Somebody needs to do this, I'm glad somebody is!!!

CNN article about a new suit asking to stop forcing children to recite the Pledge of Allegiance, which contains the phrase "One Nation, Under God," in public school: http://www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/09/14/pledge.ruling.ap/index.html

Hip Hip Hooray!

This will be an interesting test for whatever version of the Supreme Court shakes out to try. I sincerely hope that is not in the sense of the infamous chinese curse. I will be very interested to hear the arguments presented to the justices, assuming it gets that far.

I especially love this part:
"Imagine every morning if the teachers had the children stand up, place their hands over their hearts, and say, 'We are one nation that denies God exists,"' Newdow [attorney for the complainants in the suit] said in an interview with AP Radio after the ruling.

"I think that everybody would not be sitting here saying, 'Oh, what harm is that.' They'd be furious. And that's exactly what goes on against atheists. And it shouldn't."

The person who posted notice of this article in buddhists suggested the phrase "One Nation Under Kali" to demonstrate the divisiveness of this issue. That one might well cause dissension *among* North American Buddhists, I think.

My kid is not in public school. If she were, and being forced to say this, I might take similar exception. Though, I actually don't have a problem with the pledge as originally written, without those two little words, as long as its history is explained to the kids being asked to recite it. Which, admittedly, it never is. Talking about the "Under God" thing is a great segue into discussing the cold war and McCarthy, and what a vocabulary lesson!

RPG Campaign idea for religion scholars and other intellectuals

http://www.livejournal.com/community/buddhists/1384087.html?nc=8&style=mine

black_vegan wrote in buddhists,
Intriguing Words
Someone sent me these quotes in an e-mail today.

> "When the iron eagle flies and horses run on wheels, the Tibetan people will
> be scattered over the earth and the dharma will go to the land of the red
> man,"
> - 9th century Tibetan Prophecy


> "When the iron bird flies, the red-robed people of the East who have lost
> their land will appear, and the two brothers from across the great
> ocean will be
> reunited."
> - Hopi Prophecy

Makes you think does is not? Isn't the first quote Padmasambhava's words?

My comment, further down:
if nothing else, that is a great seed idea for a very interesting role-playing campaign.

I am a prophecy skeptic... I immediately wondered how authentic both of the translations and quotes were. Weird things happen when you translate translations, for example, since human languages just don't map to each other straightforwardly.