Random Liberals

We are random liberals (who knew?). Collectively, we make up the greatest blog in the history of ourselves. We will blog about anything that suits us; mostly politics, with a little bit of religion and randomness to make the blog exciting.

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Rob
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Wednesday, September 14, 2005

Pledge of Allegiance, Take 2

I believe that now would be an appropriate time to resurrect one of my favorite Calvin and Hobbes jokes of all time (originally posted here, very early in the life of this blog):

I pledge allegiance to Queen Fragg, and her mighty state of hysteria...

Today, a district court judge ruled that teacher-led recitations of the Pledge of Allegiance in public schools are unconstitutional because of the phrase "under God". The suit was brought by the parents of three California schoool-children. The lawyer for the plaintiffs is none other than Michael Newdow, who was the plaintiff in the case that was thrown out by the Supreme Court last year on a technicality. As I said in my post last year on the original lawsuit, I do not like allowing teacher-led recitations of the Pledge at all. Even if students cannot be required to recite the Pledge, a lot of pressure is placed on students to conform, especially if a person of authority is leading the way. Students who are barred by their religion to salute to the flag (or who choose not to do so for other reasons) face discrimination by teachers and other students if they do not stand with the rest of the class.

For a much better articulation of this subject, go read this post by Lauren of Feministe.

Robert

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