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Fox News thinks America sucks. Republicans hate America. They're all hoarding guns and canned goods preparing for the end because they've lost hope and don't believe in their country any more.
@ 5 Obama said he was against stupid wars not all wars.
Eisenhower stated "From this day forward, the millions of our school children will daily proclaim in every city and town, every village and rural school house, the dedication of our nation and our people to the Almighty.... In this way we are reaffirming the transcendence of religious faith in America's heritage and future; in this way we shall constantly strengthen those spiritual weapons which forever will be our country's most powerful resource, in peace or in war."
Obama is against rilley rilley stupid wars but is for cool wars that like everyone is so into now except old people and ugly people who only like dumb wars.
Well, things were a lot simpler in Eisenhower's day, with a church on each corner - Protestant, naturally. I still remember the turmoil over JFK's presence in the presidential race, with much irrational fear that he - as a Roman Catholic - would take his orders from the Pope and Rome.
Well, even if nobody else cares, I like the sound of that!
@8 I'm sorry you were punished. If your school was public, they were legally not allowed to do so, which no child ever knows at the time, which makes it a less than useful legal right. I was deeply offended in kindergarten after being taught the pledge. I went home and explained I was taught something, but it had a lot of words that I didn't know what they meant. My sisters asked me which words, and I started with well, first "pledge" and "allegiance". They explained it was basically making a promise. I was so deeply offended that I was taught to mouth a promise, but nobody even thought it important to tell me what I was promising. I still find it offensive that we teach children to make promises they cannot even understand. It either teaches that promises are meaningless or that you can be tricked into them, and neither lesson is okay. I simply mouthed along without speaking, as I didn't know I had a right to not say it. Later, I would learn I was the third generation in my family to object, each for a different reason. My father to "under God" and my grandfather to pledging allegiance to the flag. He was willing to pledge allegiance to the country, but not to the physical symbolic representation of it. I've heard of others protesting that since we do not have "liberty and justice for all" that the pledge is a lie and refusing it for that reason. Personally, the pledge is so full of issues we should never make anyone say it. Although I have no problems with people choosing to say it if it resonates with them and is personally meaningful to them.
Whereas the Pastafarian Church has NOT told Pastafarian politicians what to do, how to think, etc. etc.
Real Americans always really think about it.
Asswipe.
If Christians would just get their heads out of their asses about the "under God" part [they'd stop believing in religion at all] they'd refuse to say the pledge. But because it mentions God once, suddenly it's a threat to their faith *not* to say it. Idiots.
*as in Israelites, not Israelis
I never did as a Jehovah's Witness kid, and I don't now as an Atheist.
Also, most classrooms don't even say it. It's more of a sports event thing these days.
I really don't understand people who try to defend it.
I was going to mention the Bellamy Salute but he beat me to it.
It would be a beautiful thing for someone to corner Bill-O or Fuchs & Friends into claiming they preferred the original fealty pledge and then crucifying them for it.
*Except for those scaaaaaaaaaaaaaary Muslims!
Well, at least UP here in Canada, many Catholic politicians have resisted the pressure, saying that they were elected to make laws for ALL of the people, and not merely their Catholic constituents.
Er, the people you're addressing don't see any issues with that outcome. Preaching to the choir and all that rot.
@47 Your and my government is designed in such a way that no one had reason to wig out when Thompson, Laurier, St. Laurent, Trudeau, Clark, Turner, Mulroney, Chretien and Paul Martin became PMs.
Down here in Upper Mexico, people just wig out on general principle, or some combination of inbreeding, xenophobia, ignorance and poor education. The two senators representing this state in Washington D.C. are Catholic, and I haven't read here any blabbers wigging out about that: they keep getting re-elected by the least religious side of the state.
The easy solution is to do what the Girl Scouts did when I was 11 or 12...you can say the name of whatever deity you wish or none at all, both in the pledge and the promise. Plus, no one is forced to recite the pledge in public settings (like school), though I agree that's a hard sell for a 6-year-old whose teacher tells them they have to do it.
I also skipped the "god" in "so help me" when I swore my oath as a federal employee. My intake person looked at me kind of strange like she thought I was just forgetting, realized I wasn't going to say it, and then shrugged and moved on. Had she asked, I would have said swearing something to "god" is about as meaningful as swearing it to the Easter Bunny, for me. As it stands, I swore an oath to the American people and my employer...those are the groups I'm being hired to serve, no?