PHOTO INDEX: THE WHITE HOUSE.
PRESIDENT'S DAY
We celebrate President's Day to honor our chief executives. At dinner Friday night at the fabulous Victory Pig, a buddy asked me my top 5 Presidents. They are:
1. Lincoln.
2. Franklin Roosevelt.
3. Ronald Reagan.
4. George Washington.
5. Theodore Roosevelt.
In a poll by AOL, the top 4 are Lincoln, Reagan, Roosevelt (FDR) and Kennedy. George Bush comes in at #10 but in another poll 63% of Americans count him in the bottom third.
GOD AND YOU TUBE
Much has been made of the Mike Huckabee connection with the religious community. There is a seperation of church and state and nowhere was it made more clear in these two clips from one of my favorite TV shows, The West Wing. The first has President Bartlett at the peak of his Presidency coming down hard on a talk show host.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWqgD7lGneU
From espisode one is Bartlett throwing out the religious right wingers who want to "deal".
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V82I7vgzfgE.
Even though this is fiction, we can all do well to remember that religion is private and the Presidency is public. For all who believe or don't.
TODD!!!!!
It isn't my newphew Todd Edwards of Daytona, Florida and Wilkes Barre, Pa. (2 weeks out of the year) or former County Commissioner Todd Vonderheid either. The guy is a cereal eating pundit named Todd who tells us all about President's Day. From YOU TUBE:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=9pCX6nzhHJU
Hi Dave,
ReplyDeleteCan you point out to me the clause in the constitution that does in fact call for a separation between church and state.
Joe
IN RESPONSE
ReplyDeleteCan you point out to me the clause in the constitution that does in fact call for a separation between church and state.
NO, NOTHING THAT I CAN FIND. BUT IF WE ARE TO BE A DEMOCRACY, WE CAN'T FALL INTO THE TRAP OF BEING A THEOCRACY. THIS COUNTRY WAS FOUNDED ON FREEDOM OF RELIGION OR FREEDOM TO NOT BE RELIGIOUS. IT IS NOT THE LEFT CALLING FOR CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS.
Amendment I
ReplyDeleteCongress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;
Thank you for not including Martyr John Kennedy. Obama's just like him, offering plenty of promise and hope, but delivering none. I'll will definitely say he was one of the greatest oraters of all time. I have to disagree with Lincoln though. He gets lots of credit for being in office during the Civil War, but a deeper research shows he didn't want to free the slaves and fight a civil war. The early Republican party forced it upon him. Besides the civil war, what did he do?
ReplyDeleteRanking Presidents is pretty much impossible. The times in history, the events, the spins down thru the years all vary too much. Abraham Lincoln and FDR certainly stand in a league of their own due to extreme immediate circumstances and the fact that they both ultimately accomplished the mission which was the preservation of the United States. Thats BIG!
ReplyDeleteGort has it right. Through continued interpretation as strains were put upon it, SCOTUS has come down strongly on the side of separation. I, for one, am thrilled they have.
ReplyDeleteAnd while we're a it, this country was not founded on Christian principles. Not a chance, no way, no how. Revisionist history is galling, and claiming our beginnings are in Christian theology or thought is absolute rubbish. Our founders were not themselves men of great Christian faith, at least not as one would define it today.
If anything, this country was founded on Masonic principles. Do a little homework, you'll find that to be largely true. While those principles are not anti-Christian, they are most assuredly not pro-Christian.
And for the love of all that's just and intelligent, how about we not forget that "...under God" was only added to the pledge in the 1950s. Prior to that, few really saw the need.
Yeah, revisionist history is pox.
Yes, but just as with our current war, there is much to indicate that Lincoln and FDR both knew war was inevitable and did nothing to stop its occurrence. Also just as with our present war, both of them may have manipulated events, either through commission or omission, to expedite war for a number of reasons, including economic and political survival.
ReplyDeleteInteresting that Lincoln would work so hard to suppress revolutionaries since it had been less than one hundred years since this country itself resulted from the actions of the same. If the colonies had some God-given right to seek their own destiny, why did not the Confederate States have the right to do the same? I have never heard a satisfactory answer.
OK, maybe it's my unshakable cynicism, but I am convinced that most of what happens in life is not what it appears to be. Hell, in grade school(and probably much of high school)the notion that the Civil War was fought to eliminate slavery was the prevailing explanation. As has been noted above, that was pure Pollyanna rubbish.
And to the idea that Obama offers no more than promise and hope; Holy Shit, this country, our culture, our society, sure could use a huge dose of promise and hope, regardless of whether or not he delivers. We've got zero of either right now.