Meh- I don't like the government regulating what we do even if it kills us but this is equivalent of a drinking age and a smoking age - especially since kids are not developed enough to make decisions that have no benefit and could get them killed.

Because a parent has control over their 15 - 18 year olds? Should cigarettes be legal for minors too? Both proven to cause cancer.

Paul,

How does banning teens under age from using tanning beds contribute to unemployment or nanny state-ism. If tanning salons did not deny access by teens, which they obviously haven't, then this is the end result.

Most laws are made because someone, somewhere, was not doing that they were morally obligated to and so was forced to do so by the law; example Tobacco giants.

This law was passed because of a failing of business' and parents to do the right thing, nothing to be proud of.

Geowil, the younger generations want more and more of Government intervention in their lives! ie. No personal responsibility on their part!

Nanny state? well duh these are children.

Supercede parents control? So if ma and pa kettle need some extra cash send the 12 y.o. into the coal mine..........

Neg, have you ever met a teen? frankly they are more responsible then most politicians.

They will ban the sun and the air next.

So.....According to some of the arguments I have read I have to conclude some people think parents should let minor children smoke if they want. After all, we wouldn't want the state superceding parental authority ya know. And in this particular case we all know that all parents are up to date on the lastest cancer research vis a vis tanning beds, know vastly more than the government researchers, and therefore are infinitely more competent at judging the potential harm of tanning beds. This is just a communist plot to usurp capitalism by prevented good hearted tanning salons from providing a valuable service to minors.

It couldn't possibly be that they actually have the well being of children in mind and feel that they don't possess the competence to judge the inherent risk involved with tanning. It couldn't be that they are looking to lower healthcare costs by using preventative strategies. The governement is always evil afterall.

A large percentage of parents today are too self absorbed, irresponsible, and lazy to be bothered with actually taking the time to teach thier children what is right or wrong.

They ought to ban stupidity because that is what causes problems in the first place.

Honestly, a lot of adults aren't aware of the dangers.

I must only assume that this is further proof that even the most innocent inanimate objects somehow become lethal harbingers of hell when in the hands of Californians...first it was styrofoam, then all the things labeled "this has been known to cause cancer in California"---implying the rest of us are Superpeople who can ward off even the most threatening computer screen, video game, etc., as long as we are in another state....now tanning beds have turned deadly. Honestly I can think of a couple hundred different directions my kids were sent in rather than to a tanning bed, (go out and play, get to your room, go take a bath, come sit down for dinner, but NEVER!!! go tanning, you're pale) but maybe if that state wasn't such a sinkhole of over-the-top excess in every way, the kids wouldn't be overdoing it to the extent that they are threatening their own health. You're looking at a state where girls can get boob jobs with their parents' consent before they're even old enough to know how their own are going to turn out naturally, where parents aren't trusted to be intelligent enough to make good decisions for their kids, so the state has to butt in and tell them how to do it...the whole thing is ludicrous. Why don't you tell your kid, "NO!! You are NOT spending that much time tanning, it's stupid and a waste of money!" Oh wait, I forgot---you're not allowed to discipline your kids there either!! What a pathetic joke of a territory.

ivanho75

This is just a communist plot to usurp capitalism by prevented good hearted tanning salons from providing a valuable service to minors.

How exactly is a tanning salon providing a "valuable" service to minors? I'm sorry, you don't need to use a tanning bed if you're under 18. We don't need our teenagers attempting to become Oompa Loompas, at this point in their lives they need to be worrying more about their education, and not worrying about having that "perfect golden tan". The Oompa Loompas can stay back in the movies. Wanna know why unemployment keeps going up? People deciding to waste time turning their skin into leather instead of getting a decent education so that they're qualified for a job.

I guess kids will have to get their no tan lines tans the old fashion way now. I am sure that is much safer for them with all the perverts in California.

All these comments lauding this nanny-state law can't see the forest through the trees with regards to Paul L's original point: California has a lot bigger problems to address than teens in tanning beds. Yeah the sun has been proven to cause cancer too in fair skinned people. Is California going to ban fair-skinned teens from getting rays outdoors? Where does the nanny state stop? As Paul L. referenced, the state of California can't attract jobs, keeps raising taxes, and keeps seeing overall real estate plummet. All the while watching companies and jobs move out of the (nanny) state and into other more business friendly environments. But like everything else when it comes to governments, people get the outcome they elected and deserve. Congratulations California.

Yet another law from California to control people. It's funny how many people complain about the federal government trying to control our lives. The federal government isn't even half as bad as California when it comes to that.

I agree that there is no valid reason for kids to use tanning beds. Personally, I don't see why anyone uses them. This country has become so focused on how people look that it's gotten out of hand. However, I don't see any reason why the government should be involved at all. Yes, this *can* cause cancer. But unlike cigarettes, tanning is not addicting. That is the key difference and is why cigarettes are illegal to minors. Many things cause cancer (even Teflon), but those things are not illegal to minors because they are not addicting. The same should be true for tanning beds. The government's job isn't to make everything that is remotely dangerous illegal. If it doesn't cause danger to others and is not an addicitive substance that can be very difficult to stop using, then there is no reason to ban it.

It's true that there are some really bad parents out there. But that doesn't mean you should take away their responsibility to their children. Parents must be responsible for their children and held accountable regardless whether or not they are good or bad parents or if they take the time to find out if something is bad for their children. That is not the government's job. Trust me... we do not want the government raising our children.

California (or at least their lawmakers) need to move to China. They would fit in much better in a communist society, where the government controls everything.

The government's job isn't to make everything that is remotely dangerous illegal.

So true. If that is the case they should outlaw themselves!

Having been through Basil Cell Cancer nose surgery and reconstruction it may be a good idea. But growing up in California I got most of my sunburns from the beach, not the bed. As I got older I'd use a bed in moderation such as getting a base tan before I hit the beach or go on vacation. Parents need to moderate their kids usage, not expect the Gov't to do it.

All California is accomplishing now is to lower the taxes paid into the system, great idea for a bankrupt sun state lol.

Sonata's Adela, tanning beds have always been known to greatly increase your probability of getting skin cancer. After years of gathering statistics, the amount that they increase that risk is better understood. And it would be irresponsible to not regulate minors access to something that has a cancer causing rate of over 75% in users.

Of course when you get skin cancer from your tanning bed use, you'll be complaining about how the gov. allowed them to be legal in the first place.

And to JohnsMopar, they'll also end up lowering the money paid on state funded medical care.

Cheese Dreams - It's called sarcasm. I'm parodying what a lot of people will try to use as an argument against this regulation.

Ah California, you gotta love it. You can smoke dope but can't tan till you're 18. What a state.

LOL. We already have similar things. I have heard that parents can actually monitor where their kids are by looking at the GPS location of their cell phone, and if you call 911, can't they also locate your position because of the GPS in your cell phone? Then there is OnStar, which keeps information about where you go, the kind of driver you are, etc, and can tell anyone at any moment your location.

Yeah, while we're at it, why don't we lower the drinking age to "this many".

But you're right though, I'm quite sure this heralds the coming of the beast. /sarcasm

Sabi, injected gps chips for humans have been around for awhile. Recently they have been linked to cancer though.

Honestly they could link my cat to cancer as the mindless masses would follow at the moment.

This is in California. They'll still have that home grown hydro to puff on.

Not legal for a minor to buy weed, either.

Weed doesn't cause SKIN CANCER either dumb ass. Tanning beds, cigarettes, alcohol, have ALL been proven to kill yet they are still legal but pot, a substance that has not only been proven safe but therapeutic as well, is still illegal in most states, prisons are full of pot smokers and Government storm troopers are raiding LEGAL medical marijuana businesses in California because they are "too large"!!! And by the way, all those laws are kept in place by REPUBLICANS!!!!

California is completely ruled by Democrats... and the Feds are completely ruled by Democrats as well.

You have proven one thing-- Weed kills intelligence and common sense

and the Feds are completely ruled by Democrats as well.

If that were true, pot would be legal ;-)

Ah but Carlo, you have to take into consideration that the administration currently in power - Dems - are the ones issuing this crackdown, when the CA law has been in place for 15 years. The ones cracking down on it with vehemence are the Dems, so I don't think the Repubs are controlling this one. This is an Obama admin call, not a Republican call.

I don't belong to either party, and I think it is clear both sides are to blame on different issues, and sometimes on the same issue at the same time, albeit from completely separate angles.

Dems - are the ones issuing this crackdown, when the CA law has been in place for 15 years. The ones cracking down on it with vehemence are the Dems, so I don't think the Repubs are controlling this one. This is an Obama admin call, not a Republican call.

Obama probably figures that potheads wont bother standing in line at the polls, if they are doped up.. So he shuts down the pot trade untill after the elections.. Who cares if the left gets pissed at him, they still will vote for him no matter what he does..

