Flags, Balls, Rabid Fans

[eggwards]

So tonight's headline reads "Amendment on Flag Burning Fails by One Vote in Senate." Really, i don't know whether to be happy, because it didn't pass, or sad that there's enough idiots in the Senate who would vote against our freedom to free speech and expression. Sure, it's a little loss, to be sure, but it just becomes one more domino in the loss of freedoms, whether by legislation, or by intimidation.

Strangely this is somewhat related to the recent story involving the New York Times, where the President and his administration have taken the paper to task for printing a story about a "secret" program to watch banking accounts for links to terrorist organizations. The president is trying to say the usual spiel about exposing the administrations spying and surveillance programs will harm the country and we'll show that the terrorists can chuckle and it's just not patriotic!

Personally this is rhetoric that I'm really damned sick of. How long has this "If you're not for us, you're agin' us" crap been going on?

I know personally that the financial surveillance program was not a secret because i've had training on it. It's a part of the PATRIOT act. the Times wasn't telling anything that people didn't know, and really, most people expected. It's just another attempt by this administration to stifle the free press by labeling them as un-american and trying to drive more people away from the "liberal media".

It's also the fact that the administration needs to handle the press like they did in 2004, trying to keep them guessing if they should print stories that would be detrimental to the President's approval ratings. There were many stories about Bush that questioning editors kept from the public, and if the administration can strong arm them from continuing to pile on story after story as we head into another election, then all the better.

Of course, the Republicans in the Senate are already fighting to appeal to their base, first with the Marriage Amendment, and today with the flag-burning amendment. what proves your patriotism by trying to defend a symbol of it? Not knowing the difference between the important issues and problems of this country and putting all your energy into working on an easily re-producable symbol.

Besides, how much flag-burning has occurred in this country lately? Seems like most of that is going on in those damned furen countries. Perhaps we should try to get take out more of those guys, burning our symbol! Sheesh.

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OK, on a completely different subject, I'm sort of getting into the whole World Cup thing. I'm not getting into it enough to sit there and watch a full game, it's really too damned boring, but I am getting interested in checking the scores and rooting for a few teams.

Truly, I can't think of much of a reason to actually watch. it's a bunch of guys who rarely even get a shot off on goal, running around. I know this because I've played soccer. Sure, it was YMCA soccer, but trust me, I found little reason to ever care about the actual play of the game. This combined with the fact that all of these guys are in great shape for what they do, means that their thin bodies aren't really that interesting to me. Of course this doesn't compare to the even less sexy WNBA.

Of course, I can't run for 90 seconds, let alone 90 minutes. Nor am I a student of the sports "finer" aspects, whatever they may be.

What excites me about the games is watching the different countries. I was enjoying watching most of the developing world countries get knocked off in the first round. The G8 is where it's at - unless you're the United States. I really had no problem that the US team lost. You can't be good at everything, right? I guess it comes down to the whole US patriotism thing that we just ought to be able to nuke anything...so to speak.

Still, a couple of my favories are out, Mexico lost on Saturday and Spain lost today. I guess I can still look forward to Beckham and the English boys and the Germans. If it comes down to those two teams...well, that may be one match worth watching.

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Lastly, since gay rugby has become so successful, i think it's time for the gay community to start infiltrating another sport that has only a marginal following in this country. No, not soccer. I'm thinking it's time for a gay cricket league. Heck, it's a sport that has natty uniforms, a gentlemanly pace, and yes, tea time. Boys, it's time to hit the pitch.

Comments

on the same page

[metacub.livejournal.com]

gtijohn and I both contacted Diane Feinstein's office about her co-sponsoring the Flag amendment today. Bad Diane! Bad! It's so close, though, that it might actually pass next year if things don't improve. Re sports, I agree that playing gay cricket would be a lot of fun, but I'd rather *watch* gay Australian-rules football.

Re: on the same page

[eggwards.livejournal.com]

That's just the thing, now that they are so close, if the Republicans don't lose much ground in the 2006 elections, you're sure to see it come up before the presidential election in 2008, just to continue to drive home the connection to the patriotic but stupid.

I'm really thinking Cricket would be fun, but you're right, Aussie Rules is a lot of fun to watch. They don't show it much anymore, do they?

[hantsbear.livejournal.com]

Sure, it's a little loss, to be sure, but it just becomes one more domino in the loss of freedoms, whether by legislation, or by intimidation.
As a foreign observer, it seems just another smokescreen this administration seems keen on to deflect from the real issues...

I'm sort of getting into the whole World Cup thing. I'm not getting into it enough to sit there and watch a full game, it's really too damned boring, but I am getting interested in checking the scores and rooting for a few teams.
Aaargh! Please don't tell me this is happining nationally... The US is the one place I can rely on to go to to get away from the so called "beautiful game"!!!
And a hearty yes to gay cricket. See if you can add to the number of nations that can beat us at one of our national sports... ;)

[eggwards.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah, everything this administration does seems to we with a whole "but don't look behind the curtain" attitude.

The World Cup is still a curiosity here. Soccer (football) is getting more play, mainly from the influx of immigrants and youngsters who played the sport as kids, but it isn't translating to big success for Major League Soccer. Most of the hispanic folk still watch the teams from their home countries. Again, i'd rather not watch, but i do check in to see who's winning.

[keanubear.livejournal.com]

All the flag burning ammendment really does is give more validity and meaning to the act of burning the flag!

Gay cricket? Sounds good!

[eggwards.livejournal.com]

you're right. There haven't been that many homeland flag burnings since the Vietnam era (perhaps for G8 or WTO meetings), and people really don't think about it until something like this comes up. what's sad is how many people go along with it from a misplaced sense of patriotism.

I saw a quote from a senator that the troops were fighting for the flag. No, they weren't, this isn't Stratego. they fight for our country, or our way of life, or for the American people (or a president's mis-placed priorities), but the flag is just another symbol of those things, not the actual thing or idea being defended.

[keanubear.livejournal.com]

You are so correct! It's the ideals that are important, not the symbol.

But the current people running the country obviously don't go for those sort of distictions!

[davidtx.livejournal.com]

I think what bothers me the most about this is that as an issue it's so trivial. We don't have a chronic flag burning problem, so why are they wasting time pushing through an amendment if not to try and deflect the public from thinking about the *real* issues? I'm starting to believe that Congress has become so corrupt that it rivals The Roman Senate in Caesar's day. I wonder what would happen if they all had lie detectors around their necks that would buzz and flash "LIE" every time they told one. :)

[eggwards.livejournal.com]

Congress only thinks about getting re-elected in this time of year, and so it's nothing major or controversial, just loads of platform votes designed to make good stump speech materials.

As for the flash signs...are we sure there's enough Duracells to power those?

[mtnkodiak.livejournal.com]

No comment on the flag burning thing, as I am in a good mood and don't want to start ranting about how stooopid our government is. Must. Resist..

Anyways, I'm all for the cricket thing. I've always been fascinated by it, maybe because I don't understand it very well. But don't matches last for days? We'd have to come up with a modified version to start with, for all the ADD-stricken Americans. Cricket-lite. :)

[eggwards.livejournal.com]

I was reading up on it the other day at work, because wikipedia is a complete boredom buster. there are several forms of Cricket, but the most common is a two day match (they go home when the sun goes down), but there is a faster version, a one day match that they play in Australia - and i think that would be the better choice. No one said we had to follow all the rules.