LIVIN' ON A PRAYER: Yes, I believe in separation of church and state, but yesterday's ruling by the California Circuit court that effectively bans the Pledge of Allegience is just plain insane. No reasonable person could ever suggest that the Pledge of Allegience exists for the purposes of religious indoctrination, and indeed, this is the sort of thing that makes 70% of the country stand up and say "damn, liberals are idiots." And as John Podhoretz pointed out today, it also will be like manna from heaven for the Republicans, as they can now send out fundraising letters and make commercials using their usual scare tactics about liberal bogeymen: "they're gonna raise your taxes, take your guns away, AND stop you from saying 'God!'" And finally, the ruling is intended to discourage religious belief in the schools, but actually will have the opposite effect: before, nobody thought of God while saying the Pledge. Now, everybody will.
Posted by Stephen Silver at June 27, 2002 11:47 PM