I’ve never trusted people from Canadia and I never will; I mean, there’s something odd about the place, not least of which is how (for some nefarious reason) they have sculpted the entire coastline on the north side of their country to make it completely straight (have a look at this map if you don’t believe me). There’s something evil brewing there, I just don’t know what it is.
That’s isn’t a coastline, that’s just where the glaciers begin. Nobody puts it on the map because we don’t know what’s up there. It’s never BEEN mapped. There are tales of sixty-foot-tall polar bears and walrus-men with tusks as sharp as razors.
You forgot the winking smilie after your post.
You have to draw the line somewhere. How would you like it if your own children stomped on/burned a picture of you.
The flag is a symbol of the USA (or any flag/any country). Disrespecting the flag is a direct disrespect for the country.
If you have a gripe with what the country is doing, then became active in opposing it.
Burning the flag (IMHO) is treasonous. I dont care much for Iraq, but I wouldnt even burn their flag.
Get a grip, whuck, it’s a piece of fucking cloth. Symbolism is subjective and irrelevant. It’s LEGAL to disrespect the country btw. You know that don’t you. I mean. come on TREASON? Are you serious? How about just saying “Fuck America?” Is that treason too? Should any show of “disrespect” for America be considered treason? How about disrespect for the president? How should we define “disrespect?” How do we prove it?
As for my kids destroying my photograph, well, my daughter has been known to rip up pictures of her daddy, and it didn’t bother me any…of course, she’s three years old…
whuckfistle, please read the Federal Flag Code before you sound off ignorantly.
Burning is the recommended way for disposing of a soiled flag. Period. Following the Federal Code governing the appropriate treatment of the flag is not treasonous except in Funhouse Mirror World.
Regardless of how subjective you think the flag is, to some, it is indeed more than just a piece of fucking cloth. You have every right to do with it as you wish in your pursuit of Free Speech. However, when you do, you are not just disrespecting the government, the president, or a certain policy, but also the hundreds of thousands of people who served this country proudly, many of whom died for it.
It is because of those people I would never consider burning an American flag, no matter my disagreements with the present administration. And that is why I have an extremely low opinion of anybody who would. I know to you it is just a piece of cloth, but to those who fought under it, those who had loved ones die, and those who still can’t look at the flag without crying, it is so much more. And many of those people deserve respect.
This is not the first time Canadians have burned the US flag, one of my wife’s students did this at a FTAA demonstration last year. I would bet there is some dumbass in pretty much any protest that has something to do with the US who will try it.
Hey, now. I’m Alberta born an’ bred, and you won’t hear me singing Klein’s praises. I wouldn’t vote him in as dogcatcher.
If I did have children, I’d probably feel that I did something majorly wrong as a parent to get my kids to dislike me that much, and I’d try to talk with them about it.
I see it as a symbol of the Government. And as a symbol of the government, I can show disrespect toward it.
And if I want to show my disapproval by setting a flag on fire, why not? Just because it makes you uncomfortable?
Relax people, (oh I forgot this is the pit, we are supposed to drop the F-Bomb at random).
I did use the phrase “(IMHO)” before the word treason by the way. I do realize that it is not treasonous, I merely likened it to treason, hence the use of the suffix “ous”
Burning the flag is steps above vocal disrespect for the country, which I know is legal.
Lilairen- no shit? I am not referring to the proper disposal of the flag, I am referring to the disrespect of it. Now if you have something to say regarding that I would love to hear it. By the way Lilairen, if you have ever worn the American flag on your clothing you have committed an act against the American Flag Code. And please don`t call my opinion ignorant.
Hamlet - Thankyou.
Symbolism is not irrelevant to normal people. Christ on the cross for one, as a symbol is not irrelevant. It may be considered subjective, Ill give you that. If I were to somehow obtain a bunch of Purple Hearts and then burn them in a public display would I not upset maybe a few million people. I dont see how the flag is any less relevant as a symbol.
And by the way, what the hell exactly is setting the flag on fire supposed to mean? If you have differences with the current administration or anyone in the government or the government itself, take it up with them directly. Burning the flag is just a childish display and a cheap attention getter.
