Watch, watch, watch your blog

Gently down the stream

Throw your teacher overboard,

Listen to her scream…

So I can’t get het up about the Pledge of Allegiance thing. I never said the controversial phrase in school. (I can’t remember if I just refused to say “under God,” or if I kept silent for the whole thing–if the former, that would be silly since “under God” was hardly my only problem with the Pledge, but hey, I was silly when I was in elementary school…. My middle and high school didn’t require the Pledge, and would probably have actively discouraged it!) I really don’t care if “under God” gets stripped out of the Pledge. There are good arguments on both sides, as the cliche goes. (Pro-“under God”: Reminds us that our allegiance is not to “My country, right or wrong,” but to “My country, under God”–keeps us from making an idol of flag or nation. Anti-“under God”: The necessary vagueness of the phrase requires an acceptance of “civil Deism,” and civil Deism is wrong and distasteful.) If you want a really good take on possible repercussions in much more important, more venerable areas of civic life, check out this post from Eugene Volokh, who also has a couple interesting tidbits in the two posts above it. He is, as usual, commonsensical and helpful.

E-Pression: A very funny anecdote about the Donne poem below.

Gideon’s Blog: Says what I wish I’d said about that “more chicks than cats in college” study. Link via InstaPundit, so I’m not sure why I’m bothering with this, but there you go.

Ranting Screeds: A very interesting post on Eastern Orthodoxy, pacifism, and Stanley Hauerwas. This link is for Charles Murtaugh! The Ranter is not as certain of his position as I am (I’m just not a pacifist, end of story), but that makes him a more thoughtful and nuanced commentator; plus this is just a really interesting post in general. Also from InstaPundit.

Amy Welborn: What a surprise, an Amy Welborn post I agree with 100%. It’s about that Boston nun who just got booted for futzing around with baptisms.

And I just got my first email of reader praise (for something I did for Crisis, not for the blog) that included the phrases “Huzzah! ook! ook!”

I’m, uh, honored…!