@bob - Hardly a logical comparison... other than both represent picking and choosing by the all knowing government... both designed to take away (or so graciously hand you) rights that THEY determine for you....

I wish all of you argued in real life the way you do behind a computer. You'd be yelling "nanny state" at speed limit signs, telling children who were late to school they "must support Obama since they probably won't care to get jobs," and telling a buffet attendant they are "hitler" because they switch lunch prices to dinner.

Point: Chill out with the overblown comparisons. If you know anything at all about the causes of skin cancer, it is perfectly reasonable to limit minors from using them as much as possible.

four words: Black Market Tanning Beds!

The crackdown on some MJ dispensaries is supposedly aimed at

1) dispensaries in close proximity to schools and parks

&

2)Those making a profit, as even the California law prohibits them from profiting. They are supposed to be non-profit organizations.

@ Brent Guthrie---LOL!! they will be sneaking down alleys and slipping tokens to the Bed Man for 15 minutes of synthetic purple light which they could be getting right down the street at the beach for free....ha ha, California, you are ridiculous.
@Carlo, you are spewing typical drug addict garbage. I did a lot of research on Marijuana in higher levels of school (and NO not smoking it, I felt stupid enough in school without enhancing it) and emphysema is every bit as unpleasant to die of as lung cancer...I studied cases and also had to attend burials of friends who all thought Pot wasn't dangerous. Gee, surprising that something so natural and wonderful can make you cough your guts up, huh? Almost as if the smoke contains sharp and abrasive particles, but that's just propaganda. Smoke away stupid.
Fortunately marijuana also causes less propagation among its proponents. That's a blessing....enjoy your manboobs too, you may want to read up on that one.

Abortions are legal without parental notification, tanning is illegal even with parental consent. Brilliant.

Weed doesn't cause SKIN CANCER either dumb ass.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/06/090615095940.htm
Marijuana Damages DNA And May Cause Cancer, New Test Reveals

"In conclusion, these results provide evidence for the DNA damaging potential of cannabis [marijuana] smoke, implying that the consumption of cannabis cigarettes may be detrimental to human health with the possibility to initiate cancer development," the article states. "The data obtained from this study suggesting the DNA damaging potential of cannabis smoke highlight the need for stringent regulation of the consumption of cannabis cigarettes, thus limiting the development of adverse health effects such as cancer.

Wonders who the real dumbass is

@JonMarvick... When the study mentions cannabis cigarettes are they refering to the Dutch method of blending tobacco with cannabis? Does your study mention anything about cooking with cannabis or vaporizing cannabis? You don't have to "smoke a cannabis cigarette" to enjoy marijuana safely. Also, I think cell phones and GPS probably give more cancer than pot or fake tanning.

@ nick, Abortions don't cause cancer. No abortions cause unwanted children and a host of other problems.

@Jack colton: brilliant!

How did Obama come into this conversation?

In case you all missed it, this is a California law, not a United States law. Get off your whiny a**es and do something about your country if you're not happy with the President but don't blame him for every little thing. I'd like to see you run this country for four years.

JohnMavrick, grilling your food produces carcinogens. The crust of bread is a carcinogen. Many household cleaners are carcinogens. Most pot smokers don't smoke near the amount of tobacco that cigarette smokers smoke.

Darn it, there goes my chance at passing for an illegal alien to get some money for my college education. Darn it, lost out again. Ha-Ha, just a little fun folks.

Yet you people keep electing progressive libs, and you continue to wonder why you're taxed to death to make up for all of the jobs and wealth fleeing the state. You tried with Arnold, but alas, he was easily bought by libs with an agenda and money. Sorry for that. You tried, and I guess you simply threw up your arms in disgust and gave up, and re-elected a known failure ... I guess so he could finish the trashing of the state that he had started? On the bright side, California as a whole should qualify for "special needs" aid and counseling and other federal benefits for the mentally and financially challenged.

Well for all of you melanin deprived people, the sun is better than laying under intense UV light to tan. You actually need sunlight for your body to make vitamin D. Tanning beds only expose you to the most harmful spectrum of light.

yeah, but maybe after all the dermabrasion, fake boobs, fake eyelashes, hair extensions, cheek implants, butt implants, fake fingernails, tummy tucks, capped teeth, etc, they have to work too much to pay for it all to take an afternoon off to sunbathe. Fake idiots.

susan> Don't you think a child's parents should make those kinds of decisions? Wouldn't it be better if parents were left with the responsibility of telling their children about potential dangers from tanning beds or even from too much natural sunlight?

Would you suggest that minors should not be allowed to cross streets unless accompanied by an adult as they might get hit by a motor vehicle?

Rick- same could be said about laws enforcing the use of helmets and prohibition of cigarettes and alcohol for minors. I don't like gov't intrusion but if you want some standards for children's health, this one makes the same amount of sense as the others, possibly more.

You want standards for your kids? I suggest trying to be a PARENT!!! You cannot legislate your parental duties away.

You sure the heck can do the responsible thing. It's outrageous people think there should be no regulation of alcohol and tobacco. You'd sacrifice the health of millions of children because you're too stupid to understand that the right to have one's health protected is no less valid than whatever "right" you think is being impeded. This is the problem with libertariansim. It's ultimately subjective when you inevitably wind up with conflicts of liberties. I would say the right for children to have their health protected by limiting exposure to alcohol and cigarettes and tanning beds trumps and your right to be a @!$%#ty parent (the arbitrary "right to be wrong".

Some children have parents that are idiots. Should it also be a parent's decision on whether or not to use any sort of seat belt or car seat? Some think it should be- a few times I've seen a moving car with a toddler standing up in the passenger seat. These laws are to protect those kids, and give them the same safety measures as the ones with responsible parents.

Yes, but the pasty white teens in California will be at a huge disadvantage against the Nevada and Arizona teens with the nice tans for the "acting and modelling" jobs that California is known for.

STexan - Whether tanning is attractive is subjective (personally, I think people look the best with the coloring they are born with), but judging by ads and TV shows, tanning isn't really a plus for getting acting/modeling gigs.

Rick in the Forest: Yes, I think parents have the right to make those kinds of decisions. Problem is, many parents AREN'T making the right ones, and I see kids running around making Boehner look pale. I bet a lot of the people here arguing for the rights of parents to make these decisions also complain about the cost of health-care and how you shouldn't have to pay for someone else to seek medical attention. Medical expenses we have to pay for would include cutting melanoma skin cancer out of these people in 20 years time when they are no longer covered under their parents insurance.

Tanning beds are totally ridiculous and I don't even see the point of them. Most kids should be worrying about whether or not they'll have a job in a few years and not sucking their parents dry to feed their tanning addiction. If their kids want to tan themselves in to a nice sexy leathery appearance then I suppose that's fine, but you better have health insurance if and when it comes back to bite you in the a#%.

Making the analogy that kids shouldn't cross the street because it poses a danger just like tanning does is simply moot. People NEED to cross the street. People don't NEED to lie in UV rays to satisfy their egos.

This is California the article is talking about, EVERYTHING in California causes cancer, read the labels.

lol @ ex-nuke

You can pass all the laws you want. Truth is some obey them some do not. You can teach kids right and wrong some will choose right some will choose wrong. The two best things you can teach your kids or even other adults is to think for themselves and that ultimately they have to live with the consequences of their choices.

The government doesn't ban smoking for minors only because it causes cancer. MANY things cause cancer and are perfectly legal. It's because of how addictive cigarettes are in combination with the cancer causing effects that has resulted in the laws preventing use by minors. Alcohol can cause harm and death to others and is addictive, which is why it is illegal for minors. Preventing addictive items from use by minors (and in some cases, adults) isn't bad. But preventing something that *may* cause cancer is going too far. You might as well ban every cancer-causing item in the world from kids. Want to guess how many things you would be banning? Leave it for the parents to decide. I don't support kids using tanning beds because I think tanning bed use is idiotic to begin with (for everyone). But I don't think the government has any right to control it.

Regarding seatbelt laws... I also don't agree with the government controlling that either. An adult not wearing a seatbelt is not causing any harm to anyone other than himself/herself. Personally, I wear a seatbelt whenever I'm in the front seat, but I don't think it needs to be required. As for children, I also don't think it needs to be required. Yes, it is IDIOTIC in the extreme to let kids stand up on the seat in a moving vehicle. But it's the parent's responsibility to keep their children safe, not the government's. Look at how many kids growing up never used car seats or booster seats once they were old enough to walk and survived. Yet today, you are breaking the law if your *7* year old isn't in a booster seat in most states. 7?! That's ridiculous. I rode in the front seat in a normal seatbelt from probably around 4 or 5. I'm sorry, but these laws are going way too far. It is not the government's job to protect the people from themselves. If the government stopped creating all these laws to control the people, the government could probably be downsized to about 50% of what it is now and the national debt could be reduced very quickly.

