98 thoughts on “You’ve Got To Be Kidding Me”

        1. Well, it’s hardly a surprise that a sitting President’s foreign policy rankings go down the month an ambassador dies. It’d be more astonishing if they went *up*.

          (this is not an endorsement of the Administration’s approach towards either Libya or Egypt, by the way)Report

              2. I agree with your second paragraph, that’s for sure.

                That was kind of my original point, in the title. “This is what we’re talking about? A freakin’ campaign poster, is your straw that’s breaking your back??”Report

              3. Tom, I’m going to put my serious hat on for a moment, and ask you a question which you need not answer here, but only to yourself.

                Do you think that your short, superficial partisan comments about the creepiness of a flag, or photos from the 2008 campaign, or the Facebook de-friending misuse of a survey, or all of your little jabs at Obama that don’t contain any real substance but are merely meant as an expression of which side your on, suggest to anyone that you are concerned about Libya? I don’t mean to imply you aren’t, because let’s be honest, how would I know? I know you’re concerned about natural rights, because you post serious comments about that, and I know you’re concerned about abortion, because you post serious comments about that, but on politics, it’s just drive by partisanship, and I can’t imagine anyone who came by here and read your comments would think you were interested anything more than scoring political points. So I wonder, do you think they would? Might they even wonder whether much of the pro-Obama comments here are in response to your petty partisan fluff?

                Like I said, I don’t need to hear your answer. I’m fine with you actually thinking about it for a few seconds.Report

  3. Ugh. It’s a good thing that the law in question is never enforced or taken seriously; it’s clearly a free speech issue. It’s also got the minor irritant of applying specifically to the District of Columbia, rubbing in the fact that my home city is an unwilling ward of a Congress that it’s not even represented in. Nice post, but my day would be better off not knowing any of this. Back to fantasy football!Report

    1. Tom, here’s the thing–it’s not the fact that you find a presidential candidate using bog-standard patriotic imagery to be creepy that irks. That’s misguided, but I’m willing to chalk it up to “Someone is WRONG on the Internet”. But to act like your misguided notion is so obvious that people who don’t share it should be condescended to? That’s basically the opposite of classy and respectful.Report

            2. I’m partial to the Teddy one. It’s not often acknowledged how he singlehandedly eradicated the growing Sasquatch Menace at a time when so-called liberals were nattering on about the rights of ‘Hirsute-Americans’.Report

              1. I’ll go with Teddy at number two. But Reagan’s got an RPG, an assault rifle, and a frickin’ velociraptor! The awesome quotient is incalculably high.Report

    6. @ one picture = 1000 words, the state rests.

      100%, complete, undiluted, high octane trollery.

      {{Wait, maybe I oughta click thru before passing judgment. }}

      Hmmm. I’ll stick with the original assessment. Now, if you’da made a joke about it…Report

      2. And signed arms treaties with a Communist. There’s a reason that the Bush II defense establishment looked like the Ford administration redux: Reagan and Bush 1 were too liberal for him.Report

  6. That section of the US Code always makes me think of doing flag detail when I was stationed in England. We flew both the American and the UK flags and had to take them both down. The American flag came down slowly and carefully in time with taps, was very carefully unmoored from the flagpole and appropriately folded.

    The UK flag? The Brits required nothing more than to just ball it up and stuff it under our arm.Report

  8. I think you mean, “The comments thread is not awesome except the part where my wife trolled it after she found and posted the Lincoln campaign flag below after a 2-second google search which any of the other yahoos could have done had they cared so very much about the bastardization of our flag.”

    Also, Dan, Flag Code is voluntary. It’s gauche to do these things to the flag, but it’s not illegal.Report

      1. ‘Memba when the Conservatroids were all about a flag burning amendment? Ever since I was a little Boy Scout, we learned burning is the only appropriate method of disposal for a flag. I burned two in the Army. Burned them in a hibachi, after they’d been brought down by the colour guard.

        Thing is, most Conservatives weren’t in the military. And obviously, they didn’t earn their Citizenship in the Nation merit badge or they’d know these things. They’re also a bit weak on the First Amendment. But as you say, they’re Toadally Patriotic.Report

        1. Yeah, I remember thinking that way back in the day. Burning is how you’re supposed to dispose of flags. It’s right there in the code.

          So obviously burning flags in protest is protected speech — because it’s not the burning that’s upsetting you, it’s why they’re burning it.

