I have here in my hand a dollar bill
Separation of church and state? Whaaaaaaaat?
Look here, look at this dollar bill, it says right here “in god we trust” – and it says it on all the other bills too, the five n the ten n the twenty n the million, all of them. It’s always been that way! Well, since 1956, which might as well be always, because who cares about before that.
Also, by the way, Shabbos is Saturday and the one for Muslims is Friday and don’t Buddhists have it on Monday and Hindus on Tuesday and Jains on Wednesday and Sikhs on Thursday? So, there you go, sorry, no voting possible.
I don’t think any business or governmental institution should be prohibited from operating on Sunday (or any other particular day of the week). If a business does not want to open Sunday, that is their choice, but the government saying no you can’t is in violation of free market principles. So a lot of states have done away with the overall ban, but still prohibit certain things, like liquor, to be sold on Sundays. Our state has a really weird rule on that. You are prohibited from buying (certain kinds) of alcohol on Sunday until after noon. So you can’t buy whiskey, but you can buy wine. Weird. Since I rarely buy whiskey (like, pretty much never) and I tend to do my shopping on Friday afternoon, I was unaware of this weird rule until I was trying to buy a gift for a friend who likes Scotch. I was on my way to Lincoln, and had to get out of town before noon. Fortunately, it was after noon when I got into Lincoln, and I had just enough time to find a grocery store and make the purchase before I met with her.
Telling individuals what they can or can’t do on Sunday is even worse. “Don’t vote on Sunday!” Why the hell not? What if Sunday is my only day off? And the polls close too early for me to get there other days? What if I like to vote on Sunday for whatever reason I might have?
I am tired as hell of Christian nationalism, which seems to often go hand in hand with white nationalism, which I am also tired as hell of. Let the nationalists find a nice deserted island where they can make their own rules, and prohibit all people of color, gay people, and non-Christians from setting foot. They can rule their island according to GOD. Let’s see how it works for them. I would predict arguments over what GOD wants from day one…actually, from minute one.
The one for Muslims is Friday.
Ah, the old Establishment Clause two-step:
Christians in court: “Putting ‘God’ on the money or in the Pledge of Allegiance isn’t an expression or endorsement of religious belief, it’s just ‘ceremonial deism’ that acknowledges our shared cultural history.”
Conservative Supreme Court justices: *nod sagely* “Of course.”
Christians everywhere else: “This is a Christian country! Look what it says on the money you use — checkmate, atheists! And no voting on Sunday, because you should all be in church.”
Colin @ 2 agh that was a typo; thanks.
Is it a two-step or a right hand knoweth not what the left hand doeth?
Indeed. If she wants to impose the will of the Exodus god on all of us, she should be arguing against voting from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday. Sunday is just the first day of the week, the day when god got things rolling.
And that’s especially ironic given that she’s addressing her remarks to Sen. Schumer.
OB@5,
Well, it’s not usually literally the same people, of course — Hyde-Smith isn’t going to be arguing cases in the Supreme Court. But they all know, they just pretend not to. And actually, I’m probably being unfair when I said the “conservative” justices pretend to swallow this argument; it’s actually the moderates and even some liberals who hide behind this pretense that “In God we Trust” isn’t religious, because they don’t want to take the public outcry if they “ban” the phrase. The conservative justices tend to just come right out and say “so what if it is? Suck it, atheists!”
Of course, it doesn’t always work. That’s what hurt the “intelligent design” movement — they’d insist in court that they were just advancing an alternate scientific view that had nothing to do with religion, no siree, but of course the school board trustees and others who pushed it were saying on the record that they were doing it to stand up for Jesus. (Well, that and the drafts showing they just did a search-and-replace on old creationist literature…”cdesign proponentists”)
Are we really 2 decades into the 21st century? Because it sure doesn’t feel like it. :P
In the 19th century, we had a substantial nation-wide ‘Sabbatarian’ political movement. All national problem were to be solved by forcing the Post Office to close on Sundays. At national religious conventions, issues like slavery and women’s suffrage were tabled so that THIS could be discussed.
The blue laws in some states are ridiculous. What’s to stop people from stocking up on booze during the week so they can be shit faced by noon on Sunday if they want, or if the Church Of Ethanol requires it? Blatant discrimination if you ask me. :P
When I was a kid in Massachusetts, liquor stores were closed on Sundays, but bars were open. So I guess if you didn’t have any booze at home, you got in your car and drove to your local (or to New Hampshire, where they had a state liquor store conveniently located at the first rest area on the interstate).
I grew up in New York, and in college in MA I found the blue laws in the 70s to be ridiculous (most are gone now). Then I met some very religious people from Mississippi who were complaining that everything in MA was open on Sundays, it was in their perception like any other day. Splitting the difference, I suppose.
My father was very upset when they started allowing stores to open on Sundays. Not for any religious reason—he was an atheist—but because he hated shopping.
Back when NZ started allowing shops to open on Saturdays and Sundays, I was against this (I was still a teenager). Sure, it’s a lot more convenient when you work to be able to go shopping on the weekend. It’s done two things that were utterly predictable.
(1) Town Centres with their multiplicity of different shops that relied on late night shopping on Thursdays and Fridays have died.
(2) Sports and social clubs are slowly dying because it is very very hard to get the volunteers required to run them. These clubs were a large part of our social glue. They joined together not just individuals but whole families from disparate backgrounds. Now, the rich still have options. The middle class struggle to stay involved but increasingly have turned to activities that don’t require clubs or formal associations or groups. The working poor have to take jobs that include rostered weekend work that makes organised sport or other weekend activities next to impossible.