There’s an interesting lawsuit being launched by a serving member of the Armed Forces against the Pentagon. The solider, Army Specialsit Jeremy Hall, is an atheist, and an Iraq veteran, who claims he has been discriminated against for his ‘religious’ beliefs.

Atheist soldier sues Army for ‘unconstitutional’ discrimination

His sudden lack of faith, he said, cost him his military career and put his life at risk. Hall said his life was threatened by other troops and the military assigned a full-time bodyguard to protect him out of fear for his safety.

In March, Hall filed a federal lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Defense and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, among others. In the suit, Hall claims his rights to religious freedom under the First Amendment were violated and suggests that the United States military has become a Christian organization.

Hall is not seek financial damages, so it is hard to argue that he has some monetary motive in his suit. He has been sent home from Iraq and stationed on a base in Kansas (not exactly the nexus of anti-religious expression).

But did he suffer discrimination in a legal sense:

Two years ago on Thanksgiving Day, after refusing to pray at his table, Hall said he was told to go sit somewhere else. He also said he missed out on promotions because he is an atheist.

“I was told because I can’t put my personal beliefs aside and pray with troops I wouldn’t make a good leader,” Hall said.

This is where the case turns to me. The idea that it is the atheist who must put aside his beliefs, for the good of the troop, whereas the opposite is neither expected nor sought, seems to me to be an example of establishing a religious preference, which is against the law.

The Pentagon refused to discuss specifics of Hall’s case — citing the litigation. But Deputy Undersecretary Bill Carr said complaints of evangelizing are “relatively rare.” He also said the Pentagon is not pushing one faith among troops.

“If an atheist chose to follow their convictions, absolutely that’s acceptable,” said Carr. “And that’s a point of religious accommodation in department policy, one may hold whatever faith, or may hold no faith.”

Does Carr’s understanding of the Pentagon’s policy jive with the alleged actions of the command structure in charge of Spc. Hall? Is placing a bodyguard around Hall enough of a deterence of discrimination, or is the very existence of the necessity for a bodyguard evidence of the discrimination Hall claims?

Wonderful wishes to a couple of wonderful women.

First to the lovely and smart, Beth…taker of great photographs of yummy food. Beth and I took a class together what seems like ages ago. She has a million dollar smile and it’s been way too long since I’ve seen her

Another birthday wish goes to Kim…mother of Alex, a Canadian ex-pat and fellow Leafs sufferer (oy), fighter of the evil enny-Jay cArthy-May. Kim’s been a constant support system as I’ve tried to raise my girls. Her little Alex is two weeks younger than Gracie and its been great to share the growth of our kids with each other- even if it is long-distance.

Happy Birthday ladies!!!

As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve been rewatching Lost from the beginning again, in anticipation of the release of Season 4 on DVD and the long long break before the return to Season 5 next spring. I have to say there were a few pieces of story that I forgot:

That is was Rousseau who killed her entire crew thinking they were sick: if I’m not mistaken that has never been resolved and now well…probably won’t be…unless there’s a connection between Rousseau and the Dharma Initiative that I think might run through Ben.

That Michael was a complete pain in the ass jerk. I can understand wanting to protect his son at all costs and get off the island, but the dude was OBSESSED and a general prick to everyone.

That Charlie was a bit creepy/stalkerish when it came to Claire early on. Granted less creepy/stalkerish that Ethan, but still…

How dumb Boone really was. Dumb as a stump.

I had an early game tonight, and since Shell’s show started shooting this week she can’t come home early, so I had to take the girls with me to the game and Shell met us there. We were playing the best team in the division and we wound up winning by two runs! I went 2 for 3 with a double and 4 RBIs. I did however take a wicked hop in the bottom of the 9th and got a nice welt on my arm. It started to swell immediately, but when we stopped at our watering hole after the game they gave me some ice to put on it and it feels fine now.

On the potty training front, Gracie’s doing a ‘tad’ better the last couple of days, but we’ve also been running around a bit more which means more diaper time than last week. We’ve also exhausted the first batch of stickers that we used as incentives. We’re now onto Dora the Explorer stickers. Unlike the last stickers which she got for just sitting on the potty, these are for going. So we’re upping the sticker bar, as it were.

This week and next week its all about preparing the house for our visitors. The house itself is actually ready-ish, but we’ve got some other things to do like getting the dogs groomed and some maintenance on the cars that we’ve been putting off.

This is currently my new favorite portrait of Charlotte, for a number of reasons. First is her expression…it’s really difficult to capture a good expression with her because though she is incredibly smiley and happy, she tends to be distracted by the green light meter on the camera when I’m focusing and gets a sort of blank look about her…so this was a rare ‘get’. Second is that she has a smudge of chocolate on her forehead…the reason she has this is because her big sister had an ice cream cone and got chocolate all over everything and everyone in the backyard…and for odd reasong that makes it special.