"Joy and pleasure are as real as pain and sorrow and one must learn what they have to teach. . . ." -- Sean Russell, from Gatherer of Clouds

"If you're not having fun, you're not doing it right." -- Helyn D. Goldenberg

"I love you and I'm not afraid." -- Evanescence, "My Last Breath"

“If I hear ‘not allowed’ much oftener,” said Sam, “I’m going to get angry.” -- J.R.R. Tolkien, from Lord of the Rings

Wednesday, March 25, 2015

Today in Stupid

Or ignorant. Or both. A Republican (natch) congressman from Texas (again, natch) has introduced a bill to "protect religious freedom" by forcing everyone in the Air Force to include the words "under God" in their oath.

Last week, Rep. Sam Johnson (R-TX) introduced a bill called the Preserve and Protect God in Military Oaths Act of 2015 that would force cadets at the Air Force’s Academy to say “so help me God” during their oaths.

“Our Constitution’s very First Amendment protects every individual’s freedom of religion. But our servicemen and women who protect our county [sic] with their lives are seeing that freedom under fire,” he said in a statement. “Let me be clear: Americans have the freedom of religion – but not freedom from religion.”

It's obvious that to the congressman, like that state legislator in Louisiana, thinks that "religion" means "Christianity." (And you want to bet the doesn't consider the Pope to be Christian?) And he's flat out wrong: we do have freedom from religion, which, if the moron ever stopped to think about what "freedom of conscience" actually means, he might be able to figure out. Maybe.

The really ludicrous part of this is that it recently came to light that the Air Force had changed its oath to make the phrase "under God" optional. Apparently the congressman doesn't understand what that word means.

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