[The Godfather]

This is a driving safety issue.

Last week, I saw how a SUV was struggling to parallel-park. I didn't see if the driver was male or female, but there was a US flag covering 50% of the rear right window.

On the other side of the street, there was a 6 year old boy riding a bike. The damage potential was obvious to me at that point. That driver should change the flag to a wave-on-the-antenna type, or get rid of it completely.

And then curiosity hit me and I decided to ask here if and when you removed your US flag from your car.

IMO, a flag place is the front of your house, not your car. Every other country agrees with that.

[sek929]

I've had a large Army-funeral issued American flag in front of my house since 1997. I have not stuck any cheesy flags and/or bumper stickers on my vehicle since Sept. 11 don't want to get caught up in this psuedo patriotism phase.

I think my large flag is enough, plus it provides great shade on the deck in the summer.

[daimoni]

.

[PHoynak]

I have had a flag in front of my house for at least 2 years. I did get one for me and my wife's cars in October. They lasted maybe a month. One day on the way home from work I heard this noise and it just ripped off at the base.

[daimoni]

.

[mr. natural]

I have a flag on my bong -- does this count?

[sek929]

Originally posted by mr. natural:
<STRONG>I have a flag on my bong -- does this count?</STRONG>

Haha, I have a friend who got a red, white, and blue bong a couple months after the attack. But I guess hes responsible for the attacks because us marijuana buyers fund terrorists

[Face Ache]

I personally took all twelve flags off my APC (an upsized SUV) two weeks ago and replaced them with three "U.S. ROCKS! YEAH!" bumper stickers. I kept the two flags on the house, but that is largely because their sheer size keeps me from removing them single-handedly. Eventually they will go up on the twin 60ft flagpoles we are having erected as a tribute to the tower victims. We kept the flag we had sprayed onto the dog as he got used to it eventually anyway. We also let the kids wear any colors they like now that they have their US flag tattoos. I've taken all the spare flags and redecorated our backyard nuclear bunker with them. It looks like Freedom down there now.

Oh hang on... I'm not American.

I knew a radical-type chick* who bought a house with a flagpole out front. The day she moved in she took down the Australian flag and hoisted the Jolly Roger. She had the neighbours quite alarmed.

* Chick � as in alternative/hippy style "chick" � not "lady" or "woman" or "girl". See also: Cool chick.

[OldManMac]

I don't put any stickers or flags on my car. It annoys me as well when I see these people with the little flags flapping in the breeze off their car windows and the flags are torn and tattered and often faded! Everybody rushed out to get one, and then it was forgotten. I have nothing against displaying a flag; I have a large flag flying by my front door, but it gets taken in every night, as is proper. The flag should never fly at night, unless there is a light illuminating it specifically. I have a neighbor who leaves his out almost every night, unless it's raining, which is improper.

[Jsnuff1]

Originally posted by daimoni:
<STRONG>

...And flew right into the windshield of the car behind you.</STRONG>

yea thats exacly what happend to me, i wasent to happy when i found out that stupid plastic actually made a dent in my winshield.

[wataru]

How about people who have stopped going to the church they joined on September 12? Or the people who stopped giving blood because their donation didn't go straight to the 9/11 victims?

I hate hypocrites.

[Thunderbird]

Originally posted by Jsnuff1:
<STRONG>

yea thats exacly what happend to me, i wasent to happy when i found out that stupid plastic actually made a dent in my winshield.</STRONG>

How do you dent glass?

[maxintosh]

I never would put one on because I refuse to buy into the commercialization (the flags, the pins, the banners, the stuffed animals, the Hallmark cards, the "God Bless America" crap, etc.) that happened after the 9/11 attacks.

I also feel no patriotism whatsoever, I would much rather see the world get along than be all proud I'm an american, and thus, somehow, a better kind of person. I'll fly my turqoisue flag (turqoise because, from way up high, that's all you can see of earth anyway).

[cheerios]

Originally posted by wataru:
<STRONG>How about people who have stopped going to the church they joined on September 12? Or the people who stopped giving blood because their donation didn't go straight to the 9/11 victims?

