Flag Fridays on Vexillophilia

Readers of The Life & Times of Michael5000 will already be familiar with the Flag Friday Project. In fact, they'll already be familiar with this exact post, which appeared in that undeniably fabulous blog just last week.

From now on, my running critiques of the world's national flags will be simulcast every few weeks on the L&TM5K and Vexillophilia. This index page catches you up with the action this far, and will be sporadically updated as we stagger forward through the alphabet.



The Flag Friday project is an ongoing critique of the Flags of the world. It was inspired by New Zealand philosopher Josh Parsons' reviews of the world’s flags from some years back, possibly the only comprehensive critique of the world’s flags on record. Each flag review cites Parson's assessment before explaining why I agree or disagree with him; then you, the reader, have a chance to agree or disagree with me.

As I mention every post: These discussions are about graphic design, and perhaps about nationalism and national symbolism in general. They should not be taken as critical of the countries, ideals, cultures, or people that the flags represent. That's important!

Contents

I: Grades
II: Glossary
III: The Flag Index
IV: Other Flag Posts of Yore
V: Flaggy Links from the L&TM5K Readers

I: Grades

For ease of comparison, I use Parson’s system of letter grades, which runs basically like so:

A = Excellent; Inspired
B = High Quality Flag with only minor concerns
C = Satisfactory Flag
D = Problematic Flag
F = National Embarassment

II: Glossary

The Betsy Ross Principle: At anything but the broadest level of abstraction, pictures are too detailed to be immediately recognizable at any distance and thus run counter to good flag design. Too, one feels that a flag ought to be something that could be put together by the local Betsy Ross figure out of, literally, whole cloth. A fussy image that requires custom-printed fabric is vaguely undemocratic, and sacrifices the clean, bold aesthetic of solid blocks of color.

Civil Flags: The ordinary flag of a country, as opposed to the fancy State Flags that are often used to mark especially important national locations or people. Flag Fridays focuses on Civil Flags.

The Kid With Crayons Tests: The Kid With Crayons Test was originally suggested by Aviatrix and subsequently refined by points raised by The Unwise Owl.

• The Kid With Crayons Simplicity Test is, like The Betty Ross Principle, a measure of a flag's relative simplicity. It suggests that an ideal flag should have a simple enough design that a child can reproduce it accurately with crayons.


• The Experiential Kid With Crayons Test is a necessarily subjective assessment of a flag's immediate visual impact. It implies that certain flags -- eg. that of Bhutan -- have a design that might inspire a child to want to draw it in crayon, regardless of the design's complexity.

Maps on Flags: Parsons considers the presence of a map on a flag a grave cartographic error. I see no problem with cartographic flags in principle, but will also concede that maps are often a dodgy design element in practice.

State Flags: Special versions of a countries flag used to mark special occasions or locations. See "Civil Flags."

Tricolors: Flags that are comprised of three fields or "stripes" of color, running either horizontally or diagonally. Parsons posits "do not use a tricolour unless you are in Europe" as a rule of flag design, but I disagree wholeheartedly with him on this point. Tricolors are the very epitome of classic flag design, simple, bold, and immediately identifiable. European countries use them for the reason that they have strong use value, and triumphed over all other possible national signifiers through a historical process of evolution. To tell the younger countries of the world that they can’t use this design because it’s already been done is essentially to tell them that their flags shouldn’t look like flags.

Words and Names on Flags. Both Parsons and I am generally hostile to the idea of names on flags. The whole purpose of a flag is to present a graphic representation for a political entity, and if you have to (to take an example from the gallery of horrors that is the U.S. State flags) actually write “Oregon” on your banner, you have clearly committed a vexology fail.


III: The Flag Index

Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, Andorra, Angola, Antigua & Barbuda

Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahamas

Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Belgium, Belize

Benin, Bhutan, Bolivia

Bosnia, Botswana, Brazil

Brunei, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Burma, Burundi


IV: Other Flag Posts of Yore

The L&TM5K Awards for Flag Merit

Thoughts on the Flag(s) of Angola

Flag Colors of the World

Thoughts on U.S. State Flags

The Wednesday Quiz II:1

Canadian and Australian Flags Quiz

The Monday Quiz IL


V: Flaggy Links from the Vexillophilia Readers

What is Written on the National Flags (Catholicguaze)

The Intersection of Flag and Food (Elizabeth)

Making a Run for the Border!