In the end, whether or not you think parents should be the ones responsible for their children or if you think the government needs to control children, tanning beds are FAR from the most dangerous things kids are exposed to. If you are going to start controlling kids to "protect" them, then you should start with the things that are far more dangerous first. This sounds far more like a government official getting paid off by someone who doesn't like tanning beds than one who just wants to protect children.

And you definitely do not want the government raising our children!

Riamus- While I agree that they've gone overboard on car seats/booster seats, I do believe that kids should at least be in a seat belt, or car seat if they won't stay in a seat belt. If a law is required to make parents do that, so be it. As for all the booster seat hoopla, if the shoulder belt height is so important, why don't they just phase in new rules for automakers that the back seat shoulder belts need to be adjustable down to whatever height (most front seat belts already are adjustable, so it would just need to be added to the back.)

BS.. tanning is good used in moderation.. The actual sun is far worse so according to your views we should ban kids from going outside in the daylight as it may give them cancer. The air we breath can give us cancer, the food we eat can also give us cancer.. The cell phones and other electrical devices we use can also cause cancer. Let's just ban everything and go back to the stone ages then everyone will be happy.

ledgeroo: OK I am am comfused. You are equating smoking and tanning. Nicotine is the addictive substance in cigarettes; could you please tell me what the addictive substance is in ultraviolet light?

Endorphins from tanning makes it chemically addictive. A high percentage of frequent tanners have been shown to have withdrawals giving feelings of depression which promotes continual use. a quick google scholar search yielded these results

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0733863508001058

http://archderm.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/abstract/146/4/412

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-2230.2010.03882.x/full

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1600-0781.2009.00392.x/full

Also, who is paying for this tanning?

Believe it or not, lots of kids have... wait for it.... JOBS!

KevinH, you need sunlight for your body to produce vitamin D. Tanning beds only expose you to the most harmful spectrum of light.

The camel's nose. Not too bright, are you?

So is that your argument? You're a dummy and you're wrong?

Seriously. Where do we draw the line with the government making our decisions for us? If this is in the name of protecting our kids, then should the government decide what food they can eat or if they should be allowed to ride skateboards or bicycles?

And again, if a kid wants a tan will the government now step in to make sure they aren't sunbathing since they can't go to a tanning bed now?

California is already trying to control what they eat and many other states are doing the same to at least some extent. Definitely not a good use of government.

I agree that the government should not be allowed to control what kids can do solely on it being dangerous. That's the parent's responsibility. There are many far more dangerous things that kids are exposed to that are perfectly legal. This law and others like it that are being used to control what kids do are not about protecting children regardless what they claim. Someone in the government was paid off to create the law. If they were really out to protect children, they'd be going after things that are far more dangerous instead of something that is far from guaranteed to cause harm. I don't support tanning beds for kids, but I don't think the government has any right to control it.

It's just like with them controlling fast food for kids, claiming that they are doing it to protect kids from becoming overweight. Think about this for a minute. Fast food, in general, has remained basically the same or gotten more healthy in the last 20 years. School food (they are controlling this as well) has also remained basically the same or gotten more healthy in the last 20 years. 20 years ago, you might have had 1% of children who were overweight. Today, you have probably around 50% (someone else can look up an exact number if you want). If the food hasn't changed, then what has? 20 years ago, you could run around most neighborhoods safely and kids had a lot of excercise doing so. Today, kids mostly have to stay in their yard or their friends' yards and in most cases, these yards are very small. There isn't room to run around all over the place to get excercise. Not much we can do about this, unfortunately. Also, 20 years ago, gym/PE was usually a daily event and recesses lasted 45-60 minutes. Both offer a lot of time to run around and get excercise. Today, gym/PE is usually once a week or even once every two weeks and schools are reducing recess to 30 minutes or less, with many schools trying to eliminate it altogether so they have more time to teach to the all-important Test. In the end, children are getting WAY less excercise than they used to get and obesity is what follows naturally from that. We can't do much to make it safe enough for children to run around the neighborhoods today, but we can put gym/PE and recess back into schools. That will do far more to reduce childhood obesity than trying to control food. Food hasn't changed. Excercise has. But the government gets paid to put these laws into effect. They aren't interested in fixing the real problem. They just want their money.

It is important- tanning beds cause a high risk of melanoma

Going to the beach, or being outdoors for that matter, causes a higher risk of melanoma.

erockaustin, I see you've been taking science courses at GOP University. Tanning beds expose you to nothing but the most harmful spectrum of light. Your body actually needs and benefits from natural sunlight (in moderation for you fair-skinned folk though).

As long as we don't have to pay for the diabetes meds or heart surgery you are setting your child up for, eat away..........

Talk about child abuse......These nanny laws are specifically aimed at moronic parents like you.

Moronic parent? Is that the best you can come up with? From a stupid, facetious reply about a more government involvement into the freedoms Americans used to enjoy. Thanks for your opinion dickhead. Hey look at that, I can name call too, faggot. Get a life.

EvilDad, California isn't banning sunlight. They're prohibiting minors from going to tanning salons to lay under cancer causing UV lights. Personally, I say let you moronic anti-fact, anti-science people kill yourselves off quicker. It would be good for the gene-pool to weed some of you out.

I feel sorry for your child. What a burden they must carry having you as a parent.

Bye, EvilDad. Reported for offensive & specifically derogatory hate language. You can defend your opinion about being a 'moronic parent' without poorly choiced slander.

Bye, faggots. Please, you really think reporting derogatory hate language will get me removed? Oh my, what would I possibly do with my life when a group of cheesy dickheads report my "slander"? You can all @!$%# off and suck my balls you @!$%#ing morons. It's a @!$%#ing blog you whining @!$%#s. Get a @!$%#ing life, and please, report this as offensive so the masters of this site will delete my pathetic account. Hopefully they ban my computer from ever reaching MSNBC again.

There are a LOT of people in California that don't want to be seen on the beach until they have a tan. I bet tanning beds to very well in California.

There are a LOT of people in California that don't want to be seen on the beach until they have a tan.

Which, as far as I'm concerned, is really stupid. Besides sun tans look much better than fake tans.

California is the Golden State. For Sunshine State, please see: Florida.

which is a funny nick name as its raining there at least 50% of the time :)

@Joe E.-3629600, I totally agree with you, I mean what kind of discussion are we having here? Come on guys its Cali, who the f*** needs tanning beds?

Besides of that, what kind of comment is that @erockaustin, "There are a LOT of people in California that don't want to be seen on the beach until they have a tan." I mean wake up peeps that's equivalent to someone taking steroids before going to the gym in order to look in shape before the actual workout.

And @TheDizzle, who cares what the official name of the state is, everybody knows that Cali is = SUN!

If your daughter is having an abortion without telling you, the problem is you, not her ability to get one.

Why is she afraid?

@recyclecongress: No, teens don't need permission to get a tan. They are not allowed to even with permission.

@BoredwithsameO: Along the same lines, the parents should be just as responsible about teaching their kids about tanning or any other thing that may be dangerous. It's less likely that most kids wanting an abortion without telling their parents is due to being scared and more likely to be because they already know the answer from their parents will be "no." Yes, some may be scared, but most have to reason to be scared and just don't want anyone to find out or don't want to be told they can't.

Agreed, as soon as we no longer pay for your medical bills.

Thank you for pointing out the number one reason against the government paying for your healthcare.... it gives them the reason they need to get to decide your lifestyle habits.

California won't be satisfied until they regulate the number of strokes you can take when $crewing.

And penalize the guy ten strokes if he is circumcised.

@BoredwithsameO: This is part of the reason why the healthcare bill was a bad idea.

It should be the parents' responsibility to teach that to their children. Not the government's. When I grew up, we all went to the beach regularly and played outside regularly and very rarely used any suntan lotion. I'm fairly pale skinned, but I would purposely burn each summer for the first half dozen or so times until I darkened up and then I naturally stopped burning and just tanned. In the end, there were times that I could have easily passed for a Mexican based on skin tone even though I am normally quite pale. This was done every summer. My family all tanned and burned like this without any problems whatsoever.

Now, I'm not discounting that this is dangerous or that you can get cancer from it. The point I'm making is that it is not a guarantee that you'll have any problems. There are MANY things that can cause cancer. We don't ban them. So why are we banning this? Money. It's that simple. Someone with money paid off the government to create this law. If the government really cared about the safety of children, there are far more dangerous things kids are exposed to that would be a better starting place for the government. The fact that they attack things with a relatively low chance of danger instead of things with a high chance of danger just shows that they don't really care about protecting kids and are just looking for money.

When will you realize that not all parents are going to regulate what their children do?

Someone has to step in, some people simply cannot think for themselves.

According to U.S. Department of Commerce estimates, California’s GDP (gross domestic product) was $1.89 trillion. And that puts California as the world’s eighth largest economy in 2009.

I'm sure they would love to stop paying your bills......................

