We have previously discussed how leaders in both the United States and Europe have focused on atheists and secularists as one of the greatest threats facing the free world. Rep. Trent Franks (R-Ariz.) seemed to take this to a new level in arguing this week that if the nation did not reaffirm “In God We Trust” as our national motto, we are inviting anarchy and accepting that we are nothing but “worm food.”
Of course, the motto has only been embraced since 1956 and we seemed to do pretty well through the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Moreover, not having a motto based on the recognition of faith does not mean that we are a country of faithless citizens. Indeed, there are plenty deeply religious secularists.
However, Franks went to the floor to say “Is God God? Or is man God? In God do we trust, or in man do we trust?” Otherwise, he warned “we should just let anarchy prevail because, after all, we are just worm food. So indeed we have the time to reaffirm that God is God and in God do we trust.”
Of course, no one was asking to rescind the motto, but the legislative debate is part of the increasing faith-based politics that remains the rage this year.
Source: Washington Post
SwM,
Well reasoned and well written.
BTW – Look at Huntsman and what he’s doing in S.C. … check out his funding and notice how well he’s keeping himself separate from the Cain & Co. clowns.
I really think he could threaten the inevitability of Romney if he does well in N.H. and follows that up with a strong showing in S.C.
It was just their usual shenanigans. It was meant as a corrective to Obama. This is from the Christian Science Monitor….
The measure sponsored by Rep. Randy Forbes, R-Va., supports and encourages the motto’s display in all public schools and government buildings. It was approved 396-9, with 2 abstentions.
Forbes said the resolution was needed because President Obama had once called “E pluribus unum” the national motto, and the Latin phrase meaning “from many one” was engraved in the new Capitol Visitors Center until Congress ordered that it be corrected
…
Blouise, great article. Just got back from Austin. See that republicans are still supporting Herman Cain.
ekeyra,
Come into the light my son … it always works!
Carol,
Jill,
Hmmm goldman sachs, operating as it was, would have gone bankrupt and would have been unable to continue its fraudulent and criminal activities. The government with its power to confiscate resources by force took other people’s money and gave it to them because they were too important to fail. Where do you think the real problem lies, the business practices that would have run the company into the ground, or political power to confiscate wealth to keep the charade going?
Blouise,
Being pro-obama, who has claimed the right to murder anyone, anywhere on the planet, at any time, without even having to explain why is a horror. Why would you think otherwise?
Jill, as a rally member on a few occasions, and I expect to be there again tomorrow, at Occupy Philly, it is time a cogent statement was made. Mr Hedges has made it (thanks for posting it). Now maybe the media will finally focus on the majority rather than the tiny few pot smokers, incoherent, and strange. We are the 99%. We are democracy speaking, We are America at it’s best.
SwM (and anyone else who might be interested … though a warning to all, especially closet teabaggers, this is not a piece favorable to this present crop of republican presidential contenders and might even be construed as [horrors upon horrors] pro-Obama):
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/11/03/political-class-clowns/?ref=opinion&nl=opinion&emc=tya1
Elaine, another example if the thinking by the right that a lie repeated often enough will become the truth; say enough times, reward him often and by golly, the guy really is a decent man who cares about his family (yeah, right.)
mespo,
That suggestion is far, far too practical to ever be implemented. 😀
on the subject of anarchy—“Published on Friday, November 4, 2011 by TruthDig.com
No Arrests Inside Goldman Sachs, Though We Were Arrested Outside
by Chris Hedges
Chris Hedges made this statement in New York City’s Zuccotti Park on Thursday morning during the People’s Hearing on Goldman Sachs, which he chaired with Dr. Cornel West. The activist and Truthdig columnist then joined a march of several hundred protesters to the nearby corporate headquarters of Goldman Sachs, where he was arrested with 16 others. [Christopher Hedges and other Occupy Wall Street protesters get arrested in front of Goldman Sachs headquarters in Battery Park City after they held a mock trial against the company at Zuccoti Park and marched to the building with their guilty verdict. Approximately 15-20 protesters were arrested in an act of civil disobedience. (Craig Warga/New York Daily News )] Christopher Hedges and other Occupy Wall Street protesters get arrested in front of Goldman Sachs headquarters in Battery Park City after they held a mock trial against the company at Zuccoti Park and marched to the building with their guilty verdict. Approximately 15-20 protesters were arrested in an act of civil disobedience. (Craig Warga/New York Daily News )
Goldman Sachs, which received more subsidies and bailout-related funds than any other investment bank because the Federal Reserve permitted it to become a bank holding company under its “emergency situation,” has used billions in taxpayer money to enrich itself and reward its top executives. It handed its senior employees a staggering $18 billion in 2009, $16 billion in 2010 and $10 billion in 2011 in mega-bonuses. This massive transfer of wealth upwards by the Bush and Obama administrations, now estimated at $13 trillion to $14 trillion, went into the pockets of those who carried out fraud and criminal activity rather than the victims who lost their jobs, their savings and often their homes.
