Free speech

COUNTRY COUNTRAST -- The U.S. Supreme Court has upheld the right of a radical religious group to say nasty things near military funerals. In Pakistan, blasphemy gets you the death penalty, and disagreeing with radical Islamism is illegal, even if you are a Christian. On the same day of the Supreme Court ruling, a Christian cabinet minister who opposed Pakistan's blasphemy law was assassinated.

SHORT VERSION -- You have the right of free speech. I have the right to ignore you.

ATTENTION BIRTHERS -- There is no requirement that the President of the United States be a Christian. In fact, the Constitution specifically prohibits such a requirement, for any public office. That's not in the First Amendment, which guarantees freedom of religion, but in the main body of the Constitution itself, in Article VI, which states, "There shall be no religious test for any office of public trust." There are many non-Christian politicians in America, including Hindus, Jews and Muslims, and that's as it should be, so that the entire population is represented. "America is a Christian nation," is the claim; (except for 6 million Jews, 5 million Muslims, 3 million Buddhists, 1.5 million Hindus, 1 million of the Baha'i faith, and 300,000 Sikh, not to mention the 2 million atheists and the 33 million who are non-religious. In addition, there are those of the Zoroastrian, Confucian, Shinto, Tao, Wiccan, and Druid spiritual paths, as well as the many in the Native American Tradition.) And if the President of the United States should happen to be a Muslim? As Colin Powell said, "So what if he is?"

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