Our Founding Fathers

Conservatives will often argue that this is a Christian nation because the founding fathers intended it that way. Following are some quotes I recently discovered.

"As the Government of the United States is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion; as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquility, of Musselmen (Muslims) . . . no pretext arising from religious opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries."
- A treaty with Tripoli drafted under George Washington and signed by John Adams, 1797

"Lighthouses are more useful than churches."
- Benjamin Franklin

"This would be the best of all possible worlds, if there were no religion in it."
- John Adams (shades of John Lennon)

"I almost shudder at the thought of alluding to the most fatal example of the abuses of grief with which the history of mankind has preserved - the Cross. Consider what calamities that engine of grief has produced!"
- John Adams

"Question with boldness even the existence of a God, if there be one, he must approve of the homage of reason than that of blindfolded fear."
- Thomas Jefferson

"Christianity is the most perverted system that ever shone on man."
- Thomas Jefferson

(Jefferson took scissors and cut up the Bible, edited out parts he thought were too fantastic, and glued it back together to his own liking.)

What's Not Being Said

Apparently Barack Obama has committed a public faux paus by stating that Americans soldiers in Iraq have lost their lives in vain. John Kerry recently made the same kind of slip.
Democrats are caught in a bind. They want to declare what a tragedy Bush's little adventure into Iraq is but they can't afford to offend a large portion of the the dumbass, oops, sorry, the pro-war electorate. So they have to say the war was wrong but somehow not a total waste.
Of course, I'm not running for anything and so I can say what I want;
This war is a total, unmitigated disaster in which thousands of soldiers lives were wasted for absolutely NOTHING! Thousands more have had their lives ruined by debilitating injuries and tens of thousand of Iraqis have been killed or wounded. Nearly two million Iraqi citizens have left their homes and swarmed over the border to Syria and Iran to escape the madness.
This thing is a tragedy of epic proportions. And it is all Bush and company's fault.
We can only guess his reasoning. Probably something to do with power and influence in the Middle East. Possibly an attempt to impress Mommy or Daddy or both.
Even as I write it, that last line seems too childish and petty to be taken seriously. But having learned more about Bush and Company in the last five years than I really wanted to know, I'm actually beginning to consider it.
Either way, lives have been wasted, billions of dollars wasted, international good will squandered and our democracy seriously jeopardized. This war is a nightmare and this President is the worst ever.
And if the Democrats had a backbone, they would say so.

Our Government Speaks for Us

In a stalled effort to condemn Pres. Bush's planned "surge" of troops in Iraq, Senator John Warner, Republican from Virginia said, "Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah and furthermore, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah."
Senator Joseph Lieberman, Democrat turned weasel from Connecticut voted with the Republicans against any debate. When interviewed he smiled and stated, "Yak, yak, yak, yak, yak, yak, yak, yak, yak, yak, yak, yak, yak, yak, yakety yak."
President Bush, seemingly unmoved by the Senate wrangling, gave a simple statement to the press, "Talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, words, words, words, words, words, talk talk."
As more statements of this importance come in, we will be relieved to know that the elected members of our congress still have the courage to speak out for us.