I hate hypocrites.</STRONG>

donating Thursday, wataru... first time since high school, because of transportation and health issues. And no, not for any patriotic reasons, do I donate. People need it, so I do it. It takes maybe an hour out of my day, an easy day, at that!

In other news: car flags are stupid. I won't drive a car with one. it's dumb.

[juanvaldes]

They are stupid. I think just about everyone else has covered my feeling on them. Tonight as we sat in Wendys eating dinner I was looking at the "United we stand" up on the wall. And had some inspiration. This is the product.
Hope you enjoy!

my very cool flag pic ;-)

[ 02-26-2002: Message edited by: juanvaldes ]

[kaceygones]

There was a pre-scheduled craft fair the weekend following 9/11 and it really sickened me to see all the red white and blue anything people were selling. The thought of someone trying to make a quick buck of such a tragic event still bothers me.
I never bought one thing--not one.
I've worn red, white and blue T-Shirts that I got from the Old Navy store for Independence day and for the longest time I wore a bracelet made of red, white and blue yarn that one of the mothers at our son's football game had made to give away (for free.) I still wear it every now and then, but it has gotten dirty from forgetting to take it off before I get my hands wet and it seems just as disrespectful to wear it dirty as it does to see the flags on those cars all tattered (because of what it represents.)
I still cry for the victims and families of September 11th. Seeing the flag from the WTC at the opening ceremonies of the Olympics sent chills right through me.

We may not continue to show our pride with as much gusto as in the beginning, but the tragedy is still on everyone's minds, everyday.

Still!
kacey

[Joshua]

I never put a flag on my car. I've never really understood people who plaster their cars in bumper stickers / political statements. I'd rather have other drivers focused on, I don't know, not killing me, than trying to read my silly bumper stickers.

I still keep a large 6'x4' flag in the front and back windows of my house.

And judging from this thread, 9/11 has birthed far more cynical assholes than "pseudo-patriots."

[juanvaldes]

Originally posted by Joshua:
<STRONG>And judging from this thread, 9/11 has birthed far more cynical assholes than "pseudo-patriots."</STRONG>

nah, I have hated the gov for years. All this BS patriotism that spewed forth after 9/11/2001 just irritates me further.

[AlbertWu]

b-but the flags are only 50 cents at fry's!!!

and besides! we use em to tape my sister's mouth shut. much more economical than going around hunting for duct tape (which we all know, that although it holds the universe together, is the rarest substance known to man)

[Cellery]

It's actually fashionable to have patriotic items here, and things such as flag faceplates for phones are hot sellers. There's also a bunch of poseurs wearing "FDNY" hats around, I'm sure it's because they remember the firefighters' sacrifice as opposed to the fact that all their friends are wearing them. I give blood (actually plasma) because there's a place here that pays $35 each time you donate. You also get cookies and there's a hot girl that works at the place. Everyone's happy!

[KellyHogan]

If that kind of patriotism existed in Russia or any other nation today the American media would call it 'ultra-nationalism'. Apparently one man's patriotism is another man's ultra-nationalist.

Here in Britain they try not to fly the flag in such a ridiculous and commercial way so as not to make a mockery of Britishness or insult ethnic minorities who have recently migrated. Remember that Britain was being bombed by flag wavers during WWII and we look down on it.

[Spheric Harlot]

Originally posted by kaceygones:
<STRONG>it seems just as disrespectful to wear it dirty as it does to see the flags on those cars all tattered (because of what it represents.)</STRONG>

I love this photograph.

[daimoni]

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[daimoni]

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[anarkisst]

[nonhuman]

I never put any flag on either of my cars, nor did I put one up at home or in my room at school. On September 12th I ordered a full-size Gadsden flag to hand up in my window at school, but due to the overwhelming demand for the Stars and Stripes they temporarily halted production, and I still haven't gotten it.

