Michael Kinsley makes the case that we need to replace our National Anthem and discusses a few likely contenders. I agree with Kinsley as to why "The Star-Spangled Banner" should go. (It's an undemocratic song because no one less musical than Robert Goulet can sing it, and also it's about war.) But the fight over what to replace it with would be so ugly that no one will have the tummy for that battle. One can already hear the fundamentalists seeing the adoption of "God Bless America" as a way of declaring, once and for all, that this is a Christian nation and all good Americans believe as they do.
Incidentally: The other day, the famous-for-not-much-of-anything Joe the Plumber declared that there are places in America where you can be shot for saying, "In God We Trust." Of course. Why, just last week, three people on my block were killed for reading their money aloud.