Christian Nation? Here's what the Founding Fathers Say:

ARTICLE 11
"As the government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion, -- as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion or tranquility of Musselmen,-- and as the said States never have entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mehomitan nation, it is declared by the parties that no pretext arising from religous opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries. "


<snip>
"All persons shall have full and free liberty of religious opinion; nor shall any be compelled to frequent or maintain any religious institution."


<snip>
"I cannot conceive otherwise than that He, the Infinite Father, expects or requires no worship or praise from us, but that He is even infinitely above it."


link:http://www.nofaith.org/a_founders.shtml

Gives me goosebumps to read the wisdom from those days and makes me sick to my stomach to see what the "leadership" of this nation has done to those noble notions.

"We believed . . . that man was a rational animal, endowed by nature with rights, and with an innate sense of justice; and that he could be restrained from wrong and protected in right, by moderate powers, confided to persons of his own choice, and held to their duties by dependence on his own will."
-- Thomas Jefferson, Letter to Judge William Johnson, Monticello, June 12, 1823


"Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only, and not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should 'make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,' thus building a wall of separation between Church and State."

-- Thomas Jefferson, Letter to the Danbury (Conn.) Baptist Association, January 1, 1802


"Difference of opinion is advantageous in religion. The several sects perform the office of a censor morum over such other. Is uniformity attainable? Millions of innocent men, women and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined, imprisoned; yet we have not advanced one inch toward uniformity. What has been the effect of coercion? To make one half of the world fools and the other half hypocrites."

-- Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia, 1781


"Your sect, by its sufferings, has furnished a remarkable proof of the universal spirit of religious intolerance inherent in every sect, disclaimed by all while feeble, and practiced by all when in power. Our laws have applied the only antidote to the vice, protecting our religious as they do our civil rights, by putting all men on an equal footing."

-- Thomas Jefferson, Letter to Mordecai M. Noah, May 28, 1818


"I hold (without appeal to revelation) that when we take a view of the universe, in its parts, general or particular, it is impossible for the human mind not to perceive and feel a conviction of design, consummate skill, and indefinite power in every atom of its composition. The movements of the heavenly bodies, so exactly held in their course by the balance of centrifugal and centripetal forces; the structure of the Earth itself, with its distribution of lands, waters and atmosphere; animal and vegetable bodies, examined in all their minutest particles; insects, mere atoms of life, yet as perfectly organized as man or mammoth; the mineral substances, their generation and uses, it is impossible, I say, for the human mind not to believe, that there is in all this, design, cause and effect, up to an ultimate cause, a Fabricator of all things from matter and motion, their Preserver and Regulator, while permitted to exist in their present forms, and their regeneration into new and other forms. We see, too, evident proofs of the necessity of a superintending power, to maintain the universe in its course and order."

-- Thomas Jefferson

in these dark days of tyranny.

Whatever NYC restaurant served the Delmonico, which was number 86 on the menu...when they were out of it, they'd say it was 86'd


failure...

But it actually originated with the telegraph. In the old days, numbers were used as codes (not unlike "10-4" on police radios).

Teletype news stories, for example, used to always end with "-30-".

"86" signified that a mistake had been made and was thereby deleted.

Rhmyming cockney slang came up with "nix, eighty-six" to finger a nuisance for being thrown out of the pub, but the term pre-dates that. Maybe they took it from the telegraph, but it's still not clear where the telegraph operators took it from. Then again, maybe the telegraphers took it from the tavern owners; after all, the telegraph is only a little over a century and a half old, whereas gin-joints have been around since the dawn of time.

n/t

as Honest Abe so eloquently put in his 2nd inaugural speech. . .

"with mercy towards all and malice towards none."

Sure he was a macho warmonger, but he also busted the trusts, negotiated the end to the Russo-Japanese War, helped preserve the environment and spent his last major campaign ratfucking the Republicans because he thought they were the facilitators of evil business monarchists. It worked, too: Wilson won in 1912.

There are a few odd ones around like Lowell Weicker, but you'll note that he went independent after awhile. Jim Jeffords should get some praise too, as should Lincoln Chaffee.

Must say you're right though: damned by faint praise. If these are the only examples that can be dredged up over a century and a half, they're a pretty wicked lot.