One State Under God
Texas has a new phrase added to our pledge, one state under God. The bill making this change had almost worked its way through the legislature when I first learned it had been proposed. Apparently Gov. Perry signed it into law forthwith. I wanted to send my lawmakers a warning but it was too late.
This seems to be one of those feel good, no responsibility things legislators pass from time to time. But does God view it this way? In officially placing ourselves, Texas and Texans, "under God" we're officially accepting God's authority over us. We are saying we're his people, which is fine by me. But God expects and rewards obedience from his people, and at the same time allows them to bear the consequences that stem from disobedience. Is this pledge addition going to inspire Texans to obey more diligently? If not, what are the consequences? I'd say if we're going to draw no nearer to God, we probably would have been better off leaving the pledge alone.
And just who is our God? We had better know for sure. The Federal pledge has had a similar phrase for over fifty years, and our leaders in Washington don't have a clue any more. President Bush recently said that God and Allah were one and the same. Really?
The United States Senate recently had a Hindu and the gazillion gods which are no gods that he represents offer the opening prayer. Who or what was expected to provide the guidance that day?
Is God blessing the U.S.A. these days? Well, doubtless, because God is merciful, we're receiving better than we deserve. Still, we're fast becoming a nation that's no nation because of our worship of multiculturalism. We're giving away our birthright without a mess of pottage anywhere in sight.
Poor Tiger
I just finished watching a good bit of the British Open and now I really feel sorry for Tiger Woods. Poor Tiger needs a rival and he has none. It looks like he's doomed to go down in history bullying a bunch of second-raters.
Jack Nicholas had Arnold Palmer, Gary Player, Lee Trevino and Tom Watson. And not all that far behind were Seve Ballesteros and Billy Casper. And probably others, a very rich era.
Bobby Jones had Walter Hagen, Gene Sarazen and Francis Ouimet.
Ben Hogan had Sam Sneed and Byron Nelson for starters.
Phil Mickelson looked like he had shaken off the old self-destructive Phil and only needed a par on the final hole of last year's U.S. Open to win his fourth major in three years. The guy ahead of him had double bogeyed to give him back the lead. Phil's play on that hole made me think I was watching the last hole of the movie
Tin Cup again. The words of that old baseball manager came to mind who, referring to one of his pitchers, said, "The guy's got a million dollar arm and a ten cent head." Tiger was no doubt pulling hard for Phil. He needs him, or somebody.
The only two current players with the
elan (or whatever) and fan appeal to become a real challenge for Tiger are Phil and Sergio Garcia. (Vijay. Who's he?) And today Sergio only meeded to par the eighteenth to win the British Open. The guy ahead of him had double bogeyed to give him back the lead... Well you know the result. Poor Tiger.
This Republican War
Charley Reese, as he so often is, is right. The Iraq war is a Republican Party war. There is no real
bipartisan support for it. While the Democrats, primarily returned to majority numbers in both houses of congress by a war weary electorate to get us out of this damned thing, talk the talk, their passion level is low. And Republicans in the Senate can-- and do-- forestall any bills that would change anything.
I used to think of this as George Bush's war or Bush and Cheney's war. I was wrong there. Bush and Cheney need-- and have-- the necessary party support and action to keep this awful, useless, bloody mess going on and on.
Here's a link to Charley's column.
Quotes from "The Real Nuclear Threat"
Here are a couple of interesting quotes from the column entitled "The Real Nuclear Threat" by Anthony Gregory on today's Lew Rockwell site.
"The world is held hostage by the US arsenal. This has only encouraged rogue states to seek WMD. If a state doesn’t have any, it gets treated like Iraq. If it has some, it gets diplomacy. " Yep, this seems pretty obvious.
As Mr. Gregory continues: "The US government has in the nuclear age only picked fights with countries that couldn’t effectively fight back, except through terrorism and fourth-generation warfare. "
It seems little wonder that Iran would desire nuclear weapons.