Dear President Obama: 

I'm planning to move my family and extended family into Mexico for my health, and I would like to ask you to assist me. 

We're planning to simply walk across the border from the U.S. Into Mexico, and we'll need your help to make a few arrangements. 

We plan to skip all the legal stuff like visas, passports, immigration quotas and laws. 

I'm sure they handle those things the same way you do here. So, would you mind telling your buddy, President Calderon, that: 


I'm on my way over! 

Please let him know that I will be expecting the following: 

1. Free medical care for my entire family. 

2. English-speaking government bureaucrats for all services I might need, whether I use them or not. 

3. Please print all Mexican government forms in English. 

4. I want my grandkids to be taught Spanish by English-speaking (bi-lingual) teachers. 

5. Tell their schools they need to include classes on American culture and history. 

6. I want my grandkids to see the American flag on one of the flag poles at their school. 

7. Please plan to feed my grandkids at school for both breakfast and lunch. 

8. I will need a local Mexican driver's license so I can get easy access to government services. 

9. I do plan to get a car and drive in Mexico , but, I don't plan to purchase car insurance, and I probably won't make any special effort to learn local traffic laws. 

10. In case one of the Mexican police officers does not get the memo from their president to leave me alone, please be sure that every patrol car has at least one English-speaking officer. 

11. I plan to fly the U.S. Flag from my house top, put U S. Flag decals on my car, and have a gigantic celebration on July 4th. I do not want any complaints or negative comments from the locals. 

12. I would also like to have a nice job without paying any taxes, or have any labor or tax laws enforced on any business I may start. 

13. Please have the president tell all the Mexican people to be extremely nice and never say critical things about me or my family, or about the strain we might place on their economy. 

14. I want to receive free food stamps. 

15. Naturally, I'll expect free rent subsidies. 

16. I'll need Income tax credits so although I don't pay Mexican Taxes, I'll receive money from the government. 

17. Please arrange it so that the Mexican Gov't pays $4,500 to help me buy a new car. 

18. Oh yes, I almost forgot, please enroll me free into the Mexican Social Security program so that I'll get a monthly income in retirement. 

I know this is an easy request because you already do all these things for all his people who walk over to the  U.S. From Mexico . I am sure that President Calderon won't mind returning the favor if you ask him nicely. 

Thank you so much for your kind help. You the man 


(h/t WoFat)

Military Exercises

I usually come up with something semi-original, however, in this case, I am forwarding an article by Mark Alexander for your consideration.

h/t Mark Alexander - "Army Preps for Tea Party Terrorists

http://patriotpost.us/alexander/2010/04/29/army-preps-for-tea-party...

The duty imposed upon [the president] to take care, that the laws be faithfully executed, follows out the strong injunctions of his oath of office, that he will 'preserve, protect, and defend the constitution.' The great object of the executive department is to accomplish this purpose; and without it, be the form of government whatever it may, it will be utterly worthless for offence, or defence; for the redress of grievances, or the protection of rights; for the happiness, or good order, or safety of the people." --Justice Joseph Story

A few months back, the commander in chief or our Armed Forces, that erstwhile community organizer Barack Hussein Obama, denigrated a large cross section of Americans who identify with the Tea Party movement -- those who advocate for Essential Liberty and Rule of Law.

Obama identified them as malcontents, "waving their little tea bags."

Since then, the Obama administration and their Leftmedia sycophants have endeavored to characterize Tea Party attendees as rude, radical, racist, redneck, enemies of the state.

In fact, Americans who attend Tea Party rallies are from all walks of life, as noted in the Patriot Declaration, Patriots who are peacefully and constitutionally petitioning their government for redress.

As I noted in my tax-day essay, Tea Parties are "not a call for revolution but for restoration -- a call to undertake whatever measures are dictated by prudence and necessity to restore constitutional Rule of Law."

However, Obama's words do have consequences.

This week, I was contacted by a number of military personnel, enlisted and officer ranks, who expressed concern about a military exercise underway at Ft. Knox, the U.S. Bullion Depository. As with most such exercises, the Ft. Knox alert occurred in stages, as if real time intelligence was being provided at various intervals.

The first intel advisory was issued on Friday, 23 April 2010, and identifies the terrorist threat adversaries as "Local Militia Groups / Anti-Government Protesters / TEA Party."

You read that right: "TEA Party"!

The alert states that plans for the demonstration may have been interrupted by "Federal and local law enforcement" raids on a "White Supremacists Organization," but "TEA Party organizers have stated that they will protest at the Gold Vault at a future date."

