December 13, 2009

In Ashville, North Carolina there is a newly-elected city councilman who is an atheist, and his political opponents say that makes him unworthy of office. They are threatening to take the city to court for swearing him in last week, and they say they have the North Carolina Constitution on their side. They cited an old, little-noticed quirk in the Constitution that disqualifies officeholders "who shall deny the being of Almighty God." This provision is from the 1868 Constitution, and it was not revised when North Carolina amended its Constitution in 1971. However, the councilman, Cecil Bothwell, cannot have his position taken away because he is an atheist. That is because the provision is unenforceable, according to the supremacy clause of the Constitution. In 1961, the U.S. Supreme Court declared that federal law prohibits states from requiring any kind of religious test for officeholders -- the Court ruled in favor of a Maryland atheist that wanted to be a notary public. However, the federal protections do not necessarily spare atheist public officials from spending years defending themselves in court. Cecil Bothwell said, "The question of whether or not god exists is not particularly interesting to me, and it's certainly not relevant to public office." (Full Story)

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Houston is now the largest city in the U.S. to elect an openly gay mayor. Annise Parker accepted the position with her partner of 19 years and their three adopted children by her side, "Tonight the voters of Houston have opened the door to history. I acknowledge that. I embrace that. I know what this win means to many of us who never thought we could achieve high office." (Full Story)

As a side note, looking at the picture of Annise Parker in the article, what instantly came to mind was, "So that's what happened to Haley Joel Osment. He became a lesbian and moved to Houston."

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The craziest story I read today: In Mexico, drug traffickers are now stealing oil and then selling it in the U.S. They have gotten a hold of and are using high-tech drills, miles of rubber hose, and stolen tanker trucks. They have siphoned more than $1 billion worth of oil from Mexico's pipelines over the past two years, and it's bleeding the national treasury. A portion of the stolen oil is being taken over the border and sold to US companies -- some of which knew the oil was stolen. (Full Story)