>Now perhaps I am an ignorant son of a bitch, but I
>believe this is the First Amendment you refer to:
> Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment
> of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof ;
> or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the
> right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the
> government for a redress of grievances. [emphasis mine]
>Alright, let's analyse this.
OK.
>Congress can't prohibit the free exercise thereof. Hmmm...
>Where does the first amendment prohibit people from saying
>the word, "God?" I don't see it in there, anywhere.
True. It also means that they can't prohibit the the free NON-exercise of religion. The trouble here is that we aren't talking about a conflict with the Free Exercise Clause.
We are talking about a violation of the Establishment Clause. In a publicly funded school, having the school make positive affirmations about the existence of a God, a set of Gods, or the nonexistence of them is tantamount to a govermental policy of establishing those religions, or types of religions.
>In fact, it says they CAN'T stop you from saying "Under God."
>(In "abridging the freedom of speech," eh.) Yeah.
Doesn't matter. See above. Better yet, read the decision.
>Oh, and may I point out one more thing?
Please do.
>The State of California, which ALLEGEDLY requires reciting of
>the pledge, is NOT the Congress named in the Constitution.
Yes.
>Therefore, the Constitution does NOTHING to prevent the state
>of California from requiring the recitation of the pledge.
No. This just plain shows willful ignorance of Constitutional Law. I may not be a lawyer, but maybe you should investigate teh 14th Amendment, it that way it is generally seen to extend the reach of the Constitution's Amendments to the States and other sub-untis of government.
A notion you'd be more familiar with, I suppose, if you had read the decision, rather than relying on cnn, or other posts in this forum. Not so oddly, this is covered, as well.
>Think about it.
I have. And I brought some appropriate tools to the exercise. Try it sometime.
While that story carried an interesting moral, that we tend to spend too much time and energy on inventing 'improvements' when a perfectly solid lowtech solution already exists, it turns out this particular story isn't true.
Check out Snopes, the Urban Legends Reference for more on this and other urban legends.
I for one am hoping this case does go to court. The evil that is the DMCA needs to be challenged in court. It's not going to be legislatively repealed, so what we need is judicial relief.
So, there I was, flood waters rising on the Red River, Dyke about to burst. Even though my apartment building was yards away from the dyke, I was on the third floor, so, i figured, ok...I'll load up my computer and a few choice belingings, just in case, and hop in my car and drive on out to my parents place where there is no danger and wait it out. Well, sure enough, the dyke busts and floods the downtown (Grand Forks, ND, remember the floods back in 97?), but it doesn't reach the third floor, of course. Whew, thought I, safe! And then the fire starts, burning my building to the waterline! True story, and a cautionary tale: renter's insurance is a Good Thing (tm), even if "It can never happen to me."
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>Now perhaps I am an ignorant son of a bitch, but I >believe this is the First Amendment you refer to:
> Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment > of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof ; > or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the > right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the > government for a redress of grievances. [emphasis mine]
>Alright, let's analyse this. OK. >Congress can't prohibit the free exercise thereof. Hmmm... >Where does the first amendment prohibit people from saying >the word, "God?" I don't see it in there, anywhere. True. It also means that they can't prohibit the the free NON-exercise of religion. The trouble here is that we aren't talking about a conflict with the Free Exercise Clause. We are talking about a violation of the Establishment Clause. In a publicly funded school, having the school make positive affirmations about the existence of a God, a set of Gods, or the nonexistence of them is tantamount to a govermental policy of establishing those religions, or types of religions. >In fact, it says they CAN'T stop you from saying "Under God." >(In "abridging the freedom of speech," eh.) Yeah. Doesn't matter. See above. Better yet, read the decision. >Oh, and may I point out one more thing? Please do. >The State of California, which ALLEGEDLY requires reciting of >the pledge, is NOT the Congress named in the Constitution. Yes. >Therefore, the Constitution does NOTHING to prevent the state >of California from requiring the recitation of the pledge. No. This just plain shows willful ignorance of Constitutional Law. I may not be a lawyer, but maybe you should investigate teh 14th Amendment, it that way it is generally seen to extend the reach of the Constitution's Amendments to the States and other sub-untis of government. A notion you'd be more familiar with, I suppose, if you had read the decision, rather than relying on cnn, or other posts in this forum. Not so oddly, this is covered, as well. >Think about it. I have. And I brought some appropriate tools to the exercise. Try it sometime.
Check out Snopes, the Urban Legends Reference for more on this and other urban legends.
I for one am hoping this case does go to court. The evil that is the DMCA needs to be challenged in court. It's not going to be legislatively repealed, so what we need is judicial relief.
Best of luck to you. Please, goad on!
My bad. Thanks for the backstop. Didn't notice the date discrepancy...
You can get several versions of this from this page, including a pdf version or a plain text version.
So, there I was, flood waters rising on the Red River, Dyke about to burst. Even though my apartment building was yards away from the dyke, I was on the third floor, so, i figured, ok...I'll load up my computer and a few choice belingings, just in case, and hop in my car and drive on out to my parents place where there is no danger and wait it out. Well, sure enough, the dyke busts and floods the downtown (Grand Forks, ND, remember the floods back in 97?), but it doesn't reach the third floor, of course. Whew, thought I, safe! And then the fire starts, burning my building to the waterline! True story, and a cautionary tale: renter's insurance is a Good Thing (tm), even if "It can never happen to me."