The flag code is a “law” that carries no penalties. Pedantically this means it can be argued as a “law,” but it’s a “law” that doesn’t actually mandate or forbid anything. It’s purely symbolic. If it imposed any penalties on civilians, it would be unconstitutional.
You may safely ignore the flag code. It’s your cloth, you can do whatever you want with it.
Best double entendre of the year.
Whiskey flag?
For the last time you bunch of freaking illiterates: the flag is a HALF-STAFF. It is only at half-mast if there is a mast, like on a boat.
The former governor of this state had announced a policy that the flag on state buildings would be flown at half-staff when ever a state resident died in the armed forces. It was a forceful and frequent reminder of the cost of playing God. Weather the new guy will kept it up is unknown, given that he has rejected just about every thing his predecessor has done, probably not.
Um … who’s playing god in this scenario? It has been my impression that anyone – including young boys in blue uniforms – was capable of changing the height of a flag.
Ascenray, you government and my government is playing God just as soon as it sends the nation’s armed forces off to enforce foreign policy objectives. Reminding the electorate that the cost of those decisions is paid in dead and mutilated soldiers, sailors, Marines and aircrews is, in my judgment, a good thing. Flying the national colors at half-staff is one way to bring that cost to the public’s attention and to honor the personal sacrifice even in a small way.
Hijack – one of the worst examples is “supermodel.” There used to be plenty of models, and only the uber ones whose names became household words and who eventually got to call the shots in their own careers or run media and fashion empires were called supermodels to distinguish them from the rest.
now every single time a model’s career is mentioned, somebody or everybody calls her a supermodel, even when it turns out it’s some 17-year-old foreign chick who’s a complete unknown and was hired a month ago, and no one offstage has ever heard her speak.
Supermodel isn’t a profession any more than “all-star” is or “Ph. D.” is. It’s a superlative form of the word model.
Possibly the person who runs the flag up doesn’t realize that you need to keep pulling until you hear it clank against the top of the flagpole, as opposed to just eyeballing it. Once in my misspent youth, I made this mistake at Girl Scout camp and accidentally only raised the flag to 3/4 staff.
Edit: Although this doesn’t explain why they wouldn’t notice it throughout the day…every day… look, nevermind. I just wanted to share my Girl Scout story, OK?
OK, OK, if you insist. My flag is at half-staff if my employees are half-assed and 50% of them miss work.
And it is for reasons like this that I am annoyed at the implication that the meaning is “diminished” by honoring people who are “less important” than ex-presidents.
Oh for christ’s sake, enough with this pedantry already.
A similar example: “porn star.”
Thank you. Maybe now the pedantic nitwits will kindly stick a sock in it.
One man’s pedantry is another man’s precision in language.
Don’t get me started on the decimation-devastation thing.
It could be that the mechanism to raise the flag is broken (assuming it’s not raised by hand) and only goes that high.
Common usage always trumps the dictionary. Half-mast is precisely correct.
It was the style at the time. They didn’t have white onions, because of the war. The only think you could get were those big yellow ones.
IIRC you’re not supposed to fly the flag if it’s raining.
And there are pills that will help him kept it up.
CMC fnord!
Gaudere’s Law claims another victim.
In my opinion, diva used to mean someone who was so talented that their highly-demanding personalities were worth the trouble.
Hey, I know who both my mommy AND my daddy are.
That is an excellent example.
Another good example; a whole lot of people are just fucking on film.
Back to appropriate management of the U.S. flag:
Does anyone know how one person is supposed to take down and fold a flag?
I know how two or four people quarter and tri-fold one, but many, even non-official size, are too large for one person to fold without scrunching it up or let some part of it hit the ground.