Is is just me or

[lonestarnot]

is anyone else sick of the "God Bless America" meme. First of all I don't have it in me to TELL God what to do. If they have to do that can they just say, "May God Bless America?" or do they just have to "git 'er done?" Larry the Cable Guy you are a pig and make me sick, can you keep your broadcasts to Appalachia and stay off Comedy Central!

[geardaddy]

1. It's not just you.

I'm with you on that, lonestarnot.

[Angela Shelley]

27. I´m with you, geardaddy and lonestarnot.

[NightWatcher]

2. it is blatant nationalism. we MUST say "god bless amurika" like "deutchland uber alles"

right out of the same book. linking god with the power of america. to stand against america must be to stand against god

[Stinky The Clown]

3. The other thing getting waaaaaaay overused is .......

..... "thank you for your service" every time some former military person farts.

I'm a former military person.

[NightWatcher]

5. thank you for saying that. People dont know what I did in my "service".

I could have been a real schmuck for all anyone knows. I am not proud of my DoD connections and the work that I used to do. So dont thank me for squat

[Zywiec]

7. Thank you for your service n/t

[awoke_in_2003]

39. Did he just fart? nt

[madokie]

9. And Ah,

I won't do it to you. I'm a 15 month Vietnam Veteran and I feel like I need to ask for forgiveness not to be thanked for my service. No matter that I was under orders what I was doing was wrong, no two ways about it.

[lonestarnot]

13. Me too, and I have to agree, it is fucking embarrassing. I need a good thought provoking response.

Any ideas? :evilgrin:

[tool_of_the_people]

4. It does get really old

It's kinda freaky that we're asking God to bless us, meanwhile we're dropping bombs and burning up some of his "other" children.

If there is a God, I'm sure he's saying WTF?

[lonestarnot]

14. And have built an industrial prison complex economy so large that we now have 1 out of 100 in prison

while mentally ill roam the streets begging for alms, and homeless children sleep under bridges! FUCK!

[awoke_in_2003]

40. "Bless this Holy Hand Grenade

of Antioch, that it might blow thine enemy to bits, in thy mercy"

[acmavm]

6. All things considered the proper thing would be to say

'God bless America, pleeeeaaaaaasssssssssee. In spite of what a shithole we've become. And how many innocents we've killed."

And then God should say 'STFU'.

[Angela Shelley]

28. God Bless America, too.

[Bucky]

8. I understand it, I like it, and I assume people who say it are being sincere.

So, nyaaa.

[lonestarnot]

16. So it's ok to tell God what to do and not really ASK him for a blessing?

Don't you see the difference?

[Bucky]

20. Is it really that big a diff between "May God bless America" and "God bless America"?

When you hit your thumb with a hammer, do you say "May God damn it!" or do you just let fly?

I have a hard time believing you don't understand that the phrase "God bless America" is an informal invocation, not someong trying to boss the Lord Yahweh around.

[lonestarnot]

25. The may is not understood and in most if not all cases is an /O/

[KG]

10. even more wierd: 'america bless god' bumper stickers i've seen

:wtf:

[lonestarnot]

17. Commanding and commandeering a blessing.

[Tindalos]

11. Perhaps they mean to say

God forgive us.

[Captain Hilts]

12. And you don't use the imperative to the Lord. It SHOULD be "MAY God bless..."

[lonestarnot]

18. Exactly my point! Ask not command! We are not so special with the torture and all.

:shrug:

[SoonerPride]

15. Religion is for the weak minded.

god is not great.

[lonestarnot]

19. I have the opposite opinion.

God is great!

[SoonerPride]

21. I met god once and she said I should move on with my life

So I did.

She doesn't want to be worshipped.

Religion is for the weak.

[lonestarnot]

24. Well I don't believe you. Unless you can part the Atlantic with a stick.

:P

[immoderate]

36. What about the rest of the planet?

Oh, I forgot, it's the American god. :eyes:

--IMM

[Terran]

38. In my little redneck corner of Mid-America...

I've seen some bumperstickers that say, "God Bless the World." One was rather amazed. It does go to show that being religious and being narrow-minded are not one in the same thing.

[immoderate]

43. My read on that...

Is that it's not so much religious as inclusive.

--IMM

[trof]

22. I like Twain's 'War Prayer'.

It's long, but here are the last few paragraphs:

Then came the "long" prayer. None could remember the like of it for passionate pleading and moving and beautiful language. The burden of its supplication was, that an ever-merciful and benignant Father of us all would watch over our noble young soldiers, and aid, comfort, and encourage them in their patriotic work; bless them, shield them in the day of battle and the hour of peril, bear them in His mighty hand, make them strong and confident, invincible in the bloody onset; help them to crush the foe, grant to them and to their flag and country imperishable honor and glory --

An aged stranger entered and moved with slow and noiseless step up the main aisle, his eyes fixed upon the minister, his long body clothed in a robe that reached to his feet, his head bare, his white hair descending in a frothy cataract to his shoulders, his seamy face unnaturally pale, pale even to ghastliness.

