Lincoln and the formal education of puppies.



This past Monday, Oscar and Felix graduated from puppy training school. They were very indifferent* since their diplomas were neither food nor underwear. On Monday, they start the intermediate dog class. The dogs are still half-jerks and we want them to be 2 non-jerks.

Now for Lincoln...

As I sat on the couch this evening, sipping my rolling rock greenlight, I caught one of those one reel wonders



on TCM. I caught it in the middle,so I don't know what the theme was though I suspect it had something to do with patriotism and history as it was a reel from the late 40s, early 50s...and quite lame might I add.

So as I'm paying attention to Oscar, I noticed that some blind guy in a hospital is talking to Abraham Lincoln (no doubt a civil war soldier...I know he was blind because he was wearing a blind fold.) He recited the first half of the Gettysburg Address, then lincoln finished off the second part. As actor Lincoln finished up the Address, I noticed that the Gettysburg Address ends thusly: "that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth."

Notice the familiar phrase, "nation under God." Well, I read a long article in the Atlantic about Lincoln and though he was a Christian, he was not evangelical. Then I remember learning that the Eisenhower administration had put the phrase "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance. I didn't believe that Lincoln would have put that phrase in, and after 5 minutes of research, I found digitized versions of the first two drafts of the Address at the LC website. And guess what?!, no "under God" to be found. If you don't believe me, see for yourself http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/gadd/gadrft.html


*=Yes I did that on purpose, it is a joke.