hell on earth, part 2

I might have been premature in calling Randolph, Utah hell on earth. Dominos pizza magnate and Torquemada wanna-be Tom Monaghan wants to build a little fundamentalist-Catholic theocracy in Florida.

Monghan wants to have Ave Maria, Florida to be a town where no abortions can be had, where dirty magazines will be barred from the stores, and where you can't buy condoms or other kinds of birth control in the stores. Seems his plan is to sell houses but to only lease commercial space, with restrictions on un-Catholic activities. Oh, and when deciding whom to vote for in 2008, remember that Governor Jeb Bush was present at the groundbreaking ceremony earlier this month and thinks the idea is just nifty.

Surely Monaghan is forgetting a few ideas. He'll need bookstores that don't sell books that deny papal infallibility or anything else that doesn't square with Monaghan's extremely conservative view of Catholicism. He'll doubtless want shops that sell rods no thicker than the thumb with which men can beat their wives, as suggested in the Bible. And maybe a nice fish-and-loaves shop instead of McDonalds...

Various groups already plan to sue to stop Monaghan's plans. But if he were to succeed, Ave Maria, Florida would indeed be a little patch of intolerant hell on earth -- or at least, Purgatory.