San Francisco Values?

From sfist:

The San Francisco Appeals court has ruled that "Under God" is not a prayer when used in the Pledge of Allegiance. In 2002, the court declared that the phrase was unconstitutional. The new 2-1 ruling from the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals states it is a "recognition of our founders' political philosophy that a power greater than the government gives the people their inalienable rights [...] Thus, the pledge is an endorsement of our form of government, not of religion or any particular sect."

In a separate 3-0 ruling, the "In God We Trust" was also found to be non-religious; the motto is patriotic and ceremonial.

The world is going to hell!

Question With Boldness...

Sully posted a reader email in which religion is basically rebuked, and the reader gets posted with no comment from Sully.  Good for you, Mr. Sullivan.

You see that "Question with boldness" Jefferson quote at the beginning of the Beck/Palin video? Here's Jefferson's full remark:

"Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blind-folded fear."

That's right. In a video in which he claims that God founded America, Glenn Beck references a quote in which our most important Founding Father stood tall and proud for agnosticism, and against the politics of fear.

Awesome.

Natural Aristocrats

John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and the other founding brothers coined a phrase: Natural Aristocracy. The notion that among the common people there are many who are capable of leadership. Okay, true. Look a little deeper at those natural aristocrats and tell me how they measure up to Sarah Palin:

One could argue that the Founders themselves constituted a self-appointed elite. They were unusually well-educated, literate, intellectually curious men, familiar with Greek and Roman history as well as the new ideas of the 18th century. Some of them were Ivy Leaguers like Obama; James Madison went to Princeton (at 13!), John Adams graduated from Harvard, and Hamilton attended Columbia. Jefferson was formidably intellectual, and his personal library became the basis of the Library of Congress. Hamilton and Ben Franklin were probably geniuses; despite their origins, they rose to prominence because older, established figures recognized their gifts.

Sound like Sarah? No. The nonsense over at Power Line and The Weekly Standard make the notion of NA, well, NA (not applicable). Comparing Sarah Palin to the Founding Fathers is a bit ridiculous. BUT THEY ARE GETTING AWAY WITH IT!!

McCain and company are counting on the fact that there simply aren't that many natural aristocrats around to peel back the bullshit that is the Republican party, and they know it.

Lets remember that John McCain graduated at the bottom of his class at Annapolis. And he crashed a few planes. And he flip-flops. And he picked a flying-wolf-hunter as his VP. This isn't 1808, and as williamyard said earlier, this is not a fucking game.