2 bits of GOOD news...

[LuCifer]

...so put down that razor you got pressed up to your wrists!!!

1) The Supreme KKKourt is getting closer to allowing medical maijuana! Yesterday, the court turned aside an appeal of a lower court decision that upheld laws in nine states permitting doctors to give marijuana to sick patients.

2) And it might strip "under God" from the Pledge!!!!! (You mean to tell me......the supreme KKKourt...is now the most LIBERAL branch of the 3 branches?!?!?!?!?!? We are SO SCREWED!) The court will hear the case sometime next year.

The justices agreed to hear an appeal involving a California atheist whose 9-year-old daughter, like most elementary school children, hears the Pledge of Allegiance recited daily.

A national uproar followed a federal appeals court ruling last year that the reference to God made the pledge unconstitutional in public schools. That ruling, if allowed to stand, would strip the reference from the version of the pledge recited by about 9.6 million schoolchildren in California and other western states.

Those who deny the existence of a supreme being have been turned into second class citizens by a government that continuously sends messages that 'real Americans' believe in God," Newdow told the justices in his appeal.

[Caution]

1. point 1

important distinction. The court upheld a doctor's ability to recommend marijuana to patients, not their ability to actually prescribe or provide it as I understand it.

[jiacinto]

2. They will probably rule against the 9th circuit

And I don't understand the hostility to the pledge of allegiance that exists at DU.

[Girlfriday]

4. Because "under God"

is a leftover remnant of the McCarthy witch hunt.

edit for spelling:

[quispquake]

5. It's not hostility to the Pledge itself...

It's the "Under God" part of the pledge...a phrase inserted by the red scare folks in the early 50's to show we weren't 'heathans' like the godless communists...

This is a Separation of Church & State issue...pure and simple...I, not being a 'Christian', do not feel that the "Under God" part belongs in the pledge...

If you are 'Christian', how would you feel if it said "Under Mohammed"...well that's how all non-Christians feel about "Under God"...

Flame away :)

pp23

[jiacinto]

6. It's just a bunch of people who have to attack anything

that shows respect for America. That's how I see this issue.

[Bandit]

It does the exact opposite of showing respect.

If you truly wanted to show respect you would respect other religions and not try and shove this one God Christianity down everyone's throat. That is the ultimate disrespect of others. IMHO We are supposed to have FREEDOM of Religion , not Forced Religion.

[quispquake]

13. Thanks Bandit...

summed it up perfectly...

pp23

[Eloriel]

10. Then you see it wrong.

As usual.

Eloriel

[not systems]

11. Remove the "under god" keep the rest.

Respect for America and force recognision of
"god" have nothing to do with each other,

[Jacobin]

12. No its not

It has nothing to do with "respect for america"

It has to do with keeping religion and state separate so that we don't turn into a theocracy.

[Mountainman]

14. I never understand your kind of thinking. Freepers do it too.

You say you support America and the Constitution just as freepers do but you convieniently forget that when it doesn't suit your point of view.

Please read below



Amendment I

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

[JNelson6563]

15. I should be able to pledge

allegiance to my country if I so choose without having to edit the pledge to suit my views. The pledge for a country that is so diverese should be secular, as in completely.

I wonder, how would you feel if it were "under Allah" or "under Zeuss"?

Look into the history of how that phrase came to be in that pledge. Lastly, there are a great many people still alive who only learned the pledge without "under God" and they claim they had no sense of depravation.

Julie

[IrateCitizen]

16. If that's how you see the issue, then you see it wrong as usual.

Personally, I'd prefer a return to the ORIGINAL pledge of allegiance, as Francis Bellamy first wrote it:

I pledge allegiance to my flag, and the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty, justice and EQUALITY for all.

BTW, Carlos -- did you know that the original author of the pledge was a *GASP* SOCIALIST MINISTER. That's right -- the author of your beloved pledge was a SOCIALIST.

In that case, how could the pledge possibly be anymore UNAmerican? :evilgrin:

IOW, take your mind-numbing empty patriotism and condescending McCarthyism elsewhere. :eyes:

[eleny]

17. I believe the issue is that the pledge...

ought to reflect respect for all Americans.

Some of us want the pledge to be inclusinve of all Americans rather than exclusive to God believers. Btw, it's my understanding that the pledge has changed more then once over the years since it was first penned.

[dfong63]

19. i am hostile to the pledge itself

i believe that pledging "allegiance" to a piece of dyed cloth on a stick is not only stupid, it's a borderline form of idolatry. it's plain dumb. what does "allegiance to a flag" mean, anyway? a flag can't give orders. a flag can't think or speak or make decisions. if some prick in a uniform tries to says the "allegiance to the flag" means following HIS orders, then i say where the hell did HE get the authority to speak on behalf of the sacred "flag"? just when did "the flag" tell him to burn that village, or drop that bomb?

i don't believe the words of the pledge, either. think about it. even without the "under God". the flag doesn't stand for liberty and justice anymore, if it ever did. nowadays it stands for death squads, cluster bombs, and depleted uranium.

and look at how the flag is used. as a symbol of unquestioning, UNTHINKING support of our great "patriotic" leaders. pfeh. and to cover up coffins. the flag is literally, as well as metaphorically, used to cover up the dead bodies.

how many of these little kiddies that the lawmakers want to force to recite the pledge, are actually capable of understanding what it says anyway? so i am totally against forcing youngsters to mindlessly recite this awkwardly phrased, misleading, and ultimately stupid incantation, as part of their education.

[Bandit]

7. It is not the pledge of allegiance it is the phrase "Under God"

That phrase was added much later and really has no great benefit and lots of unbeneficial unrest. It would harm no one if it were removed but by keeping it there many feel disinfranchised. The Pledge of Allegiance is fine in that propagandist patriotic sort of way but to insert religion is meaningless.

[not systems]

8. Forced to recognise an alien god.

That is the problem with the pledge.

[LuCifer]

3. true...

...but...at the very least, it keeps the issue in the public eye, and shows just how dinosaur primitive America can be.

[Bronco69]

9. Here's what I never understood..........

If you pledge your allegiance to the flag doesn't it go without saying that your allegiance stands until otherwise revoked? Why on earth do people need to recite the pledge of allegiance all the time? I've recited the pledge of allegiance once, if anything changes I'll let you know.

[AndyTiedye]

18. How about Reading the Bill of Rights Instead

or working through the entire Constitiution.

It seems people have forgotten what it says.

[dfong63]

20. if it's a free country, then why are we FORCING kids to recite this?

... isn't it DUMB to even consider FORCING anyone (even children) to pledge allegiance to a supposed symbol of "liberty"? if we had liberty in this country, people wouldn't be FORCED to say things they don't necessarily believe. a flag is a piece of dyed cloth on a stick. it can't think or speak or make decisions or give orders. pledging allegiance to a flag is like worshipping a god of stone or metal. i'd wager that most kids who are being forced to recite the pledge, don't understand the words they are mouthing. it is doubly, and probably even triply, stupid, to have this unthinking, unquestioning, mindless recitation be part of children's "education".