On August 22, the Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court, Roy Moore, was suspended for refusing to comply with an order from U.S. District Court judge Myron Thompson to remove a monument depicting the Ten Commandments from the rotunda of the state judicial building. TownHall.com, as expected, was abuzz with opinions defending Moore. My personal favorite was a ridiculous pile of garbage produced by Greg Rummo, which cleverly used ellipsis points and interpolation to manipulate his readers like Shari Lewis. "For centuries, religious freedom in America was dictated by the Free Exercise clause of the First Amendment, 'Congress shall make no law . . . prohibiting the free exercise [of religion].'" The unlearned visitor thinks that Congress has no power whatsoever to prohibit the free exercise of religion. Unfortunately, that's not what the amendment says. "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof," is actually what the amendment says.

Writing pejoratively about the Supreme Court's 1980 decision, Stone v. Graham, Rummo also alters the text of the case to suit his needs. "If the posted copies of the Ten Commandments are to have any effect at all, it will be to induce the schoolchildren to read, meditate upon, perhaps to venerate and obey [them]. This is not a permissible state objective under the Establishment Clause," is what Rummo claims the majority opinion said. Rummo's alteration of the text of the opinion induces the reader to believe that the Supreme Court does not want the Ten Commandments to be venerated, is evil, and anti-Christian. In fact, the sentence continues on to read: "However desirable this might be as a matter of private devotion, it is not a permissible state objective under the Establishment Clause." In other words, keep religion in people's private lives and don't involve the government in it.

In any case, I wrote this so that I could expose the inaccuracy and manipulation of Mr. Rummo. And I agreed with the District Court's decision.