"You have heard your servant's prayer -- the uttered part of it. I am commissioned of God to put into words the other part of it -- that part which the pastor -- and also you in your hearts -- fervently prayed silently. And ignorantly and unthinkingly? God grant that it was so! You heard these words: 'Grant us the victory, O Lord our God!' That is sufficient. the *whole* of the uttered prayer is compact into those pregnant words. Elaborations were not necessary. When you have prayed for victory you have prayed for many unmentioned results which follow victory--*must* follow it, cannot help but follow it. Upon the listening spirit of God fell also the unspoken part of the prayer. He commandeth me to put it into words. Listen!

"O Lord our Father, our young patriots, idols of our hearts, go forth to battle -- be Thou near them! With them -- in spirit -- we also go forth from the sweet peace of our beloved firesides to smite the foe. O Lord our God, help us to tear their soldiers to bloody shreds with our shells; help us to cover their smiling fields with the pale forms of their patriot dead; help us to drown the thunder of the guns with the shrieks of their wounded, writhing in pain; help us to lay waste their humble homes with a hurricane of fire; help us to wring the hearts of their unoffending widows with unavailing grief; help us to turn them out roofless with little children to wander unfriended the wastes of their desolated land in rags and hunger and thirst, sports of the sun flames of summer and the icy winds of winter, broken in spirit, worn with travail, imploring Thee for the refuge of the grave and denied it -- for our sakes who adore Thee, Lord, blast their hopes, blight their lives, protract their bitter pilgrimage, make heavy their steps, water their way with their tears, stain the white snow with the blood of their wounded feet! We ask it, in the spirit of love, of Him Who is the Source of Love, and Who is the ever-faithful refuge and friend of all that are sore beset and seek His aid with humble and contrite hearts. Amen.

(*After a pause.*) "Ye have prayed it; if ye still desire it, speak! The messenger of the Most High waits!"

It was believed afterward that the man was a lunatic, because there was no sense in what he said.

[lonestarnot]

26. Yes, about sums it. And of course the man was deemed a lunatic,

and would be today, but more so.

[Uncle Joe]

23. If there is a God or Goddess, I've always thought that phrase was selling the deity's almighty power

and grace short. I mean come on people, expand your horizons, how about a God or Goddess Bless Earth? Can a parent love only one child and damn the others? God didn't create the United States in seven days, it was the whole universe, which I believe is a uterus of sorts, but that's another story.

[Angela Shelley]

29. God Bless America, too.

[Uncle Joe]

30. I've always believed if we can have God to bless Earth, America will be covered in the deal.

God might even include Germany.

[Angela Shelley]

35. God blessed Germany from the very beginning.

There has been too much damage done through humans, but taking everything into consideration, Germany rocks!

[Elspeth]

31. I'll bet Irving Berlin is pretty pissed off too

I think he actually meant those words when he wrote the song. To see them used as blatant manipulative propaganda might upset him.

[immoderate]

37. Irving Berlin was an atheist.

The song was meant as morale booster for our troops, and appreciation for our country. It was not about god, it was about America.

Edit to add: Berlin meant the song as a peace anthem.

He also wrote this song, though he was not a satanist:
http://ffrf.org/fttoday/2004/may/?ft=barker

Pack Up Your Sins and Go to the Devil in Hades
By Irving Berlin

Oh, I got a message from below.
'Twas from a man I used to know
About a year or so ago, before he departed.
He is just as happy as can be.
I'll tell you what he said to me.
He said, "If ever you get heavy hearted,

Pack up your sins and go to the devil in Hades.
You'll meet the finest of gentlemen and the finest of ladies.
They'd rather be down below than up above.
Hades is full of thousands of
Joneses and Browns, O'Hoolihans, Cohens and Bradys.

You'll hear a heavenly tune that went to the devil
because the jazz bands
They started pickin it, then put a trick in it,
A jazzy kick in it.

They've got a couple of old reformers in heaven,
Making them go to bed at eleven.
Pack up your sins and go to the devil,
And you'll never have to go to bed at all.

If you care to dwell where the weather is hot,
H-E-double-L is a wonderful spot.
If you need a rest and you're all out of sorts,
Hades is the best of the winter resorts.

Paradise doesn't compare.
All the nice people are there.
They come there from everywhere
Just to revel with Mister Devil.

Nothing on his mind but a couple of horns.
Satan is waitin' with his jazz band, and his band
Came from Alabam', with a melody hot.
No one gives a damn if it's music or not.
Satan's melody makes you want to dance forever
And you never have to go to bed at all."

� 1922 by Irving Berlin

--IMM

[uberllama42]

32. I'm also tired of having "In God We Trust" on our money

And "One Nation Under God" in the pledge of allegiance. We are a secular country and we don't need anyone's deity in our national regalia.

[Uncle Joe]

33. I've always thought that to be ironic as Jesus was said to have thrown the money changers out

of the temple, I don't believe he approved of mixing business or commerce with religion. Now here we are today approximately 2000 years later printing "In God We Trust" on our money, so much for WWJD.

[Swamp Rat]

34. May God put an end to American stupidity,

and may Goddess bless this Earth.

[kineneb]

41. which god? Cthulu?

benevolence does not seem to be the hallmark of whatever god is currently "blessing" us...

Lovecraft's critters are somehow more relevant to the situation...

[spanone]

42. bu$h* is proof God damned america