Goldman Sachs’ commodities index is the most heavily traded in the world. Goldman Sachs hoards rice, wheat, corn, sugar and livestock and jacks up commodity prices around the globe so that poor families can no longer afford basic staples and literally starve. Goldman Sachs is able to carry out its malfeasance at home and in global markets because it has former officials filtered throughout the government and lavishly funds compliant politicians—including Barack Obama, who received $1 million from employees at Goldman Sachs in 2008 when he ran for president. These politicians, in return, permit Goldman Sachs to ignore security laws that under a functioning judiciary system would see the firm indicted for felony fraud. Or, as in the case of Bill Clinton, these politicians pass laws such as the 2000 Commodity Futures Modernization Act that effectively removed all oversight and outside control over the speculation in commodities, one of the major reasons food prices have soared. In 2008 and again in 2010 prices for crops such as rice, wheat and corn doubled and even tripled, making life precarious for hundreds of millions of people. And it was all done so a few corporate oligarchs, the 1 percent, could make personal fortunes in the tens and hundreds of millions of dollars. Despite a damning 650-page Senate subcommittee investigation report, no individual at Goldman Sachs has been indicted, although the report accuses Goldman of defrauding its clients.
When the government in the fall 2008 provided the firm with billions of dollars in the form of cheap loans, FDIC debt guarantees, TARP, AIG make-wholes, and a late-night label-shift from investment bank to bank holding company, giving the firm access to excessive Federal Reserve aid, access [the corporation] still has, it enabled and abetted Goldman’s criminal behavior. Goldman Sachs unloaded billions in worthless securities to its clients, decimating 401(k)s, pension and mutual funds. The firm misled investors about the true nature of these worthless securities, insisted the securities they were pushing on their clients were sound, and hid the material fact that, simultaneously, they were betting against these same securities—$2 billion against just one of their deals. The firm then had the gall to extort from its victims—us—to make good on its bets when the global economy it helped trash lost $40 trillion in worldwide wealth and huge insurance firms were unable to cover their bad debts.
The Securities Act of 1933, established in the wake of the massive fraud that pervaded the securities market before the 1929 Crash, was written to ensure that “any securities transactions are not based on fraudulent information or practices.” The act “prohibits deceit, misrepresentation, and other fraud in the sale of securities.” The subcommittee report indicates that Goldman Sachs clearly broke security laws.
As part of the political theater that has come to replace the legislative and judicial process, the Securities and Exchange Commission agreed to a $550 million settlement whereby Goldman Sachs admitted it showed “incomplete” information in marketing materials and that it was a “mistake” to not disclose the nature of its portfolio selection committee. This fine was a payoff to the SEC by Goldman Sachs of about four days’ worth of revenue, and in return they avoided going to court. CEO Lloyd Blankfein apparently not only lied to clients, but to the subcommittee itself on April 27, 2010, when he told lawmakers: “We didn’t have a massive short against the housing market, and we certainly did not bet against our clients.” Yet, they did.
