I whole heartedly agree. The traditions and etiquette routinely participated in by citizens does not indicate subservience, no should it be construed to represent it. When we all agree that the role of government is the protection of the rights of the Citizens, then one should be comfortable with showing the solidarity in support of the system by participating in the symbolic ceremonies. Insisting on exercising one of the rights protected only by the system, instead of participating as a citizen in a traditional ceremony of the system, is a rather convoluted plan.
I'll show solidarity to my family, friends, and neighbors. I have no interest in showing any to a government in a city thousands of miles away. Maybe barfo does. Not me.
Sorry to hear that Denny. And here I thought we were in lock step in support of a Constitutional government.
I love the 10th amendment. Moving in that direction with the Healthcare plan in the Senate. Still has a major flaw, but moving in the right direction, to the States.
I have no interest in a big federal government or pledging allegiance to it or any leader. I reserve all the powers I can for myself and will use them as I see fit.
Ha! You don't always come across that way. But I hear your intent. Good luck with it and I appreciate the signal.
Of course, I also agree the Federal government should be no bigger than require to do what is needed to protect our right above and beyond what the States can not do as well. No one pledges allegiance to the government and least of all, any leader. In my mind we pledge allegiance to our sytem as citizens that have constructed a Constitutional Federal/States government system.
I don't want to give up damn thing either, but it does often come to me that we best hang together or the end will be very near for all. I can only hope they get Denny first and the enemy is satisfied with him, leaving me and mine to be happy.
If and when we are called to fight, we must go. But it's questionable that we should even have a standing armed forces at all.
I think that worked in the past, even up into the last century. No way today, DC! The battle would be lost an done before you could train a man to do anything useful, let alone build a ship to shoot down shit some nut will send our way. I hope to hell we are stacking the MOAB right now as the alternative to the unthinkable. I hope to hell an Aegis Destroyer can indeed knock down a BM launched your way. I feel relatively secure here in remote Bandon, San Diego with half the Pacific fleet seem like an enticing first strike target.
I'm in favor of a smaller, highly trained, QRF military. I would probably leave the Air Force and Navy as they are, but I'd shrink the army down to really only specialized units and armor. Basic infantry are probably the easiest to train and replace.
I'm all for this country getting back to what it set out to be 200+ years ago; a collection of separate states with their own laws relevant to that state, under a common government whose sole responsibilities are to collect taxes, provide for the common defense and to uphold the Constitution of the United States. As far as I'm concerned, individual states should be allowed to pass whatever laws they choose, create their own educational systems, build their own roads, own their own lands, etc, etc, etc, so long as they don't violate said Constitution. If you don't like those laws, move to a state that better represents your values. I'm very proud to state that I am an Oregonian first and an American second. The government of the United States does not represent my belief and value systems in any meaningful way. The government of the State of Oregon (flakey and misguided as it might be) does a far, far better job of representing what I believe in. It's time to take our country back. I'm honest enough to know the Democratic Party isn't a fit vehicle to achieve that and I'm intelligent enough to know that the Republican Party an even worse choice. The one possible silver lining in the current cloud we're living under is that this could (hopefully) be the demise a long broken two party (and partisan) system and the start of something better. Just call me Pollyanna..........
TRUMP: “Wouldn't you like to see one of our NFL owners, when somebody disrepects the flag, say, 'Get that son of a bitch off the field..."
Ha! There ain't no end the shit people conjure up. The wienie is disgusting. Got a wonder about the repeat too. Come to think about it, I think my first comment was something like, fuck the son of a bitch. Ha! He ain't working.
There are some things that still creep me out about America despite living here practically uninterrupted since 1989. Cheerleaders. More guns than people. And that stupid fucking pledge. How fucking insecure do you have to be to do that shit? I grew up in England, and in my youth they were still (and probably still do) making anti-German jokes because of WWII. We managed to fight pretty successfully to defend our country in two World Wars without needing to pledge allegiance. Think about that very phrase: "pledge allegiance". If you saw that in a movie you can bet it would be being done by the bad guys, right? How about make the country so good everybody just loves it without needing to "pledge allegiance." Imagine if your parents demanded you "pledge allegiance to the family"? Jesus Christ. Oh, and by the way, it still goes on in plenty of schools. I taught a class in a high school last year and it happened every morning over the tannoy in the middle of class. And EVERY KID stood up and did the stupid hand on heart bullshit. It was like Invasion of the Bodysnatchers.
Also, what the fuck has the National Anthem got to do with sports? I get it if it's TWO NATIONAL TEAMS playing each other. But the Bears versus the Lions? WTF?
