Man, even the character I'm being forced to vote for is using this phrase at the end of his speeches. I have to tell you that it's one that makes the hair stand up on the back of my head faster than most others.

I just find it such a strange statement. First of all the word "bless" originally comes from the idea - "to consecrate by sprinkling with blood". So we're already beginning with a rather morbid thought. Add to that the fact that the phrase "God Bless America" brings up images of Kate Smith singing (which I really try not to think of after eating).

Of course my major problem with this statement is that it's an exclusionary statement on its own. It doesn't say "God bless the human race" which would be conferring peace and prosperity on all of mankind. It instead is more like a prayer for God to help only our country. It always sounds like the person using the phrase "God bless the USA" is saying under their breath at the end "....and nobody else". The statement also has the feel that our lives are not our own, that there's this predestination in our fates, that somehow we're not a grand and glorious nation because of the actions of our forefathers but instead because of the help they somehow got from their creator.

Now you all know, or should by now, that I'm an atheist. I know the other atheists on the board will understand the little jab that we feel when someone brings up their wonderful religion in some mixed conversation. Most of those just roll off but, when it comes from someone with their hand on the nuclear trigger and the guy the Department of Homeland Security answers to, that jab is a little sharper. Nearly every country that devolved into some despotic dictatorship, bent on ruling the world, began by invoking God's favor on the nation. Wars are so much easier to enter into when God's on you side. Enemy combatants are so much easier to relegate to sub-human status when God is not on their side.

I don't think the world will ever attain peace and prosperity in total until humans evolve past their religious crutches, until the day when one of the qualifications for being a candidate for the Presidency of the United States doesn't include the necessity of a declaration to a supreme power at the end of their worthless speeches.