The only pledge of allegiance that a free man should ever make

I've been watching some of the HBO series True Blood.
I think the first season was great, the second season was "Meh", and it's gone downhill from there. 

In the "reality" of the series, vampires have come out of hiding, and some of them are trying to live openly among the non-dead.  They also have a somewhat medieval political system, with their own kings and queens of different areas.  Louisiana has a queen and Mississippi has a king, I think. 

Some of the characters have renounced their loyalty to the queen of, say, North Dakota, and pledged their loyalty to the king of Mississippi.  In the reality of the series, its something taken very seriously.  The vampire who revokes his pledge becomes a non-person to his former comrades. 

Watching that series has gotten me thinking about the current silliness with pledges, loyalty oaths, "Under God", and all the rest.  We routinely say pledges to political systems and lines of latitude and longitude, vowing our unending loyalty and dedication, kinda like we check off the "I Agree" box on a new software license. 

Honor the Texas flag;
I pledge allegiance to thee,
Texas, one state under God, one and indivisible.  

If you've pledged your allegiance to the Texas flag, does this mean you can never move to North Carolina without renouncing your loyalty to Rick Perry and Texas and the land between the Gulf Of Mexico and the Red River?   

"I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."  

I've been to about a half-dozen Tea Party and 9-12 meetings that begin with the pledge to the U.S. flag.  A couple of the participants usually get downright misty-eyed while reciting their loyalty oath and vowing their undying devotion to our organization of states.    After the pledge, someone stands up and starts talking about whether Texas should secede.

Lord have mercy, it makes me insane.  People, let's continue to pledge our loyalty to Bush/Obama and all their unholy works, or let's decline to do so.    Here's what one of our founding fathers had to say about loyalty to governments, flags, kings and rulers:  

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.  

It gets better:  

That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

Well said, Mr. Jefferson.  Well said. 

With that in mind, here's the only vow of loyalty that a non-sheep should ever make to his government. 

"I pledge that if you government clowns keep screwing up, I'm either going to leave this place, or do my best to seriously mess up your lives, with liberty and justice for all." 

It makes me crazy.  Go here for a similar rant with a different angle.    That's all I've got.  Just wanted to point out that we're all very, very strange. 

Dr Ralph has thrown in the towel. But that doesn't change anything.

My friend Dr. Ralph has apparently given up on The Teleprompter Jesus.  We're sitting at my favorite bar, The Corporate Image, having finished an acoustic guitar jam.  The good Doctor was kind enough and gracious enough to direct me to this post. 

It doesn't say anything about the failure of Obama's Keynesian economic policies, just the defeats and failures on the topics nearest and dearest to Dr. Ralph's heart. 

Be sure to read the Doctor's last sentence.  It can be summed up as follows: 

Dr. Ralph has approved this message.  He now wants the world to know (now) that he was a Hillary delegate in 2008. 

I can't quite swing him over to the Ron Paul camp. Dr. Paul is too dang honest for Dr. Ralph's taste.  Dr. Ralph respects the fact that "Dr. Paul has removed the filter from his mouth and brain".  That's a direct quote from Dr. Ralph.

Dr. Ralph has approved this message. 

550 LIVING PEOPLE VOLUNTARILY PAID $100 TO LISTEN TO BARACK OBAMA ! !

Gay and Lesbian activists are finally figuring it out.  The person who programs The Teleprompter Jesus isn't going to do anything for them.  Here's Politico:

NEW YORK – President Barack Obama was heckled multiple times during his speech at a Democratic fundraiser in one of the country’s most Democratic cities.

....Obama showed a flash of irritation after he was forced repeatedly off his prepared remarks. “We listened to you, we heard your point,” he told the “young lady” who continued shouting at him about AIDS funding. “This is not the time or the place to do what you’re talking about.”....The “don’t ask, don’t tell” protest came moments later, as Obama began talking about how incomes for the middle class fell by 5 percent – a statement he had to repeat twice.

Blah blah blah blah blah.  Here's the truly amazing part of the article.  Brace yourself:

“We need your energy and enthusiasm,” he told the 550 donors who had paid $100 to hear him speak.

I'm sorry, but if you'll pay $100 to listen to this guy after what we've heard for the last year and a half?????   I've got a ski resort in New Orleans' 9th Ward that I would like to sell you. 
Please send me your email address so I can forward it to Nigerian email scammers.  We know some people who have been trying to get in touch with you.
Oh, and I've got tickets for an Elvis concert.  Cash only, please. 
Here's Doctor Zero, with a fresh coat of Whitening to Instapundit:

Let me put this bluntly: virtually no one in America gives a damn what Barack Obama says about anything at this point.
What could be more predictable, and less interesting, than Obama’s opinion on any given subject?
Who wants to contemplate the economic wisdom of a guy who looted the Treasury for a trillion dollars, with less benefit than we could have achieved by stuffing hundred dollar bills into random cereal boxes?
Who’s excited to hear about the next plan to convert taxpayer dollars into Democrat campaign funds? Who’s hungry for another hour of tedious excuses about permanently broken markets and the titanic dead hand of George W. Bush?
Who wants a lecture on ethical business practices from the titular head of the party that gave us Charlie Rangel and Maxine Waters?
What use is another hollow foreign-policy speech from a man who sees no global adversary to rival the menace of Arizona?
Even Obama’s supporters don’t hear anything he says any more.
There’s nothing left to hear. 

Agreed.  But he still has an audience.  A paying audience.  (Just curious here....Are there still people who go to vaudeville performances?  How about minstrel shows?) 
Still.  I can't believe they found 550 people willing to pay $100 to listen to this guy. 