Further, the intel advisory states, "Anti-Government - Health Care Protesters have stated that they would join the TEA Party as a sign of solidarity."

In accordance with the exercise, Ft. Knox post security is placed on high alert because, "these groups are armed, have combative training and some are former Military Snipers. Some may have explosives training / experience," and "a rally at their compound / training area is scheduled."

Another intel update was issued on Monday, 26 April 2010, noting that the "rally at the Militia compound occurred," and "Viable threats ... have been made." The intel on the rally notes, "Many members were extremely agitated at what they referred to as Government intervention and over taxation in their lives. Alcohol use 'fanned the flames.' Many military grade firearms were openly carried. An ad hoc 'shoot the government agent' event was held with prizes (alcohol) given for the best shot placement."

The report states further, "Components of bomb making are reported to have been on the site. Some members have criminal records relating to explosive and weapons violations."

In response to the "immediate threat," the exercise stipulates, "local detention centers are being made ready for mass arrests." Both the "QRF I and QRF II" are placed on two hour recall, and the "5-15 CAV" was ordered to "draw weapons from holder and store in most available arms room," and "coordinate with MASA for immediate ammunition draw; have equipment readied for immediate use, i.e. vehicles staged and loaded IAW 5-15 CAV SOP; LMR's charged."

QRF refers to Quick Reaction Force. QRF I is the 16th Cavalry Regiment. QRF II is the 194th Armored Brigade.

The 26 April order gives specific instructions for the 5-15 CAV (a 16th Cavalry battalion) to have weapons, ammo, vehicles and communications at ready, and it places the other 2,200 members of the units on two-hour recall. In other words, these orders are to gear up for defending Ft. Knox against Tea Party folks and their co-conspirators who oppose nationalization of our health care sector.

Now, for almost 30 years I have participated in the development and implementation of small and large scale military exercises within the U.S. and around the world.

Such exercises are critical to the readiness of our forces, and the standard for the real time intel reports in these drills requires thinly veiled references to assets of existing or collateral threat vectors such as communist regimes such as China and real terrorist networks such as al-Qa'ida, etc.

Perhaps the writers of such exercises today should focus on response plans for, say, an Islamic terrorist who attacks a post. (See Ft. Hood / Major Nidal Malik Hasan.)


The Ft. Knox exercise is not only amateurish in its construct, but also sets an ominous political precedent.

The military officers and enlisted personnel with whom I spoke are all dedicated uniformed Patriots who are loyal, first and foremost, to their oath to "support and defend" our Constitution "against all enemies, foreign and domestic."

Their concerns about this exercise mirrored my own. As one put it, the exercise "misrepresents freedom loving Americans as drunken, violent racists -- the opponents of Obama's policies have been made the enemy of the U.S. Army."

They were equally concerned that command staff at Ft. Knox had signed off on this exercise, noting, "it has been issued and owned by field grade officers who lead our battalions and brigades," which is to say many Lieutenant Colonels saw this order before it was implemented.

It's not likely that Ft. Knox Commanding General James Milano or Deputy Commander Col. David Teeples, or even the regimental and brigade commanders for the 16th Cav and 194th AB, actually read the exercise scenario, but that doesn't absolve responsibility for such an egregious example of political exploitation of U.S. forces.

One officer insisted, "The American people should require greater accountability of their commissioned officers, that they abide by their oath and never allow politically motivated propaganda like this exercise on any post or base again."

Another observed, "Whether this is complacency by officers who do not see such orders as a problem, or worse, officers who recognize the problem but do not insist the orders are changed, this is a serious problem. We are discussing the training of American citizen soldiers in the use of potentially deadly force against a specific group of political dissenters. There is never a time in an officer's career in which he does not have a duty to apply critical thought to the orders he is given and asked to give. It is my opinion that any officer that has allowed these orders to persist, to reach the level of junior officers and soldiers, has demonstrated a lack of judgment or apathy towards what his duty requires of him. Either way, we should demand more of the commissioned officers, who we as a nation empower to lead our sons and daughters into battle."

Indeed, and at best, the blatant malfeasance on the part of the individuals who composed this exercise reflects poorly on the uniformed services.

The antidote to this patent misrepresentation of peaceable Patriots is to expose it with the Light of Truth. As our motto Veritas vos Liberabit affirms, the Truth shall set you Free!

