In the Name of God

Scalia's at it again, with his selective use of "original intent", claiming that a nation that litters everything that isn't nailed down with the word "God" is not religion-neutral.



Since he said this in front of a Jewish group, he decided to invoke the Holocaust this time to demonstrate the inevitable result of separation of church and state:

"Did it turn out that, by reason of the separation of church and state, the Jews were safer in Europe than they were in the United States of America? I don't think so."

For Scalia to play the Holocaust card in trying to convince Jews that an imposition of a Christian theocracy is what the Founding Fathers wanted is just appalling. And he doesn't know his Hitler very well either:

I believe today that I am acting in the sense of the Almighty Creator. By warding off the Jews I am fighting for the Lord's work."

-- Adolph Hitler, speech to the Reichstag, 1936



"I believe today that my conduct is in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator."

-- Adolph Hitler, Mein Kampf, pg. 46

Gee, that sounds like the thought patterns of another world leader we know, doesn't it?

"I trust God speaks through me. Without that, I couldn't do my job."

-- George W. Bush, Lancaster County, July 2004



"God told me to strike at al Qaida and I struck them, and then he instructed me to strike at Saddam, which I did, and now I am determined to solve the problem in the Middle East." -- George W. Bush

What part of "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion" does Mr. Scalia not understand? As for spattering the word "God" like graffiti all over the place, obviously Scalia is ignorant of the fact that the words "In God We Trust" were added to the currency during the Civil War, NOT by the Founding Fathers.

"God" was added to the Pledge of Allegiance not by the Founding Fathers, but in the 1950's as a McCarthyite response to "Godless Communism."



Here's what some other scholars had to say about church and state -- each and every one of them with more wisdom than Scalia will ever have:

"A tyrant must put on the appearance of uncommon devotion to religion. Subjects are less apprehensive of illegal treatment from a ruler whom they consider god-fearing and pious. On the other hand, they do less easily move against him, believing that he has the gods on his side."

-- Aristotle



Fundamentalism isn't about religion. It's about power.

-- Salman Rushdie



"Accustomed to trample on the rights of others, you have lost the genius of your own independence and become the fit subjects of the first cunning tyrant who rises among you."

-- Abraham Lincoln, Speech at Edwardsville, Illinois. September 11, 1858. [ironic date isn't it?????]

(Thanks to Lois E. for the above)