] The only thing this time-wasting pest Newdow has going
] for him is that he's right.

Yes indeed folks, you heard right, its circus time again! Get ready for pseudo-intellectual arguments from angry leftists who have no consideration for how people feel. Get ready for idiotic chest pounding from right wing zealots who don't see why a pesky thing like the establishment clause should prevent them from establishing a religion they see as already established.

This is a dumb question, and hence it has absolutely no good answer. When these words were added to the pledge it was establishment. It was illegal. It was wrong. It didn't even flow well. But now they've been there for 50 years. The establishment is over with. Now its part of our national tradition. So you can't change it without fucking with patriotism. You're telling a democratic people what their national symbols can and cannot be. This isn't some state flag that nobody really cares about. This is the primary source of national brainwashing, and the whole country is lathered up.

Can the Supremes really strike this decision down? If they do they are faster and looser with logic then I thought. But, then again, they managed to side against Eldred.

Can the Supremes really uphold this? If they do they'll face the unbridled furry of most of the people in this country. Those people will respond with an amendment, and it will pass faster then the repeal of prohibition.

If we're lucky, the amendment will just strike the establishment clause, or seriously weaken it, simultaneously making our country entirely inhospitable to the multicultural population that it consists of, and providing a smoking gun to every Islamist who ever entertained the notion that Americans represent a religion. Slowly this will damn us to the same perpetual hell on earth that Israel has crafted for itself.

On the other hand, maybe the Bush administration and friends will see this as the opportunity they've been waiting for to eliminate the check that the Judicial system represents on the power of the Executive, torpedoing the Constitution's real foundation and damning us even faster.

I think a positive outcome here is cryptographically improbable. There is no where to go from here but down. We may be about the witness the beginning of the end of western society.

I must strongly encourage the Supreme Court to hand down a bullshit decision. There has never been a better time or place for bullshit and hand waving then right here and now. The smart people will know why you did it.

The real problem here isn't the "under god" part of the pledge. Its the fact that there is a pledge at all. Getting people, especially children, to repeat the same slogans (or songs) over and over and over again, in unison, is how you program people. It doesn't matter if you're a crazy cult, a fascist, a Japanese corporation, a Methodist church, an army, or the United States of America. It works exactly the same way in every case. This is what brainwashing is. And there is absolutely no way an independent person can uphold this as a good thing no matter how much he or she believes in the things said people are being programmed for, because this serves no purpose other then to eliminate independent thought. Such an effort weakens your society. Sit back, pop some popcorn, grab that law dictionary, and prepare for a demonstration.

Op-Ed Columnist: Of God and the Flag