Greenwood Indiana High School administrators were either ignorant of the law or did not care about the rule of law when they let students decide if there should be a christian prayer at graduation.  I’m sure you heard that a judge decided it would violate the constitution and it could not be done.

U.S. District Court Judge Sarah Evans Barker granted a preliminary injunction against the reading of a prayer at the May 28 commencement.
In the ruling, Barker wrote that “the process in place permitting a student-led prayer at Greenwood High School represents a clear violation of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, as does the delivery of a specific prayer set to occur as the result of that process during the upcoming 2010 graduation ceremony.”

So it’s all good right?  right?

Well…. NO!

New story from Fort Wayne, IN.

GREENWOOD – A central Indiana high school that was the subject of a lawsuit over a graduation prayer says it is breaking with tradition and will not screen speeches by speakers at its May 28 commencement.

In the past, Greenwood High School’s principal has required student speakers to submit their speeches in advance to review the content, grammar and length. Most schools in the nation follow similar practices.

But Greenwood is lifting the practice this year, and school officials say speakers will not be stopped even if they use profane language or deliver politically charged speeches.

School officials would not comment on the reason for the change.

“It’s the First Amendment, freedom of speech,” Superintendent David Edds said.

Yeah – right.  What a load of shit.  We will not review speeches “wink, wink”.  You can say what ever you want, “Wink, Wink”.  You could even lead a prayer, “WINK, WINK”.

 It sounds like an attempt to violate a court order to me.  Once again it’s not enough to be a christian – they have to force it on others.  It is wrong and it should stop.

Can someone please record this for us to laugh at – Please.

Family fights with doctors over medical care.  Why?  They think the invisible sky daddy will cure their family member.  6 heart attacks and blood clots have caused her toes to turn black.  The toes are dead and the doctors want to cut them off before they get infected.  The family says NO – gOdwill make here better.  Not a surprise this is going on in Texas.

FORT WORTH — A North Texas family is racing to stop a hospital from amputating a patient’s foot, saying the procedure violates their religious rights.

The situation is now so tense that Angela Wright’s husband has been barred from the hospital where she is being treated.

Wright had her first heart attack two months ago. Her family immediately began calling prayer groups, asking fellow Christians to appeal to God.

They kept praying through five more heart attacks.

“It’s everything,” said Dwight Wright. “It’s the reason my wife’s still here, I believe.”

Angela Wright remained at Baylor All Saints Medical Center Fort Worth Friday as the toes on her left foot blackened. Family members say doctors want to amputate, possibly going as far up as her knee.

That evaluation has led to a showdown. Family members say prayer needs more time to work, and an amputation would violate their religious rights; doctors say the amputation is medically necessary.

Jodee Wright, who had just visited her mother, recounted the conversation she had with the patient: “Do you want your toes amputated? She said, ‘No, I’m scared to death of losing my other foot.’”

Wright lost part of her other leg due to a blood clot nearly 20 years ago.

“There hadn’t been a day that’s been by since 1992 that she hasn’t asked me why didn’t I get her out of the hospital? Why did I let them amputate her leg? So why in her right mind would she want anything else amputated?” Dwight Wright asked.

The family concedes, however, that at other times Angela said “yes” to the doctors asking for permission to amputate. They blame medication and trauma, and say they should be allowed to make the decision on her behalf.

“I want her here; but I want her to have every opportunity she can have to keep the rest of her foot, because that’s all she’s got,” Dwight Wright said.

On Friday morning, the hospital removed Angela’s husband from her room and barred him from the the facility. A hospital spokesman said Wright made threats to hospital staff, and was “impeding the patient from making decisions about her care.” He denies the allegations.

As of Friday night, the amputation had not been carried out.

Why would they think prayer will work – It’s the bible.

“Truly I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what was done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, `Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ it will happen.  ”And all things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.”  (Matthew 21:21-22 NAS)

NOTE:  This post is part of an ongoing education series.  This information is for educational purposes only.  This information does not constitute investment advice.  No rational person would make investment decisions based on a blog post.  Please consult with your financial advisor before taking any action.  If you think it is OK to make investment decisions based on a blog post, then for the love of the FSM – Stop reading my blog.

Today we are going to talk about life insurance.  There are many different types and it can get very confusing.  One of my basic investing philosophies is KISS (Keep It Simple Silly).  If you don’t understand what you are buying – YOU SHOULD NOT BUY IT!

Today I will talk about the difference between Whole and Term life insurance.  Term insurance lasts as long as you pay for it.  It is like car insurance, if you stop paying the bill, the insurance stops!  Term insurance is VERY cheap because your odds of dying are very small, at least while you are young and in good health.  However, Term insurance will adjust (and go up) each and every year.  When you get over 50-60 it gets quite expensive.  You can also get term that keeps the rate same for 10, 20 or even 30 years.  You start by paying more – but the payment will stay level. 