And yet they are broke. GDP is not the only factor in how a state or country does financially. The US is right at the top in the world for GDP and yet we are far from financially secure right now.

Proof?

Bored> You want proof? Just look to our public employee pension costs. A product of none other than Jerry Brown then amplified by Gray Davis. And there is a lot more "proof".

Bored: Did you live there during Jerry's first runs?

Yes we did

Frankly Reagan was more memorable, especially when he shut down all the mental hospitals and turned the patients out on the streets. I remember Brown as the guy who drove a cheap car instead of the state limo and did not live in the mansion to save money. Oh yeah and Linda Rondstat.

Reagan went on to close all the Public Health Hospitals when he was President.

The Myth of Nazi Gun Control

By N. A. Browne

A commonly heard argument against gun control is that the National Socialists of Germany (the Nazis) used it in their ascent to and maintenance of power. A corollary argument is sometimes made that had the Jews (and presumably the other targeted groups) been armed, they could have fought off Nazi tyranny. This tract seeks to counter these misassumptions about Nazi gun control.

Gun control, the Law on Firearms and Ammunition, was introduced to Germany in 1928 under the Weimar regime (there was no Right to Arms in the Constitution of 1919) in large part to disarm the nascent private armies, e.g. the Nazi SA (aka "the brownshirts"). The Weimar government was attempting to bring some stability to German society and politics (a classic "law and order" position). Violent extremist movements (of both the Left and Right) were actively attacking the young, and very fragile, democratic state. A government that cannot maintain some degree of public order cannot sustain its legitimacy. Nor was the German citizenry well grounded in Constitutional, republican government (as was evidenced in their choices at the ballot box). Gun control was not initiated at the behest or on behalf of the Nazis - it was in fact designed to keep them, or others of the same ilk, from executing a revolution against the lawful government. In the strictest sense, the law succeeded - the Nazis did not stage an armed coup.

The 1928 law was subsequently extended in 1938 under the Third Reich (this action being the principal point in support of the contention that the Nazis were advocates of gun control). However, the Nazis were firmly in control of Germany at the time the Weapons Law of 1938 was created. Further, this law was not passed by a legislative body, but was promulgated under the dictatorial power granted Hitler in 1933. Obviously, the Nazis did not need gun control to attain power as they already (in 1938) possessed supreme and unlimited power in Germany. The only feasible argument that gun control favored the Nazis would be that the 1928 law deprived private armies of a means to defeat them. The basic flaw with this argument is that the Nazis did not seize power by force of arms, but through their success at the ballot box (and the political cunning of Hitler himself). Secondary considerations that arise are that gun ownership was not that widespread to begin with, and, even imagining such ubiquity the German people, Jews in particular, were not predisposed to violent resistance to their government.

The Third Reich did not need gun control (in 1938 or at any time thereafter) to maintain their power. The success of Nazi programs (restoring the economy, dispelling socio-political chaos) and the misappropriation of justice by the apparatus of terror (the Gestapo) assured the compliance of the German people. Arguing otherwise assumes a resistance to Nazi rule that did not exist. Further, supposing the existance of an armed resistance also requires the acceptance that the German people would have rallied to the rebellion. This argument requires a total suspension of disbelief given everything we know about 1930s Germany. Why then did the Nazis introduce this program? As with most of their actions (including the formation of the Third Reich itself), they desired to effect a facade of legalism around the exercise of naked power. It is unreasonable to treat this as a normal part of lawful governance, as the rule of law had been entirely demolished in the Third Reich. Any direct quotations, of which there are several, that pronounce some beneficence to the Weapons Law should be considered in the same manner as all other Nazi pronouncements - absolute lies. (See Bogus Gun Control Quotes and endnote [1].)

A more farfetched question is the hypothetical proposition of armed Jewish resistance. First, they were not commonly armed even prior to the 1928 Law. Second, Jews had seen pogroms before and had survived them, though not without suffering. They would expect that this one would, as had the past ones, eventually subside and permit a return to normalcy. Many considered themselves "patriotic Germans" for their service in the first World War. These simply were not people prepared to stage violent resistance. Nor were they alone in this mode of appeasement. The defiance of "never again" is not so much a warning to potential oppressors as it is a challenge to Jews to reject the passive response to pogrom. Third, it hardly seems conceivable that armed resistance by Jews (or any other target group) would have led to any weakening of Nazi rule, let alone a full scale popular rebellion; on the contrary, it seems more likely it would have strengthened the support the Nazis already had. Their foul lies about Jewish perfidy would have been given a grain of substance. To project backward and speculate thus is to fail to learn the lesson history has so painfully provided.

The simple conclusion is that there are no lessons about the efficacy of gun control to be learned from the Germany of the first half of this century. It is all too easy to forget the seductive allure that fascism presented to all the West, bogged down in economic and social morass. What must be remembered is that the Nazis were master manipulators of popular emotion and sentiment, and were disdainful of people thinking for themselves. There is the danger to which we should pay great heed. Not fanciful stories about Nazi's seizing guns.

Sources:

Shirer, William L., The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich.

Jay Simkin, Aaron Zelman and Alan Rice, Lethal Laws.

International Constitutional Law

Hitler and Religion:

The Christianity of Hitler revealed in his speeches and proclamations

Compiled by Jim Walker
Originated: 27 Feb. 1997
Additions: 03 Jun. 2006

Through subterfuge and concealment, many of today's Church leaders and faithful Christians have camouflaged the Christianity of Adolf Hitler and have attempted to mark him an atheist, a pagan cult worshipper, or a false Christian. However, from the earliest formation of the Nazi party and throughout the period of conquest and growth, Hitler expressed his Christian support to the German citizenry and soldiers. In the 1920s, Hitler's German Workers' Party (pre Nazi term) adopted a "Programme" with twenty-five points (the Nazi version of a constitution). In point twenty-four, their intent clearly demonstrates, from the very beginning, their stand in favor of a "positive" Christianity:

24. We demand liberty for all religious denominations in the State, so far as they are not a danger to it and do not militate against the morality and moral sense of the German race. The Party, as such, stands for positive Christianity, but does not bind itself in the matter of creed to any particular confession. It combats the Jewish-materialist spirit within and without us, and is convinced that our nation can achieve permanent health from within only on the principle: the common interest before self-interest.

Hitler's speeches and proclamations, even more clearly, reveal his faith and feelings toward a Christianized Germany. Nazism presents an embarrassment to Christianity and demonstrates the danger of faith. The following words from Hitler show his disdain for atheism, and pagan cults, and reveals the strength of his Christian feelings:

My feelings as a Christian points me to my Lord and Savior as a fighter. It points me to the man who once in loneliness, surrounded only by a few followers, recognized these Jews for what they were and summoned men to fight against them and who, God's truth! was greatest not as a sufferer but as a fighter. In boundless love as a Christian and as a man I read through the passage which tells us how the Lord at last rose in His might and seized the scourge to drive out of the Temple the brood of vipers and adders. How terrific was His fight for the world against the Jewish poison. To-day, after two thousand years, with deepest emotion I recognize more profoundly than ever before in the fact that it was for this that He had to shed His blood upon the Cross. As a Christian I have no duty to allow myself to be cheated, but I have the duty to be a fighter for truth and justice.... And if there is anything which could demonstrate that we are acting rightly it is the distress that daily grows. For as a Christian I have also a duty to my own people.... When I go out in the morning and see these men standing in their queues and look into their pinched faces, then I believe I would be no Christian, but a very devil if I felt no pity for them, if I did not, as did our Lord two thousand years ago, turn against those by whom to-day this poor people is plundered and exploited.

-Adolf Hitler, in his speech in Munich on 12 April 1922

[Note, "brood of vipers" appears in Matt. 3:7 & 12:34. John 2:15 depicts Jesus driving out the money changers (adders) from the temple. The word "adders" also appears in Psalms 140:3]

Just as the Jew could once incite the mob of Jerusalem against Christ, so today he must succeed in inciting folk who have been duped into madness to attack those who, God's truth! seek to deal with this people in utter honesty and sincerity.

-Adolf Hitler, in Munich, 28 July 1922

In the Bible we find the text, 'That which is neither hot nor cold will I spew out of my mouth.' This utterance of the great Nazarene has kept its profound validity until the present day.

-Adolf Hitler, speech in Munich, 10 April 1923

[The Bible quote comes Jesus speaking in Revelation 3:16]

In the life of nations, what in the last resort decides questions is a kind of Judgment Court of God.... Always before god and the world the stronger has the right to carry through what he wills.

-Adolf Hitler, speech in Munich, 13 April 1923

There are three words which many use without a thought which for us are no catch-phrases: Love, Faith, and Hope.... We are fanatical in our love for our people....

