Bush's "Third Awakening"

Killing is wrong, and bad. There should be a new, stronger word for killing like badwrong or badong. YES, killing is badong. From this moment, I will stand for the opposite of killing, gnodab.
-Kung Pao: Enter the Fist

According to the Washington Post, President Bush sees a "Third Awakening" of religious devotion looming due to the struggle against terrorism. While I'm forced to agree that there has been a strong upsurge in religious expression since 9/11, I can't understand why this is. When Americans are attacked by religiously driven terrorists, to me, it would prompt an analysis of the damage religion can do and cause an introspective analysis of my own faith.

But it seems that Americans, instead of ever questioning themselves, paint things in a black and white dichotomy in which they can do no wrong and it must be the problem of everyone else. Which is precisely the position Bush has taken, "A lot of people in America see this as a confrontation between good and evil, including me."

Such absolutism in which one feels that one can do no wrong is one of the most dangerous things I can think of. It's akin to the driver of a car feeling invincible, taking their hands off the wheel and praying. It might work ok for a time, but eventually there will be a turn in the road. Is blind faith really going to take America around that corner?

Bush's doublespeak

It seems Bush has decided it's time to rewrite history to represent Christian egotism yet again. This time, he's declared that "In God we Trust" is now our national motto.

The statement is humorously laced with doublspeak in which he states "our country stands strong as a beacon of religious freedom." Yet it's national motto exclusively respects the Christian God? I don't see how upholding one religion and relegating all others to second class status counts as a beacon of religious freedom. Free to be short changed perhaps?

He proclaims that this motto serves "millions of Americans, [who] recognize the blessings of the Creator." But what about the 14% of the population that don't and the millions of others that don't worship his God? Are they not important?

I suppose he's not really calling all "the people of the United States to observe this day", but instead, only the ones that he actually cares about. The rest of them can piss off.

What I want to know is what happened to "E Pluribus Unum"? It'd be nice to have a national motto that could actually pass the Lemon Test.

Bush announces World War III

Apparently Bush has delusions of grandeur. In a recent interivew, Bush said that the attack on Flight 93 "was the first counter-attack to World War III."

Forgive me if I'm a bit cynical as to the scope of this endeavour, but it seems to me that if this should be a sequel to any war, we should be calling it Vietnam 2.0.