I don’t know whether it’s better for a flag to be the representative for american preoccupation with acquiring capital or for it to be a symbol which other nations use to express their divine hate.

I know this sounds ludicrous, but what is the point for a piece of fabric to represent a nation whose population is constantly transmuting itself into something else. why do new people have to deal with the awful history and why do the old people have to deal with the shit future newcomers have made for them?

well it’s because we have to learn to work together. and until this situation improves I do not see the point of waving around a flag when you can’t even get along with your neighbors let alone a neighboring state/nation without coercive measures.

81040 by rugs on 6/24 at 5:26 pm

“as long as there are women who wear the american flag on their bikinis and men who sit in lawn chairs designed with the american flag—people who make it their number one priority to be “patriotic”

The flag is a sales tool in a capitalist nation.  The dollar wins every time. 

I saw (last 4th of July) a baby with “flag” diapers.  Now that’s appropriate.

“In order to be funny, a joke must have at least some thread of reality.  Who ever thought a government (or business for that matter) could be moral?”

hmmm I don’t know maybe all those people who supported the war in Afhanistan (and then beguiled into Iraq)—“the axis of evil”—right after 9/11 and before the masses of dead bodies brought them to their senses?

come on, seriously, as long as there are women who wear the american flag on their bikinis and men who sit in lawn chairs designed with the american flag—people who make it their number one priority to be “patriotic” to their country rather than mindful of the human state—then such a myth will always sway its power over the masses.

and just to be fair, not just America. vigilante nationalism is driving this world crazy.

In an odd sort of way, the imperial Presidency of George Bush and the rest of his neocon backers and base has actually yielded some positive effects, ones they weren’t exactly expecting.

With a disastrous war, billions a month being sunk in Iraq, a military stretched to the breaking point, the U.S. is simply not able to bully and intimidate weaker countries around the world as easily or efficiently. We have the mightiest army in the world, yet we are being held at bay by a bunch of ragtags with AK-47’s in the country we illegally invaded. Looks like we can’t bomb people into submission, when they don’t fancy being occupied. And we’ve fought this war longer than friggin’ World War II, and we STILL haven’t won.

“Shock and Awe”, “Bring ‘em on”, “They hate us for our freedoms”, “We’re giving them democracy, so it will spread across the Middle East”. Who’s in “Shock and Awe”? The Iraqi’s, yes, because we’ve destroyed their country. They’re fleeing to other countries, so they won’t be killed. But, guess what, the U.S. military is ALSO in “Shock and Awe”...we’re reaping the results of a war we should have NEVER have started to begin with.

We’ve overthrown enough foreign governments that were freely elected by their own people, destabilized others, and felt we had the “moral authority” to do so. But it’s payback time, or “blowback”.

Because of our foolishness, the world no longer quakes, when the U.S. speaks. We’ve been shown for what we are (or more sadly, what we’ve become). And countries and their governments around the world can observe their own council, make their own way and chart their own course. They don’t need the U.S. stamp of approval.

They realize it now. And the rest of the world is going forward, too.

Myth, indeed!

This might be funny, if anyone who possesses more than a fourth-grade education subscribed to the so-called myth.

IF the author of this cartoon means “The myth of U.S. moral superiority” That boat sailed for my generation after My Lai, The Tonkin Gulf Resolution (based on a lie) the attempts to assassinate Castro, The successful assassination of Diem, Allende, and Lumumba. The support of Indoniesia’s genocide in East Timor, The support of Augusto Pinochet’s genocide in Chile,  The ignoring of genocide in Rwanda, Cambodia, Chad and Haiti.

In order to be funny, a joke must have at least some thread of reality.  Who ever thought a government (or business for that matter) could be moral?

NPR radio news this morning had a stat:
used to be 80% cadets rep
now 50%. repblcin… party

If the definition of Fascism is “Moral Superiority”—then the U.S. is indeed , morally superior. Don’t just shrug this off—check the Wikipedia definition of “fascism”—it all fits; religion manipulated by industry to a desired self-serving end. The soothsayer , Sinclair Lewis , hit it right on the button when he said; “when fascism comes to America it will be wearing a flag and carrying a bible”.

As a relavent “loss of moral credibility” sidenote; Although we here in the U.S. heard not a word of this (not even in the web alternative forums) , the European human rights groups met a few months ago and decided to take the lead on human rights issues. They stated that the U.S. can no longer be thought of as the “roll model” or “spokemen” on this , given recent events: Guantanamo etc.
Consequently , although our spokesmen may get a consentual nod when discussing these issues in public forums , the world community is really going on about with their business without us (and will be chuckling: “ya right” after we leave the room.

Mr. Fish - the balloon is way to big. We were never that good to start with. Not even mythically.

Mike Mid City…...

We already have one in office!

The impeachment of Chaney and Bush will not end the problem of the Federal Government that is the lobby group, as long as this country is about money, the people will have little say in the government, the ellection system is also up for grabs, the people who make the machines that we vote on know all the ways to change the vote, just go into the machines, these machines were manufactured by the people who give to the republician lobbiest, and on and on, when the voting system is changed to popular vote, when the vote can be cheched by a paper trail then maybe this country will return to a democracy, right now there is not democracy that was envisioned by the founding fathers, the thing right now is the rich get richer and the poor work hard just to keep from being homeless, the top CEO’s make so much more while those at the bottom make less and even then their jobs might be outsourced so when there are no workers then these CEO’s will be out of a jub, but they will probably just move on to another country where they can find people to work for less.

In China the workers all live together and only get a day off about once a month, there might be a day when that will happen here.

There will be a lot of homelessness because there will be no welfare because the corrupt will become more corrupt, then finally there will be no country to call the United States of America.