Thursday, June 27, 2002

Brink Lindsey takes a reasonable line in this thoughts about the 9th Circuit's decision that the Pledge of Allegiance is unconstitutional because of the inclusion of the line "under God." The drive to chase all religious references and symbols out of the public square has nothing to do with stopping forced indoctrination by the state. Reciting the pledge, singing "God Bless America," references to Christmas or Easter at school events, an invocation before a ball game -- these are just reflections of the ambient culture, and they're perfectly innocuous. People who rail against such trivia as statist mind control are, to my way of thinking, witless hysterics. And I have no sympathy for the argument that little dissenters' feelings will be hurt by having to choose between reciting what they don't believe or sitting out and feeling marginalized. I've got a news flash for you, kiddies: It's a big world with lots of points of view, and sometimes people are going to think differently from the way you do. Get used to it. Some of us actually get a kick out of being contrarian. What's the fun in dissenting, though, is there's nothing to dissent from? Update: The judge who wrote the decision said he would stay it for 45 days to allow other members of the court to consider the matter. He probably noticed that the entire Congress was on his front lawn, brandishing pitchforks and torches. 8:34:43 PM     If you're a masochist who wants to watch the unfolding disaster at Worldcom, check out the dotcomscoop site. 8:24:25 PM     A study finds that 82% of top executives fudge their golf scores, but 99% say they're honest in business. But Starwood CEO and golfer Barry Sternlicht said he doesn't see the fudging of golf games as an indication of the character of business executives, because each group of golfers comes to an understanding about what will and will not be acceptable in their game, the report said. I can just see the CEOs and auditors meeting in closed rooms at Enron, Arthur Andersen, and Worldcom, deciding what the rules will be for this year's run at corporate governance. 8:21:45 PM     Dan Gillmor comments on the recent Supreme Court upholding of schools' right to drug test students. Heads up, citizens. Is this an example of "as long as it's not happening to us, it's OK?" Drug tests before participating in band? Choir? The chess club? What are people afraid of? That the lead trumpet feels she has to dope up to hit that high C?   What are we doing here? Where there is a reasonable possibility of drug use (steroids in some sports, for example) and a reasonable suspicion that individuals are using drugs, I guess it's OK. But a blanket policy for all middle- and high-school students participating in extracurricular activities? I don't think so. 8:07:56 PM

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