I need a badge.

As I was saying, it turns out that in the fifties, America's motto was changed from "e pluribus unum" to "In God We Trust". Now, far be it from me to slag off America when it's been so popular to do that lately. "From the many, one", is, it must be observed, a lovely sentiment, packed with meaning, speaking into being a state that makes democracy its central ingredient. The nation exists in that it is a democracy; democracy is not a new style of government for a pre-existing nation. More than that, it evokes a pluralism which remains a bold ideal, even now - particularly now. It is entirely appropriate for the secular state that the USA is constitutionally bound to be.

"In God We Trust", by contrast, is psycho imperialist religious paranoid bollocks.

Meanwhile, it seems that the airline worker who insists on wearing her emblem of murderous torture (that would be a cross) over her uniform may well be allowed so to do in future. I don't care whether she wears it or not, really. But the thing is, in contrast to some of the symbols of other religions, which symbols are tolerated, there is no stricture within Christianity which says that she will go to hell, or suffer ostracism, or some similar opprobrium if she doesn't wear it. She just seems to think that she can't do her job unless she can declare to all and sundry that she is a Christian while she does it. I'd really quite enjoy going to work wearing some kind of symbol which meant "there is no God, you stupid bastards", but I don't expect it would be popular.

Rumsfeld lives, while...

"I personally don't believe in God;

I tend to think, if God wanted us to believe in Him,

He'd exist."

Linda Smith

This decision is a great erroneous.

According to the White House, apparently, "Saddam's death sentence is a great day for Iraq." I've heard this repeated often enough to assume that it is, in fact, what they intended to say. I suppose that, by now, we shouldn't be surprised that they have such a poor grasp of the English language; more than that, these are people who are quite happy to assert that where the facts don't agree with what they say, it is reality that has got it wrong. How many legal judgements make a month?

On a slightly less obscure point, I have for a long time found it rather ironic that in a country where the State is seen as a necessary evil at best, the viewpoint that the State should keep as far out of people's business as possible is held by essentially the same demographic that believes that the State should have jurisdiction inside women's bodies.