FUN FACT : Pledge of Allegiance invented by socialist as marketing catch-phrase

[DetlefK]

http://www.cracked.com/article_18510_6-supposedly-ancient-traditions-that-totally-arent.html
(link leads to article with further links)

To make it short:
In the 1890's there was a family magazine in the US, "The Youth's Companion".
In that time, there was rarely a flag in US-classrooms, and the owner of the magazine, being a red-blooded patriot, wanted to right that wrong. So he sold a shit-ton of flags.

How?

With a catch-phrase, invented by Francis Bellamy, a socialist with a faible for nationalism.

And when was "under God" added?

In 1954, as a symbol that the US were different from the godless Soviet Union.

[mfcorey1]

1. Just wait until the teabaggers find out....LOL

[Seneca]

2. A socialist minister in fact

And hailed from Hibbing, MN, the same small town where Bob Dylan grew up.

The Knights of Columbus, kind of the Catholic answer to the Masons, started the campaign to get 'under God' in the pledge.

[hayu_lol]

3. From 1876 on to the end of the 19th century...

there was a great wave of patriotism across the country by descendants of those who fought in the Revolutionary War. The SAR emerged(Sons Of The American Revolution)and many people joined. This was partly the reason for the writing of the pledge by a socialist minister. He chose not to use god in the pledge because he felt that use would be devisive. His descendants attempted to block the phrase 'under god' for that reason, but failed.

Once the SAR was established, it was followed by the DAR(Daughters Of The American Revolution). Both organizations are alive and well today.

[Echo In Light]

4. K/R

[alfredo]

5. That's a good article. Pass it on to your freeper neighbors.

The one about the Muslims is good too.

[bulloney]

6. Are you serious? The original Pledge salute to the flag is the Heil Hitler depicted in the picture?

Oh, that's hilarious!

That'll really make the teabaggers' heads explode.

[pnorman]

7. "One Nation Indivisible" is how I learned it in the first grade in 1936.

And that's how I still recite it. When people ask me about it, I respond: "I'm sticking with the King James Version!"