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Many paranoid social conservatives blame the triumph of moral liberalism on a conspiracy of sinister secular humanists, using the media and the public schools to indoctrinate their children and grandchildren in a godless morality. But the truth is that social conservatism has been undermined by technological progress, which has increased the opportunities for freedom in matters of sex and censorship while raising the costs of enforcing traditional norms.

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"Three years later, as Congressional scholars Norman Ornstein and Thomas Mann suggest in their new book, the Republicans' foul deed is done. From its record-setting use of the filibuster and its united front against Obama's legislative agenda to blocking judicial nominees and its unprecedented (and repeated) threats to trigger a U.S. default, the most conservative Congress in over 100 years has stopped Washington dead in its tracks. But judging from the muted reaction from the press and a public evenly split in its Congressional preference, Republicans are getting away with their crime."

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"In 1970 there were around 40 lobbying firms advocating on behalf of religious organizations, today there are over 200. They’re in Senate halls and Congressional offices working to influence your elected representatives. And it’s not just same sex-marriage and pro-choice issues on their agenda. “In any congressional session, religious leaders will … be embroiled in battles over food stamps, foreign aid, civil rights litigation, social security, funding for day care, environmental protection farm bills and the list goes on,” says researcher Allan Hertzke."

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As the chart below reveals, the main drivers of projected deficits over the next decade are the wars of the oughts in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Bush tax cuts and the so-called “automatic stabilizers” — unemployment insurance spending, lower tax burdens — built into existing policy to combat economic downturns. Recovery measures by Bush and Obama caused a short-term spike in deficits but have mostly phased out and thus represent only modest fractions of the national debt.

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Raising the issue of this sort of moral calculus is dangerous because it suggests that Dionne is willing to tolerate some amount of child rape in service to the greater good. But how much child rape should be tolerated? How many of those who insist that the good outweighs the bad would maintain this position if it was their own child being raped by a priest?

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The thing I like to emphasize is that secularism is a social justice movement. Religion is too easily used in government as a tool to oppress politically vulnerable individuals; we’ve seen it again and again throughout history. The best way to protect human rights and advance human well being is to keep religion out of government.

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Authors Warren Throckmorton, a psychology professor, and Michael Coulter, a humanities and political science professor, are both conservative Christians. (Grove City is a private Christian institution where, according to its website, the “ethical absolutes of the Ten Commandments and Christ’s moral teachings guide the effort to develop intellect and character in the classroom, chapel, and cocurricular activities.”)

I started the book last night after dinner and couldn’t put it down. To be blunt, it’s a hammer. Throckmorton and Coulter look at numerous pieces of disinformation spread by Barton and give the real story, usually backing up their claims with words from Jefferson’s own writings.

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We hear these claims often, even though they're entirely false. An analysis of the facts should make that clear

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"“The big shift is really in the ’80s, which I would attribute to [Fed Chairman Paul] Volcker’s recession in 1980-82, which killed workers,” said Dean Baker, co-founder of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, who has conducted similar studies. “A high dollar in the mid-80s amplified this effect. You also had the anti-union policies of the Reagan administration.”"

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"KRUGMAN: If you look at the actual tax collections in the United States on business, they're lower than -- than other advanced countries. And if you look at the alleged finding that high business taxes cause job losses in states, it -- it goes away -- on even the kick the tires, even slightly and the whole thing falls apart. It's just not true. "

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"Ever since boy genius Rep. Paul Ryan invoked his "Catholic faith" to justify his budget—you know, the one all the Republicans, including Mitt Romney, think is super awesome because it lets the rich get richer and the poor get poorer—he's been getting a lot of criticism for trying to hide behind Jesus. He got spanked by the Conference of Catholic Bishops, who said the proposed cuts in Ryan's budget are "unacceptable" and "unjustified and wrong," and his whole budget "fails to meet these moral criteria." Ryan told them to get bent, though, because he "respectfully disagrees" with Jesus the bishops, because apparently, you can do that as long as you're not talking about vaginas, in which case, if you don't do what the bishops say, you're going to hell and you hate America, sinner. "

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"None of the amendments strike out the most dangerous part of the bill, where it says "notwithstanding any other provision of law," government agencies can collect our private data. That "notwithstanding" means this law trumps every other privacy law, federal and state, on wiretaps, educational records, medical privacy and more. That's unacceptable. And, of course, the bill still doesn't allow for the kind of regulation that could actually matter to national security: protecting key infrastructure like electrical grids and water systems from cyber threats."

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"Whether or not you agree with Kelly’s belief that health care is just a privilege, it is still a reality that far too many Americans die each year because they can’t afford access to the health care they need or receive uncompensated care that is financed by those who have insurance. Since everyone is bound to fall ill — and some may suffer an unexpected medical setback, as the Giffords tragedy illustrated — a system in which 50 million Americans are uninsured is an inefficient and quite expansive waste of tax payer dollars and resources. "

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"The United States currently spends more on its armed forces than the next 14 countries combined. Increasing that historically-large gap even more when record numbers of American children are on food stamps is simply immoral."

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"The impact of for-profit care on Medicare's future can be inferred from this quote by economist David Blitzer: "The trends in Medicare are more modest than the cost increases we have seen in the private commercial sector." That's because Medicare, as a government program, is far more cost-efficient than the private health insurance system. (That difference makes a mockery of Republican proposals to end Medicare and replace it with a system of vouchers for private insurance.)"

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"In 2006, the postal service generated a profit. That was the last time it did so, because in late 2006, a lame duck Congress passed the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act, which among other things forced the postal service to fund its retiree health benefit obligations 75 years into the future, and to do so within 10 years. Taking care of retirees is a good thing, and we've seen far too many workers expected to fill the gaps in pensions and health benefits underfunded through no fault of their own. I'm not arguing that the postal service should reverse course so far that it leaves its retirees without health care. But if you needed a single concrete example to demonstrate that this is a manufactured crisis, here it is: Congress put a burden on the postal service that no other government agency or private corporation faces, and when that causes or accelerates problems, it's taken as evidence of certain doom and the need to make deep cuts. "

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"[Living Originalism] allows [liberals] to claim that the Constitution belongs to [them]. It's not something that [just] belongs to people who dress up in tricorner hats and appear at Tea Party rallies. [...] Liberals have to reclaim the Constitution as their Constitution. To do that, they have to say, it's my text, it's my tradition, it's my connection to the [Founders.] It's my structure of government [the Constitution] that promotes what I think is right. -- Professor Jack Balkin"

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"Here's an inconvenient fact for Mitt Romney and the Republicans: Obamacare will save for $200 billion for the Medicare by 2016 and $208 billion for Medicare patients by 2020."

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""There are nearly 150 million poor and near poor people in America who are not responsible for the damage done by the Great Recession. Yet they pay the price. When the largest economic institutions in the world were brought to their collective knees, they went crawling to the government’s doorstep in search of salvation. The government obliged, allowing Wall Street to socialize its failure on the backs of Main Street Americans. The housing and jobs crisis they created fostered a poverty unseen in generations" – Tavis Smiley and Cornel West"

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"Oh, that's right, Republicans only hate public sector jobs. And it seems that they only hate public sector jobs when they are created by a Democratic president. Employment at the HHS increased by 16 percent between 2006 and 2007, when George W. Bush was president. Do you remember the outcry from DeMint and fellow Republicans then? Me neither. "

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