Buy Arizona Iced Tea!

I don't know how many of you drink iced tea. However under the present circumstances when eminent citizens like the Reverend Al Sharpton are calling for boycotting Arizona products, you couldn't buy a more appropriate commercial item than ARIZONA TEA!

(click here for more about Arizona Iced Tea)

barack hussein obama's regime would see you refusing to buy products made Arizona because the State took a courageous stand and adopted the Federal Law that deals with illegal immigration. The obama regime is fighting back with everything in their arsenal short of sending in troops on American soil and declaring martial law (against the citizens of Arizona - not against illegal aliens).

obama hopes that by sending in the Reverend Jessie Jackson, Al Sharpton and mobilizing all of the community organizing assets at his fingertips that people will attack Arizona economically. The City of San Francisco [home of Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)], long a city of high morals and impeccable values, has declared economic war against Arizona for doing what the Federal Government should have been doing for the last forty years.









So drink more Arizona Iced Tea - drive their earnings UP.

Yes, we can!

Courageous Arizona!

The Government of the United States has failed the people in a number of ways. And I'm not singling out any particular administration here. The failed policy of protecting America's borders has come to the point where courageous citizens of Arizona have mirrored the federal law regarding illegal immigration and incorporated it into their body of law.

And the Democrats are fuming.

The answer is not all that difficult. The Federal Government has an unambiguous responsibility to PROTECT America's borders. And if they won't do it, The People will.

Let's Talk About the Flag of Angola

Originally posted March 24, 2009 on the Life & Times of Michael5000.

I noticed the other day that the Angolan dude with whom I was playing online chess was represented by an unfamiliar looking flag. I was naturally expecting the familiar old Angolan flag that we all know and love:


This banner, you'd have to admit, embodies some of the core flaggy virtues. It is graphically simple and direct yet highly distinctive. It is immediately recognizable, and visually arresting. But it turns out that there are people, including possibly some actual Angolans, who have some reservations about this flag. Their criticisms are at least three.

1) The sickle and hammer concept is a little out of fashion.

2) Using a machete as your national symbol in an African republic could be construed as kind of, um, insensitive.

3) Perhaps most importantly, the flag descends directly from the banner of the largest of the colonial-era resistance movements in Angola, which subsequently became the dominant political party. Thus it is perhaps not the best symbol for a nation giving multi-party democracy the old college try.

A suggested alternative, and the flag that is being used by chess.com, is this:


The design in the middle is apparently derived from some famous Angolan prehistoric cave paintings, thus representing a tie to the ancient past.

It seems that chess.com is jumping the gun somewhat, though. I checked out the website of the Angolan Embassy to the United States, and there is no reference to this new banner to be found. In fact, I'd have to say that the embassy is still rocking the old flag's symbolism mighty hard.

There is, unsurprisingly, precious little media coverage of this issue to be found. The best I can do is off the Wiki, which sayeth:

Many Angolans dislike the flag proposal because they feel it has no real meaning, as opposed to the current flag which clearly has historical associations. Others are of the opinion that the proposed flag cannot be seen as uniquely Angolan because it resembles other national flags including the flags of Costa Rica and North Korea.

What do YOU think, gentle Vexillophilia readers? Allowing that the final decision is, of course, nobody's business but the Angolans'.

Another Good Flag Quote

A moth-eaten rag on a worm-eaten pole, It does not look likely to stir a man's soul. 'Tis the deeds that were done 'neath the moth-eaten rag, When the pole was a staff, and the rag was a flag.

-- Sir Edward Bruce Hamley

Where is West Xylophone?

They Might Be Giants, the American alternative rock band, primarily John Flansburgh and John Linnell, have released dozens of children's songs over the years. Including "The Alphabet of Nations."

The official TMBG video includes much map and flag fun... but where is West Xylophone?



From This Might Be A Wiki - The TMBG Knowledge Base:

Technically, there is no nation whose name begins with the letter 'X' or the letter 'W.' (Wales is a principality, Wallis is a territory of France, and Western Sahara is a disputed territory below Morocco). The fictional West Xylophone is used as a stand-in for both of these letters.

Several other TMBG fans have created videos for the song, with more map and flag fun:





However, there is some dispute as to the correct official flag of West Xylophone:

Culinary Flags

Culinary Flags

What is Vexillophilia?

