This is a rewrite of this entry, after getting a chance to hear some news.
A reasonable person would have to presume that Bush, while he wouldn’t admit to it, must love this whole Pledge and G-D business. It’s red meat for evangelicals and conservatives. They get to beat up on their favorite targets, the Courts and non-Christians. But hey, this time it was bi-partisan, with everyone in Congress falling over themselves to swear fealty to G-D and flag. It’s tragic to think these people were elected to uphold the Consitution, when they seem more interested in salving the wounded pride of an evangelical mob.
At least Bush had the decency to trot out Paul O’Neil to say something about WorldCom crashing into the NASDAQ. I wonder if he wore wraparound shades.
I would had rather the 9th Circuit had run this by a full panel, instead of three judges, first. Getting a rulling from a full panel would had taken some of the fire out of the predictable reaction. And this is one of those matters which will go to the Supremes.
But the problem with raising the question about G-D and the Pledge (which, modulo the G-D thing, I think should be done away with because free people don’t need to swear an oath to be free, but that’s moot because the Supremes don’t see it that way), is if the High Court agrees with the current judgement of the 9th Circuit, then, given the reaction we saw from the Congress, we’re going to see an effort to put an ill-considered patch on the Consitution that will bite us in the ass later.
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