Goodbye L.A.

For many, many years, I considered Los Angeles home.

Even after I left the area for other professional opportunities, when I visited Los Angeles, it still felt like home.

TRENDING: Republicans move to replace GOP canvasser who voted to certify Biden win

No longer.

The character of Los Angeles has fundamentally changed in the last 15 years. I don't even recognize it any more. I don't mean new buildings and freeways. I mean the character of the people who live there.

Moving to Los Angeles in 1979 from the East Coast, I thought I had found paradise on earth. The streets were clean. The people were friendly.

But Los Angeles is now under the dominion of extremists. It's now under the control of an anti-God cult. It's now more like a Third World banana republic than a great American city.

I realized this while pondering Los Angeles' latest controversy over the county seal.

The neo-Talibanists in the American Civil Liberties Union threatened to sue the county if it didn't remove a tiny cross from the official logo. By a vote of 3-2, the board of supervisors caved into the demand to redesign it.

When I first heard about this controversy, I was surprised the L.A. County seal included a cross. I assumed the cross must have dominated the image – that it was a vestige of a much earlier era in L.A. history.

No. The cross would hardly be noticed if it had not been brought to the world's attention by the ACLU. It is one of nine distinct images on the seal – images that include engineering instruments, a tuna, oil derricks, the Hollywood Bowl, stars representing the movie industry, a prize cow, a Spanish galleon, the cross and Pomona, the Roman goddess of fruits.

In fact, it is the Roman goddess that truly dominates the seal. The cross is one of the smallest objects on the image.

In other words, there are two images on the seal that deal directly with religion – the cross and the goddess. The goddess dominates and the cross is hardly noticeable.

Guess which image the ACLU found objectionable?

That's right. The tiny cross.

The ACLU claims its threat of legal action is based on the notion that the cross makes non-Christians feel unwelcome.

Why isn't the goddess objectionable?

Perhaps because it represents the god of the ACLU – the god of fruits and nuts.

It's interesting, isn't it?

A tiny cross is a threat, but a giant representation of a pagan god is no problem.

It illustrates that the ACLU is not concerned about the establishment of religion at all. It is concerned about the elimination of Christianity from public life in America.

The ACLU might suggest goddess worship is no longer in vogue and therefore no threat. Nonsense. Goddess worship is strong in Los Angeles – throughout California. Paganism of all sorts is more popular than it has ever been in America. Elements of goddess worship and paganism are far more likely to be taught in public schools than anything remotely resembling Christianity.

None of that bothers the ACLU in the slightest – which betrays the organization's real agenda. The group's statements have never rung more hollow than in its shrill calls for the elimination of the cross in the L.A. County seal. It's as if this busybody group has run out of windmills at which to tilt.

Dennis Prager, the heroic Jewish columnist and talk-show host, who has led the fight in challenging the ACLU and the county on this issue, says he has talked to rabbis of every stripe and not one feels unwelcome in L.A. County because of that tiny cross. None of them believed the cross should be removed.

Why? They probably know who's next. First the Sunday people, then the Saturday people.

This controversy is not about "discomfort." It's not about feeling unwelcome. It's not about the establishment clause. It's not about the First Amendment. It's about bigotry – pure and simple. It's about intolerance. It's about persecution.