Whole insurance is a type of permanent insurance.  It will last until you die, if you pay the bill!  It starts at a much higher rate but, never goes up.  Generally, these policies will have an age at which they end, often 100.  It is very hard to buy straight whole life.  Usually, it is sold as insurance and investment combined.  They will give you projected returns which almost never come true.  This type of policy also costs much much more per year.

There are many other types of life insurance.  I will cover some of them in later posts.  With some rare exceptions, I generally think the more complicated an insurance policy it – the worse it is for you.  Remember KISS!  I also think that insurance is a poor investment.  I am a strong proponent of, “buy term and invest the rest.”

I will now go over a specific example of Term vs. Whole life.

Our sample person is a 30 year old male and has his first kid on the way.  He is in good health and does not smoke or engage in risky activity.  He wants to have life insurance long enough for this child and any others that may show up to make it thru college.  He thinks that $1,000,000 should do the trick so he starts to compare the two choices. 

The 30 year level pay term insurance will cost as little as $700 per year or less than $60 per month. He will have $1,000,000 of insurance from the age of 30 to 60.  After that time more insurance will be quite expensive.  The same coverage could be about $5,000 – $6,000 per year. 

Whole life will cost this same person about $9,600 per year.  You not only have the insurance but you can build cash value.  If needed, you can loan yourself money.  However, it often takes several years for the cash value to start to build and the extra funds from the first few years pay all of the expenses and you may have a cash value of $0 for several years.  After that the money may grow at 2-4% per year.  A sales person may show you a projection with 6 or 7% return as an estimate.  Your return is determined by the insurance company.

Now some fancy math…. 

If you buy the Whole life you will have $1,000,000 in life insurance for the rest of your life.  If you make it to 100 years old – They give you the $1,000,000.  If you want any money out your insurance before then you have to take a loan against your insurance and those you care about may get less than you expected.

If you buy 30 year level pay term and invest the extra $8,900 in the stock market and make an annual return of 10% per year your investment will have a value over $1,000,000 in just 26 years.  You won’t need to borrow money – you have money.  After 30 years you let the term policy expire.  The kids are grown, out of college and you now have $1,600,000 – who needs insurance?

After the 30 years are over you can retire and spend your money or if you don’t need it, let it keep growing.  Let’s say you die at the age of 80.  What would you prefer to leave to your wife and kids….$1,000,000 or around $10,000,000?

How much bullshit can you pack into a prayer that is less than 2 minutes?

Now you can find out.  Watch this video if you dare.  Whoops she just broke one of those bible rules….  Matthew 6:6

But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.

here is a small sample of her prayer.

I like to believe we are living today in the spirit of the Christian religion. I like also to believe that as long as we do so, no great harm can come to our country.

“I like to believe…”  does this mean she does not?  I would like to believe that she has a brain.

It appears that two Broward County teachers tried to convert an atheist by the classic christian tradition – bullying. 

“The students whom I interviewed said that’s absolutely untrue,” said Fort Lauderdale attorney Johnny McCray, who represents both teachers, Leslie Rainer and Djuna Robinson. He says the two didn’t have any holy water.

“This was actually done in jest, but nothing was thrown or attempted to be thrown,” said McCray.

Allow me to translate…

They didn’t have any holy water – sure we sprayed the other teacher with something but it wasn’t REAL holy water. 

and….

This was actually done in jest – sure we did it.  Atheists can’t take a joke.

So what happened at this school? McCray says the teacher was talking to students about religion when one student said, “someone needs to get some holy water and sprinkle her with holy water,” according to the attorney.

That’s when McCray says Rainer found a bottle of perfume just for fun, but never sprinkled that on the teacher

One more translation…

They never sprinkled it on the teacher – Yeah we sprayed it all over her and she still smelled like an atheist!

Well at least we can thank CBS4 News for giving us a fair story….

It’s hard to tell what the other side is because the so-called atheist teacher at Ely refused to talk to CBS4 News.

“so-called”  we would never accuse anyone of being one of those!

A warrant was issued for a priest in Brazil.  It appears that he turned part of his parish house into an erotic torture room.

State civil police issued a “preventative arrest warrant” for the Polish-born priest Marcin Michal Strachanowski, 44, who is accused of handcuffing a minor in 2006 and forcing him to perform deviant sexual acts in his residence in the Divino Espírito Santo church in Rio de Janeiro’s West zone, the officials said.

According to Brazil’s Folha de Sao Paulo newspaper, the priest could not be found Friday morning.

The newspaper reported that a 16-year old alleged victim told investigators that after being frequently raped by the priest, he was forced to remain silent and was threatened regularly.

Quoting his court statements, the newspaper reported that a criminal judge, Alexandre Abrahao Dias Teixeira, said police investigations revealed the profile of a man with a “compulsive attraction to having sex with adolescents” and that he had allegedly turned his parish residence into an “erotic dungeon” where he forced boys to have sex with him.

You must go to the friendly atheist to see all the really cool drawings.

Here is a sample for XKCD!

tip to the friendly atheist.

What do you think?  Is Bill right?  Watch the video and then discuss below.  We would love to hear from you.