Meh. Read “correctly,” — see, eg., the first and second sections of the “Separation of Church and State” clause that explicitly states, and I fake quote, “[that] in The US, no one can pray aloud, lest someone somewhere is driven to the distractions created thereof; and it shall be the purpose of the State to keep the Creator around as a kind of pet, but no more, all declarations or assertions of such a Creator to be approved by the State thereby, in writing, if we can swing it” — our Constitution fairly demands such censorship. I mean, it’s right there. In black and white penumbras, for Chrissakes!
Local veterans say the Department of Veterans Affairs is consistently censoring their prayers, banning them from saying the words “God,” and “Jesus” during funeral services at Houston National Cemetery.
Three separate organizations have come forward complaining the cemetery’s director and other government officials are violating the First Amendment. Members from the Veterans of Foreign Wars, The American Legion and the National Memorial Ladies all complain of “religious hostility” at the cemetery.
On Tuesday they told a federal judge what’s been going on there.
“People are doing things out there that I feel like they shouldn’t be,” said Jim Rodgers, a Vietnam veteran.
“We are private citizens in a private organization, and yet we are restricted from saying what our ritual calls for,” said John Spahr, Veterans of Foreign Wars.
A 26-page complaint outlines the allegations. According to the court papers, the cemetery’s director, Arleen Ocasio, bans the word “God” and requires prayers to be submitted for government approval.
“We were told we could no longer say “God bless you” and “God bless your family,” said Marilyn Koepp, a volunteer with the National Memorial Ladies.
The group attends about 60 funerals a week to honor veterans and console families.
“How did I feel? I probably shouldn’t say how I felt because it was absolutely apalling that this woman would come aboard and tell us we can not say ‘God bless you,'” said Koepp.
[…]
“I am going to say ‘God bless you’ until I don’t know what would make me ever stop it,” said Koepp.
So far the complaints appear to be isolated to the Houston National Cemetery. The government has until the middle of next month to respond to the allegations.
Well, Mr Koepp. Your problem is that you’re a rightwing extremist godbotherer who doesn’t care one whit about the clear and plain text of the Constitution. Which specifically states, once some judges have gotten through with it, that the government gets to control your activity, your inactivity, and your exhalation. So what they say goes.
Constitutionally speaking, and in the name of freedom.
Were you a good and conscientious American you’d respect and revere the State your founders and framers clearly intended to control your every breath, movement, and utterance.
Amen. Peace out.
(h/t Darleen)
here is a picture of the hoochie what is responsible her name is Arleen Ocasio.
They want a shooting war so they can declare martial law and really get down to transforming America. We’ll see how that works out for them.
There you go again, misquoting the Founders to your own ends. What they actually said about Separation of Church and State was, and I quote accurately:
So there.
In other news, Harvard has determined that 4th of July celebrations turn our yoot into GOP zombies.
Don’t miss Gabe’s “Top Ten Ways Democrats Can Re-‘Appropriate’ July Fourth.“
I guess the 4th of July should be a national day of mourning for our past violent tendencies.
Harvard turns our yoot into progressive zombies.
Okay, so the right is “appropriating” patriotism. Sure we are.
Instead, I think the progressives have abandoned patriotism and are doing their best to re-frame it in their own image. That sounds a lot more like the truth.
Harvard turns our yoot into progressive zombies.
They mostly enter being that way already. I suppose it’s a shame that so many conservatives produce B-student offspring.
I know it’s was never OK to mention God, but I thought it was OK to be patriotic again?
It depends on how you define patriotic, motionview. As long as you are always careful to note how terrible this country is, you’re good to go.
The answer to such egregious ass-hattery is always the same: “I will not comply”
Their “patriotism” lies in being in love with America’s potential. I once told a very hot but extremely immature girlfriend that I didn’t love her, but I was in love with her potential. She slapped me in the face and told me to go fuck myself. That’s kind of how I feel about liberals.
They mostly enter being that way already. I suppose it’s a shame that so many conservatives produce B-student offspring.
Conservative offspring are too busy signing up for the military to care what Haarrvard thinks.
True, Carin. But bitching about the outsized influence of Harvard grads grows incredibly tedious from people who can’t or won’t deal with the reality of how you can change things. At least the left understood the importance of capturing institutions. Conservatives just like to whine.
Harvey still teaches there. So I suspect there are at least a few who go to Harvard with a view to getting an education.
From who?
Feldstein and Mankiw, too.
True, Carin. But bitching about the outsized influence of Harvard grads grows incredibly tedious from people who can’t or won’t deal with the reality of how you can change things. At least the left understood the importance of capturing institutions. Conservatives just like to whine.
But, the bitching IS how you deal with the outsized influence. Kids who attend Harvard aware of the bias are better prepared. As they continue to deny their bias shows them for the intellectual frauds that they are.
Of course, I’m tracking with Glenn Reynolds on the whole university dealo. I’m also of the ilk that University education is vastly over-rated. Look at all the dipshit mind-thoughts that comes from there. Liberals can own the world of theory and doing-nothing. They are welcome to it, imho.
But, the bitching IS how you deal with the outsized influence. Kids who attend Harvard aware of the bias are better prepared. As they continue to deny their bias shows them for the intellectual frauds that they are.
