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There seemed to be quite a bit of controversy stirring today over the President's comments on the role religion played in his nominating Harriet Miers for Supreme Court justice. While he didn't come out and directly say so (his words were "part of Harriet Mier's life is her religion" when asked about her background), it is quite obvious that religion did play a part in Bush's nomination. Bush has said in the past that he chose Miers and Roberts because they share his values, and Bush makes no qualms about his Christian beliefs. What I don't understand is why we should expect the President to do anything other than choose someone who shares his same belief system. I can't see why it's news that Bush, a conservative Christian Republican, chose a conservative Christian Republican for the Supreme Court. Who else would he nominate, Al Sharpton? If I were president, I would definitely make religion a deciding factor in a choice for Supreme Court justice. I certainly wouldn't nominate an evangelical Christian conservative because I don't share those fundamental beliefs. It seems to me that these nominations were determined when Bush won the election in 2004. It's one of the perks of being the President, and it just so happened that Pat Robertson prayed out two during Bush's stay in office. That's just how it goes.
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First there was Cindy Sheehan protesting the war in Iraq; now there's a mom in New York challenging the RIAA after the association filed a lawsuit against her for pirating music over the Internet. Unlike most who have simply rolled over and paid the ridiculous $7,500 in damages to the RIAA, Patricia Santangelo is taking the case to court. Now I'm all for paying artists for music they create, and even paying the record companies for their work in distributing the music to the masses, but I think what Santangelo is doing is to be commended. It's about time somebody stood up to the thugs in the RIAA; after all, the RIAA and the MPAA are doing other nefarious things behind our backs which violate our Fair Use rights as US citizens and which go unchecked due to the ruckus they raise over the P2P scene. What strikes me as the most interesting, though, and the reason I'm writing this post, is the fact that it's moms, not the youth, fighting the power. Where are the demonstrations on college campuses and the great folk songs denouncing these types of things like we saw in the 1960s and 1970s? Are teens just not affected by today's issues like they were back then? Is it because the US draft has been replaced by a more subtle and marginal backdoor draft, and because it's the parents getting slapped with the lawsuits for the actions of their children? Or could it be that middle-aged women have just now discovered Rage Against the Machine? It does seem to have one very positive side effect, though; while Hillary Clinton continues to fight the tired battle of fixing other people's kids, the New Moms are taking care of their own.
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On Wednesday, federal judge Lawrence Karlton ruled that the pledge of allegiance is unconstitutional, or at least it's unconstitutional to make kids say it in school. Being an agnostic, I do have some rather strong feelings about forcing any particular religion on someone or punishing those who don't believe in the prevailing thought du jour, but really, the pledge of allegiance? The pledge says "under God," not "under Jehovah" or "under Allah." The great thing about the word "God" is that it means so many things to so many people. For many, like me, I see the words "under God" in the pledge as simply an idiom; it's a phrase that's there because at one time it actually meant something (i.e. to counteract atheistic communism in the 1950's) but now just serves as a symbol that we're all united under some kind of ideology. Besides, what is the pledge of allegiance really for, anyway, other than to give kids something to mumble through during homeroom? This is the kind of stuff that makes conservatives' blood boil, and rightly so. I certainly would like to distance myself from rulings like this, but inevitably many who know me probably think I'm for this kind of nonsense.
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Seeing as much running water as has passed through New Orleans in the last couple weeks would make me have to go, too.
Link: Reuters.com
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 Oh yeah, I remember now. So Bush in his infinite wisdom decides today to appoint the moron who brought us the duct tape and plastic sheeting fiasco, David Paulison, to the head of FEMA, replacing Michael Brown who "stepped down" after his bungling of the Hurricane Katrina disaster. If only Paulison had been around to tell the citizens of New Orleans and Mississippi to duck and cover, perhaps the Gulf coast wouldn't be in the shape it is. The only reason I can think that the American people can stand to have a guy like Bush in the presidency is for the same reason we voted for the dorky kid in high school for class president: it's fun to see goofballs have power go to their heads. "Free hall passes for everyone!"
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