under God, under Brenda or under George?

I have been following with not a little glee as the atheist Michael Newdow makes his case to the US Supreme Court. Arguing that it interferes with his freedom to force his daughter to recite a message of religious subserviance. And she’s not the only one affected, Kenny Hess doesn’t like it either.

Now as a lowly subject of ‘er Britannic Majesty, QEII, I ain’t much better off, but ‘god willing’ she’ll die soon 😉 The bigger worry for you Septic Tanks ought to be that your once envious Bill of Rights is now largely a historical document.

Anyhow came across a couple of good articles:

WHAT AMERICA CAN LEARN FROM ITS ATHEISTS – by Leon Wieseltier

Quote:
…what kind of friendship for religion is it that insists that the words “under God” have no religious connotation? A political friendship, is the answer. And that is precisely the kind of friendship that the Bush administration exhibited in its awful defense of the theistic diction of the Pledge. The solicitor general stood before the Court to argue against the plain meaning of ordinary words. In the Pledge of Allegiance, the government insisted, the word “God” does not refer to God. It refers to a reference to God…
For the argument that a reference to God is not a reference to God is a sign that American religion is forgetting its reasons. The need of so many American believers to have government endorse their belief is thoroughly abject. How strong, and how wise, is a faith that needs to see God’s name wherever it looks?

On Jefferson, Diderot and the Political Use of God – By GARY LEUPP

Quote:
Religious fundamentalists incessantly repeat that the Founding Fathers of the American Republic were God-fearing Christians. This is simply untrue. They key figures were men of the Enlightenment, religious skeptics, generally persuaded that there was a logical Mind behind the marvelous machine which was the universe, but contemptuous of Biblical literalism

All this talk of founding fathers reminds me that it might be time for another Declaration of Independence. There are a striking number parallels between the attitude of the insane King George III and advisors to the New World and that of the stupid George W and criminal cronies to the rest of the world and the none corporate part of his own country. His record in office is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

* He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
* He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.
* He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
* For protecting them, by a mock Trial and refusal to acknowledge the ICC, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of other countires.
* For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
* For cutting Taxes on our billionaires
* For depriving ‘Enemy Combatants’ of the benefits of Trial by Jury.
* For transporting ‘Enemy Combatants’ beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences.
* For taking away our UN Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments.
* He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people. (For ‘our’ read Afghanistan, Iraq, etc.)
* He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

And his crimes continue…

Oh, and don’t forget to Pledge Allegiance to the Flames :>