constitutions don't mean shit anymore, and governments are just as much businesses as any private company.  their customers are lobbies, and they definitely have a preferred customer list.  the atheist/secularist/humanist lobby just ain't worth dealing with in terms of finances and publicity.  i guarantee you, if an overwhelming majority of white males suddenly became as passionate about misogyny as they are about christianity--and especially if some of those males sat on the board of directors at lockheed, honeywell, phillip morris, dupont, etc.--you'd see real quick that the 19th amendment ain't worth dick.

you want a constitution to count?  make a revolution.  put a couple hundred of those motherfuckers against the wall.

but even then, your new order would only last as long as the popular acclaim lasted.  atheists don't have the "right" to exist in america.  our existence is tolerated, mostly because the vast majority of people don't give a fuck we exist.

you want to turn an iran into an america?  don't send the works of jefferson.  send flatscreens, tivos, x-boxes, recliners, 7-11's, sizzlers, 24-packs of diet coke, cheap timeshares, toyota camrys for no money down and plenty of cupholders, natty light, hagar slacks with adjustable waistbands, one-stop shopping, frozen hamburger patties, gas grills, plastic lawn furniture, john mayer covering lynyrd skynyrd, and a bloated service economy bursting with meaningless white-collar jobs.  then you'll have a society where you're free to bitch as publicly as you want, because you won't get anyone's attention.

Of course not, but in this case we are not taking about equality of display. That cross is not in the Museum itself, it its outside acting as the bus driver symbolically where the non Christian victims are mere guests who need to sit at the back of the bus. Plus it was retro fit to shape in any case.

There are NO other religious symbols there of equal size and display and most of the time when people do this in our history they DO NOT want any shared display, it is a clear attempt at using a tragedy to send the message that we are a "Christian Nation". If any family member of a Muslim or a Jew tried to put up an equal size display these same Christians who put up this cross would bitch a fit. Look at the reaction of Christians when Muslims bought a PRIVATE building, not even public property.

And even at one time American Atheists was denied a permit, not to put up a display, but to hold a secular memorial.

This is not the tombstone of one individual say like at the National Cemetery. This was an event that affected not only our nation, but the U.S. citizens with backgrounds from 80 nations and an event that had dead represented in all the major religions. The cross being the biggest display was not done to represent pluralism or non Christians, it would be akin to putting a cross on our flag. Not because it is there, but because of the intent of the size. It is a billboard, not a reflection of history.

You don't put relics in a museum for purposes of equality. You put them there as a testament to what actually happened in history. Of course there are not religious symbols of equal size, because at the event the museum is intended to memorialize, there was no other similar religious symbol present. 

As far as the Muslim building, you will remember that I was quite vocally on the side of the Muslims on that issue. I fail to see how that has any relevance to a cross being put in a museum though. Just because Christians are a bunch of whiners doesn't excuse your whining. 

If you voted libertarian you wouldn't need permits. Or you could sue the government for that if you want. I fail to see how that has any relevance as to determining whether the cross is a historical artifact that should be displayed in a museum.  

The size is because that the size it was at ground zero. (Actually, it is slightly smaller because as you pointed out it has been trimmed) The cross was used by Christians as a memorial during the clean up process. It attracted a great deal of attention. That alone makes it an appropriate piece for the museum.

FFS it is just a couple of beams that held together after the towers collapsed. It should be left for humor value alone. It is almost as good as the Virgin Mary grilled cheese. Which should also be in a public museum so that people in the future can look back and laugh at the ridiculous things people thought were sacred. 

oh please, do you think those people exist because of a lack of a constitution, or common law or free press?  in fact, do you think common law or free press EVER existed in those places to begin with?  common law and free press were ideas cooked by the rising european bourgeoisie to get out from under the thumb of a decrepit aristocracy, whom they already had more wealth than anyway.  who do you think wrote the magna fuckin' carta?  or the american constitution, for that matter?  some itinerant laborer or yeoman farmer?  no, they were written by the monied classes to serve their interests, i.e., the barons and bourgeois plutocrats, respectively.  the concepts of free press and common law have no more reality than platonic forms or the kantian thing-in-itself.  they only protect you as long as the political majority finds it useful for them to protect you.

you know why the american constitution works at at least 80% capacity?  because we have enough shit to make it work.  our resources are so plentiful, the rulers don't have to resort to starving you.  if we were suddenly brought down to the level of north korea, everyone below the first percentile would be fucked.  and guess what?  i guaran-fuckin'-tee you they wouldn't even bother changing the constitution.  hitler never bothered changing the weimar constitution, and the 1936 soviet constitution made the american one look positively draconian. 

political theories do not equal political realities.  they never have and they never will.  they're nothing more than teddy bears to keep us from being too afraid of the dark.  it doesn't even take stalin or hitler to show us that.  lincoln showed us that, FDR showed us that, and bush jr. showed us that.

Invent a non-sectarian marker that is an acceptable replacement for all sectarian markers.

Rotsa Ruck.

I think the point is obvious. If one tries to cover all religions there is bound to be problems. What do Buddhists use? Are there any that prohibit or have no use for markers like Zoroastrians?

The nearest useful thing I can think of is the Vietnam Wall on the Mall in DC. Just names carved into stones. (Let god sort them out, sort of.)