The Aggie Is NOT amused. I repeat, The Aggie is NOT amused.

I have a bathroom full of these things.
Dachshund puppies. Go here to see pics as newborns, go here for a week later.
They go into the bathtub when we're cleaning the bathroom floor, and they go onto the bathroom floor (yeah, they GO there) when we're cleaning the bathtub.



They've been fun, but it's now time for these guys to go. (All are now spoken for, BTW.)
This one was recently adopted by a Fort Worth couple. Mom works at TCU, and Dad does some kind of computer work near Dallas. Dad is a University Of Texas graduate, and is a diehard UT fan. Guess what they're naming their new puppy?

Colt.

Yeah, Colt.

The Aggie is NOT amused.

On religious hangings, bannings, and boycotts

From The Associated Press, on Switzerland's recent ban on any new minarets:

GENEVA — The United Nations called Switzerland's ban on new minarets "clearly discriminatory" and deeply divisive, and the Swiss foreign minister acknowledged Tuesday the government was very concerned about how the vote would affect the country's image.

U.N. human rights chief Navi Pillay said Sunday's referendum to outlaw the construction of minarets in Switzerland was the product of "anti-foreigner scare-mongering."

The criticism from Pillay, whose office is based in the Swiss city of Geneva, comes after an outcry from Muslim countries, Switzerland's European neighbors and human rights watchdogs since 57.5 percent of the Swiss population ratified the ban.

The Swiss government opposed the initiative but has sought to defend it as an action not against Islam or Muslims, but one aimed at improving integration and fighting extremism.

"These are extraordinary claims when the symbol of one religion is targeted," Pillay said in a statement. She said she was saddened to see xenophobic arguments gain such traction with Swiss voters despite their "long-standing support of fundamental human rights."

The referendum doesn't affect Switzerland's four existing minarets, or the ability of Muslims to practice their religion. It only bans the towers used to put out the Islamic call to prayer.

Let's change gears. This is from learned Islamic scholar Zakir Naik, probably the most popular Islamic theologian on our planet, on why it is understandable that non-Islamic religions are banned from constructing churches or synagogues in Muslim countries. (Spoiler alert: Islam is the only religion that gets it "right". Two plus two really does equal four.)



And finally,

Saudi Arabia has sentenced a man to death for practicing witchcraft.

A man has been sentenced to death in Saudi Arabia for witchcraft because he makes predictions on television.
Ali Sibat is not even a Saudi national.
The Lebanese citizen was only visiting Saudi Arabia on pilgrimage when he was arrested in Medina last year.

A court in the city condemned him as a witch on November 9.

The only evidence presented in court was reportedly the claim he appeared regularly on Lebanese satellite issuing general advice on life and making predictions about the future.

The case is causing outrage among human rights campaigners but has made little news elsewhere despite the ludicrous nature of the charges and the extraordinary severity of Sibat's sentence.

"Saudi courts are sanctioning a literal witch hunt by the religious police," said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch.

"The crime of witchcraft is being used against all sorts of behavior, with the cruel threat of state sanctioned executions."

Ali Sibat's supporters say he was denied a lawyer at his trial and was tricked into making a confession.

He is not the only victim of Saudi Arabia's literal witch hunt. Human Rights Watch says two other people have been arrested on similar charges in the last month alone.

It claims a lower court in Jeddah started the trial of a Saudi this month who was arrested by the religious police and said to have smuggled a book of witchcraft into the kingdom.

In another case the religious police are said to have arrested for "sorcery" and "charlatanry" an Asian man accusing him of using supernatural powers to solve marital disputes and induce others to fall in love.

Let's wind things up with a post from Dr. Ralph, who reports on the continuing struggle against retailers who say "Holidays" instead of "Christmas":

I'm bracing myself for our latest holiday tradition, the bombastic pronouncements about the "War on Christmas."

For the past several years, self-anointed protectors of Christmas have been creating lists of which retailers are naughty or nice. This seems to boil down to who says "Holiday" in their advertising instead of "Christmas."

On the Naughty list have been such Satanic organizations as Sears, Wal-Mart, Target, The Gap, Banana Republic, Home Depot. This year's Naughty and Nice list has been helpfully compiled by the American Family Association of Tupelo, Mississippi.

You may recall the American Family Association, led by the Reverand Donald Wildmon, from their previous name, the National Federation for Decency. They reared their pointy little heads in 1977, when they campaigned against what they perceived as indecency on television. Interestingly they never seemed to care about violence, just sex.

It will come as no surprise that the AFA rails constantly against what they refer to as "the homosexual agenda." As is usually the case, they wrap their intolerance and hatred in religiosity.

Fighting immorality must be profitable: the AFA's annual budget is around $14 million. The Reverend Donald's son Tim is now President of the family business.

And a business it is, make no mistake.

In addition to their network of 28 radio stations (all Family Friendly!) they've expanded their Decency Empire to include news websites for the Christian point of view, support for home schoolers, a line of "Christian-focused" videos, estate planning, and Holy Land vacation tours.

They even hawk their very own AFA branded Internet Filter ("Use the trusted Family Filter the Wildmons use in their home!").

You can't make this shit up.

No, you can't make it up. All you can do is copy, paste, and lament. My religion is right, because it's the one I grew up with. Your religion is wrong, because it is so obviously silly. I can't defend my religion with anything other than appeals to brand loyalty. You can only defend yours with force.

But we're still going to hang, ban, or boycott each other because of these stories.

Like The Doctor said, you can't make this shit up.