There’s really no other way to interpret this:

Obama said he was proud the country had rallied around the idea that we can’t be divided because of religion or ethnicity – and hopes that is something that can continue.

“We are all Americans, we stand together,” Obama said. “I think it is absolutely important now for majority of Americans to hang onto that thing that is best in us: a belief in religious tolerance. We have to make sure we don’t start turning on each other.”

“We are one nation under God. We may call that God different names, but we are one nation.”

He really, really doesn’t want to know the names I’ve called his God. I’ll make a point of coming up with a few more later this morning, right before I blaspheme and break some commandments.

(Maybe coveting, that one’s easy. I could make an idol to worship for a day before I toss it in the trash, which is the natural home for religious materials in my home anyway. I did find some modeling clay in the storage room this afternoon… maybe make a calf statue, slap some gold paint on it, go all Old Testament for a lark.)

Reading this tripe was a fine way to cap off a lousy week of listening to people bleat about what a terrible tragedy it would be if someone burned a book, ostensibly because it might make someone else mad at our troops somewhere. Glenn Greenwald’s done yeoman’s work on that particular load of nonsense; suffice it to say, I think he’s right that the the Islamic world maybe, just *maybe* is angrier at us for slaughtering their family members by the tens of thousands than they’ll get for an impromptu paperback BBQ in Florida.

Still, I guess it was time for the periodic pro-religious unity propaganda, to put us silly non-believers back in our place.

As PZ Myers said:

Tolerance is a good idea. But Obama has just divided the nation, forgetting all of his previous brief, superficial mentions of non-believers, into those who are part of his one nation under God, and the rest of us, who are…what? Not part of the nation?

Thanks for reminding me where I stand in the glorious American experiment, Obama. I’m so glad we elected a Constitutional ‘scholar’… albeit one who apparently never read the First Amendment.

I’m so glad I keep tequila in the house.

And just to be absolutely clear; I am an American and part of this nation, but I am under no one’s god. Not now, not ever.

(A response to this comment at Fire Dog Lake, which may be the worst Godwin’s Law violation in human history)

They came first for the Koran, and I did not care because I was not a Muslim.

Then they came for the dictionary, and I did not care because it was online.

Then they came for Dean Koontz books, and I did not care because he’s a hack.

Then they came for Watership Down, and I did not care because I’m not a rabbit.

Then they came for Canterbury Tales, and I did not care because olde English hurts my eyes.

Then they came for Catcher in the Rye, and I did not care because I hate Holden Caufield.

Then they came for War and Peace, and I did not care because it’s 460,000 words long.

Then they came for ‘Go Dog Go’, and I did not care because I’m not six years old.

Then they came for the coffee table books, and I did not care, because nobody reads them.

Then they came for ‘Dracula’, and I did not care, for I am not a goth.

Then they came for Great Expectations, and I did not care, because the ending is a nonsensical deus ex machina.

Then they came for Oliver Twist, and I did not care because I have the musical on CD.

Then they came for Animal Farm, and I did not care, because I was busy eating bacon with breakfast.

Then they came for 1984, and I did not care because it’s 2010.

Then they came for the thesaurus, and I did not care, because I still had my glossary, language reference book, lexicon, onomasticon, reference book, sourcebook, storehouse of words, terminology, treasury of words, vocabulary, and word list.

Then they came for The Invisible Man, and I did not care for I could not see him.

Then they came for Naruto, and found out it has over 40 volumes, so they left briefly, then returned with a large grocery bag to carry them in.

Then they came for The Joys of Yiddish, and I did not care because it’s meshuggah.

Then they came for Peanuts, and I did not care because Calvin and Hobbes is better.

Then they came for Agatha Christie, and I did not care because I was interrogating the major in the drawing room.

Then they came for Sherlock Holmes, and I did not care, for I had recently slipped down a waterfall.

Then they came for Douglas Adams, and I did not care because I still had my towel.

Then they came for Emily Dickinson, and I did not care because I’m not a shut-in.

Then they came for Edgar Allan Poe, and I did not care because this raven keeps quoting him.

And then, at last, they came for me, only I am not a book, I am a human being, and so they did nothing.

Then I came to realize how monstrous it is to compare even the forms of free expression most odious to me to the deaths of millions of innocent people in concentration camps.

Then I felt ashamed.

(Poem by John J Sears and Andrew Leal. Special thanks to thesaurus.com, and to SouthernDragon for providing the inspiration)

Ok, here’s an argument I am sick to damn death of hearing: Sure, HCR may have been a mess with huge bailouts and bribes given to the mass-murdering insurance companies, Big Pharma, Hospital chains and the like, but hey, it’s serious progress, because it makes healthcare a ‘right’ in America for the first time.

Christ people. Health care is now a right. I know, I know. We didn’t get to punish insurance companies and tell off the Republicans while we did it. I give up.

Wrong. Astoundingly, absolutely, ridiculously stupid and wrong.

Under the new HCR scheme, you don’t have a ‘right’ to healthcare. You don’t even have a ‘right’ to health insurance. What you have is a mandate to PURCHASE or otherwise acquire insurance, and maybe, if you’re poor enough, the government will pick it up for you or put you on Medicaid instead. Otherwise you’ll get inadequate subsidies, and if you still can’t pay, the Feds will have the IRS take a fine out of your tax return.

See the difference? I know it’s subtle. /snark

A right is something that is guaranteed to you, that your fellow citizens have to respect and your government is obligated to protect. In no way, under no conceivable logic, does this healthcare bill give you a ‘right’ to health care. At best, it protects you from being completely denied for insurance under certain criteria. That’s ok; the insurance companies can just raise the premiums to whatever they want with no meaningful oversight on rates, and if you don’t like it, tough luck. If you can’t afford the copays after the sky high premiums? Tough luck. If they deny your care after you pay their extortionate rates? You can appeal, and appeal, and appeal, and if you’re still alive when and if they get overturned, you might get your care.

Good luck with that.