i haven't been for two weeks so tomorrow should kick my ass.
i just got back from jess' initiation. the girl who has been studying with me. hopefully mine will be soon - are ya'll coming
here's some other random crap that drives me crazy:
people who are all pissed off about flag burning or that obama didn't wear one on his lapel and don't know the proper flag etiquette ie how a flag is retired; that a flag shouldn't fly in the rain or in the dark; that a flag must be retired or mended when it suffers any rend in the clothe. i saw a guy every morning on the way to work with flags on each side of each car or truck or whatever it was - the flags were raggedy and he drove with them in any kind of weather. now how on earth does that make him patriotic.
okay - i'll leave it at ajust one toay.
brown university got rid of columbus day. i'm all fricking for it myself. when i was 9 or 10 i asked my teacher why on earth we celebrated a man who got lost and then oppressed the indigenous (though i admit to not using the word indigenous) i was told to shutup. but it doesn't negate the point. and of course as i got older i found out the dumb wop bastard never even made it to north america. meanwhile, we don't clebrate martin luther king jr. day and he actually did something for this country.
i went to lush today - if you haven't been o you must go. best stuff ever. i sampled some stuff and my hands till feel awesome.
k - once again eyes closing and starting to sleep midtype so night night nighty night.
i'm going to try to stay awake long enough to watch the remainder of this crazy exploitation movie. the last dragon. very bizarre stuff.
i have worn the mouthguard for most of today. this better work. oh, and i have an appointment to see my dentist about the tmj disorder next friday
'Oh, Gatorade has a new flavor. Blue.
7 comments:
that is one kooky movie, between the obvious hoke and the weirdly serious dramatic structure. it must be ajoke, but it's not really funny.
who knows.
what happens at initiations?
You fail to recognize that to most people in America the flag actually means something. The flag is a symbol of people who bled and died. It brings to mind all the sacrifices that people have paid through generations. Burn it and you spit on that. Burn it and you marginalize yourself and your views.
cthank you lisa for so succinctly illustrating my point for me. which was that people who are opposed rarely pay attention to details - such as that i did not advocate flag burning. nor am i / was i annoyed by people who get upset about flag burning. nay, my point was that people who get really pissed off about it are often the same people leaving their flag out in the rain which is not only disrespectful but unlike flag burning is actually stated as being against flag etiquette.
as for the sacrifices made - i come from military - don't suppose to know me. and those sacrifices were made in the name of keeping a state that we don't have to worship.
i would be interested to hear though what you mean by it marginalizes myself and my views.
Cassdawn, thank you for so succinctly proving your own point that you do not pay attention to detail. No where in my response did I say you advocated flag burning.
I would like to know the basis for the rest of your point. I'm assuming it is your personal experience.
I commend your family for their military service. There is nothing in my comment that presumes to know you. However, your response presumes to know me..which you don't. So why don't we just not be offended at each other and not project views on to the other.
You ever read Alinsky? Flag burning marginalizes views because it takes what may have been a valid criticism and ticks people off so much that your intended audience will no longer hear your argument.
i did not prove my point that i don't pay attention because i never made that point. just saying
actually i'm not offended by you at all. you stopped by here and moralized to me. and yes, made assumptions.
and please don't say you were just commenting and aren't i open to opinions etc etc of course i welcome opinions. but you clearly moralized. you told me that i failed to recognize that the flag means to something to most people. first of all - where do i fail to recognize that? and how? secondly, that wording suggests that i am not one of those people. then you go on to tell me what the flag symbolizes. which by the way, i think is a short-sighted version of what it symbolizes. to me it symbolizes so much more in addition to that.
finally, you tell me why burning it is 'bad'. if you didn't think that i was advocating flag burning then why on earth would you tell me what was bad about it? particularly in such tones.
and in addition to opinions - i welcome being moralized to. i just tend to respond to each in kind.
also, it was that moralizing that led me to the one assumption that i made about you - which is that you supposed to know me. because if you didn't think you knew something about me than you wouldn't think i needed your 'guidance'. course, the other alternative is that you think everyone needs your guidance so i think my interpretation was kinder.
as to the illustration of my point. i didn't assume anything - only noted that you seemed to fit the profile i was describing. for all i know you are very aware of proper flag etiquette.
alinsky is right strategy wise. but it does beg two questions - is the protester always trying to acheive an understanding with that s/he is protesting? and why is it that it is always incumbent on the protester to make his / her protest palatable? i know that last one seems a bit silly but really in some ways if you are protesting against a certain power can't it be counterproductive to do so in a way that makes that power comfortable. i don't really presume to know the answer to that one. it's sort of a malcolm x versus martin luther king jr. argument . . . but then, they both ended up assasinated so i guess it's academic.
yes, the basis for the rest of my point was/is personal. test yourself and i'm not asking you to tell me; just for yourself
http://www.usa-flag-site.org/etiquette.shtml
http://www.usa-flag-site.org/etiquette-display.shtml
i'll give you one anectodote - a woman in my office who stands up every day at noon when the radio station she listens to plays the national anthem forwarded an email to me in which someone burning an american flag caught on fire and the caption was something like 'people getting what they deserve'. this same woman for memorial day; veteran's; july 4th etc will buy toothpicks and napkins with the american flag on it . . . and i quote: "The flag should never be used for any advertising purpose. It should not be embroidered, printed or otherwise impressed on such articles as cushions, handkerchiefs, napkins, boxes, or anything intended to be discarded after temporary use. Advertising signs should not be attached to the staff or halyard"
realistically how is it that people are even allowed to make such things?? burning a flag is not even mentioned as being against etiquette, it has been held up time and again in court as being a protected protest and yet you can be arrested for it. meanwhile federal laws specifically calls out that you can not make napkins (just as one example) with the flag imprinted and there are people making money on it. why aren't those people being arrested?? many of them advertise with the tag - show your patriotism. really??? show your patriotism by snubbing federal law?
Hmm...
Flag burning is a bit of a conundrum. A worn flag ought to be retired by burning it, as per federal law. A protester burning anything is in violation of fire code.
I suppose a protester could pull a campfire permit, but that isn't exactly anti-establishment behavior...
Personally, I find flag burning or desecration to be distasteful, but I will defend my right to be offended to the death. See, people don't quite grasp that dissent is patriotic. For too long, the whole "love it or leave it" crowd has painted dissenters as subversive revolutionaries that reject the established class.
Which I find to be hilarious, because that's who founded this country.
yeah, scooter - we're pretty much seeing eye to eye. i can't imagine the circumstances under which i would find that an acceptable form of protest but hell yeah, i'll defend anyone's right to do it.
and yeah - your last two sentences is behind the flag burning; gun control; etc etc that is to say - people hold completely uninformed opinions. they don't know their history or the constitution and bill of rights but that doesn't stop the yap yap yammering.
okay - that's some lazy articulation on my part but i'll definitely be coming back to this.
plus now i'm totally obsessed with the idea of why it's okay for people to manufacturer flag napkins etc
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