We have faith in the rights of our people, the rights which have existed time out of mind. We protest against the view that every other nation should have rights - and we have none. We must learn to make our own this blind faith in the rights of our people, in the necessity of devoting ourselves to the service of these rights; we must make our own the faith that gradually victory must be granted us if only we are fanatical enough. And from this love and from this faith there emerges for us the idea of hope. When others doubt and hesitate for the future of Germany - we have no doubts. We have both the hope and the faith that Germany will and must once more become great and mighty.

We have faith that one day Heaven will bring the Germans back into a Reich over which there shall be no Soviet star, no Jewish star of David, but above that Reich there shall be the symbol of German labor - the Swastika. And that will mean that the first of May has truly come.

-Adolf Hitler, speech in Munich, 01 May 1923

[Love, Faith, and Hope comes from I Corinthians 13:13 NIV]

People ask: is there someone fit to be our leader? Our task is not to search for that person. Either God will give him to us or he will not come. Our task is to shape the sword that he will need when he comes. Our task it to provide the leader with a nation which is ready for him when he comes! My fellow Germans, awaken! The new day is dawning!

-Adolf Hitler, 04 May 1923

It matters not whether these weapons of ours are humane: if they gain us our freedom, they are justified before our conscience and before our God.

-Adolf Hitler, in Munich, 01 Aug. 1923

It will at any rate be my supreme task to see to it that in the newly awakened NSDAP, the adherents of both Confessions can live peacefully together side by side in order that they may take their stand in the common fight against the power which is the mortal foe of any true Christianity.

-Adolf Hitler, in an article headed "A New Beginning," 26 Feb. 1925

A few days ago I was in Eisenach and stood on top of the Wartburg, where a great German once translated the Bible.

-Adolf Hitler, in Schleiz, Thuringia, 18 Jan. 1927

[The great German Hitler speaks about, of course, describes Martin Luther]

We are a people of different faiths, but we are one. Which faith conquers the other is not the question; rather, the question is whether Christianity stands or falls.... We tolerate no one in our ranks who attacks the ideas of Christianity... in fact our movement is Christian. We are filled with a desire for Catholics and Protestants to discover one another in the deep distress of our own people.

-Adolf Hitler, in a speech in Passau, 27 October 1928, Bundesarchiv Berlin-Zehlendorf, [cited from Richard Steigmann-Gall's The Holy Reich]

We are determined, as leaders of the nation, to fulfill as a national government the task which has been given to us, swearing fidelity only to God, our conscience, and our Volk.... This the national government will regard its first and foremost duty to restore the unity of spirit and purpose of our Volk. It will preserve and defend the foundations upon which the power of our nation rests. It will take Christianity, as the basis of our collective morality, and the family as the nucleus of our Volk and state, under its firm protection....May God Almighty take our work into his grace, give true form to our will, bless our insight, and endow us with the trust of our Volk.

-Adolf Hitler, on 1 Feb. 1933, addressing the German nation as Chancellor for the first time, Volkischer Beobachter, 5 Aug. 1935, [cited from Richard Steigmann-Gall's The Holy Reich]

Except the Lord built the house they labour in vain.... The truth of that text was proved if one looks at the house of which the foundations were laid in 1918 and which since then has been in building.... The world will not help, the people must help itself. Its own strength is the source of life. That strength the Almighty has given us to use; that in it and through it we may wage the battle of our life.... The others in the past years have not had the blessing of the Almighty-- of Him Who in the last resort, whatever man may do, holds in His hands the final decision. Lord God, let us never hesitate or play the coward, let us never forget the duty which we have taken upon us.... We are all proud that through God's powerful aid we have become once more true Germans.

-Adolf Hitler, in a speech in March 1933

[Note, "Except the Lord built the house, they labour in vain" comes from Psalms 127:1 ]

The Government, being resolved to undertake the political and moral purification of our public life, are creating and securing the conditions necessary for a really profound revival of religious life.... The National Government regard the two Christian Confessions as the weightiest factors for the maintenance of our nationality. They will respect the agreements concluded between them and the federal States. Their rights are not to be infringed.... It will be the Government's care to maintain honest co-operation between Church and State; the struggle against materialistic views and for a real national community is just as much in the interest of the German nation as in that of the welfare of our Christian faith. The Government of the Reich, who regard Christianity as the unshakable foundation of the morals and moral code of the nation, attach the greatest value to friendly relations with the Holy See and are endeavouring to develop them.

-Adolf Hitler, in his speech to the Reichstag on 23 March 1933

The Catholic Church considered the Jews pestilent for fifteen hundred years, put them in ghettos, etc, because it recognized the Jews for what they were".... I recognize the representatives of this race as pestilent for the state and for the church and perhaps I am thereby doing Christianity a great service by pushing them out of schools and public functions.

-Adolf Hitler, 26 April 1933, [cited from Richard Steigmann-Gall's The Holy Reich]

We want honestly to earn the resurrection of our people through our industry, our perseverance, our will. We ask not of the Almighty 'Lord, make us free'!-- we want to be active, to work, to agree together as brothers, to strive in rivalry with one another to bring about the hour when we can come before Him and when we may ask of Him: 'Lord, Thou seest that we have transformed ourselves, the German people is not longer the people of dishonour, of shame, of war within itself, of faintheartedness and little faith: no, Lord, the German people has become strong again in spirit, strong in will, strong in endurance, strong to bear all sacrifices.' 'Lord, we will not let Thee go: bless now our fight for our freedom; the fight we wage for our German people and Fatherland.'

-Adolf Hitler, giving prayer in a speech on May Day 1933

This is for us a ground for satisfaction, since we desire that the fight in the religious camps should come to an end... all political action in the parties will be forbidden to priests for all time, happy because we know what is wanted by millions who long to see in the priest only the comforter of their souls and not the representative of their political convictions.

-Adolf Hitler, in a speech to the men of the SA. at Dormund, 9 July 1933 on the day after the signing of the Concordat.

National Socialism has always affirmed that it is determined to take the Christian Churches under the protection of the State.... The decisive factor which can justify the existence alike of Church and State is the maintenance of men's spiritual and bodily health, for it that health were destroyed it would mean the end of the State and also the end of the Church.... It is my sincere hope that thereby for Germany, too, through free agreement there has been produced a final clarification of spheres in the functions of the State and of one Church.

-Adolf Hitler, on a wireless on 22 July, the evening before the Evangelical Church Election

The fact that the Vatican is concluding a treaty with the new Germany means the acknowledgement of the National Socialist state by the Catholic Church. This treaty shows the whole world clearly and unequivocally that the assertion that National Socialism [Nazism] is hostile to religion is a lie.

-Adolf Hitler, 22 July 1933, writing to the Nazi Party (quoted from John Cornwell's "Hitler's Pope"

Among the congregations of the Protestant confessions there has arisen in the "German Christians' a movement that is filled with the determination to do justice to the great tasks of the day and has aimed at a union of the Protestant state churches and confessions. If this question is not really on the way towards a solution, in the judgement of history no false or stupid objections will be able to dispute the fact that this service was rendered by the volkisch movement at a time when, unfortunately, just as in the Roman Church, many pastors and superintendents without reason have opposed the national uprising in the most violent, indeed, often fanatical, way.

-Adolf Hitler, in a radio address on 22 July 1933 to the German people after a performance of Wagner's Christian allegory Parsifal in Bayreuth. [from Richard Steigmann-Gall's The Holy Reich]

We were convinced that the people needs and requires this faith. We have therefore undertaken the fight against the atheistic movement, and that not merely with a few theoretical declarations: we have stamped it out.

-Adolf Hitler, in a speech in Berlin on 24 Oct. 1933

[This statement clearly refutes modern Christians who claim Hitler as favoring atheism.]

I believe that Providence would never have allowed us to see the victory of the Movement if it had the intention after all to destroy us at the end.

-Adolf Hitler, in a speech to old members of the Party at Munich on 8 Nov. 1933

The German Church and the People are practically the same body. Therefore there could be no issue between Church and State. The Church, as such, has nothing to do with political affairs. On the other hand, the State has nothing to do with the faith or inner organization of the Church. The election of November 12th would be an expression of church constituency, but not as a Church.

-Adolf Hitler, answering C. F. Macfarland about Church & State (in his book, The New Church and the New Germany)

While we destroyed the Centre Party, we have not only brought thousands of priests back into the Church, but to millions of respectable people we have restored their faith in their religion and in their priests. The union of the Evangelical Church in a single Church for the whole Reich, the Concordat with the Catholic Church, these are but milestones on the road which leads to the establishment of a useful relation and a useful co operation between the Reich and the two Confessions.

-Adolf Hitler, in his New Year Message on 1 Jan. 1934

Imbued with the desire to secure for the German people the great religious, moral, and cultural values rooted in the two Christian Confessions, we have abolished the political organizations but strengthened the religious institutions.

