America has freedom Îof,' not Îfrom,' religion

A letter in Monday's Wildcat stressed the fact that "under God" was added to the pledge as a way of combating atheistic communism and therefore has no place in the classroom of today. But the writer chose to ignore the blatant references to a higher power in the Declaration of Independence. The Declaration, written partly by Jefferson, remarked upon the rights to which "nature's God entitle(s)" citizens, and that humans are "endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights." So all those claiming that the separation of church and state should mean that no mention of God is acceptable in the public sphere should find another country with a foundation that does not include so many obvious references to God. The reality is that our American heritage is one of freedom "of religion" not "from religion." [Read article]

Last week, the Recording Industry Association of America announced a new round of subpoenas in its fight against music piracy, targeting those people who use peer-to-peer networks to share music files on their computers.

What makes these new subpoenas so interesting at the UA is that the RIAA has now demanded that the university hand over the names of the students who downloaded large numbers of songs using the university's network. [Read article]

It's over. Time is up. The School of Planning will be eliminated despite cries from its leaders, students and renowned planners and development officials all over the state.

Most knew it would happen last semester, but as it lay on the cutting board, the school's supporters crossed their fingers, said their prayers and held out hope that administrators would side with them and keep the budget cut sword far away from Planning. [Read article]

Religion entrenched in our national heritage

With oral arguments set to resume tomorrow in Elk Grove Unified School District v. Newdow, the Supreme Court has before it a classic case debating the separation of church and state.

At issue is the much-loved ÷ and much-hated ÷ "one nation under God" phrase in the Pledge of Allegiance. Added unanimously by Congress in 1954 to promote patriotic sentiment during a time in which officials were scared communism would take over, the phrase is at the very heart of the church and state debate. [Read article]