In August 2003, a huge rock engraved with the Ten Commandments was removed from the rotunda of Alabama's Supreme Court Building. How did it get there? The court's Chief Justice, Roy Moore, had surreptitiously placed it there -- two years earlier.

[For his blatant disregard of the principle of separation of church and state, Moore, a former military policeman, full-contact karate expert, and professional kickboxer, was suspended from his office.]

[As Louis Menand pointws out: "Of the Bible's Ten Commandments, only two (VI and VIII) proscribe activities that secular law regards as criminal. It is not illegal in the United States to: have another god before Yahweh; manufacture graven images (for instance, pieces of granite with Scriptural texts carved on them); say 'God damn it' when you spill the ketchup; go to 'Terminator 3' on Sunday; abuse (verbally) your parents; engage in extramarital sex; or (except under oath) tell untrue stories about your neighbor. And if it were a crime to covet the ass parked in the driveway of the people next door, it is hard to know how capitalism would survive. Coveting asses is the whole basis of our prosperity."]