in South Dakota v. Dole.  This entry will focus on what appears to be a revival of Temperence attitude in South Dakota.  Specifically we will look at a proposed public cigarete ban.  Later editions of this series will look at other issues like a proposed alcohol tax increase and the Vermillion underage drinking crackdown.