Way to Go George!

For some reason, pictures taken in 2003 are now surfacing in the blogosphere of Bush signing small American flags for supporters in Livonia, Michigan after a speech there (link here). Liberals are pointing to the absurdity of conservatives pushing for a "flag burning amendment" to the constitution, while the president is defacing the American flag with his signature. Over at AMERICAblog, they even went to the trouble to look up the relevant sections of the U.S. Code, one of which which reads:

TITLE 4 > CHAPTER 1 > § 8

§ 8. Respect for flag

(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.

The sad thing, however, is that even while liberals mock the stupidity of proposing a "flag burning amendment", they seem to be holding onto the timeless, creepy tradition of flag-worship in their own ways, as they reference the nonsense of the U.S. Code and its prescriptions for "Respect for flag". If anything, we should support Bush in defacing these flags, as he might start a trend that harms the cult of patriotism that gave birth to this flag hysteria in the first place.

Ok, Bush probably isn't going to ignite a firestorm of rational anti-patriotism. Hopefully, though, something good can come of this whole debate, if people are willing to speak honestly about the absurdity of flag-worship and state-worship, and how they would be more at home in Soviet Russia or Nazi Germany than in a "free country". Lets start a debate on all this patriotic garbage -- lets start questioning the state indoctrination of children with the Pledge of Allegiance from a very young age. What about our sorry excuses for history classes in public schools that wildly distort America's bloody history and reinforce harmful ideas of exceptionalism? The day Americans are ready to take on these real questions is the day things might start getting better in this country. Its always good to hope, but I'm not going to hold my breath.