mzmadmike ([info]mzmadmike) wrote,
@ 2009-05-12 08:44:00
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Current location:Office, where else?
Current mood: enraged
Current music:Fire--The Crazy World of Arthur Brown
Entry tags:politics

So Furious I Could Start A Revolution Single Handedly
Sent to Amvets and the American Legion (so far)

http://www.amvets.org/programs/programs_citizens_flag_alliance.htm
http://www.legion.org/cfa/

As a veteran, I love my Constitution too much to cheapen it by using it as a tool to restrict people's rights. It is, and always has been, a restriction on the GOVERNMENT. It's but a step from banning flag desecration to banning alcohol (we tried that, if you recall) to regulating relationships (also proposed) to seizing people's assets for the good of society.

I refuse to cross that line.

Norm Eadie says: Patriotism gives symbols meaning. Enslaving people to symbols destroys patriotism.

The Flag is a symbol of our greatness. Do not make it a symbol of our shame.

I will not destroy the Constitution for a mere symbol. To do so over a symbol that represents it would be a sick irony.

I expect to receive a donation envelope from you today--one of your fundraisers called me late Sunday night.

You can expect to receive it back, minus a check, with a paper copy of this comment. I will not pay to support fascism, no matter how noble it pretends to be.

I am saddened that so many veterans' organizations are disgracing themselves, and willing to destroy the Constitution, over a matter of free expression, one of America's founding principles.

If this filthy travesty of a proposal gets added to the Constitution, I expect to personally desecrate a great many flags, because at that point, it will represent nothing, and be a symbol of all we have lost.

For a lesson in why such an amendment would be pointless even if passed, please see:
http://whatever.scalzi.com/2005/06/23/cracking-the-flag-burning-amendment/

With respect (for now)

