Tag Archives | Patriotism
The Pledge of Allegiance Americans (Probably) Don’t Remember Reciting
Via IFC’s The Whitest Kids U’Know:
A relatively oldie but goodie.
North Korea’s Cafepress Shop
Searching for a coffee mug or t-shirt celebrating the North Korean regime, or a giant flag to display on your front lawn? The official Cafepress shop of the Korean Friendship Association (a sort of overseas, public relations arm of the North Korean government) is here to fulfill all of your branded needs:
Official shop of the Korean Friendship Association. Here you can find official art merchandise from North Korea. Show your support to our country!!
Conservative eBooks To Indoctrinate Your Children
How do you instill the next generation with pro-America values in the digital age? One of the hottest items from last month’s CPAC conference was the line of eBooks from Cherry Tree Media (ironically named for the famous story concerning George Washington, which is itself a falsehood designed to instill patriotic pride). Available for the iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch, the cartoon-based series teaches kids the merits of capitalism, military interventions, et cetera. Via Politico:
Is Anders Behring Breivik A Dominionist?
Leah L. Burton writes on PoliticusUSA:
In regards to Dominionist linkages to the bloody slaughter in Norway, here are our findings so far:
a) In particular, with a video manifesto (which has been linked on YouTube until it was pulled there, and which has since shown up on LiveLeak) the shooter makes some very specific references that show he has familiarity with, and probably shares terminology with (if not overtly sharing intel with) “Christian patriot” militia groups in the US (including material that has been posted on racist and far right-wing forums in the US, use of particular catch phrases associated with the “Christian Patriot” movement in the US, and others). I’ve just spent nine hours typing up an extensive analysis of the video; he is clearly connected with religious-nationalist groups in Europe and in the US. The degree of references to material originating in the US, in fact, indicate he has been in somewhat regular contact with anti-Muslim racists in the “Christian Patriot” movement in the US, rather than obtaining racialist material from racist groups elsewhere in the world.
Congressman Paul Ryan Hands Cold War Victory to the Ruskies
Well, there it is folks. Plain as day: Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan’s “Roadmap to Ruin” austerity program sh*tcanned the U.S. Spaceshuttle program and left us dependent upon the charity of ex-KGB chief Vladimir Putin.
No you wouldn’t hear much about that from the Fox News(tm) Politburo. Seems that we have to rely on our Aussie cousins to get the scoop.
It’s true. Now without an independent space program of our own, we’ll be at the tender mercies of the apparatchiks in Moscow to support our telecommunications satellite infrastructure.
Now I don’t have definitive proof yet that Paul Ryan is a sleeper agent for Uncle Vanya, but all signs point to yes. In debt ceiling talks this week his lot are trying to force American-born grandmothers to give up their cat food money in order to support the vodka habits of his Wall Street buddies like Frenchman “Fabulous” Fab Torre.
Osama Is Dead, But Congress Wants a Wider War…
For all of you who chanted “USA! USA!” the night of the night of 1/2 May, if you are truly patriotic, you’ll ask what the hell is going on NOW. Spencer Ackerman writes in WIRED’s Danger Room:
Osama bin Laden is dead. 9/11 was ten years ago. So it’s not the most obvious time for a key congressional panel to expand the war on terrorism.
But that’s exactly what a section of the fiscal 2012 defense bill proposes to do. The so-called “Chairman’s Mark” of the bill, currently before the House Armed Services Committee, wants to update the 2001 Authorization to Use Military Force, to reflect that the al-Qaida of the present day is way different than the organization that attacked the U.S. on 9/11.
While the original Authorization tethered the war to those directly or indirectly responsible for 9/11, the new language authorizes “an armed conflict with al-Qaida, the Taliban, and associated forces,” as “those entities continue to pose a threat to the United States and its citizens.”
To its supporters, the proposal catches Congress up to the reality of today’s war.
Jingoism for Dollars: How to Make a Quick Buck
Chuck Sudo writes at Chicagoist:
We shouldn’t be shocked that businesses and budding entrepreneurs use historic moments to parlay them into a little bit of scrilla. It’s the American Way. We stopped counting the number of knock off t-shirts printed to commemorate President Obama’s election, or Michael Jackson’s death two years ago, or Sears tying advertising to the recent tornadoes in the South, or the seemingly endless stream of “Never Forget” paraphernalia that still trickles from the 9/11 faucet and businesses that still hold Martin Luther King Day “white sales.” We’re not even shocked that a trove of merchandise and events capitalizing on the Osama bin Laden raid are already up and looking for someone’s discretionary income. We only question the taste of some of the endeavors.
The photo in this post comes from a Miami nightlife promoter who wasted no time in organizing a “Na na na, Hey Hey, Goodbye” party to celebrate bin Laden’s death at a strip club, with the late al Qaeda leader’s image photoshopped onto a flyer with two women we can assume aren’t virgins he met in the afterlife.
American: The Bill Hicks Story (Video)
The trailer for American: The Bill Hicks Story:
Jon Stewart Reacts To The Arizona Shootings
Jon Stewart takes a moment to have a heart-to-heart with his viewers on the cycle of craziness and patriotism after the Arizona tragedy. As he stumbles through trying to make sense of the incident he reminds us that whether politics or visual violence was a factor behind the motivation of the killings, “you cannot out smart crazy.”