No, Carin. You deal with the outsized influence of liberal Harvard grads with more conservatives preparing their kids to be able to attend schools like that. The Harvards open doors that other schools don’t. That’s reality. The rest is just mental masturbation.
A lot of that comes down to the same thing regardless of what college you attend. Get an engineering degree from a good state school and it was probably a good investment. Get a comp sci degree from Stanford and it was probably a good investment.
Study something that people aren’t willing to pay you decent money for after graduation and it doesn’t really matter where you go. The only real difference is that if you do study something that’s in demand then the more exclusive the school, the higher the initial earning potential, future business contacts… and student loan payments.
You mean my Womyn’s Studies degree is not as valuable as an engineering degree? That’s kind of patriarchal, sexist, and rapey, isn’t it?
The Ivys have been skating on their cultural capital for a generation, at least. If the quality of their product is so high, why is the country in “the very best of hands,” as Glen Reynolds likes to say?
And just to clarify, I’m not opposed to the idea of elite education. I just don’t think the Harvard of today bears more than a passing resemblance to the Harvard of the 30s and 40s.
Hell, William Buckley pointed out, when? 1952? that Yale was betraying it’s mission and tradition.
Heh. I believe I was also somewhat judgmental, mv.
Not to say that other degrees (not like women’s studies but like English or art history) aren’t worth pursuing but the cost of the degree is way out of whack with what you’ll later get payed in that field.
And bh correctly points out the problem is on the “Arts and Letters” side, not the “Science” side.
Well, at least not the hard sciences.
I kind of disagree, bh. Not about the value of practical degrees from good state schools, but I have plenty of friends and acquaintances who graduated from top schools with useless degrees who make an assload of money in fields they were theoretically unqualified for. Wall Street in particular seems to get their rocks off on hiring Harvard/Yale/Princeton types with stupid majors – though not Vagina Studies I’d assume.
Maybe we should consider the possibility that the hardness isn’t so much an absolute solidity as the difficulty of attainment to the mathematically untalented? No, wait, I take that back.
[Runs and hides]
Yeah, I’ve seen a bit of that myself, Abe.
Probably can explain that with the combination of high SAT scores correlating to high intelligence (so they wasted four years but are still quite bright anyway) and the much larger opportunity for meeting the right people.
No need to take it back, sdferr, as to a large degree it’s true.
Jacques Barzun wrote a shitload over his career about the “two ways of knowing” (essay not online as far as I can tell), and what happens when fetishization of one kind of knowledge leads to the bastardization of the other.
Nobody ask me to unpack that right now, ’cause I can’t.
On the other hand, I also know plenty of people with worthless degrees from some of the best schools who now work for local NPR stations or are making $20k a year in creative fields.
Yeah. That’s true. My alma mater is always on these top ten lists for average alumni earnings, but I know for a fact that people from there have to grind it out in a way that, say, Harvard grads just don’t.
You guys, I visited Arlington National Cemetery a few years ago, and you would not believe this — like, just about every grave marker has like a cross or a star of David or that sort of thing at the top!
I know, really?
I suppose it’s a shame that so many conservatives produce B-student offspring.
One word: Legacies
Two additional words: Long Island
Well, at least not the hard sciences.
What, like paleo-climatology? Dendrochronology? Nutrition?
The public gets nothing but Science By Press Release, even though the press releases totally overstate the impact of the findings and no one reports on the null results that follow up the overstated “breakthrough” studies.
Witness today’s Big Thing about diet sodas making you fat. The “study” followed people who drank aspartame and those who drank high-fructose corn syrup, but they didn’t study what else the subjects were eating. Didn’t control for people eating more crap because they drank no-calorie soda.
It’s all corrupt, top to bottom. Just call me Diogenes.
The Ivys have been skating on their cultural capital for a generation, at least.
You know those U.S. News and World Report college rankings?
They’re based largely on the opinions of other college presidents, who get surveys where they’re asked to rank other universities. My mom used to be the secretary to a college president, so she saw it herself.
plenty of people with worthless degrees from some of the best schools
You called?
They’re based largely on the opinions of other college presidents
That’s a small (and very stupid) part of it. Those rankings are pretty worthless except for the fact that they’re taken seriously by impressionable young status whores and their parents. I see it all the time on college football message boards where someone who went to a school ranked, say, 75th will actually talk shit to someone at a school ranked 81st. It’s kind of bizarre.
I kinda like dendrochronology di. Ice cor(ps)es too!
Well, at least not the hard sciences.
That’s what I thought when I started my Physics program. Let’s just say that the ’90s “Peace Dividend” was not good to people like me.
The rankings are taken very seriously by the faculty as well, and also by other universities if you are looking to teach there. One can only at best move sideways, and usually you have to move one rank down if you want tenure. This is true across the board, even in the hard sciences.
“No, Carin. You deal with the outsized influence of liberal Harvard grads with more conservatives preparing their kids to be able to attend schools like that. The Harvards open doors that other schools don’t. That’s reality. The rest is just mental masturbation.No, Carin. You deal with the outsized influence of liberal Harvard grads with more conservatives preparing their kids to be able to attend schools like that. The Harvards open doors that other schools don’t. That’s reality. The rest is just mental masturbation.”
The humble will inherit the earth. Harvard grads will fulfill the prophecy.
Oh, and call me common, but I liked Windows XP better than 7.
QUIT TRYING TO ANTICIPATE ME!!!