Is the UN evil or are these people idiots?

The city council of LA VERKIN, Utah, enacted a law prohibiting residents from flying the UN flag, requiring residents and businesses working for the United Nations or its supporters to post signs on their property and file reports with the city, barring the city from contracting or investing with companies with U.N. ties, declaring La Verkin a U.N.-free zone and banning that organization from taxing the city or stationing troops there unless authorized by the state or federal government. Most of it was repealed when the state Attorney General advised council members that their original law, adopted in a special session on July 4, violated residents’ constitutional rights of speech, assembly and equal protection.

You gotta love the part about banning the UN from taxing the residents of LA VERKIN. My question is, what the hick are these people thinking?

Sorry, in my laughter I forgot the link:
http://www.msnbc.com/news/605531.asp

Interestingly enough (and fitting in with your thread title) - if you rearrange the letters in La Verkin you get “Rank Evil.”

Maybe the UN should ban the flying of any La Verkin flags.

You also get the words “Irk Navel.” I don’t know what that would have to do with the UN, but it does imply that the townspeople are miffed about something having to do with either bellybuttons or oranges…

As for what they’re thinking, from the above information, the best I can guess is that they “don’t want no goldurned commies bastids from furrin countries takin over their dadgummed property, violatin’ their bellybuttons, and overturning their evil plans for world conquest!”

According to NewsSource (sorry, lost the link), they have revamp the law so now the only that flying the U.N. flag from the county courthouse flagpole is prohibited. The rest was repealed.

Paraphrasing the words of one town resident (again, I lost the cite): “it was making us look like a bunch of idiots.”

Ok, now that I’ve read the link, it’s even dumber than origianlly thought. First this line:

What the hell? Damned environmentalists! Leaving trees all over the place! I’m trying to drive my ATV here, the paint’s gonna get scratched with all these bushes and trees and nature out here!

Then there’s this one:

Wow. I don’t know what to say but :rolleyes:. Paranoid much? From the first part of the statement he comes off as “pro-God,” so of course they’ll do what any God-fearing people would do when something doesn’t agree with their word view - ban it in fear and ignorance.

Thanks pal, it’s things like this that make people speak more slowly to me when they find out I’m Christian.

I’m just curious…how big is La Verkin? And is it a typical backwater type town?

The msnbc.com article linked says it’s a population of 3,300, 20 miles from Zion National Park.

My geographic knowledge of Utah is shaky at best (currently it’s nothing more than “Yeah, it’s the state east of Nevada, and it’s got Mormons, right?”) so off I go to Mapquest, and here’s a map of La Verkin.

Forgive my simple country language, but I believe La Verkin is in the middle of Bumblefuck, Utah, about 20 miles past The Sticks, and to the left of The Boonies.

Y’all might make fun of people’s beliefs. But they hold these beliefs to their hearts. They see the UN as trying to usurp the authority and soveriegnty of the United States. And in many instances it’s true. They see the UN send forces into places like Bosnia and fear that it could happen here. What they need is their fears assuaged. Not their beliefs belittled.

Yeah, that’s great guys. In the name of upholding liberty, let’s a.) ban citizens from expressing their political views, and b.) create more red tape for citizens and local business. I sort of doubt there are any U.N. employees in La Verkin (can you imagine? “Oh, God, please, Mr. Secretary-General, get me the hell out of here! Send me to Kosovo, send me to East Timor, send me to Rwanda, just get me the hell out of La Verkin, Utah!”), but what are “supporters” of the U.N.? (From the article: “The ordinance no longer requires residents and businesses working for the United Nations or its supporters to post signs on their property and file reports with the city.”)

Way to hedge, guys. I’m pretty sure that if the U.N. ever tries to station troops in La Verkin without the authorization of the United States goverment then the U.N. is going to have bigger problems on its hands than what the hell the La Verkin City Council thinks. Of course, the La Verkinites are gonna feel pretty silly when the Aliens from Outer Space nuke Washington, D.C. from orbit and then land in La Verkin, and the rest of the world says “Gee, we’d love to send in the U.N. Emergency Planetary Self-Defense Force, but gosh darn it, it would violate a local municipal regulation to do so.”

