UBU MINISTRIES

March 25, 2011 Losing Our Way By BOB HERBERT So here we are pouring shiploads of cash into yet another war, this time in Libya, while simultaneously demolishing school budgets, closing libraries, laying off teachers and police officers, and generally letting the bottom fall out of the quality of life here at home. Welcome to America in the second decade of the 21st century. An army of long-term unemployed workers is spread across the land, the human fallout from the Great Recession and long years of misguided economic policies. Optimism is in short supply. The few jobs now being created too often pay a pittance, not nearly enough to pry open the doors to a middle-class standard of living. Arthur Miller, echoing the poet Archibald MacLeish, liked to say that the essence of America was its promises. That was a long time ago. Limitless greed, unrestrained corporate power and a ferocious addiction to foreign oil have led us to an era of perpetual war and economic...

U.S. Supreme Court Declines to Review Challenge to "In God We Trust" "Washington, D.C. - The U.S. Supreme Court issued an order declining to review a challenge to the national motto, "In God We Trust." Brought by prominent atheist Dr. Michael Newdow, the lawsuit alleged that the motto violated the religion clauses of the First Amendment. The Ninth Circuit disagreed, ruling that the motto does not violate the Constitution because it is ceremonial and patriotic in nature. Lowell Sturgill, Jr., from the U.S. Department of Justice, argued the case along with Kevin Snider of the Pacific Justice Institute, before the Ninth Circuit.  PJI intervened in the lawsuit as a co-defendant with the U.S. defendants in the case which was originally filed in late 2005. "Since the initial decision upholding the motto by the trial court in June of 2006, we have seen a steady stream of local governments find their courage to display the motto," said Brad Dac...