Oregon School Removes Pledge, Stirs National Outcry 

god almighty what is wrong with people? what does it matter? parents can teach their own kids the pledge if they want, pick please :D

OMG. There is so much wrong with these people's arguements that I don't even know where to start.

First of all, how is it "unpatriotic" to recite the preamble to the constitution? What kind of idiot thinks that reading what is probably the most patriotic historical document is unpatriotic? And: "That idiot principal from Oregon displeases the God of the Christians and Jews so that she could please Allah, the god of the Muslims." Um, hello, the God of the Christians and Jews is the God of the Muslims. Different name, but I mean, Christians call God Abba, Jews call God YHWH, and Muslims call God Allah. You can't displease Abba and please Allah at the same time.

"Muslims deny the divinity of Jesus Christ, a most obvious defect." No. No, it isn't. To Muslims, Jesus was a prophet. Not divine, but divinely inspired. It's not a "defect" to be of a different religion. Having three eyes is a defect. Being Muslim is not.

"Next will be Halal food only, headscarves for women and daily prayers!" Islamophobic, much? And if that person were as great a Chrisitan as s/he claims to be, wouldn't s/he be praying daily anyways?

"We are at war in this country, a war pitting good, God fearing, decent, hard working, patriotic Americans, against the secular humanistic, atheistic, pro-universality, one world govt., anti-American, liberal, socialist scum." Well, excuse me for being liberal. I'm terribly sorry that all the poor little "hard working, patriotic Americans" have to suffer at the hand of equality. But if you were a "good, God fearing" person, wouldn't you "love thy neighbour as thyself"? Or did you forget about that part of Christianity?

"This country is full of traitorous bastards and it is high time that patriotic Americans took this country back from the politically correct, leftist, liberal, anti-American scum, Send them the heck back to Kenya, Iran and where ever else" Yes, why don't we put America in the capable hands of the KKK! Excellent idea! And while we're at it, let's review Hitler's speeches and learn from them. And lets reinstate slavery! And let's take away women's right to vote! Hell, let's just get rid of anyone who is even a smidgen different from us, the superior red-necks, and leave this great nation to be governed by uneducated, ignorant, "good" Americans.

Sorry about this rant. It's just that idiots like these get me so incredibly mad.

"Might be time for us to excise the People's Republik of the West Coast? California, Washington and Oregon seem to all be drowning themselves in the trough of politically correct multi-culturalism."

OH YES PLEASE! PLEASE CAN WE BE OUR OWN COUNTRY PLEASE?!?!?! We would take a good chunk of the US's industry and companies with us, including Hollywood, Microsoft and Starbucks, and we're only three measley liberal states.

REMEMBER: WEST COAST IS THE BEST COAST!

LOL! Sorry, but I do find the contrast between California, for instance, and... oh, I don't know, Montana, to be quite stark in social and political values.

ALL HAIL THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLICK OF THE WEST COAST!

I think everyone should Cede. Leave DC to its own devices...

Reading the Declaration of Independence yesterday, I found it interesting how many of the conditions the authors cited as being unacceptable applied to the current US. Granted, they are prefaced with the idea that normally people can and should suffer such insults without tossing off the government, but I still think it interesting. That's neither here nor there, but I'm not sure which debate this link is meant to address, so who can say?

Some thoughts about the Pledge of Allegiance, which I may have provided previously in the past:
* immigrants (and particularly naturalized citizens) to the US have to go through many more ways of pledging their allegiance to the country than children pledging allegiance to the flag
* the idea of pledging allegiance to the flag has always seemed idiotic to me. Pledging allegiance to the country I can understand, but the flag? It's a symbol, in much the same way that a sign that read "The United States of America" is. Nothing more. The folks who are incensed at removing or altering the pledge seem, to me, to have their priorities in the wrong place.
* many adults complain quite a bit about children not saying the pledge (or saying an altered pledge). But do the adults regularly pledge allegiance to the flag? If it's such a big deal, why not have authority figures pledging to the flag? Certainly there are aspects of the pledge that lawmakers, other elected officials and especially appointed officials should keep in mind every day on the job ("the republic: one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all"). Maybe the classroom - where not everyone is in the business of actually governing the country - isn't really the place where this should be an issue. Wouldn't it make more sense for Congress? For the President?