          Otherwise, you know, our glorious Senators taking Firm Stands against the half-a-dozen times a year someone burns the flag in protest would be throwing the book against boy scouts, soldiers, and ordinary Americans trying to dipose, in the proper and honorable fashion, a flag that is too tattered to fly any longer.Report

    3. So I follow the link and scroll down a bit.

      The picture from Monday is of the statue of Abraham Lincoln in the Lincoln Memorial, and the write-up is:

      American history trivia: Which president freed the slaves on April 16. 1862 and what politcal party was he in? Answer in comments below. (Hint: His nickname was “honest Abe” and his political party was not the Democrats.) Get both answers correct and you win! LIKE and SHARE if this was one of the best presidents ever in US history.

      So far, it’s got 20,432 “likes.”

      A political cartoon on the same day accuses Barack Obama of apologizing for burning the Koran but unapologetically burning the U.S. Constitution. 38,602 “likes.”

      More recently, this one: “SHARE if you agree: Don’t Tread on Me!” followed by a photograph of one-dollar bill creatively folded to spell out the slogan. 49,224 “likes.”

      And, “Mother of 5 loving sons and grandmother to many. Married to the same man for over 40 years. A Cancer and Multiple Sclerosis survivor and still fighting. Loves God, family and her country. LIKE and SHARE if Ann Romney is a GREAT AMERICAN!” followed by a very attractive picture of Mrs. Romney. 22,802 “likes.”

      I think it’s safe to say, based on this obvious and conclusive evidence, that Tea Partiers on Facebook like the candidate’s wife, a centuries-old slogan, and mocking Barack Obama a lot more than they like protecting the sanctity of the flag.

      What do they have against the flag for which so many brave veterans gave all?Report

  10. I find the original flag kind of hokey. I find the outrage about it puzzling.

    That and everything else I’ve posted this week is just proof that I need to move to France or something.Report

          1. I don’t think I can live there, year ’round. But from June to early October, it’s nice.

            The rest of the year I’ll live in New Orleans or something, just to balance out.Report

          2. I have a good friend who was raised in rural Nevada. I think i was the first jewish type person( i’m not jewish, but my mom was) she had ever met. She was in her 40’s.Report

    1. Somewhere, between crazy uncle somebody and crazy nephew otherperson, the debate still rages on whether or not Captain America is a real American, on account of his bastardization-of-the-flag-uniform.Report

        1. Yah, JB, that one’s making the rounds of the rightosphere. I don’t like it–out of bounds and out of line. But those seem quaint concepts lately.

          The synchronicity is eerie, though, and the image is shattering. I was complaining in this very thread that we’re talking trivia when we have a murdered ambassador.

          FTR, when Barack Obama beat John McCain, I was like, fine. Not so much this time around. It’s not all trivia and gamesmanship. Sometimes a difference makes a difference.Report

  16. This would be funny if it wasn’t so stupid – we have States trying to glorify the Confederate flag over their capitols – the symbol of mass murder of our people used by a traitors group (more than all other wars combined) that makes Bin Laden look like an amateur when it came to murdering our people. We even have so-called Americans who fly this flag of hatred, mass murder and utter evil over their homes and you worry about a web page symbol that has at best only a vague appearance to the American flag? Only in Amerika.Report

      1. You’re joking right? Yeah, it looks like the actual Confederate flag (with another thingamajig in the blue field) but nobody knows what that looks like.

        When they really wanted to do a fish you to the Yankees and the integrationists, they changed their flag to add the Confederate Ensign (i.e. ‘the General Lee flag’). They changed it back to an older design (they never had an official flag prior to Reconstruction) about ten years ago.

        Only Mississippi retains the ‘rebel’ flag now.Report

        1. No, I’m not joking. It’s the Confederate flag. That’s what they used when they designed it.

          And yeah, I still think they should change it, even if most people recognize the battle flag as the Confederate flag.Report

      2. The funny thing is that no one really seems to care. All of the effort to get the Navy Jack emblem off, and any similarities with the S&B are overlooked. I don’t think anyone has the energy for another fight in Georgia. Mississippi remains the important one.Report

    2. FTR, my call on the Southern Appeal blog for the end of the Rebel battle flag got me fired. Well, let’s say my non-resignation was accepted.

      The Obama flag is merely creepy, and the shades are intentionally—or unintentionally—counterfeit of our red, white and blue. Regardless, it’s designed to appeal to something other than

      July 4 Celebrations Make Children More Likely To Become Republican: Harvard Study

      http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/01/july-4-republicans-harvard_n_888659.html

      Semiotics. And when a GOPer [say, me] sees the red, white and blue rendered in artsy shades of puke, there’s a visceral reaction. Creepy.Report

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