One person at one military burial in California objected to the words of the flag-folding ceremony, which includes a reference to “the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.” Result: a coast-to-coast ban on the recital at all 125 cemeteries overseen by the National Cemetery Administration. The families can read it aloud if they want, says the NCA, but no cemetery workers will be allowed to do so.

A spokesman for the California Defense of Veterans Memorials Project says: nuts.

“It’s outrageous,” he says bluntly. “These are decisions that should be made by the families of our deceased veteran comrades and not by Washington bureaucrats — and most certainly not by any narcissistic, disaffected, offended atheist, agnostic, or any other [person] who is upset or offended by the word ‘God’ or a religious symbol which might offend his delicate sensibilities.”

Lloyd vows that even if there are “a hundred-million offended atheists,” he and other American Legionnaires will stand against the ban.

“We will defy this ban, pure and simple,” he states. “If the families ask us to recite the flag-folding ceremony, we will abide by the wishes of the family — not [by the wishes of] some bureaucrat sitting in an air-conditioned office in Washington, DC, or some lawyer wearing a diaper back there whose main mission in life is to protect his own behind instead of standing up for the American people and saying enough is enough.”

Some Michael Newdow type is going to sue the NCA if this persists, which is only going to end up getting Lloyd’s people fired. Exit question: Are we sure we can blame this one on the atheists? God is mentioned after both the 11th and 12th folds, but the first link up top specifies that it was the one after the 11th fold — meant to celebrate Jewish war veterans — that drew the objection.