Curb stompings, body piercings, ad hominem arguments, Cynthia McKinney, presidential elections… This thread has had more highjacks than Turkish Airways.
gobear, I’m not comparing you to posters like JDM. Frankly, I expect to see hysterics from some posters. (BTW, JDM, have you considered taking 10 deep breaths before posting?)
It’s the well-spoken and generally considerate, well respected posters who begin to worry me when they start foaming…
Xenophon, do you not see that flagburning is, is in essence, saying “Fuck AmeriKKA” unless it is placed in context as Rjung suggested? It is an act performed only by leftist radicals. I dare you to find Republicans burning flags during the Clinton scandal or during the Florida vote-count. (although a lot of them acted like thugs) I dare you to find moderate Democrats who burn flags. It is an act performed only by people with extreme political views.
You see flagburning as an innocuous form of protest; I do not. We approach this from very different points of view.
Yeah, and here comes another one:
[start hijack]
Really? What boat? I’m guessing COMSUBPAC if you never made it to Arlington.
[/end hijack]
OK. You’ve driven me to it:
:rolleyes:
If there were a “beating head against wall” smilie, I’d use it. You can have the debate back now; I’ve knocked enough bricks loose to’ve retained my dignity, I s’pose.
However, on my way out-----
[hijack continuation]
kaylasdad99: Casimir Pulaski SSBN 633. (Gold crew, until we consolidated and went to drydock in Newport News, summer of '80.) New London, Holy Loch, Kings Bay, and… no trips to Arlington.[/hijack]
We’ll have to agree to disagree. All you need do is show me that flagburning is a common, everyday form of protest that is not limited to one narrow segment of the political spectrum.
First, a note: it is the unanimous decision of the Central Committee that the Garrison joke posted by gobear is worthy of an amnesty. Hence, his name is removed from the list of First to the Wall Come the Revolution. This becomes official as soon as Comrade Stoid signs off.
to the matter at hand: no flag is sacred. All this crap about men dying for it is just that: crap. Military mush like we havent seen since John Wayne made The Green Berets. German soldiers “died for their flag”, did the swastika suddenly become sanctified? A thousand years will not remove the evil from that symbol, regardless of who died for it.
Nationalism is a pathology of humankind, flags are a symptom, like pustules on a pox victim.
My love for America is not based on geography, America is not that chunk of dirt between the oceans. It is the dream of the Revolution that I hold dear. Liberty, justice, equality, the Work in Progress that is our heritage and our duty.
If you can’t contain all that in a single human heart, how then in a piece of cotton manufactured in China?
Couldn’t agree more. I spent from early Novermber 1944 to the end of the war in Europe in the ETO. I never once heard any person say that they were going to take one for the good old Stars and Stripes.
In fact, until the war was over and we moved on to occupation duty in Germany I never even saw a US flag. I suppose there was one up at Group Headquarters, maybe, but out in the squadron areas we managed to carry on the war without one.
The claptrap that I hear about the “sanctity of the flag” makes me realize how shrewed the ancient Hebrew sages were to outlaw graven images. Allowing them soon leads to the image becoming more revered than the ideas that it represents.
JDM
On the other hand, back in December of 2000 Antonin Scalia and his cohort not only wiped their asses on another symbol of our country: the United States Constitution, but they also had the power to turn their hatred of democracy, of the Liberty of the People, of the very idea that the United States of America was founded upon- that the government should only govern with the consent of the governed- into the mockery that is the Bush “presidency.” Some skinny hippy’s torching of a piece of cloth vanishes next to that obscenity. JDM
look here:
http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2001/florida.ballots/stories/main.html
Please…get over it…Bush won. I’m sorry for you that you want to deny this, but in recount after recount after recount, BUSH WON. In study after study after study, BUSH WON!! And please…don’t insult my intelligence with: “But Gore had more popular votes!” That’s true; and nobody denies this. However, understand this: **That is totally irrelevant!**The Presidency is elected by Electoral votes. Both Bush and Gore knew this going into the election. We could try to say Bush is President because he won more states, but we would be wrong (even though he did). We could try to say Bush is President because he won more counties, but we would be wrong (even though he did). The ONLY counting criteria involved is electoral votes, and THAT voting made Bush President.
And pre-emptive strike: the Supreme Court would have not gotten involved if the Democrats had not tried to steal the election by changing the rules of counting AFTER POLLS HAD CLOSED!!! The only thing the Supreme Court did was to certify that Florida’s methods of counting were constitutional and that the Democrats attempt to change the methods after the fact were unconstitutional.
…end hijack…and waits for the flaming to begin…
Nah, Republicans prefer more treasonous acts, like making public death threats against the President (Helms to Clinton, remember?), or blowing up Federal office buildings (Tim McVeigh, clearly a non-liberal).
And with that, “Tim McVeigh is a Republican,” this debate has formally degenerated beyond all hope of redemption…
So much for arguing points and not attacking people.
Who said that?
Remember, kids, “non-liberal” != “conservative”.