June 26, 2024

Thou Shalt Not...And Another

We'll start in the same place as Friday:

Gov. Jeff Landry signed legislation on Wednesday requiring the display of the Ten Commandments in every public classroom in Louisiana, making the state the only one with such a mandate and reigniting the debate over how porous the boundary between church and state should be.

And from the legislation we read that this is one of the Commandments commanded to appear in all school rooms in Louisiana:

Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.
So what does "bearing false witness" even mean?

Dictionary.com:

  1. knowingly state as fact that which is untrue; begin or perpetuate a rumor by lying about a person, thing, or event:

    [snip]

  2. knowingly give untrue testimony, as in a court of law; commit perjury

CBN:

Outside the context of the courts, it is termed slander.

And:

Starting lies about someone or spreading them is bearing false witness, a terrible offense in the sight of God.
That was an excerpt from a book by Pat Robertson, BTW.

So we have a pretty good idea of what the Commandment means.

So do I need to remind anyone of this:

Former President Donald Trump must pay $83.3 million in damages for defamatory statements he made denying he sexually assaulted the writer E. Jean Carroll, a federal jury ruled Friday, handing down a stunning verdict after less than three hours of deliberation.

The jury awarded Carroll $18.3 million in compensatory damages, and $65 million in punitive damages. The compensatory amount included $11 million for repairing her reputation, and $7.3 million for emotional harm.

Donald Trump broke that Commandment, too. 

In other news, Donald Trump is a convicted felon, a criminal.