"It never gets any easier. You just go faster." ---Greg Lemond
"Don't buy upgrades. Ride up grades." --- Eddy Merckx
"You drive like shit." ---The Car Whisperer

3.7.08

Thursday Hate - "Dum-da-dum-dum-dee-daaaaa" version




Why is it people in flag-shirts are the ones most likely to label somebody else unpatriotic? Most likely for not wearing a flag pin. Ironic, isn't it: labeling someone as less of a person for not wearing some arbitrary symbol, and then using that very symbol to cover your body - wracked by morbid obesity from decades of gluttony and slovenly behavior? I can't think of a bigger sacrilege, as it relates to the symbol that you are supposedly upholding.

And the Pledge of Allegiance: why does this still matter? Why do people get so worked up when someone refuses to take part? Or omits the "under god" addition from 1957, which was added during the height of McCarthy's communist witch-hunts and the Cold War? Declaring an oath to a piece of cloth does not make one a patriot.

The world has gotten way too small for this mindset. We've got bigger problems to deal with, and people who are basing their political decisions on these kinds of issues only add to them. If being a "patriot" is still important to you, yet you still realize that you want to make a difference, distinguish yourself through actions, not slogans or pledges or pins.

5 comments:

Illinoisfrank said...

Why is it people in flag-shirts are the ones most likely to label somebody else unpatriotic? Most likely for not wearing a flag pin.

It's a form of misdirection as you can see here.

brianfmorrissey said...

bad link? Website down?

Matt said...

Semi-related: how about using the U.S. flag for advertising?

allenpg said...

I always loved Barbara Bush's flag dress. We were taught in school that the US flag was only meant to be a flag, not clothes. BTW, ask the next "patriot" you see when was the last time they ever voted, stuffed envelopes for a candidate, or volunteered at the local VA Hospital. It's lot easier to wear a flag shirt...

kevin.chicago9 said...

Bingo! I think Bill Maher also hit the nail on the head in his book (based on WWII propaganda posters), "When You Ride Alone You Ride with bin Laden", when he makes the point that putting a flag on your car is literally the least you can do. -kevin

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