Perhaps respect for belief diversity goes in cycles

The McCarthy era saw the institutionalization of a lot of 'civic religion,' such as addition of 'under God' to the Pledge of Allegiance, and 'In God We Trust' to the currency, and the inevitably sectarian 'National Day of Prayer.'

The present pattern of secular-bashing will perhaps dissipate if/when the public (both religious and not) comes to see gratuitous God-talk in political speeches for what it is; namely delineation of in-groups and out-groups.

Quotebag #38

“Vernor [Vinge] is too smart to blog. He writes books! ”—David Brin

“I am aware of the counterargument, which is that government needs to do some things in secrecy because doing all of its business in public makes it impossible to get those things done. True, however, if the price of ‘empire’ is that we accept that and stop trying to find out what our government is doing in our name, then I’m not certain that ‘empire’ is anything remotely what the Founders had in mind and I’m certain it’s not what I want.”—Eric B.

“Partisanship is something I get. And when you ask for too little, as is always done, you end up compromising more than you bargained for.”—Dyssonance

“When resistance has a logo, you can be sure it isn’t resistance but capture.”—Dale Carrico

“I’m not a misanthrope: I like people; but in small doses.”—chaotic idealism

“Unfortunately it seems that the Wild West of the Internet is being tamed by the Railroad of commerce, with its twin rails of paywalls and data mining from social networks. Net filtering is the sleepers…ow my analogy hurts”—Ben Callinan