Burn that flag!

There are a whole bunch of law having to do with the US flag, codified in 4USC:
Sec.
1. Flag; stripes and stars on.
2. Same; additional stars.
3. Use of flag for advertising purposes; mutilation of flag.
4. Pledge of allegiance to the flag; manner of delivery.
5. Display and use of flag by civilians; codification of
rules and customs; definition.
6. Time and occasions for display.
7. Position and manner of display.
8. Respect for flag.
9. Conduct during hoisting, lowering or passing of flag.
10. Modification of rules and customs by President.

Here’s Section 8, with a few notes in italics from me.

Sec. 8. Respect for flag

No disrespect should be shown to the flag of the United States of America; the flag should not be dipped to any person or thing. Regimental colors, State flags, and organization or institutional flags are to be dipped as a mark of honor.
(a) The flag should never be displayed with the union down, except as a signal of dire distress in instances of extreme danger to life or property.
Is a time of war a period of “dire distress”?
(b) The flag should never touch anything beneath it, such as the ground, the floor, water, or merchandise.
Actually, something I try to teach the child.
(c) The flag should never be carried flat or horizontally, but always aloft and free.
(d) The flag should never be used as wearing apparel, bedding, or drapery. It should never be festooned, drawn back, nor up, in folds, but always allowed to fall free. Bunting of blue, white, and red, always arranged with the blue above, the white in the middle, and the red below, should be used for covering a speaker’s desk, draping the front of the platform, and for decoration in general.
I’ve seen the flag as wearing apparel by people who wear trying to be “patriotic”.
(e) The flag should never be fastened, displayed, used, or stored in such a manner as to permit it to be easily torn, soiled, or damaged in any way.
Elsewhere in the title, there are times to fly it: “The flag should not be displayed on days when the weather is inclement, except when an all weather flag is displayed.”
(f) The flag should never be used as a covering for a ceiling.
Seen that.
(g) The flag should never have placed upon it, nor on any part of it, nor attached to it any mark, insignia, letter, word, figure, design, picture, or drawing of any nature.
(h) The flag should never be used as a receptacle for receiving, holding, carrying, or delivering anything.
(i) The flag should never be used for advertising purposes in any manner whatsoever. It should not be embroidered on such articles as cushions or handkerchiefs and the like, printed or otherwise impressed on paper napkins or boxes or anything that is designed for temporary use and discard. Advertising signs should not be fastened to a staff or halyard from which the flag is flown.
I have occasionally seen company logo flags on the same pole as the US flag.
(j) No part of the flag should ever be used as a costume or athletic uniform. However, a flag patch may be affixed to the uniform of military personnel, firemen, policemen, and members of patriotic organizations. The flag represents a living country and is itself considered a living thing. Therefore, the lapel flag pin being a replica, should be worn on the left lapel near the heart.
I didn’t know that sports teams were “patriotic organizations.
(k) The flag, when it is in such condition that it is no longer a fitting emblem for display, should be destroyed in a dignified way, preferably by burning.
Lots of ragged old flags out there, especially since 9/11/2001. If you don’t want to burn it yourself, take it to the local VFW.

ROG

ROG

What the…QUESTION

Last Saturday, I was walking down the street, MY street, with the five-year-old daughter. We walk past a house where I don’t know the residents, unfortunately a too common occurrence.

In any case, there are about a dozen tween or young teen boys gathered along a stairway near the side of the house, with at least one adult male, when one of the boys yells out “faggot!”

I take a couple steps before I start looking around to see who he’s yelling at.

“Yeah, I’m talking to you!”

At first, I think to to say nothing, but then wheel around and say, “Do you really think that’s appropriate,” and walk away.

LAME response!

Afterwords, I pondered. What was I doing that would make someone that I heretofore had not even noticed refer to me as a bundle of sticks? It probably was my long-sleeve jacket, which I wear even on hot, sunny days like that one lest I get sunburn on my arms. Since the vitiigo, this is a real concern.

