The Pledge of Allegiance Case, U.S. v. Newdow, is simply a waste of time. School children have been held hostage of this rote exercise since McCarthyism. This is not to say that children shouldn’t show symbolic patriotism on occasion, nor is it so terribly obnoxious to show as an aside of religion once in a while.

The flag, however, has no — implicit or explicit — reference to God; it is simply an allegiance to Stars and Stripes, as is the national anthem, and its implicit sacrifice made to keep it waving. Granted, “under God, never should have been implanted in the 50s, but we’re stuck with it now, though it should indeed be modified — if not with Jefferson’s Nature’s God — with “under a God who oversees the principles of democracy....”

The atheist argument is idiotic for the simple reason that one cannot object to something that does not exist to begin with even though the very principle of democracy allows him to take umbrage.Far more serious is the Washington state case of Locke v. Davey in which state aid is denied a student for theological studies. At a time when non-secular Muslim states are breeding contempt for peaceful transition to modernity, the U.S. taxpayer should not be billed for religious instruction of any kind.