The American Taliban are climbing out from underneath their rocks these past few weeks:  First,they sought to outlaw abortions in South Dakota and Mississippi, and now uberwealthy American Taliban mullah Thomas Monaghan is seeking to build an entire town based on “Catholic principles”.

The town, as Monaghan describes it, would be virtually indistinguishable from a village governed by the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Cross-posted at MyLeftWing (http://www.boomantribune.com) and The Blogging Curmudgeon (http://thebloggingcurmudgeon.blogspot.com/)

Or more properly, indistinguishable from the Republic of Gilead (formerly the United States) in Margaret Atwood’s novel “The Handmaid’s Tale”. Atwood intended “The Handmaid’s Tale” as a caution against religious fundamentalists–in Atwood’s 1985 novel, Handmaids are women entirely stripped of human rights, reduced to walking wombs whose only purpose is to bear children.

Who knew that the American Taliban–religious fundamentalists who want to take the United States out of the 21st century and back to a pre-Enlightenment vision of society ruled by “Christian” principles–would read “The Handmaid’s Tale” and think it was an instruction manual?

Pizza Magnate Seeks Catholic-Governed Town

By BRIAN SKOLOFF, Associated Press Writer
Wed Mar 1, 2:08 PM ET
If Domino’s Pizza founder Thomas S. Monaghan has his way, a new town being built in Florida will be governed according to strict Roman Catholic principles, with no place to get an abortion, pornography or birth control.

The pizza magnate is bankrolling the project with at least $250 million and calls it “God’s will.”

Civil libertarians say the plan is unconstitutional and are threatening to sue.

The town of Ave Maria is being constructed around Ave Maria University, the first Catholic university to be built in the United States in about 40 years. Both are set to open next year about 25 miles east of Naples in southwestern Florida.

The town and the university, developed in partnership with the Barron Collier Co., an agricultural and real estate business, will be set on 5,000 acres with a European-inspired town center, a massive church and what planners call the largest crucifix in the nation, at nearly 65 feet tall. Monaghan envisions 11,000 homes and 20,000 residents.

During a speech last year at a Catholic men’s gathering in Boston, Monaghan said that in his community, stores will not sell pornographic magazines, pharmacies will not carry condoms or birth control pills, and cable television will have no X-rated channels.

Homebuyers in Ave Maria will own their property outright. But Monaghan and Barron Collier will control all commercial real estate in the town, meaning they could insert provisions in leases to restrict the sale of certain items.

“I believe all of history is just one big battle between good and evil. I don’t want to be on the sidelines,” Monaghan, who sold Domino’s Pizza in 1998 to devote himself to doing good works, said in a recent Newsweek interview.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060301/ap_on_re_us/catholic_town

Whether or not Monaghan’s looney scheme will succeed remains unclear, of course–certainly there will be a battle royal (at least we hope there will be) to prevent this. But this latest incident is just further proof that the American Taliban IS ON THE OFFENSIVE–and they mean to bring their fanatical vision into cruel reality.

Perhaps some people will think it is ENTIRELY coincidental that all of this happened only AFTER wimpy Senate Democrats allowed both Roberts and Alito to be elevated to the Supreme Court by that puppet of the Taliban, “President” Bush–but I don’t think it’s a coincidence at all. When Democrats waved the white flag before a single shot had been fired in the battle over the Roberts and Alito nominations, they emboldened the enemy.

And now the enemy–fanatical, relentless, funded by multinational corporations and fundamentalist billionaires–is on the move.

And of course a member of the Bush family is involved

Gov. Jeb Bush, at the site’s groundbreaking earlier this month, lauded the development as a new kind of town where faith and freedom will merge to create a community of like-minded citizens. Bush, a convert to Catholicism, did not speak specifically to the proposed restrictions.

Do you want to fight against the American Taliban?

Good. Then please contribute to the American Civil Liberties Union today if you’re not already a member! My wife and I are “Guardians of Liberty” who make regular monthly contributions to the ACLU, and in 2005 we celebrated our 20th anniversary as ACLU members.

The ACLU IS going to fight this un-American, un-Constitutional scheme–but they need YOUR help.

Here are our warriors in this battle:

http://www.aclu.org

The ACLU will fight for you–but you need to give them ammunition (i.e., money).