Not So Polite Dinner Conversation – If you weren’t sure that conservative christians were vicious and ignorant…

From the Freedom From Religion Foundation (I’m a member):

“‘Noah’s Ark’ brief nets 22 members of Congress ‘Theocrats of the Week’ moniker”

“The FFRF Action Fund is labeling no less than 22 members of Congress as “Theocrats of the Week” for signing a cruel and biblically inspired amicus brief supporting Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s lethal buoys in the Rio Grande.

After the Justice Department sued the state for putting an obstruction in a “navigable river” without its permission, the 22 members of Congress filed an amicus brief invoking Noah’s Ark.

The theocratic-minded representatives maintain: “The geologic record shows that most of Texas was once covered by seas. … Indeed, if one takes the Book of Genesis literally, then the entire world was once navigable by boats large enough to carry significant amounts of livestock. Genesis 7:17-20 (ESV).”

“Under the federal government’s theory, these anecdotes would render any structure built anywhere in Texas an obstruction to navigation subject to federal regulation,” the brief adds.

Responds Mark Joseph Stern of The Slate: “This resort to young-earth creationism should tip off the reader that Texas has no plausible legal argument in this case.” Friendly Atheist blogger Hemant Mehta points out this is the second time in one week in which “a biblical myth has made its way into a courtroom.” Last week, Ken Starr’s nephew, U.S. District Judge Brantley Starr, referred to the Garden of Eden story as “historical” when sentencing Southwest Airlines attorneys to “religious liberty training” at the hands of the infamous Alliance Defending Freedom.

Abbott put a floating barrier made up of large ball-shaped buoys, filled with circular saws, into the Rio Grande separating Texas from Mexico to deter refugees and immigrants. According to Newsweek, two dead victims so far have been recovered, one caught in the barrier. The vicious strategy is part of Abbott’s $4.5 billion “Operation Lone Star.”“

And funny how I just found this bit about Texas too:

Why ‘pro-life’ Texas is arguing in court that a fetus has no rights

“But Paxton was quiet about what he did for the “unborn” on March 10. He’d be hard-pressed to justify filing that press release to his “Protect Life/Unborn” page, as he’d have to explain why, amid this flurry of “pro-life” advocacy, he told the U.S. District Court of the Western District of Texas that “fetuses” — not “unborn” babies — lack clear legal status. With a few keystrokes, the helpless Texas babies for whom Paxton would “never stop fighting” on March 7 and 8 transformed practically overnight into fetuses without rights.”

“

To understand what brought about this transformation, we return to Salia Issa, the woman who dared to hold the state of Texas accountable for causing her to lose her pregnancy.

Issa, a state prison guard in Abilene, is why Paxton found himself in federal court, filing arguments that Texas owes her nothing after she experienced a stillbirth at seven months of pregnancy after her supervisors repeatedly denied her requests to leave work when she experienced pain during her shift. Importantly, the state of Texas doesn’t dispute Issa’s account of the events of November 2021, including that her supervisor accused her of lying and then waited more than two hours to assign a new guard to Issa’s post so she could go to the hospital. There, medical professionals told her they could have saved her baby if she’d arrived sooner.”

“Many have done just that, and on the surface, hypocrisy would seem to suit. After all, Texas Republicans would have us believe that in this self-proclaimed “pro-life” state, no priority is higher than the protection of pregnant women and unborn children. As such, Texas should have enthusiastically embraced the opportunity to try to make things right with Issa and her husband, or as right as it can after such a devastating loss. But instead of offering to compensate this family for their child’s death and this woman’s trauma at the hands of the state — which good conscience and moral obligation should compel any truly “pro-life” person or entity to do — Texas is trying to wash its hands of the whole thing, arguing there’s simply no clear legal basis for treating a fetus lost at seven months’ gestation as a person. (The state has also claimed that pregnancy discrimination and sex-based discrimination against women are unrelated, which would seem to contradict its investment in state-sanctioned transphobia.)”