-Adolf Hitler, speaking in the Reichstag on 30 Jan. 1934

It would have been more to the point, more honest and more Christian, in past decades not to support those who intentionally destroyed healthy life than to rebel against those who have no other wish than to avoid disease. Moreover, a policy of laissez faire in this sphere is not only cruelty to the individual guiltless victims but also to the nation as a whole.... If the Churches were to declare themselves ready to take over the treatment and care of those suffering from hereditary diseases, we should be quite ready to refrain from sterilizing them.

-Adolf Hitler, in his speech on 30 Jan. 1934

We have experienced a miracle, something unique, something the like of which there has hardly been in the history of the world. God first allowed our people to be victorious for four and a half years, then He abased us, laid upon us a period of shamelessness, but now after a struggle of fourteen years he has permitted us to bring that period to a close. It is a miracle which has been wrought upon the German people.... It shows us that the Almighty has not deserted our people, that He received it into favour at the moment when it rediscovered itself. And that our people shall never again lose itself, that must be our vow so long as we shall live and so long as the Lord gives us the strength to carry on the fight.

-Adolf Hitler, in a speech to the "Old Guard" of the Party at Munich on 19 March, 1934

The National Socialist State professes its allegiance to positive Christianity. It will be its honest endeavour to protect both the great Christian Confessions in their rights, to secure them from interference with their doctrines (Lehren ), and in their duties to constitute a harmony with the views and the exigencies of the State of to-day.

-Adolf Hitler, on 26 June 1934, to Catholic bishops to assure them that he would take action against the new pagan propaganda

No, it is not we that have deserted Christianity, it is those who came before us who deserted Christianity. We have only carried through a clear division between politics which have to do with terrestrial things, and religion, which must concern itself with the celestial sphere. There has been no interference with the doctrine (Lehre ) of the Confessions or with their religious freedom (Bekenntnisfreiheit ), nor will there be any such interference. On the contrary the State protects religion, though always on the one condition that religion will not be used as a cover for political ends....

National Socialism neither opposes the Church nor is it anti-religious, but on the contrary it stands on the ground of a real Christianity.... For their interests cannot fail to coincide with ours alike in our fight against the symptoms of degeneracy in the world of to-day, in our fight against a Bolshevist culture, against atheistic movement, against criminality, and in our struggle for a consciousness of a community in our national life... These are not anti-Christian, these are Christian principles! And I believe that if we should fail to follow these principles then we should to be able to point to our successes, for the result of our political battle is surely not unblest by God.

-Adolf Hitler, in his speech at Koblenz, to the Germans of the Saar, 26 Aug. 1934

So far as the Evangelical Confessions are concerned we are determined to put an end to existing divisions, which are concerned only with the forms of organization, and to create a single Evangelical Church for the whole Reich....

And we know that were the great German reformer [Martin Luther] with us to-day he would rejoice to be freed from the necessity of his own time and, like Ulrich von Hutten, his last prayer would be not for the Churches of the separate States: it would be of Germany that he would think and of the Evangelical Church of Germany.

-Adolf Hitler, in his Proclamation at the Parteitag at Nuremberg on 5 Sept. 1934

[Note, Martin Luther provided Germany with the seeds of violent antisemitism. Learn about Martin Luther's dirty little book.

So we have come together on this day to prove symbolically that we are more than a collection of individuals striving one against another, that none of us is too proud, none of us too high, none is too rich, and none too poor, to stand together before the face of the Lord and of the world in this indissoluble, sworn community. And this united nation, we have need of it.

-Adolf Hitler, in Berlin, 01 May 1935

What we are we have become not against, but with, the will of Providence. And so long as we are true and honourable and of good courage in fight, so long as we believe in our great work and do not capitulate, we shall continue to enjoy in the future the blessing of Providence.

-Adolf Hitler, at Rosenheim in Bavaria, 11 Aug. 1935

Only so you can appeal to your God and pray Him to support and bless your courage, your work, your perseverance, your strength, your resolution, and with all these your claim on life.

-Adolf Hitler, in a speech at Frankfurt on 16 March 1936

In this world him who does not abandon himself the Almighty will not desert. Him who helps himself will the Almighty always also help; He will show him the way by which he can gain his rights, his freedom, and therefore his future.

-Adolf Hitler, in a speech at Hamburg on 20 March 1936

Providence has caused me to be Catholic, and I know therefore how to handle this Church.

-Adolf Hitler, reportedly to have said in Berlin in 1936 on the enmity of the Catholic Church to National Socialism

I believe in Providence and I believe Providence to be just. Therefore I believe that Providence always rewards the strong, the industrious, and the upright.

-Adolf Hitler, in a speech to National Socialist women at the Nuremberg Parteitag of 1936 [11 Sept. 1936]

I say that they can be solved; there is no problem that cannot be, but faith is necessary. Think of the faith I had to have eighteen years ago, a single man on a lonely path. Yet I have come to leadership of the German people....

Life is hard for many, but it is hardest if you are unhappy and have no faith. Have faith.

Nothing can make me change my own belief.

-Adolf Hitler, in Nuremberg, 12 Sept. 1936

This is probably the first time and this is the first country in which people are being taught to realize that, of all the tasks which we have to face, the noblest and most sacred for mankind is that each racial species must preserve the purity of the blood which God has given it....

The greatest revolution which National Socialism has brought about is that it has rent asunder the veil which hid from us the knowledge that all human failures and mistakes are due to the conditions of the time and therefore can be remedied, but that there is one error which cannot be remedied once men have made it, namely the failure to recognize the importance of conserving the blood and the race free from intermixture and thereby the racial aspect and character which are God's gift and God's handiwork. It is not for men to discuss the question of why Providence created different races, but rather to recognize the fact that it punishes those who disregard its work of creation....

As I look back on the great work that has been done during the past four years you will understand quite well that my first feeling is simply one of thankfulness to our Almighty God for having allowed me to bring this work to success. He has blessed our labors and has enabled our people to come through all the obstacles which encompassed them on their way....

Today I must humbly thank Providence, whose grace has enabled me, who was once an unknown soldier in the War, to bring to a successful issue the struggle for the restoration of our honor and rights as a nation.

-Adolf Hitler, before the Reichstag, 30 Jan. 1937

So long as they concern themselves with their religious problems the State does not concern itself with them. But so soon as they attempt by any means whatsoever-- by letters, Encyclica, or otherwise-- to arrogate to themselves rights which belong to the State alone we shall force them back into their proper spiritual, pastoral activity.

-Adolf Hitler, in a speech delivered in Berlin on the May Day festival, 1937

We National Socialists, too, have deep in our hearts our own faith. We cannot do otherwise. No man can mould the history of peoples or of the world unless he has upon his will and his capacities the blessing of Providence.

-Adolf Hitler, to Nazi leaders on 2 June 1937, as reported by a correspondent of the "Daily Telegraph"

I will never allow anyone to divide this people once more into religious camps, each fighting the other....

You, my Brown Guard, will regard it as a matter of course that this German people should go only by the way which Providence ordained for it when it gave to Germans the common language. So we go forward with the profoundest faith in God into the future. Would that which we have achieved have been possible if Providence had not helped us?

-Adolf Hitler, in a speech at Regensburg on 6 June 1937

If we pursue this way, if we are decent, industrious, and honest, if we so loyally and truly fulfill our duty, then it is my conviction that in the future as in the past the Lord God will always help us. In the long run He never leaves decent folk in the lurch. Often He may test them, He may send trials upon them, but in the long run He always lets His sun shine upon them once more and at the end He gives them His blessing.

-Adolf Hitler, at the Harvest Thanksgiving Festival on the Buckeburg held on 3 Oct. 1937

This Winter Help Work is also in the deepest sense a Christian work. When I see, as I so often do, poorly clad girls collecting with such infinite patience in order to care for those who are suffering from the cold while they themselves are shivering with cold, then I have the feeling that they are all apostles of a Christianity-- and in truth of a Christianity which can say with greater right than any other: This is the Christianity of an honest confession, for behind it stand not words but deeds.

-Adolf Hitler, speaking of the Winter Help Campaign on 5 Oct. 1937

Remain strong in your faith, as you were in former years. In this faith, in its close-knit unity our people to-day goes straight forward on its way and no power on earth will avail to stop it.

-Adolf Hitler, in a speech at Coburg on 15 Oct. 1937

In this hour I would ask of the Lord God only this: that, as in the past, so in the years to come He would give His blessing to our work and our action, to our judgement and our resolution, that He will safeguard us from all false pride and from all cowardly servility, that He may grant us to find the straight path which His Providence has ordained for the German people, and that He may ever give us the courage to do the right, never to falter, never to yield before any violence, before any danger.... I am convinced that men who are created by God should live in accordance with the will of the Almighty.... If Providence had not guided us I could often never have found these dizzy paths.... Thus it is that we National Socialists, too, have in the depths of our hearts our faith. We cannot do otherwise: no man can fashion world-history or the history of peoples unless upon his purpose and his powers there rests the blessings of this Providence.

