'Bong Hits 4 Jesus'

Departing from the partisan bickering that continues to plague the Republic, those at the left and right political poles have finally found some common ground. Cable's own MTV reports that both the ACLU and religious activists are backing the "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" boy in the U.S. Supreme Court.

As the video-killed-the-radio-star news channel summarizes:

Here is how this seminal moment in American jurisprudence came to be. According to the MTVers:

A downright patriotic moment, but... "As cheerleaders and the school band performed, a Juneau-Douglas High School student named Joseph Frederick and some friends unfurled a 14-foot banner that read 'Bong Hits 4 Jesus' just as cameras were passing them."

Clearly, Joe was shooting for a nomination in the annual Beavis & Butthead awards.

Seems par for the course, but the story continues:

As one would expect, the ACLU is backing young Frederick in the name of free speech. But so are Christian groups. If Freddy loses, they fear an era of "viewpoint censorship" in the public schools which "could run the gamut from anti-abortion T-shirts to anti-war banners to Bible clubs."

Yep, there is that bugaboo about not being able to control which speech is censored. Dissing its friends on the religious right, "The Bush administration has lined up behind the principals and the Juneau School Board, who are represented by notorious former Whitewater independent counsel Kenneth Starr."

That puts the administration at odds with traditional conservative allies like the Rutherford Institute, whose president, John Whitehead, argues:

We know that Larry, America's principal publishing primate, is no waffler on free speech issues. What about the other bipeds out there?

— Michael Harris, Broadband Barrister, Cable Digital News