[vmarks]

nonhuman, good on you for flying "Don't Tread on Me"--

I'm flying this one in front of my house-



On December 3, 1775 it was raised aboard Capt. Esek Hopkin's flagship Alfred by John Paul Jones, then a navy lieutenant. Later the flag was raised on the liberty pole at Prospect Hill, which was near George Washington's headquarters in Cambridge, MA. It was the unofficial national flag on July 4, 1776, Independence Day; and it remained the unofficial national flag and ensign of the Navy until June 14, 1777 when the Continental Congress authorized the Stars and Stripes.

The Gadsen, which you'll be flying if they ever fill your order, appeared in 1775 as the Navy flag- In December, 1775, the Continental Congress provided for the fitting-out of five ships of thirty-two guns, five of twenty-eight guns, and three of twenty-four guns, making thirteen ships in all, to form a navy for the United Colonies; but no provision was made for a naval flag.

John Jay, in a letter dated July, 1776, stated that Congress had made no order "concerning Continental colors, and that captains of the armed vessels had followed their own fancies." He names as one device a rattlesnake rearing its crest and shaking its rattles, and having the motto, "Don't Tread on Me".

De Benvouloir, the emissary of Vergennes, in 1775, reported to the French minister: "They have given up the English flag and have taken for their device a rattlesnake with thirteen rattles."

Don't tread on me, on the white background, was used solely by the Culpeper Minutemen, under the leadership of Patrick Henry.

[ 02-26-2002: Message edited by: vmarks ]

[maxintosh]

Originally posted by vmarks:
<STRONG>Live Free or Die. Not "Live mostly free, with lots of burdensome taxes without representation, balanced by security concerns, effective or not, with additional costly beauracracy."</STRONG>

In 1775? You could live free... if you were a white protestant male. Freedom has a price... and apparantley we're not paying enough (as long as we have people like Ashcroft in government )

[ 02-26-2002: Message edited by: maxintosh ]

[nonhuman]

Originally posted by maxintosh:
<STRONG>

In 1775? You could live free... if you were a white protestant male. Freedom has a price... and apparantley we're not paying enough (as long as we have people like Ashcroft in government )

[ 02-26-2002: Message edited by: maxintosh ]</STRONG>

You forgot landowning. You had to be a white, land-owning male, of 21 years or more (to vote at least). I don't think the restriction of having to be protestant was valid as most, if not all, of the founding fathers were deists.

[maxintosh]

Originally posted by nonhuman:
<STRONG>

You forgot landowning. You had to be a white, land-owning male, of 21 years or more (to vote at least). I don't think the restriction of having to be protestant was valid as most, if not all, of the founding fathers were deists.</STRONG>

Ohh right. My bad. My favorite is the puritans that came here so they could have their own religion, then persecuted anyone who wasn't a puritan. And the logic is...

[vmarks]

Originally posted by maxintosh:
<STRONG>

Ohh right. My bad. My favorite is the puritans that came here so they could have their own religion, then persecuted anyone who wasn't a puritan. And the logic is...</STRONG>

Of course, there were land-owning German Jewish immigrants who came pre-revolution and fought in the War of Independence.

[agentz]

Originally posted by daimoni:
<STRONG>&lt;snip&gt; I've seen so many flag wavin' SUV and truck drivers lumbering around at high speed with tatered flags (not very patriotic, imho) getting in the way and with huge stickers, signs and posters of the flag blocking their own view &lt;snip&gt;</STRONG>

Not only not very patriotic, but quite probably in defiance of some regulation or guideline or other.

Flag Etiquette

God, its amazing what you can't do with the US flag!

[nonhuman]

Originally posted by agentz:
<STRONG>

Not only not very patriotic, but quite probably in defiance of some regulation or guideline or other.

Flag Etiquette

God, its amazing what you can't do with the US flag!</STRONG>

The flag should never be used for any advertising purpose. It should not be embroidered, printed or otherwise impressed on such articles as cushions, handkerchiefs, napkins, boxes, or anything intended to be discarded after temporary use.

Ah hem....

[The Godfather]

Quoting the infinite wisdom of Josh Lesnick...