-Adolf Hitler, in a speech at Wurzburg on 27 June 1937

National Socialism is not a cult-movement-- a movement for worship; it is exclusively a 'volkic' political doctrine based upon racial principles. In its purpose there is no mystic cult, only the care and leadership of a people defined by a common blood-relationship.... We will not allow mystically-minded occult folk with a passion for exploring the secrets of the world beyond to steal into our Movement. Such folk are not National Socialists, but something else-- in any case something which has nothing to do with us. At the head of our programme there stand no secret surmisings but clear-cut perception and straightforward profession of belief. But since we set as the central point of this perception and of this profession of belief the maintenance and hence the security for the future of a being formed by God, we thus serve the maintenance of a divine work and fulfill a divine will-- not in the secret twilight of a new house of worship, but openly before the face of the Lord.... Our worship is exclusively the cultivation of the natural, and for that reason, because natural, therefore God-willed. Our humility is the unconditional submission before the divine laws of existence so far as they are known to us men.

-Adolf Hitler, in Nuremberg on 6 Sept. 1938.

[Christians have always accused Hitler of believing in pagan cult mythology. Here he clearly expresses his stand against cults and reinforces his Christian views.]

Thus one of Europe's most serious crises will be ended, and all of us, not only in Germany but those far beyond our frontiers, will then in this year for the first time really rejoice at the Christmas festival. It should for us all be a true Festival of Peace....

-Adolf Hitler, in Berlin, 05 Oct. 1938

[This statement disputes some who claim that Hitler outlawed Christmas.]

God helps only those who are prepared and determined to help themselves.

-Adolf Hitler, 06 Nov. 1938, Weimar

The National Socialist Movement has wrought this miracle. If Almighty God granted success to this work, then the Party was His instrument.

-Adolf Hitler, in his proclamation to the German People on 01 Jan. 1939

We are indeed perhaps better able than other generations to realize the full meaning of those pious words "What a change by the grace of God".

Amongst the accusations which are directed against Germany in the so called democracies is the charge that the National Socialist State is hostile to religion. In answer to that charge I should like to make before the German people the following solemn declaration:

1. No one in Germany has in the past been persecuted because of his religious views (Einstellung), nor will anyone in the future be so persecuted.... The Churches are the greatest landed proprietors after the State... Further, the Church in the National Socialist State is in many ways favoured in regard to taxation, and for gifts, legacies, &c., it enjoys immunity from taxation.

It is therefore, to put mildly-- effrontery when especially foreign politicians make bold to speak of hostility to religion in the Third Reich.... I would allow myself only one question: what contributions during the same period have France, England, or the United States made through the State from the public funds?

3. The National Socialist State has not closed a church, nor has it prevented the holding of a religious service, nor has it ever exercised any influence upon the form of a religious service. It has not exercised any pressure upon the doctrine nor on the profession of faith of any of the Confessions. In the National Socialist State anyone is free to seek his blessedness after his own fashion.... There are ten thousands and ten thousands of priests of all the Christian Confessions who perform their ecclesiastical duties just as well as or probably better than the political agitators without ever coming into conflict with the laws of the State.... This State has only once intervened in the internal regulation of the Churches, that is when I myself in 1933 endeavoured to unite the weak and divided Protestant Churches of the different States into one great and powerful Evangelical Church of the Reich. That attempt failed through the opposition of the bishops of some States; it was therefore abandoned. For it is in the last resort not our task to defend or even to strengthen the Evangelical Church through violence against its own representatives.... But on one point it is well that there should be no uncertainty: the German priest as servant of God we shall protect, the priest as political enemy of the German State we shall destroy.

-Adolf Hitler, a speech in the Reichstag on 30 Jan. 1939

[That last sentence sums up Hitler's stand on the priesthood. Rather than standing for atheism, as today's Christians would like, Hitler attacked the priesthood only if they stood in Hitler's political path.]

If positive Christianity means love of one's neighbour, i.e. the tending of the sick, the clothing of the poor, the feeding of the hungry, the giving of drink to those who are thirsty, then it is we who are the more positive Christians. For in these spheres the community of the people of National Socialist Germany has accomplished a prodigious work.

-Adolf Hitler, in his speech to the "Old Guard" at Munich on 24 Feb. 1939

Help yourself, then God will also help you!

The German people was created by Providence, not in order to obey a law which suits Englishmen or Frenchmen, but to stand up for its vital right. That is what we are there for!

-Adolf Hitler, at Wilhemshaven, 01 April 1939

I can give vent to my inmost feelings only in the form of humble thanks to Providence which called upon me and vouchsafed it to me, once an unknown soldier of the Great War, to rise to be the Leader of my people, so dear to me.
Providence showed me the way to free our people from the depths of its misery without bloodshed and to lead it upward once again. Providence granted that I might fulfill my life's task-to raise my German people out of the depths of defeat and to liberate it from the bonds of the most outrageous dictate of all times....

I have regarded myself as called upon by Providence to serve my own people alone and to deliver them from their frightful misery.

-Adolf Hitler, before the Reichstag, 28 April 1939

As Fuehrer of the German people and Chancellor of the Reich, I can thank God at this moment that he has so wonderfully blessed us in our hard struggle for what is our right, and beg Him that we and all other nations may find the right way, so that not only the German people but all Europe may once more be granted the blessing of peace.

-Adolf Hitler, before the Reichstag, 06 Oct. 1939

[I] never lost my belief, in the midst of setbacks which were not spared me during my period of struggle. Providence has had the last word and brought me success.

-Adolf Hitler, speech of 23 Nov. 1939

It would be easier for the Devil to go to church and cross himself with holy water than for these people to comprehend the ideas which are accepted facts to us today.

-Adolf Hitler, 10 Dec. 1940, in Berlin

The conception of the new Movement, whose fundamentals can be expressed in a single sentence: "The Lord helps those who help themselves," opposed this. That is not only a very pious phrase, but a very just one. For one cannot assume that God exists to help people who are too cowardly and too lazy to help themselves and think that God exists only to make up for the weakness of mankind. He does not exist for that purpose. He has always, at all times, blessed only those who were prepared to fight their own battles....

Providence has not led us along these amazing paths in vain. On the day that the party was founded I recalled that our nation once gained immense victories. Then it became ungrateful, disunited, sinned against itself. Thereupon it was punished by Providence. We deserved our defeat. If a nation forgets itself as completely as the German nation did at that time, if it thinks that it can shake off all honor and all good faith, Providence can do nothing but teach it a hard and bitter lesson. But even at that time we were convinced that once our nation found itself again, once it again became industrious and honorable, once each individual German stood up for his nation first and not for himself, once he placed the interests of the community above his own personal interests, once the whole nation again pursued a great ideal, once it was prepared to stake everything for this ideal, the hour would come when the Lord would declare our trials at an end.

If fate should once more call us to the battlefield, the blessing of Providence will be with those who have merited it by years of hard work. When I compare myself and my opponents in other countries in the light of history, I do not fear the verdict on our respective mentalities. Who are these egoists? Each one of them merely defends the interests of his class. Behind them all stands either the Jew or their own moneybags. They are all nothing but money-grubbers, living on the profits of this war. No blessing can come of that. I oppose these people merely as the 0 champion of my country. I am convinced that our struggle will in the future be blessed by Providence, as it has been blessed up to now.

-Adolf Hitler, in Munich, 24 Feb. 1941

But he who dares to use the word "God" for such devilish activity blasphemes against Providence and, according to our belief, he cannot end except in destruction.

-Adolf Hitler, speaking about Jews and international "warmongers," on 04 May 1941, before the Reichstag

I did not want this struggle. Since January, 1933, when Providence entrusted me with the leadership of the German Reich, I had an aim before my eyes which was essentially incorporated in the program of our National Socialist party. I have never been disloyal to this aim and have never abandoned my program....

Only when the entire German people become a single community of sacrifice can we expect and hope that Almighty God will help us. The Almighty has never helped a lazy man. He does not help the coward. He does not help a people that cannot help itself.

The principle applies here, help yourselves and Almighty God will not deny you his assistance.

-Adolf Hitler, in a broadcast from Berlin, 03 Oct.1941

If the Providence has so willed that the German people cannot be spared this fight, then I can only be grateful that it entrusted me with the leadership in this historic struggle which, for the next 500 or 1,000 years, will be described as decisive, not only for the history of Germany, but for the whole of Europe and indeed the whole world. The German people and their soldiers are working and fighting today, not only for the present, but for the coming, nay the most distant, generations. A historical revision on a unique scale has been imposed on us by the Creator....

The next incursion against this homestead of European culture was carried out from the distant East. A terrible stream of barbarous, uncultured hordes sallied forth from the interior of Asia deep into the hearts of the European Continent, burning, looting, murdering-a true scourge of the Lord....

From the time when the Movement I consisted of seven men, until we took over power in January 1933, the path was so miraculous that only Providence itself with its blessing could have made this possible....

Our enemies must not deceive themselves-in the 2,000 years of German history known to us, our people have never been more united than today. The Lord of the Universe has treated us so well in the past years that we bow in gratitude to a providence which has allowed us to be members of such a great nation. We thank Him that we also can be entered with honor into the ever-lasting book of German history!

-Adolf Hitler, on 11 Dec.1941 before the Reichstag

My fame, if Providence preserves my life, will consist in ... works of peace, which I still intend to create. But I think that if Providence has already disposed that I can do what must be done according to the inscrutable will of the Providence, then I can at least just ask Providence to entrust to me the burden of this war, to load it on me. I will beat it! I will shrink from no responsibility; in every hour which ... I will take this burden upon me. I will bear every responsibility, just as I have always borne them."....

Thus the home-front need not be warned, and the prayer of this priest of the devil, the wish that Europe may be punished with Bolshevism, will not be fulfilled, but rather that the prayer may be fulfilled: "Lord God, give us the strength that we may retain our liberty for our children and our children's children, not only for ourselves but also for the other peoples of Europe, for this is a war which we all wage, this time, not for our German people alone, it is a war for all of Europe and with it, in the long run, for all of mankind."

-Adolf Hitler, 30 Jan. 1942, in Berlin (note the prayer at the end of the speech.)

May therefore God give us the strength to continue to do our duty and with this prayer we bow in homage before our dead heroes, before those whom they have left behind in bereavement, and before all the other victims of this war.

-Adolf Hitler, in prayer at the end of a radio address on 15 March 1942.

I, for my part, acknowledge another precept which says that man must deal the final blow to those whose downfall is destined by God.

-Adolf Hitler, in an address to the Reichstag, 06 April 1942

In my eyes, the year 1942 already has behind it the most fateful trial of our people. That was the winter of '41 to '42. I may be permitted to say that in that winter the German people, and in particular its Wehrmacht, were weighed in the balance by Providence. Nothing worse can or will happen. That we conquered that winter, that "General Winter," that at last the German fronts stood, and that this spring, that is, early this summer, we were able to proceed again, that, I believe, is the proof that Providence was content with the German people....

You do not realize what is hidden beneath these words in the way of human heroism, and also of human pain, and suffering, and we may say, often anxiety too, naturally, deathly anxiety on the part of all those who, especially for the first time, are placed before the trial of God in this highest court.

-Adolf Hitler, 30 Sept. 1942, in Berlin

And today I stand by this same view. Fate, or Providence, will give the victory to those who most deserve it....

And when now, after 10 years, I again survey this period, I can say that upon no people has Providence ever bestowed more successes than upon us. The miracles we have achieved in the last three years in the face of a whole world of enemies are unique in history, especially the crises we very naturally often had in these years.

-Adolf Hitler, in Munich, 08 Nov. 1942

The bomb which was planted by Colonel von Stauffenberg exploded two meters to my right. It seriously injured a number of my colleagues who are very dear to me; one has died. I myself am completely unhurt apart from a few minor skin abrasions, bruises and burns. I interpret this as confirmation that Providence wishes me to continue my life's mission as I have in the past.

Few people can begin to imagine the fate which would have overtaken Germany had the assassination attempt succeeded. I myself thank Providence and my Creator not for preserving me - my life consists only of worry and work for my People - I thank him only for allowing me to continue to bear this burden of worry, and to carry on my work to the best of my ability.

Once again I take this opportunity, my old comrades in arms, to greet you, joyful that I have once again been spared a fate which, while it held no terror for me personally, would have had terrible consequences for the German People. I interpret this as a sign from Providence that I must continue my work, and therefore I shall continue it.

-Adolf Hitler, speaking about the attempt to kill him, in a radio broadcast on 20 July 1944

God the Almighty has made our nation. By defending its existence we are defending His work....

Only He can relieve me of this duty Who called me to it. It was in the hand of Providence to snuff me out by the bomb that exploded only one and a half meters from me on July 20, and thus to terminate my life's work. That the Almighty protected me on that day I consider a renewed affirmation of the task entrusted to me....

Therefore, it is all the more necessary on this twelfth anniversary of the rise to power to strengthen the heart more than ever before and to steel ourselves in the holy determination to wield the sword, no-matter where and under what circumstances, until final victory crowns our efforts....

In the years to come I shall continue on this road, uncompromisingly safeguarding my people's interests, oblivious to all misery and danger, and filled with the holy conviction that God the Almighty will not abandon him who, during all his life, had no desire but to save his people from a fate it had never deserved, neither by virtue of its number nor by way of its importance....

In vowing ourselves to one another, we are entitled to stand before the Almighty and ask Him for His grace and His blessing. No people can do more than that everybody who can fight, fights, and that everybody who can work, works, and that they all sacrifice in common, filled with but one thought: to safeguard freedom and national honor and thus the future of life.

-Adolf Hitler, in a radio address, 30 Jan. 1945

Providence shows no mercy to weak nations, but recognizes the right of existence-only of sound and strong nations....

This Jewish bolshevist annihilation of nations and its western European and American procurers can be met only in one way: by using every ounce of strength with the extreme fanaticism and stubborn steadfastness that merciful God gives to men in hard times for the defense of their own lives....

We have suffered so much that it only steels us to fanatical resolve to hate Our enemies a thousand times more and to regard them for what they are destroyers of an eternal culture and annihilators of humanity. Out of this bate a holy will is born to oppose these destroyers of our existence with all the strength that God has given us and to crush them in the end. During its 2,000-year history our people has survived so many terrible times that we have no doubt that we will also master our present plight.

-Adolf Hitler, in a recorded radio address, 24 Feb. 1945

SOURCES:

Baynes, Norman H. Ed. "The Speeches of Adolf Hitler, April 1922-August 1939," Vol. 1 of 2, Oxford University Press, 1942

Cornwell, John, "Hitler's Pope: The Secret History of Pius XII," Viking, 1999

Steigmann-Gall, Richard "The Holy Reich: Nazi conception of Christianity, 1919-1945," Cambridge University Press, 2003

Anyways, your ENTIRE ARGUMENT is a FALSE ANALOGY!!!!! There is absolutely no correlation between certain public health issues addressed by Hitler and other unpleasant Nazi doctrines. None. It is perfectly possible for Hitler to have been right about banning public smoking and wrong about biology and race. As you can see, I provided plenty of evidence of Hitler's Christianity and the myth of gun control. Gee since those are conservative stalwarts I guess they must be wrong since Hitler endorsed them. Are you starting to see how the idiocy of this argument yet?????

My suggestion Dog. Learn something about logic/argumentation before you serve up such a turd of ad hominens, false analogies, and outrageous hyperbole.

@ivanho.... I'm not so sure that anyone wants to scroll through 15 pages to get past your stuff, no matter what it's about. Fail.

I'm pretty sure "comment" doesn't include trying to publish a book.

Lack of time to read a comment doesn't make the comment a fail. It was more for effect. The fact that I could instantaneously access dozens of quotes by Hitler invoking God, Jesus, The Lord, Christianity, The Bible, Christian morals, blah, blah, blah. And I could also find a nice scholarly article debunking the myth about Nazi gun control. Anyway, the last paragraph of my post summed it up nicely. Brought it all together.

It would have had a better effect had it been a quarter of the length. It started out good, but then when it kept going and going, it lost its effect.

The president of Iran is trying to say the Holocaust never happened either. You can try to change history all you want, facts are facts.

Dog - your post contained very little in the way of fact. You start off with Nazi gun control and then, in a complete non-sequitur by the way, you veer off into a histrionic rant containing a bunch of histrionic stereotypes about "liberals". For starters, look up the word "liberal" in the dictionary. Secondly show one scintilla of evidence that "liberals" want to ban slapping and that they want to sue you over it. Do it. Now. Otherwise you post is meaningless ranting. But I am sure you knew that.

By my count California allows only three behaviors now

Obviously they are targeting the commercial tanning areas and not trying to regulate what you do in your own home.

For example: In VIRGINIA, someone under the age of 21 can not legally purchase alcohol. BUT - if you are a parent and YOU purchase it for YOUR OWN CHILDREN to consume IN YOUR OWN HOME it is legal. If you have a tanning bed in your home and wish to allow your 15 yo to use it, that's up to you. YOU are not a store/outlet which has multiple tanning beds and is making money off tanning.

So, if I understand the law, no gives a damn if my daughter gets cancer from a tanning bed as long as no one makes money off of it. I am not sure I see the difference from cancer acquired in a salon and cancer acquired at home. I wonder if there are studies showing that only the commercial tanning salon promote skin cancer?

Just another example of why this regulation isn't about protecting children, but is instead about getting money. Someone paid them to create this law and that's the only reason it was created.

I think the point is that most teens can dig up a few bucks to get a tan once or twice a week, whereas most can't afford to buy a bed. Therefore, cutting back on the amount of options they have to tan, and ultimately the risks of tanning itself.