While Thomas Jefferson may have coined the term of "a hedge between church and state," he had nothing to do with either authoring or ratifying the First Amendment. That makes what he said about it as fundamental to the Amendment as anyone else who didn't bring it to pass. The letter everyone is so awestruck over was written 10 years after the fact when he was president and was in response as to why he didn't issue presidential declarations of Thanksgiving and fasting like presidents Washington and Adams had done. If you want to know who actually did take part in authoring the First Amendment, try looking up James Madison. Before we saw the First Amendment as it was written today, he had proposed it to be written thusly, "The civil rights of none shall be abridged on account of religious belief or worship, nor shall any NATIONAL RELIGION be established, nor shall the full and equal rights of conscience be in any manner, or on any pretext, infringed." It was James Madison who said that it was his intention to provide "that Congress should not establish a religion, and enforce the legal observation of it by law, nor compel men to worship God in any manner contrary to their conscience." If he had proposed to separate completely church from State, the First Amendment would NOT have passed or been ratified since there were States with established religions that would not give up their established religions such as: Massachusetts, Connecticut and New Hampshire.

The inferiors will always outnumber the superiors, we are doomed. The uneducated and ignorant will always outvote the educated, their numbers are 9 to 1.

Mike, Norwalk: You sounded sane and sober until you got to BUT, and there you went off into insane and drunken fabrication. We certainly do have more freedom and prosperity now than before 1913. Did they have the liberty to do what we are doing in this exchange and through this medium? The list of enormous freedoms are unending and unequaled. Freedom of expression requires responsibility and a truth to back it up. We are not allowed to yell "fire" in a theater unless there is one, and we should not be allowed to yell "nazi" on the internet unless you can back it up. And just where are these "whole regions being demonized" that you speak of? We have regions in LA under the rule of the "18th street gang" terrorists and thousands of other gangs of thugs that cruise our streets terrorising and killing innocent people. And what legal immigrants are being demonized, where, how, and by whom? The idiotic notion that our government leveled the World Trade Center is worse than yelling Nazi. Where are your facts, besides Charlie Sheen's "call me crazy" theories? This is still the greatest nation in the world and we have more freedoms now than ever. Worry more about getting killed by a drunken driver (17,000 annually in the U.S.) or gang terrorists in your own neighborhood than dreaming up fantasies of Naziism by our own government. Then worry about the dictators of Iran, North Korea and Venezuela that hate America's unrivaled freedom and want to wipe us off the face of the earth, regardless of your political party affiliation. And by supporting their fanaticism and hatred toward the American way of life, they make you one of their "useful idiots." Lay down your partisan politics and help unite as fellow-Americans to protect and preserve the greatest nation in the world -- while we still can.

EGL, LA: Thank you for your wise insight and appreciation for our country. It pains me that we have red states and blue states and are no longer the United States. I too have issues with this administration, as I've had with all past administrations. But I wouldn't trade the unparalleled freedoms that we share and likewise agree that we must defend and protect them with all our might.

Logan: As a "Christian conservative," you actually agree with anonymous (Reston is where he or she lives) who "prays for the day that the citizens of the world bring him (our President) to trial for his war crimes." Exactly what God do you and anonymous pray to? Such hatred -- it makes the islamic fascists look like boy scouts. What are these atrocities, tactics and all this other vile accusations that you speak of? Those are the very things the islamic fascists are doing yet you and your ilk defend them and condemn with hatred your fellow Americans who do not agree with you. It is not our leaders or even the terrorists that I worry about or fear, it is the everyday citizens like you and "anonymous." Your hatred against those who disagree with you is the same kind of hatred the Nazis had against the Jews. Stop blaming the "neocons" and look into the mirror.

Truth is evil? No wonder you outrageously accuse our U.S. government of "doing just as the Nazis did." Have you seriosly forgotten what the Nazis "really did," and could you be very specific about how the U.S. is now doing what the Nazis did to six million Jews. Your comment is reprehensible! If you want a replay of Nazism under Hitler, keep your eye on Iran and its dictator who says there never was a Holocaust, but now wants to create his own by wiping Israel off the face of the earth. Then he wants to do the same to the U.S. That's his "truth" and it is extremely evil.