And yet nothing has been done. No Goldman Sachs officials have gone to trial. This is because there is no way within the corporate state to vote against the interests of Goldman Sachs. There is no way through the formal mechanisms of power to restore the rule of law. There is no way to protect the ordinary citizen and the poor around the globe from the predatory activity of financial institutions such as Goldman Sachs. Since our courts refuse to put on trial the senior executives at Goldman Sachs, including Blankfein, who carried out these crimes and lied to cover them up, we will. Speculators like those in Goldman Sachs—who in the 17th century when speculation was a crime would have been hanged—must be prevented by law from again destroying our economy, preying on ordinary citizens, hoarding food so the poor starve and running our political process. We are paying for these crimes—not those who orchestrated perhaps the most massive fraud in human history. Our teachers, police, firefighters and public employees are losing their jobs so speculators like Blankfein can make an estimated $250,000 a day. Working men and women are losing their homes and going into personal bankruptcy because they cannot pay their medical bills. Our unemployed, far closer to 20 percent than the official 9 percent, are in deep distress all so a criminal class, a few blocks from where I speak, can wallow in luxury with mansions and yachts and swollen bank accounts.
What we are asking for today is simple—it is a return to the rule of law. And since the formal mechanisms of power refuse to restore the rule of law, then we, the 99 percent, will have to see that justice is done.
Why not adopt the motto of antiquity: “Our God’s better than your god and we’ll fight you for it.” Seems to fit in nicely with the line of reasoning.
So if we change the motto does that mean we can finally have anarchy? Wow I never knew all that was needed was a slogan change. What have I been doing all this time?
Well, it beats wasting an entire day naming a Post Office. No, actually, I’d rather see the post office being named…it’s at least a concrete building rather than an abstract (and in many minds) outdated concept.
Off Topic
Here’s a story about another sterling member of Congress:
Deadbeat Rep. Joe Walsh, Who Owes $100k In Child Support, Receives ‘Pro-Family’ Award From Family Research Council
By Lee Fang on Nov 4, 2011
http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2011/11/04/361149/joe-walsh-family-research-council/
In July, the press learned that Rep. Joe Walsh (R-IL), a Tea Party freshman in Congress, owed $117,000 in unpaid child support to his ex-wife. Walsh, despite earning a hefty salary as a member of Congress, has continued to refuse to pay his ex-wife to support his children. Now, it appears, an influential Christian right lobbying group is lending some support to the deadbeat congressman.
The Sun-Times reports that the Family Research Council, a social conservative advocacy nonprofit headed by CNN pundit Tony Perkins, has awarded Walsh a 100 percent rating as a “True Blue” member of Congress. The FRC said it gave the honor to Walsh because of his “unwavering support of the family”:
“We thank Cong. Walsh who has voted consistently to defend faith, family and freedom,” said FRCA President Tony Perkins. “Cong. Walsh and other ‘True Blue Members’ have voted to repeal Obamacare, de-fund Planned Parenthood, end government funding for abortion within the health care law, uphold the Defense of Marriage Act, and continue support for school choice. I applaud their commitment to uphold the institutions of marriage and family.”
“I am proud and honored to be recognized by the Family Research Council as the only member from Illinois with a 100 percent pro-family voting record,” Walsh said in a news release. “Defending American values have always been one of my top priorities, and this reward reaffirms my dedication to that fight.”
Despite their very poor understanding of what the term “pro-family” means — the Family Research Council was recently designated a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center because of their virulently anti-gay views — they are disturbingly influential among conservative lawmakers. Their legislative arm’s annual “Values Voters” convention drew such speakers as Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), former Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA), House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA), Gov. Bobby Jindal (R-LA), Gov. Rick Perry (R-TX), Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), and former Gov. Mitt Romney (R-MA) this year.
Additionally, it’s worth noting that Walsh’s failure to pay child support isn’t even his only failure to look out for the basic needs of his own family. As Marie Diamond noted for ThinkProgress a few months ago, “Walsh also rejected the congressional health insurance plan for his family on principle, much to the chagrin of his current wife, Helene, who had a preexisting condition and needed surgery while the couple was uninsured.”
Recently, a judge rebuked Walsh for failing to even show up to a court hearing about his missed child support payments, telling the Chicago-area lawmaker that he doesn’t deserve special treatment and that he’s “no different than anyone else.”
dang it Bobby
Food request for Rev. Schuller’s wife sparks outrage
Food request for Rev. Schuller’s wife sparks outrage
I have no problems with Jesus or the vast majority of Christians but I wish they could do something with the idiots that give them a bad name
You are correct about that last part Gene!