Wheeeeee!

Greenville, SC - It began, as many road trips do, with a stop at Wal-Mart to buy a portable DVD player.

But Mario DiMartino was planning more than a weekend getaway. He, his wife and three children were embarking on a pilgrimage to South Carolina.

"I want to migrate and claim the gold of the Lord," said the 38-year-old oil company executive from Pennsylvania. "I want to replicate the statutes and the mores and the scriptures that the God of the Old Testament espoused to the world."

DiMartino, who drove here recently to look for a new home, is a member of Christian Exodus, a movement of politically active believers who hope to establish a government based upon Christian principles.

At a time when evangelicals are exerting influence on the national political stage - having helped secure President Bush's reelection - Christian Exodus believes that people of faith have failed to assert their moral agenda: Abortion is legal. School prayer is banned. There are limits on public displays of the Ten Commandments. Gays and lesbians can marry in Massachusetts.

Christian Exodus activists plan to take control of sheriff's offices, city councils and school boards. Eventually, they say, they will control South Carolina. They will pass godly legislation, defying Supreme Court rulings on the separation of church and state.

"We're going to force a constitutional crisis," said Cory Burnell, 29, an investment advisor who founded the group in November 2003.

"If necessary," he said, "we will secede from the union."

[link]

"If necessary," he said, "we will secede from the union."

Because that always goes so well.

"If necessary," he said, "we will secede from the union."

That trick never works.

Most of my education was in religious institutions. From nursery school through high-school, my day was always split between Judaic studies, and what we would refer to as secular studies. Over the years I had many different science teachers teach us about biology, chemistry, physics, astronomy, earth sciences, and yes, evolution. Never, not once, did a science teacher attempt to teach us creationism. Why? Because that's what the religious half of the day was for.

Wolfram, this was my experience in Catholic schools, as well.

"If necessary," he said, "we will secede from the union."

Because that always goes so well.

Hey, I'd be thrilled to have the whack-jobs out.

Because that always goes so well.

Hey, it's the ultimate expression of State's Rights.

That trick never works.

Yeah, it worked so well for South Carolina last time.

Because that always goes so well.

Maybe we should send them free passes to see Fort Sumter and a complete set of The Civil War DVDs.

NASA satellite shots of the Mississippi damage: [link]

I'm with Tep. Here's your hat, what's your hurry, don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out.