Then get rid of government and see how long you have peace. In fact, government's only job is supposed to protect us from harm. I'm not sure what your idea of peace is, but being decapitated by vicious terrorists is not a very peaceful thought.

Sorry to hear that you live as a slave in America because we apparently have a "master" in our own governemt. Really, could you elaborate how this "master" has deprived you from "More and more laws which steal your freedom"? And be quick before the "master" takes away your freedom of expression. Fortunately, here on the west coast, we're still a free people. However, "master" ahmadinejad has a few nukes he'd like to send to the east coast. "master" kim jong ill also has plans to send some nukes to Hawaii and the west coast. But don't worry about these two "masters" as they're really no threat. Instead, worry about the ficticious "master" in the White House, and then some day soon you will have a "master" if you're one of the few survivors.

We, the people, have elections to elect congress, and there has been a change. So now it is up to this new congress to withdraw, go forward with more Troops, or whatever they think is the right solution. If you consider yourself a subject of a "president/king," then revolt, declare war, and overthrow him just as the Revolutionaries did. Nobody is stopping you. As Plato said: 'Only the dead have seen the end of war.' "

Thankfully, the Revolutionaries of 1776 decided not to negotiate trade with a certain king. Today, there is a misguided ideology that thinks our military is no longer a necessity and our freedom can be thrown on the table as a negotiating tool with viscious enemies who want to kill us and destroy our nation. Perhaps a wiser man than all forewarned: "Beware, lest in your anxiety to avoid war, you obtain a master." -- Demosthenes (384-322 BC)

While there's "never been a good war," there's also never been honorable negotiations with an enemy that wants to destroy your people and your nation. We bought into that foolish notion all the way up until the morning of December 7, 1941. But hey, that was 75 years ago and today's enemy is truly honorable and wants peace, right?

Lest anyone has forgotten, it was Eisenhower who first said "Peace through Strength" in 1952. But an even wiser man said: "Beware, lest in your anxiety to avoid war, you obtain a master." -- Demosthenes (384-322 BC)

General MacArthur was 82 when he gave the West Point speech in 1962, and he died two years later. In fact, the speech that you refer to (In his later years and after much reflection) was actually given in a speech to a joint session of the Congress of the Republic of the Philippines on July 5, 1961. But let's get back to Clemenceau's "War is too serious a matter to entrust to military men." The military men do not start wars, they only fight where they are told to defend their country. So-called leaders of countries start the wars. Nevertheless, I'll bet on the U.S. Armed Forces any day, so long as they are entrusted to fight and win, as only they know how. We never lost a battle in Vietnam, but we lost the war at home in the United States. In his West Point speech, General MacArthur went on to say: "Others will debate the controversial issues, national and international, which divide men's minds; but serene, calm, aloof, you stand as the Nation's war-guardian, as its lifeguard from the raging tides of international conflict, as its gladiator in the arena of battle. For a century and a half you have defended, guarded, and protected its hallowed traditions of liberty and freedom, of right and justice. Let civilian voices argue the merits or demerits of our processes of government; whether our strength is being sapped by deficit financing, indulged in too long, by federal paternalism grown too mighty, by power groups grown too arrogant, by politics grown too corrupt, by crime grown too rampant, by morals grown too low, by taxes grown too high, by extremists grown too violent; whether our personal liberties are as thorough and complete as they should be. These great national problems are not for your professional participation or military solution. Your guidepost stands out like a ten-fold beacon in the night: Duty, Honor, Country. The soldier, above all other people, prays for peace, for he must suffer and bear the deepest wounds and scars of war. But always in our ears ring the ominous words of Plato, that wisest of all philosophers: 'Only the dead have seen the end of war.' "

Clemenceau was right -- who could entrust France's military men when it comes to the seriousness of war? But the French certainly entrusted America's military men when it came to liberating them, didn't they?

Eric Hoffer clearly understood the meaning of freedom and he nailed it in this quote. People will spend their lifetime tied to the chains of power and revenge rather than unshackle and set their selves free.