They fear the UN is going to send troops to occupy La Verkin, Utah against the will of the United States…and you want me to take them more seriously than I do people hiding from The Black Helicopters?

On the other hand, it’s really no nuttier than so-called nuclear weapon-free zones (such as Ann Arbor, Michigan, if I recall correctly).

This may be true, but I can’t assuage their fears from here.

I can belittle beliefs from anywhere though. :smiley:

That a belief is sincere does not make it less stupid. A sincerely held belief may even be evil. Although this seems more stupid than evil, there is a nasty undertone to this. Employees of “supporters” of the U.N. have post signs on their property? How about making them wear a scarlet U.N. sewn on all their clothing? And, is there not a single person, out of 3,300 residents, with less-than-orthodox views about God or family?

The UN only sends actual troops when the Security Council says so. On which body the U.S. has a permanent seat and a veto over all actions. In fact, as far as troops go, there is no UN. When the powerful nations who dominate the UN–foremost among them the United States–find it convenient to do so, they use the UN label for their military actions. While the basically powerless General Assembly has often engaged in largely symbolic and rhetorical anti-Americanism, the UN has been far more a tool of American power when the chips are really down. The U.S. has used the UN to provide political cover and formal authorization to wage wars at least twice, in Korea and the Persian Gulf.

I imagine the citizens of other countries must just about strain a muscle doing this ( :rolleyes: ) when they hear Americans going on about the UN being some eee-vil imperialist power bent on world domination.

And how exactly are we supposed to do that, given that their fears are paranoid and have no basis in fact in the first place?

Some beliefs deserve to be belittled.

>> They see the UN as trying to usurp the authority and soveriegnty of the United States

Reeder, that’s a good one. So in order to prevent some furriner from trampling the Constitution of the USA, they enact laws which are unconstitutional. So the reasoning is that the UN cannot destroy the liberties they have already destroyed themselves. Along those lines of reasoning they might want to kill their wives and daughters lest the UN forces would rape them.

What makes you wonder is to think there was not a sane person there to say, “I think we may be making fools of ourselves and we should better drop this altogether or at least ask someone who completed high school”.

Can you imagine once the UN have successfully invaded the major part of the country, they arrive at La Verkin and they turn back in despair because a local law says it is a “UN-free city”.

Hey, I know exactly how those wacky Verkinites feel.

I wish my hometown passed the same law. There’s this place a few blocks from me that tries to inject its evil un-American influence over my burg all the time. They flaunt the local parking ordinances, screw up traffic and import hundreds of evil-looking, non-God fearin’ ferriners.

Oops! Silly me. I forgot… that is the U.N.!

When I first read the OP I thought it was about some place like Mogadishu or maybe somewhere in Iraq, until I read the link.

I suppose the people get what they deserve, having voted in a bunch of nutjobs whose only aim is to retain their position by pandering to the fears and prejudices of an ignorant public, one shouldn’t be surprised if unusual legislation is enacted.

Things never seem to change in the human condition, the ancient Greeks had a similar uncritical approach which led to the defeat of Athens and they blamed it on the only man to question what they were doing.

So how do you convince Chicken Little that the sky isn’t falling?

Of course the UN is evil. All self-respecting governmental-type organizations are.

Well, unless they’re actually going out, murdering people, raping, pillaging, starting ethnic terrorism, I doubt the UN is going to come in. :rolleyes:

If they can’t tell the difference between Podunk USA and Bosnia for crissakes, then they deserve to be laughed at.

I wonder what would if some kid wanted to ‘Trick or Treat for UNicef’?

Would they have to post signs in their yard and give a year end report to the city?

I heartily agree with the vote of “Morons”. However, I believe any statement of “Is the <insert group name> evil or are these people idiots?” tends to go that direction.