I came up with my treppenwitz response: “You are a castrato!” He probably wouldn’t have known what that meant, but to my mind, it was satisfying, in the moment at least, for it would have addressed the fact that he could be “brave” and yell out 30 feet from the street while he was with his pack, knowing my response would be limited while I was with my child. Pretty damn clever of him, too.

So, what would YOU have done? I know it’s a moot point. With the prescription sunglasses I was wearing – good for reading, not distance – I wouldn’t even necessarily recognize him.

If my child weren’t there, maybe my response would have been different.

Or maybe my initial response, to do nothing, was the best?

And I’m peeved more with the adult, who said and did nothing, at least during this brief exchange.
ROG

ROG

Movies on the Big Screen

Thom Wade opined about a recent Entertainment Weekly article noting dramas “tanking at the box office…And the big question is: Why? Why can’t potentially great films pull in a bigger audience?”

His conclusion? “Having a hi-def setup has honestly impacted how I see movies. With a wide screen hi-def television, Blu-Ray player and a surround sound system? I suddenly find that I judge seeing a movie based on how much I think it required a giant screen. And you know what? Few dramas (or comedies for that matter) require that big screen experience.”

Well, maybe.

It is true that one-third of all Americans now own an HDTV, putting market penetration at an all-time high. The number has doubled from 2006’s figures. Blu-Ray’s penetration is right or nine percent, depending on the article.

Actually, I don’t think Thom’s conclusion about how people are deciding is wrong. Rather, I think that they might be coming to the wrong conclusion. In other words, seeing dramas and comedies on the big screen is different from seeing them on the small screen.

To be sure, I have no HDTV or Blu-Ray. But short of having a very large screen in a darkened private room, I think most people treat things they see on television like they treat television. They pause a movie to eat or go to the bathroom or take a nap. The movie experience is just…different.

Long before the new technology, I saw the movie Coming Home, a 1978 drama starring Jane Fonda and Jon Voight, in the movie theater. Then I saw it on HBO and thought it lost something. But then I saw it again on the large screen and it was almost as good as the first time.

I wonder if dramas in America are in trouble. The season finales of House and Grey’s Anatomy both lost viewers compared with last season’s last episodes. All the CSIs were down as well. Meanwhile most comedies are on the rise. Maybe it’s a cyclical thing; it wasn’t THAT long ago when the comedy was considered moribund.

And I need to consider changing audiences, for this reason: some people treat going to the movies like they treat being at home. Anyone who’s been to a movie in recent years – cellphones, talking, etc. – knows what I mean.

Apparently, this audience bad behavior has spread to Broadway. In the June 6 Wall Street Journal, an article called “Are Misbehavin’: No Tonys for These Performances — Theatergoers Act Out With Phones, Bare Feet — and Fried Chicken, Too” catalogs these misdemeanors:

Last month, an audience member at “South Pacific” took off a shoe and, complaining of an injured knee, propped her foot up on a rail in front of the stage. “Other patrons were not amused. ‘The offenders’ toes ‘were practically in their nose…And her feet smelled.’ “

Earlier this year, Patti LuPone broke character in “Gypsy” to scream at an audience member taking pictures.

One night, actor Will Swenson, who plays a hippie named Berger in “Hair”, took a [recording] device from a person in the front row [during the nude scene] and threw it across the stage. “I just couldn’t believe the gall of this woman who was videotaping me in my face,” he says. A crew member deleted the video and returned the camera phone to its owner at intermission, he says.

During a Saturday matinee of the Holocaust drama “Irena’s Vow,” a man walked in late and called up to actress Tovah Feldshuh to halt her monologue until he got settled. “He shouted, ‘Can you please wait a second?’ and then continued on toward his seat.” Ms. Feldshuh says she typically pauses when she’s interrupted. She doesn’t recall the incident, which she says may be evidence of the Zen attitude she’s cultivated onstage.”

So perhaps one needs an “event” movie to warrant going to the theater and put up with fellow humans.
ROG

ROG

Hard To Argue When They Think God Said So

Those of us in what I guess one would call the “liberal theological tradition” are sometimes criticized because we don’t seem to speak out against the religious right.

