Indoctrination or Education?

Please forgive me for not posting earlier about this, but I’ve had my hand bandaged up for a few days and this is the first chance I have to be able to write at all. That being said, this post is going to be a bit short due to said bandage messing with my typing.

In case you haven’t seen this video (which is likely to be the case if you get your news from the ‘major’ news networks), you may watch it here. This is, in a sense, the topic of this week’s discussion.
I say ‘in a sense’, because the questions that I want to ask you all out there really has nothing to do with the song itself or any views laid out in the song, but in the principle behind the ‘event’ recorded in the video:

• Is it right to venerate any president or public figure in a public-school setting involving young children?
  
• Does it matter if the president is in or out of office regarding public, government-funded, educationally-based endorsement and praise? What if it was Reagan they were praising, or Bush, or Jefferson? At what point does it become ‘ok’?
  

President Obama Dismisses ACORN But Not the CIA--Coincidence, or Compromise?

In case you haven’t heard, Attorney General Eric Holder wants to investigate the CIA and what its agents were doing after 9-11 while conducting interrogations on terror suspects. (http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/09/21/obama-backs-holder-cia-interrogation-probe/ ) What is often not mentioned in the mainstream media is that this is a criminal investigation.

Hmm. A criminal investigation on actions that were legal at the time they were done, but are made illegal now; so we’re going to go after these ‘perpetrators’ as criminals: there’s a term for that sort of action that I haven’t heard in a while. It’s called ex post facto law: in other words, judging someone retroactively using new laws that didn’t exist at the time the person ‘committed’ the so-called ‘crime’. It would be like your best friend Bob watching you go down the street to buy a Starbucks Frappacino, and then deciding that he’s going to make coffee illegal and throw you in jail for it.

That may sound like a silly analogy, but that’s a good, basic glimpse as to what ex post facto is.

And guess what? It’s illegal! In fact, it’s so illegal and un-American that the founding fathers put it in the Constitution itself:

Section 9:

...No Bill of Attainder or ex post facto Law shall be passed...

Oh, well, maybe Mister Holder forgot that. But wait a minute, he’s our Attorney General: certainly he must know about that clause?

What about the president? He’s backing Holder on this issue, and basically throwing the advice of seven former CIA directors out the proverbial window.

Why?

Cutting the Red Tape: Important Information About the Blog

Welcome to the ‘grand opening’ of REformation: the official blog of Young Americans for a Responsible Government!

You are probably here because you’re interested in politics to some extent; or perhaps you have a friend who’s interested in politics and directed you here; or maybe you’re not interested in politics at all, and you just happened to have stumbled upon this page quite by accident. Well, no matter the circumstances of your arrival to this humble site, I welcome your inquiry and civil discussions, and request that before continuing to read the rest of this post that you would please check out those lovely links on the sidebar to your left. There’s loads of information about the organization on there, as well as directives as to how to join the organization as a Member, if you so choose.

Did you read all that? Good. Did you send an email requesting membership (if you agree with the Statement of Beliefs)? Great. Now you’re probably wondering, ‘How do I get in on the conversation?’ Please, do not register with Blogger in order to comment! Instead, register an account with IntenseDebate (if you don’t see the link for commenting/registering here, click the title of this post), preferably using your first name and initial(s) as specified in the Rules and Guidelines section, so as to avoid confusion around here while still preserving some sense of anonymity. (If you must use a ‘screen name’ due to account availability, please make sure that it contains your first name somewhere.) If you have any trouble with registration, please contact me at reformationhq@ca.rr.com.

Okay, so now you have your IntenseDebate account, and if you ‘signed’ the Statement of Beliefs (in order to become an ‘official’ Member instead of just a commenter), you’re name should soon appear on a nice little list on that aforementioned sidebar.

Now what?

We get started, that’s what.

Each week, a new topic will be chosen and posted on the ‘home page’ by myself (or, in the near future, another commentator) to be discussed. (There will be such a post shortly following this one.) This is also the page where important or interesting articles will be diplayed. In addition to this page, there is the Open Forum section of the site, which is just that: a place for open debate and discussion on whatever topic strikes your fancy. Also, all Members are welcome and encouraged to post links there as well. Just be sure that whatever articles are posted also follow the Rules and Guidelines for the site.

So that’s the ‘scoop’ on the REformation blog. I will be posting details about future meetings and ‘outreach’ plans at a later time. Until then: stay informed, have fun, and happy debating!

--Meghan H.

REformationHQ