Finally, maybe I grew up on a different planet (arguably) but even if you lack the best parenting skills, it does not give your children the right to disrespect you.
Sheer demagoguery.
Whuck,
The American Flag Code is just a collection of suggestions and guidelines. It actually doesn’t have any legal weight or significance. There are no penalties for violating it.
You are a complete and utter asshat. I actually find it hard to express the breadth of my distaste for you and your bullshit.
The act of protest through burning the flag originates in a belief that it has been soiled by the actions of the government, agency, or individual being protested, and thus must be given a respectful burial, as is appropriate to the mandated treatment.
The knowledgeable protestors who burn the flag in protest of a war, for example, are making a statement that those who have originated this war have done so in sufficient violation of the principles of the United States that the flag can no longer be displayed in honor and respect. They burn the flag as a rebuke for those who muddied it with their actions disrespecting flag, Constitution, nation, or what have you. They believe they are displaying better patriotism than the people who they believe have spat upon and defiled their symbol.
(The un-knowledgeable protestors who burn the flag in protest of a war, on the other hand, know that it’s something that gets people’s dander up to disproportionate levels, and thus tend to do it specifically in order to watch the smoke billowing out of people like whuckfistle’s ears. I suspect the sort of publicity that flag-burning protests get tends to promote an increase in the number of un-knowledgeable protestors, given that it informs large numbers of people of a good way to get on the nerves of certain groups of people.)
I will call an opinion ignorant when it is founded on ignorance.
Where did I say it had legal wieght or penalties?
Not just in this post but the proceeding one also, you`ve been overstating what I have said and I think you need to de-caffeinate.
** Lilairen ** - You claim that the knowledgeable and the unknowledgeable both win when they burn the flag… How sad.
They got you upset, don’t they?
You gave 'em what they wanted.
If you don’t want the unknowledgeable to get what they want in that particular act, dispel ignorance as to its origins as a fundamentally patriotic act of symbolism.
That won’t stop the people who know what they’re doing – in fact, it will give them more power – but it will break the power of the iconoclasts, the pointlessly destructive, the disrespectful, and the contemptuous.
Christ, Hamlet, what crawled up your ass? Your post was demagoguery. It was a rank appeal to sentimentality and the specious authority of crying veterans. What did you expect, I was going to start sobbing with remorse?
Maybe you’re pissed about something I said in another thread? God knows I’ve said plenty lately.
Thanks, Feynn. I hoped that the Westerners on the board would get my little dig. (BTW, Jim and I have some friends in Edmonton. We’ll have to try to make the next Edmonton Dopefest.)
Okay, back to Americans having an utterly fascinating discussion about their flag…
Actually, what gets me upset is not the act itself but the small group of people that seem to get upset when the act is criticized.
Im a bit tired of the people who make a stand for the issues that frankly dont mean a thing to the majority of the people in this country. People who extend the freedom of speech to its very maximum. While its good (and offers good debate) to test the limits of the constituion, (to paraphrase diogenes), “the subjective and irrelevant” matters in these types of situations get carried way too far sometimes. “The squeaky wheel gets oiled” syndrome which seems to be racing through the country these days.
**You have consistently proven yourself to be a lying, intellectually dishonest piece of human waste who would rather piss people off and spout rhetoric than deal with the issues of what anyone who disagrees with you has to say. Or maybe you just share that for me. I find nothing redeeming in anything you post, it may be out there somewhere, but I’ve found no substance, no intelligence, hell, you’re not even funny.
And you proved it all those things, once again, in this thread. You say the flag is just a rag with stripes, and I point out that to certain people it has great meaning, and you say I’m being a demogogue. Namecalling over substance. Rather than acknowledge that symbolism may mean something to people, and that causing harm to those people should be considered in weighing the rightness/wrongness of a situation, you’d rather spew your rhetoric.
I have no idea why I continue to respond to your posts, other than my interest in the people who read these threads, because it certainly isn’t because of you. It’s not just this thread, it’s in almost every dealing I’ve had with you. I’m done.