Well, two points:
1. We do, but maybe we just don’t use a megaphone.
2. It’s just difficult to argue with some people.

The service at my church this past Sunday, on More Light Sunday, featured the Gay Men’s Choir and used Acts 10 as the backdrop. Acts 10 talks about the conversion of the Gentiles but it also gets into a large sheet and permission to eat food that was formerly thought as unclean. I think the pivotal verses are these: {34] Then Peter opened his mouth and said: In truth I perceive that God shows no partiality. [35] But in every nation whoever fears Him and works righteousness is accepted by Him. This is, to use the political vernacular, a “big tent” God.

Some not particularly religious friend sent me a link to Answers in Genesis for my “amusement and disabusement”. These are the folks who believe that people lived at the same time as the dinosaurs and have -um- created the Creation Museum in Petersburg, KY.

I was interested in the answer to the question Cain’s Wife—Who Was She? Frankly, it was because of the snarky video Arthur at AmeriNZ linked to called Betty Bowers Explains Traditional Marriage. Well, lo and behold, AiG pretty much comes up with the same answer: incest. After chastising William Jennings Bryan, “the prosecutor who stood for the Christian faith”, for failing “to answer the question about Cain’s wife posed by the ACLU lawyer Clarence Darrow” in the 1925 Scopes trial (!), the writer cites “the Jewish historian Josephus” who wrote, ‘The number of Adam’s children, as says the old tradition, was thirty-three sons and twenty-three daughters.'” Non-Biblical information to make a Biblical “proof”.

Cain was in the first generation of children ever born. He, as well as his brothers and sisters, would have received virtually no imperfect genes from Adam or Eve, since the effects of sin and the Curse would have been minimal to start with. In that situation, brother and sister could have married…without any potential to produce deformed offspring.

Now I can argue with these folks until I’m purple and it’s HIGHLY unlikely to change anything.

In any case, I find them harmless compared to the New York Family Policy Council. One of their members wrote a letter to the editor of the local paper in Albany. A church friend went to the website and found:
And he called his ten servants, . . . Occupy* till I come. Luke 19:13 KJV
Welcome to the New York Family Policy Council web site. Remember, of His Kingdom there will be no end.
*oc cu py vt. [ME occupien; from OFr. ocuper; Lat. occupare, to seize : ob- (intensive) + capere, to take.] 1. To seize possession of and maintain control over by force.
In case you’ve missed the point, Ellen Kolb, Executive Director/President makes it clear:
Jesus’ command for us to occupy is mind boggling. We are commanded to take over the running of the government and subjugate it to the Laws of God’s Kingdom. We are to infuse the Kingdom into the culture. Our voice is the voice that is to supersede all others in the political arena. To accomplish this we must activate our voice – let it be heard on earth via phone calls, email, letters, letters to the editor, public meetings and in heaven via prayer and declarations. We must activate our prayer lives, spending time each day with the Lord. With prayer as our foundation, we can occupy. If it were not possible, Jesus would not have commanded us to do it. Therefore, let’s awake and become the Church Militant. Let’s put on the full armor of God. Let’s pray as never before. Let’s change the state and national laws so they line up with God’s Word. Let’s restore the Judeo-Christian foundation that our country was founded upon. Let’s not just take up space; let’s OCCUPY.

This is so antithetical to everything I believe, it’s maddening. And possibly treasonous. I suspect these folks are even less likely to accept the notion of an inclusive God, a God of love rather than a God of subjugation, than the AiG people.

