Another laugh today

This from ESPN.com's "Page 2." You can click on it to see the full size.

This got a laugh...

From Non Sequiter

I can't believe what SI has time for

Link Here. Don't they have some poker tournament or scrabble championship to report?

In God We Trust

Story So the guy who sued to ban the Pledge of Allegiance because of the phrase "under God" now wants to rid all U.S. currency of "In God We Trust."

I'm actually going to take a position that I normally might not argue. While it's true that I usually argue for strict separation of church and state, I think those who support separation need to pick their battles carefully. Personally, while I would prefer that official symbols of the country, whether they be mottos, pledges, or coins, be devoid of references to religion, its presence on money is the least threatening to me, especially because in a certain form, I believe in God (in fact, His presence on the back of the dollar bill, along with the masonic pyramid and "novus ordo seclorum" is actually intellectually entertaining, if anything)

With the pledge, I understand that in 1955, they put "under God" in because we were fighting the godless Communists, but now, currently embroiled in a conflict in which the idea of "God" is very prevelant and controversial, to claim that the proper God is on our side and ours only is, in my opinion, irresponsible and dangerous (one of the most frightening things I ever heard was in US history class, a quote from President Truman in which he mentioned in one form or another that God blessed the U.S. with the atomic bomb (eek). But overall, I like how John Stewart has put it. "You know how you make something meaningless? You make second graders repeat it every day." Personally, when I'm in a situation where I recite the plege, I just stick to the "classic" version ("one nation, indivisible") and let everyone else be under whichever God they want (including all religions, and saying "one nation, under God, Allah, Vishnu...etc." could get cumbersome).

My point is that proponents of church-state separation need to pick their battles and fight the more overt theocratic indicators. Ten Commandments in schools and courthouses, that is something worth fighting about. "Under God" or "In God We Trust" are, though they irk the atheists, atleast ambiguous, while the commandments are a clear endorsement with a certain religious point of view (A Hindu walking into the Alabama courthouse has got to be assured that he'll get a fair trial). People should be fighting Bush for shoveling loads of money into churches for murky "faith-based initiatives," making sure evangelical nutcases like Mark Paschall (who once tolde me that the U.S. was a nation of, and I quote, "Christendom" in which Christianity should play a dominant role in state proceedings) don't get elected to Congress.

In the end, if all I have to deal with is "In God We Trust" clinking around in the pockets of my jeans, I won't complain too much.

Home town in the national news...

...for less than pleasant reasons. This caught my eye today.

English majors, help me out...

Does this qualify as irony, or just shame? Link here