bees-knees:

“The Washington Post quoted Linda Adams, a Beck supporter from Colorado, who said, ‘We want our country to get back to its original roots,’ adding that ‘her ancestors were on the Mayflower and fought in the American Revolution.’ She was also upset that some schools no longer require students to recite the Pledge of Allegiance. Well, the U.S. population is simply not going to be replenished by Puritan pilgrims from England, and the original Pledge of Allegiance was fine with most people as a statement of national unity, until its ‘original intent’ was compromised by a late insertion of the words ‘under God’ in the McCarthyite 1950s. But one still sees what she means and can feel sympathy with the pulse of nostalgia.

…

What does it take to believe that Christianity is an endangered religion in America or that the name of Jesus is insufficiently spoken or appreciated? Who wakes up believing that there is no appreciation for our veterans and our armed forces and that without a noisy speech from Sarah Palin, their sacrifice would be scorned? It’s not unfair to say that such grievances are purely and simply imaginary, which in turn leads one to ask what the real ones can be. The clue, surely, is furnished by the remainder of the speeches, which deny racial feeling so monotonously and vehemently as to draw attention.”