OIF/ODF, TSgt USAF/SSgt US Army.


~~~~~


Now that the eloquence is over, I fucking HATE these fascist cockfags for trying to use the Flag and my status as a veteran as poster children for their campaign. I am fucking FURIOUS that they put me in a position of supporting the people who hate the Flag and all it stands for.

Now I have to go to WalMart and buy 1000 cheap, Chinese-made American flags I can shit on and mail to Congress and assholes like these.


(21 comments) - (Post a new comment)


[info]brownkitty
2009-05-12 01:59 pm UTC (link)
And Ex-lax. You'll need a lot of that.

(Reply to this)

I agree
(Anonymous)
2009-05-12 07:07 pm UTC (link)
If such an amendment passes, I'd follow the Scalzi method of pissing everyone off with a flag burning.

Whatever happened to "I disagree with what you are saying, but I will fight to protect your right to say it."

(Reply to this) (Thread)
Re: I agree
(Anonymous)
2009-05-13 12:15 am UTC (link)
Yeah, but that was said by some Frenchman.

(Reply to this) (Parent)

[info]denelian
2009-05-12 09:33 pm UTC (link)
holy fuck!

i thought that this had been settled by SCOTUS, like 20 years ago!

if one wants to burn the flag (why would anyone want to burn the flag, exceot to protest about the government anyway?) it is PROTECT as a Right by the First Amendment.

WHAT. THE. FUCK.

may i link this entry to my dad?
and i need to go and email Sherrod Brown again.

this is really fucking insulting. thanx for bringing to my attention. i may need to go buy a flag to burn :(

(Reply to this) (Thread)

[info]mzmadmike
2009-05-12 09:36 pm UTC (link)
Yes, SCOTUS "Settled" it, so now they want to amend the Constitution to "Settle" that.

I think people who burn the Flag should wrap themselves in it first, and people who wrap themselves in the Flag should set it on fire while doing so.

Yes, you can share.

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

[info]denelian
2009-05-13 03:04 am UTC (link)
i think i am confused...

yoe are saying that people should not burn the American flag as it is an important symbol, but that burning the flug should be lega; because it is protected under the "free speach" clause of the 1st amendment. right?

if that isn't what you are saying, i am confused.

i think what is confusing me is the scare quotes around "settled". because your original post reads that you are mad that people want to amend the Constitution to make it illegal to burn the flag... this reply from you seems to say that you are mad that people want to burn the flag as a protest?

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

[info]mzmadmike
2009-05-13 03:09 am UTC (link)
Both:)

I think burning it is reprehensible, and I'll gladly furnish such people a ticket to say, Uzbekistan. However, they have the RIGHT to be assholes.

So, if they wrap themselves in it, and then set themselves on fire, we'll both get what we want.

As to "patriots" who want to ban burning it, who are figuratively wrapping themselves in it, need a little spark, too.

SCOTUS has said it is free expression. This is an attempt to go around SCOTUS by making it a Constitutional Amendment.

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

[info]denelian
2009-05-13 05:21 am UTC (link)
gotcha!
sorry, didn't mean to be obtuse. its been on of those days where no one i know IRL is saying what they *mean*

for the most part, i totally agree. burning a flag should be the most extreme of protests except for hungerstrike level of protest. a .05% raise in school taxes? put the damned lighter away. CongressPeople are funding human trafficking and persecuting those who are trying to stop it? well, ok, i'll get the lighter fluid.

it has to *mean* something. most people don't really think of all the meaning in the American flag, and use it to protest really stupid shit.
if the vote were taken away from women, i would burn the flag.
if contraceptive were made illegal again, i would the flag.
if Obama doesn't give a tax cut/break next year, i might write a letter to my senator/rep. or might not. depends on why. but i'm not *burning the FLAG* over something little.

but if my neighbor wants to burn the flag because he is a giant fucktard who wants the government to stop all immigration from Mexico? i'm going to tell him he's a giant fucktard and make sure there's a fire extinguisher handy for when he's done (or has lit the yard on fire too)

(this is me babbling because i just finished writing a 20 page paper on the virgin-whore dichotomy, virginity and how both affect society and i am sooooo happy to be thinking about something else)

(Reply to this) (Parent)
Okay ...
[info]rlg
2009-05-14 02:13 am UTC (link)
then how shall one dispose of a flag that has outworn its usefulness as an item of display? (you know, those

The options are burning, or burial. In fact, my mother's girl scout troop did that in the 1960's, to teach the scouts about citizenship etc.

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)
Re: Okay ...
[info]mzmadmike
2009-05-14 02:21 am UTC (link)
Yes, but you have to have the right MINDSET when you burn it...

Thoughtcrime, anyone?

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)
Re: Okay ...
[info]rlg
2009-05-14 07:55 pm UTC (link)
updefuk?????

Sorry, I'm allowed to think what I like, at least I was last time I checked. This law and the logic behind it is seriously fubared.

(Reply to this) (Parent)

[info]overdesigned
2009-05-13 10:55 am UTC (link)
Wandered in via Whatever -- just wanted to say that I agree with you wholeheartedly on this one. The truest test of one's support of free speech is always whether that one will allow speech they find distasteful/reprehensible/etc to be spoken.

-J.H.
Sgt, USMC '03-'08

(Reply to this)

DOJ Statues
(Anonymous)
2009-05-13 01:36 pm UTC (link)
Personally I think they should cover up the naked statues at the DOJ again (as Ashcroft once did), but use American flags to do so. The bronze breasts would no doubt desecrate the flag, but protect us from seeing unwanted boobies. Neocons everywhere would spontaneously combust at the moral dilemma!

(Reply to this) (Thread)
Re: DOJ Statues
[info]mzmadmike
2009-05-13 03:06 pm UTC (link)
"Neocon"is largely a fabricated term and an epithet hurled by neolibs;-) Few people of any political stripe are bothered by the statue of Justice.

You raise a good point, though, that almost EVERYONE displays the Flag incorrectly and thus desecrates it. The end result of any such Amendment means that either ONLY the Government will fly the Flag, or that it will be a meaningless Amendment completely ignored. We have enough of those already.

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)
Re: DOJ Statues
[info]kazriko
2009-05-14 05:36 am UTC (link)
I always thought that Neocon was the word that leftwing progressives called rightwing progressives, while Liberal was what Rightwing progressives called Leftwing progressives.

Of course, all of the classic liberals were trampled to death in the process and we ended up with two parties with big government progressivism in common.

(Reply to this) (Parent)

[info]kazriko
2009-05-14 04:58 am UTC (link)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jF2iX2VG6e4

Penn and Teller, great stage bit.

(Reply to this) (Thread)

[info]mzmadmike
2009-05-14 05:13 am UTC (link)
Bravo.

And the Amvets envelope arrived today. Now I need to find a stamp with an American flag on it;-)

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

[info]kazriko
2009-05-14 05:32 am UTC (link)
Excellent idea. Reminds me of the Doonsbury comic long ago. It consisted of only a flag, and a blurb about how you can't use the newspaper to line bird cages anymore. I normally hate that comic, but I kept that one on my wall for awhile to remind me of the foolishness of such legislation.

(Reply to this) (Parent)

[info]wyjoe
2009-05-15 04:53 am UTC (link)
I think the Forever stamps have one. Thank you for clarifying my thoughts on the matter. I fully agree with you.

Wyman

(Reply to this) (Parent)
Revolution!
(Anonymous)
2009-11-22 06:28 pm UTC (link)
Thanks for the article.
It's good to review the US Flag code
American Flag Etiquette
http://www.uncleflag.com/American-Flag-Etiquette-s/500.htm

(Reply to this) (Thread)
Re: Revolution!
[info]mzmadmike
2009-11-22 08:14 pm UTC (link)
I'm well aware of what it says, and see dozens of discrepancies every day.

(Reply to this) (Parent)

(21 comments) - (Post a new comment)

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