Vexillophilia = Love of Flags

The Sovereign Individual

English Common Law, which is the basis for the system of law in the United States (except for Louisiana which relies on the Napoleonic Code - and - Common Law) holds that "a man's home is his castle". Being a sovereign individual allows the citizen personal freedom of choice as opposed to collective mandates. One test of whether individuals are allowed that sovereignty is their right to use reasonable means to protect themselves from others. We all know that the government (any government) itself is incapable of protecting its population from crime. The police can respond, take reports and take action AFTER a crime has occurred, but that's never quite enough. The primary responsibility to protect you (and your family) falls... on you.

Switzerland has the lowest crime rate in the world. They always have the lowest crime rate in the world. Did you ever wonder why?

Response to "Anonymous"

Normally I do not take anonymous responses to my posts seriously, however there was a request for clarification on the barack hussein obama regime's tax hikes. (file under "Another Obama Lie")

(CLICK HERE) (House of Representatives - Ways and Means Committee)

If you have difficulty reading it, you can go to the website for further clarification.

Another Obama Lie

On Income Tax Day, April 15th, barack hussein obama told America on his weekly radio address to the nation that members of the Tea Party Movement should thank him. He said, "one thing we have not done is raise income taxes on families making less than $250,000; that's another promise we kept."

In fact, that wasn't his promise at all.

Here's what candidate obama really said in September of 2008: "Under my plan, no family making less than $250,000 a year will see any form of tax increase. Not your income tax, not your payroll tax, not your capital gains taxes, not any of your taxes."

Got that? "Not any of your taxes." The claim of no tax hikes on those below $250,000 as a result of the current administration's policies is completely and utterly false.

FACT CHECK

A report from the House Ways & Means Committee's GOP members notes that, since January 2009, Congress and the president have enacted $670 billion in tax increases. That's $2,100 for each person in America. At least 14 of those tax hikes, the report says, break Obama's pledge not to raise taxes on those earning less than $250,000. Roughly $316 billion of the tax hikes — 14 increases in all — hit middle-class families, the report says.

This comes in addition to recent data from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office showing U.S. spending and indebtedness growing at an alarming rate. Government spending now totals 25% of GDP, a quarter above its long-term average. By 2035, it will hit 34% of GDP at current trends — a 70% increase in the real size of government in just 25 years.

More spending means more debt. In 2008, total federal publicly held debt was about $8.5 trillion — an amount Uncle Sam took 220 years to accumulate. By 2020, that will soar to $20.3 trillion, a 139% jump. No surprise the Government Accountability Office last week said the U.S. is on "an unsustainable long-term fiscal path."  (h/t IBD)

Tea Party Growing

The Tea Party Movement is growing and it's gaining momentum. According to the New York Times, 18% of all voters identify with this movement. They interviewed members of the Tea Party Movement and these are the reasons they gave for participating (CLICK HERE)!

The mainstream/state-run media continues to consider the Tea Party movement to be a race-based political movement - and all non-white people who identify with the movement are branded as "traitors to their [respective] race". It's one of those they continue to sling out there - but it doesn't wash. It's about Socialism, not skin color, gender, or sexual orientation, religion, or national origin. Most Tea Party people believe that ILLEGAL immigration is a problem -- because it's ILLEGAL. It's not aimed at people based on race.

For the most part, people who relate to the Tea Party Movement feel that the heavy-handed regime of barack hussein obama with a clear and unambiguous socialist agenda is able to ignore constituted laws, is hijacking the political process and is moving against Constitutional concepts, replacing them with nationalizing and socializing at will.

At the Santa Ana Tea Party gathering yesterday, one speaker questioned the US Government's motives in pursuing Toyota Motor Company for defects in some of its cars that resulted in recalls. Since the US Government owns General Motors and Chrysler, Toyota is its direct competitor. Therefore the US Government's motives in actions (clearly a conflict of interest) can not be challenged since both the Congress and the Executive Branch of government is under the sway of the obama regime.

Those who identify with the Tea Party Movement believe that chief executive of this nation has worked hard to alienate our allies and has worked equally hard to court those Communist Nations (Cuba, Venezuela, etc.) and radical Muslim Nations (Libya, Iran, etc.). They do not believe this agenda is in the best interest of the American people.

They do not want ObamaCare, not because they are heartless, but because it's simply not the government's place to absorb 20% of the US Economy under its direct control. It is not in keeping with the spirit of free enterprise or the principles that have guided us. The US Government has bankrupted every major entitlement program it's embarked on. EVERY -  SINGLE  -  ONE. