Quote of the Day

"We cannot elevate nature above people. That's against the Bible and the Bill of Rights."

Edna Mattos, Citrus County Tea Party Patriots. Explaining why she is against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service making new boating rules to protect the manatees in Kings Bay.

The ignorance of Mattos is staggering. The protection of manatees does not violate the Bill of Rights. The federal government has power for conservation purposes. President Theodore Roosevelt created national parks and game preserves. The truth is Mattos is not bothered if manatees are killed by boats. She views manatees and environmental groups as a threat.

Mattos said she enjoys showing off the manatees to her grandchildren, but she had little use for the Save the Manatee Club, explaining, "If some of these environmental movements had been around in the days of the dinosaurs, we'd be living in Jurassic Park now."

Actually, if early man first walked the planet during the "days of the dinosaurs" the human race would be extinct. Early man would be an easy food source for dinosaurs.

Mattos is using this section of Genesis to justify killing off the manatees.

And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

Mattos believes this section of Genesis justifies killing wildlife. Conservationists have taken "replenish the earth" to mean restore the Earth. It is all a matter of interpretation. Mattos claims to support the Bill of Rights. However, Mattos wants to make laws and regulations based on the Old Testament. Mattos should brush up on the the First amendment.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press

I seriously doubt if Mattos cares what the First amendment says. She will use the Bible and Bill of Rights to justify killing manatees. End of story.