Just to debunk the popular Facebook meme…

Like the BBC, who showed Team Ireland as Team India, this Sunday broadcast by an American TV News station only got forty percent of the world flags correct in their own report. Worse still, they failed to get their own country’s flag right…

But in their defense, 40% isn’t too bad, given that WXYZ News 7 is based in Detroit, Michigan, which is considered by many to be North Windsor, Ontario.

     The town of Pahrump, Nevada recently passed legislation to disallow the flying of foreign flags.  The Reuters article points out the reasons:

Supporters said they passed the measure to hit back at Hispanic demonstrators who carried Mexican flags when they marched in U.S. cities earlier this year to press for rights for 10 million to 12 million illegal immigrants living in the shadows.

“All of the illegal alien protesters are waving Mexican flags, and we just got tired of it,” town board clerk Paul Willis told Reuters in a telephone interview.

“This is the United States, and the Stars and Stripes should fly supreme,” he added.

     I’m with Emperor Misha from the Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler … The Art of Shunning has been lost in our Politically Correct Society:

I have no use for yet another group of entitlement-addicted, divisive assclowns who have no understanding of the words E Pluribus, Unum.

“Unum” does NOT mean “a collection of cliques, gangs and identity groups fighting over special privileges and handouts.”

Nobody is saying, at least I’m not, that you shouldn’t be proud of your cultural heritage. What I am saying is that if you want to be one of us, if you want to be part of the family, if you want for yourself and your family the privileges, rights and duties of being an American, then you have to be an American. You have to accept, welcome and internalize the fact that you’re an American first, and everything else second.

     Couldn’t’ve said it better myself.  

     But then again, maybe I already have said it better, given that I’m a bit closer to the situation.
     I brought my ex-wife to the U.S. from a foreign country.

     Legally.

     So… If they’re going to grant amnesty to illegals, waive all police clearances and language requirements, and give them all the rights of citizens, then I’ll agree with it, if and when my demands are met.

     I want back all the money that it cost me to get her here legally.  All of it!  Including the plane ticket!
     I want paid for the time involved in jumping through the immigration hoops that we had to jump through.  I had to take off work very often before the visa was granted, and then again after it was granted — to remove the Conditional Permanent Resident status.
     I also want a per-diem based on the fact that I was forced to stay longer in a foreign country than necessary while preparing for it all.  Ever try to get into a foreign consulate just after 9/11?  That was a pain in the rear even when I had an appointment.
     And … they can go ahead and grant her citizenship, just to show that they really mean it.  I mean, hey, we both jumped through all of those hoops.  It just seems like the right thing to do.

     Legal Immigration attempts to make sure that people are of decent moral character by checking their background with law enforcement agencies and making sure they’re not murderers, drug dealers, terrorists, rapists, slave traders, kidnappers and/or child molesters.
     We have enough of our own to deal with! 

     Legal Immigration also attempts to ensure that anyone coming to this country can speak our national language — English!
     I am an American.  I don’t want to press 1 for English!

     The whole issue really is this simple: You can’t go into your neighbor’s house and start rearranging the furniture because you don’t like it.

     How can anyone in their right mind argue with that?

     Media has reported over and over that the Flag Protection Amendment passed by the House and faces an “uphill battle in the Senate.”  They’ve claimed that this bill seeks to amend the Constitution and ban the burning of the US Flag.
     This is yet another load of horse-puckey by a media who are too stupid and lazy to investigate facts or give fair and balanced opinion about anything.

     Senate Joint Resolution 12 is a very simple, seventeen word statement:

The Congress shall have power to prohibit the physical desecration of the flag of the United States.

     This amendment only gets rid of the Constitutional hurdle which has prevented Congress from passing anti-Flag Burning legislation before.  It doesn’t make anything illegal.
     Senators and Legislators who have come on Television decrying the Resolution simply have not read it.
     There is also a widespread belief that this is a Republican supported bill, which also cannot be further from the truth.  As it stands, it is a purely bipartisan measure, with as many people decrying it on either side of the political fence.

     Basically what we’ve ended up with is yet another bullshit stall tactic, where Congress is attempting to give itself a little more power, and wasting a lot of money and air time, when they’re not actually doing anything.  They’ve just secured their seats, and given themselves the power to debate another hot-button issue, which will most assuredly fail over and over again anyway.

     Swanky pointed out two polarized views about the flag.  Some people see it as a symbol of our Freedom and Democracy.  Others see it as reminder of the people who died to protect our Freedom and Democracy.  It’s both: Thirteen stripes representing the original colonies, alternating White for our innocence and purity and Red for the blood of those fought defending it, and a field of Blue with Stars to represent our fifty states in a night-time constellation.  I don’t foresee myself ever burning a flag.  But it’s good to live in a country that would allow me to do it.

     But… all this talk about Flag Burning is secondary to the real issue.
     This is a test case, where Congress is attempting to remove a legal barrier mandated by the Supreme Court and see if anyone will notice.  If successful, it opens the door for them to do it a few more times for good measure!
     Thus, I am firmly against the Resolution.  I’m firmly against Congress dictating its own power, and have nothing but contempt when they attempt to pass legislation for no other reason than to give themselves more things to do in the future.  It’s a waste of time and money that could be better spent fixing things that are actually wrong.