Trilogies always suck

For those who missed it, including me, yesterday was (in)Justice Sunday III, held in the city of brotherly love. Like so many other trilogies, this one was poorly attended & the lead characters were nothing but a cadre of marginalized former heavy-hitters.

Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, the No. 3 Senate Republican, told the gathering that liberal judges are "destroying traditional morality, creating a new moral code, and prohibiting any dissent."

Wait a minute, Mr. Santorum, I thought that's what the Republican-led Congress and President are for? Wasn't it Congress who pushed through legislation forcing judicial review of Terri Schiavo's case last spring? The former House leader, Tom Delay, is certainly at the forefront of establishing a new moral code. And the Bush administration is making every legal "stretch" it can to prohibit any and all forms of dissent.

Santorum went on to say, "The only way to restore this republic our founders envisioned is to elevate honorable jurists like Samuel Alito," Santorum said. "Unfortunately, the Democrats on the Judiciary Committee seem poised to drag these hearings into the gutter, so they can continue their far left judicial activism on the Supreme Court."

I'll confess I know very little about Alito, but I withhold my support simply knowing he's been nominated by an administration which supports torture, the incarceration of several hundred individuals without charge in Guantanamo Bay, and ignores the Federal Communications Act.

Fortunately Senator Santorum is facing a mid-term election this coming November. Hopefully the good people of Pennsylvania will see him for what he is--another member of the Christian "right" who has it all wrong.

Notably absent from inJustice Sunday III was Pat Robertson, but the other two clowns of the Christian political movement, The Rev. Jerry Falwell and Focus on the Family founder James Dobson were in attendance.

The crackpot Falwell has kept a low profile since 9/11, when he stated on-air, "And, I know that I'll hear from them for this. But, throwing God out successfully with the help of the federal court system, throwing God out of the public square, out of the schools. The abortionists have got to bear some burden for this [September 11 attacks] because God will not be mocked. And when we destroy 40 million little innocent babies, we make God mad. I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People for the American Way -- all of them who have tried to secularize America -- I point the finger in their face and say, 'You helped this [September 11 attacks] happen.'"

Dobson is perhaps the smartest of the three. He avoids the headline-grabbing "stupid quotes", but I find him the most scary. He's a trained psychologist with absolutely no formal theological training. That's right--he's a layperson with an audience of 3-5 million listeners a week who uses his Focus on the Family ministry to push his own political agenda.

And if you don't think religious zealots of all faiths can be scary, taking this quiz may change your mind.