And speaking of antithetical:
Valley station church to hold gun service

By Peter Smith
psmith@courier-journal.com (Louisville, KY)
A Valley Station Road church is sponsoring an “Open Carry Church Service” in late June, encouraging people to wear unloaded guns in their holsters, enter a raffle to win a free handgun, hear patriotic music and listen to talks by operators of gun stores and firing ranges.
Pastor Ken Pagano of New Bethel Church said the first-time event is “basically trying to think a little bit outside the box” to promote “responsible gun ownership and 2nd Amendment rights.”
The event, slated for late Saturday afternoon, June 27, is being promoted with online posters, including one using a red font resembling splattered blood with the words: “Open Carry Church Service.” Full story here

But NOT, apparently, packing heat for the “occupation”. To be fair, one pastor, commenting on this story, said the event “would nauseate Jesus.” Indeed, the linkage of church and state I believe to be not only contrary to the Constitution but, more importantly, to Christianity. I don’t believe it’s the role of the church to promote Second Amendment rights or patriotism. I believe it’s the role of the church to treat people like brothers and sisters; you know, the feed the hungry stuff.

So consider this one Christian voice crying out in the wilderness, for all the good it will do.

ROG

ROG

U is for the United States

I was thinking of the changes that the USCIS has made in the citizenship test to become a U.S. citizen. Just based on this sampling, the new test seem more vague.

TEST before October 1, 2008 – Sample U.S. Citizenship Test Questions:
1. How many stars are there on the US flag?
2. How many states are there in the Union?
3. What color are the stars on our flag?
4. What do the stars on the flag mean?
5. How many stripes are there on the flag?
6. What date is the Day of Independence?
7. The US achieved Independence from whom?
8. What country did we fight during the Revolutionary War?
9. Who was the first President of the United States?
10. What do we call a change of the Constitution?
All pretty straightforward, I think. (If you need the answers, e-mail me.)

REDESIGNED TEST – Sample U.S. Citizenship Test Questions:
1. Name one war fought by the United States in the 1900s.
OK, pretty easy. Well, unless you get all technical about it. If Congress is supposed to declare war, are the armed conflicts the US has had after WWII actually wars?
2. What did Susan B. Anthony do?
Well, I’m sure she DID lots of different things, such as eating breakfast. I know that fighting for women’s suffrage is the answer, but it feels awkwardly phrased.
3. What is one thing Benjamin Franklin is famous for?
Would philandering be an acceptable answer? Yeah, they want the almanac, electricity, the stove, eyewear, diplomat to France and that type of thing, but again, pretty open-ended.
4. There were 13 original states. Name three.
Pretty easy – just stay on the east coast and don’t pick Maine, Vermont or Florida.
5. What is one responsibility that is only for United States citizens?
Huh? Is this a reference to voting? If so, other people vote in their own countries and lots of people here don’t. If it’s serving on juries, lots of people get out that. Non-citizens serve in the military, and most citizens don’t.
6. What does the judicial branch do?
I get a lot of right-wing literature, so if someone wrote “make law”, they might very well think they’re right.
7. Name your U.S. Representative.
Now, THAT’S a good question. Mine’s Paul Tonko, freshman Democrat.
8. Who makes federal laws?
Unless you answer The Supreme Court, easy one.
9. What does the Constitution do?
Well it DOES a lot of things, including setting terms of government officials. Another amorphous question.
10. What is the supreme law of the land?
Ah, a tough but knowable question. Article VI of the Constitution of the United States contains the “supremacy clause,” which establishes that laws passed by Congress, treaties of the United States with other nations, and the Constitution “shall be the supreme Law of the Land.”

Here’s another sample test; looks rather old school, though. For new test guides, I’d go to the USCIS site.

I recently took one of those Could you pass the U.S. citizenship test? things on Facebook and got 19 out of 20; don’t know what I missed. Being an American, and hearing how some of my fellow citizens interpret things, I’ve long believed that non-Americans might well fare better on the citizenship test than those born in the USA.
***
Curious thing: I was riding my bike to church a week and a half ago and, as usual, checked out the license plates. understand that church is only 1.6 miles from my house, according to Mapquest. I saw plates from the states of MA, NJ, and VT; not at all unusual. I also saw plates from PA and FL, not rare. (Folks from Florida often come north for the summer.) But I also saw CA, DE, MD, MI, OH, RI, SC, TX, VA, and WI. It was not a college graduation weekend. Most peculiar.

ROG

ROG
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