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Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.orgShown: posts 1 to 4 of 4. This is the beginning of the thread.
Posted by gardenergirl on July 13, 2009, at 11:09:36
"An American flag flown upside down as a protest in a northern Wisconsin village was seized by police before a Fourth of July parade and the businessman who flew it _ an Iraq war veteran _ claims the officers trespassed and stole his property."
I think this is outrageous. There were times over the last four years that my husband and I considered flying our flag upside down; however, we didn't have a practical way to do this given the hardware we use to hold the flagpole. It's certainly not illegal to do this. I would argue that it's not disrespectful of the flag if you are otherwise following proper flag etiquette. If anything, it's demonstrating respect for the power of the flag as a symbol.
Gah!
gg
Posted by Sigismund on July 13, 2009, at 14:46:15
In reply to Police seize flag flown upside down in protest, posted by gardenergirl on July 13, 2009, at 11:09:36
One of John Howard's namy contributions to the moral health of Australians was to provide funding for flagpoles on which the flag could be hung. He was probably thinking of what we used to say when I was a kid with hand on heart
'I am an Australian
I love my country
I salute the flag
I honour the Queen
I will obey the laws',and he also brought in citizenship tests on the important facts of Australian life, one of which IIRC was about Donald Bradman.
This was not very good entertainment compared to the questions in such tests in the 30s, one of which was
'If friends come round to see you in Australia, it is customary to offer them
a) Beer
b) Wine
C) Tea'
Anyone suggesting b) was sent off to a re-education camp, although since we could test people in the language of our choice we rarely had any difficulties. Some of those central European linguists were a challenge, but not so many of them could perform the test in Mongolian or Basque.
Posted by Sigismund on July 13, 2009, at 17:29:19
In reply to Police seize flag flown upside down in protest, posted by gardenergirl on July 13, 2009, at 11:09:36
We don't have so many flags here, though there was one where I grew up. Down in our little town there is a persistent man with a flag pole. The youth of the town get drunk (I think) and scale (how?) his flagpole and steal the flag at night, or so I assume. But should the flag be flown at night?
A lot of people here were considering moving to New Zealand in the event of a Howard victory. We have a lot of Americans here with interesting pasts...stockbrokers, psychedelic priests, ones who talk about how we are moving away from 'the piscean victim story' (that's Christianity, I eventually realised). Down town I often hear languages I don't recognise which is really great. When I grew up the only olive oil you could buy was from the chemist. I'm not so sure we've advanced. I quite like the idea of going into my local pharmacy and asking for some olive oil and opium tincture.
Posted by Sigismund on July 15, 2009, at 14:37:43
In reply to Re: Police seize flag flown upside down in protest, posted by Sigismund on July 13, 2009, at 17:29:19
It would be impossible to pass direct comment on this quote, but it does remind me of another historical figure who used this tone.
The quote is from
http://www.truthout.org/071509A?n
by GWB"All told, more than 3,000 suspected terrorists have been arrested in many countries. And many others have met a different fate. Let's put it this way: They are no longer a problem to the United States and our friends and allies."
Makes my skin crawl.
This is the end of the thread.
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