NOW, THEREFORE, I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim July 30, 2006, as the 50th Anniversary of our National Motto, "In God We Trust." I call upon the people of the United States to observe this day with appropriate programs, ceremonies, and activities.
Apropos of nothing, it turns out that it's only illegal to write on or otherwise alter money if you do so in such a way and with the intent that it can't be recirculated.
Just FYI.
So I suppose something like this is right out then.
I think it was there that they used to write:
"In God We Trust, all others pay cash."
It's the title of a book; I don't know if that has any relation to the phrase's usage in Mad.
I know it's been said before, but this time I really hoped it was a link to The Onion. Silly me!
It amuses me sometimes: I'm in Canada, which seems more religious on paper, what with the Catholic school boards and all. But in practice...
I know it's been said before, but this time I really hoped it was a link to The Onion. Silly me!
It amuses me sometimes: I'm in Canada, which seems more religious on paper, what with the Catholic school boards and all. But in practice...
Oh come on. All presidents have a staff that concerns itself with nothing other than meaningless proclamations like this. I doubt George Bush even knew this proclamation was issued. (Do you really think he reads all of the papers that pass over his desk?)
I wonder if he reads any of them.
...C'mon, who could resist a straight line like that?
So, basically I'm an old-school hippie. Y'know, white male, privileged background, liberal sentiments, peace-loving, progressive, etc.
And yet, from time to time, given my flip-side engineering background I actually offend a lot of the kids these days by, well, more or less defending a lot of what this administration is up to. And, really, I think I'm right to do so.
But this? This? This proclamation? No, I'm ashamed to be associated with it. It has no place coming from that office. I only wish I could be sure it was "only" pandering.
His Will,
-t
changed my name. hope you are still interested in my EXploits...
"Wait, I thought our money always said In God We Trust!"
Heh. I have a whole stack of old ones, twos, and fives in the money collection that don't say it. I wonder how many places would let me spend them before I got arrested. (Probably at a Taco Bell.)
Are you suggesting that we amend the constitution to include the president in the establishment clause?
Does this mean all those cashiers who use a pen to check the authenticity of $20 are committing a crime against the gov't?
Call in Homeland Security!
-bZj
They are just checking to see if it is a bad counterfit bill. They are iodine, all they check for is starch, which is is cheap paper, but not the good stuff. Go and buy paper with good feel, and it should pass the pen test, use the paper already in the coppier at Kinko's and it will fail it. The Secret Service recomends against them.
For more fun, spray laundry starch on real bills. Now they will fail the pen test. :-)
Putting spray starch on the money will, oddly enough, be more likely to run afoul of the law than marking the money in anyway. Of course, there is no actual per se but it wil have then end result of pulling valid notes out of circulation.
I think it would be a fun disruptive thing to do. The secret service will just sneer at people who say that the pen says they are bad, therefore they MUST be counterfit.
So that link is really fascinating in that 'rabid freak who is itching for a fight and can't understand why no one is fighting him'.
"C'MON! I'M A RADICAL! I'm messing up YOUR world man! I scratch out the word God on money! I'M A REVOLUTIONARY! Tell me how MUCH I'm freaking you out! VALIDATE ME DAMNIT!"
The real revolutionary was the justice who figured out that putting the phrase 'In God We Trust' on all of our money actually ended up stripping out any real religious content and made it just another empty collection of words with no real meaning or weight. Now *THAT* is revolutionary shit right there.
You might even call it a beautiful hack.
In God we FUCK. Amen.
do hereby proclaim July 30, 2006, as the 50th Anniversary of our National Motto
Uhhh... it's the 50th anniversary of July 30, 1956 whether anybody proclaims such or not.
King George II makes another proclamation!
The thing about intent is interesting. It's open to changing legal interpretation whether or not making any specific mark on a bill would imply this intent. It should be obvious that very minor markings, such as writing a small number or color on the corner would not ruin a bill. But completely blacking out a printed identifying mark, like the "In God we trust" motto might ruin a bill by destroying a security marker. So a court could infer your intent to ruin the bill by the fact that you've intentionally marked it this way.
It's another amusing, but largely academic question as to whether or not the copy shop has any reason to stop you from photocopying your driver's license or passport. In this case, the black-letter law says it's illegal only if you're trying to make a counterfeit. I've made copies of my own important documents just as a backup, and even showed the copy of my passport to a US Immigration officer once without any trouble.