Scrolling through the news feed on facebook today, I see someone has shared this poster of Chris Kyle and Whitney Houston. On the left is “The Hero” and on the right is “The Druggie”. Of course, each photo has some words of wisdom printed below them.
The claim is that Obama ordered flags to be flown at half staff for Whitney “The Druggie” Houston, but not for Chris “The Hero” Kyle.
Well, I didn’t believe it, so I googled it and it seems that Governor Chris Christie did make such an order for New Jersey, but nothing from our president.
Anyway, I followed the link and discovered this nasty piece of work.
What are the odds that if Obama had made a public expression of sympathy for Kyle’s fate as he did for Houston’s (not flags at half-staff, of course, just official condolences), nutters like that /conservativegroup would be squalling that he was just trying to exploit the tragedy to further a gun-control agenda?
The late Chris Kyle was murdered at a shooting range by a fellow-veteran suffering from PTSD, whom Kyle and a friend took to the shooting range in an attempt to help him cope with the PTSD symptoms. I think Kyle was a brave and dedicated person and his death is tragic, but if I were a gun-rights activist, I would not be trying to raise the publicity profile of this sad incident, because I don’t think it would boost popular support for my cause.
Thanks for that. I had actually fallen for the claim that Obama flew the flags at half-mast for Whitney Houston. I’ll have to inform my friends that they’re wrong.
Remember that only real conservatives can see the Invisible Obama, who probably did lower the flags when Houston died, and also probably danced on Kyle’s grave while having a gay marriage or two.
I’ll see your group and raise you this one. What a bunch of ignorant racists. It’s some sport to post contrary views on that site, but you quickly get banned.
Heh. Reading the original image in Snopes, I see that it uses the term “drowned in her bath water after inducing a fatal concoction of drugs and alcohol.”
She persuaded a concoction? What the hell do they think the word induce means?
Being from New Jersey I did know this without the help of Snopes and I have corrected people on it. I thought it was a dumb move on Christie’s part and an attempt to pander to black voters. Even though she was a drugged out has-been her funeral was a big deal in Newark (and cost tax payers a lot of money in police overtime). But in contrast to the meme, Christie also has state flags lowered for every NJ resident killed on active duty. As did Jon Corzine before him.
Does the POTUS get to pick and choose who gets a flag tribute? I thought the US Code required an honoree to be a pblic office holder or service member.
The image and its text were circulated as part of the meme, Snopes didn’t use the term (anything in the quote box originated off of snopes, see here for instance). Speaking of the image, Chris Kyle had really large hands.