First Amendment
 

If you are going to distract some soldiers from guarding a nuclear missile she is definitely the right woman for the job.

In case you are Not Kidding . . .

Uh, no, I don't think so. Only the Catholics have Jesus on the cross (a "crucifix"). The Protestants used to consider that idolatry, and a violation of the "graven image" commandment (I forget which one of the Big Ten that falls under).

Oh, sure - G-d forbid we offend the tender sensibilities of the effete liberal elite French-wine swilling white Anglo-Saxon Protestants.

That comment didn't work for me in the movie. Lt. Weinberg didn't say anything at Gitmo so why would Jessup even be aware of what Weinberg thinks or does.

Protestants have Jesus on the cross all the time. Not saying you're wrong, because I don't want a googled "prove you wrong" riposte. But yes, I'd hardly call a cross generic - with or without the babyjesus, it screams Christianity (npi).

I am not sure we were in disagreement.

Not in the churches I grew up in. The crucifix was always empty. The first time I saw a Catholic church my first thought was that their churches are so much cooler than ours. From the outfits to the artwork - it was just less sterile.

I am against this amendment. I am urinating on a flag right now in protest.

I don't think a cross* is anymore Christian in a mass media/public setting than Christmas is, and as far as i can tell Christmas is an excuse for people to have a few days off of work prior to having a few days off of work for new years and get gifts. I no longer Christmas gifts in protest to the rank materialism.

*although a cross with Jesus is not so generic.

What was the priest's name? NTTAWWT.

Civil War
 

New Topic:

I don't see why people think the future of Iraq is so bleak. From what I have read the insurgents are now overwhelmingly Sunni. The Kurds never took part, and the Shiites, after the election saw they will be in control, so they stopped. So only the Sunnis are left being backed up by the Islamic brotherhood, Al Queda and all the other wacko Sunni organizations.

So once we leave either the Sunnis will eventually be defeated or
The country will split into three states. The Kurds up north, which will probably be Democratic, the Shiite South, which will be some sort of Islamic Republic (Sistani - the most influential leader of the Shiites has already sayd the mullahs should not run the country like they do in Iran) and a little Sunni state in the Middle. The Sunni state will have absolutely no oil, so it will just become an irrelvant state surrounding by democracies.

Where am I wrong?

Well, I grew up in the Protestantest churches of the Prots, and I'm just sure I saw Jesus on the cross. Maybe I've conflated this with the Catholic school years experience. But I am certain I never heard anyone instruct me that it was a bad thing. I do recall that cross jewelry was always just a cross, so perhaps this is correct and I never realized.

The biggest difference I noticed was Mary *everywhere*.

Shoot. Another sweeping generalization shot down. Are you talking about Anglican/Episcopal churches? Lutherans?

Anyway, my point was . . . ah, fuck it.

Civil War
 

I think part of it stems from your assumption(s) that the civil war will be neat, clean, end up in three nice pieces, people won't miss or care about the barrels of oil lost per day during the war, and that the neighbors will wait patiently at the border until it's over. For starters.

Christmas has become simultaneously more and less religious. Less due to materialism, secularization of it, and more because it is or can be a touchy thing to discuss or mention. Actually, I am still surprised where I live now because it is a largely homogenous population and people actually say Merry Christmas; I hadn't heard that in the general public in years before this.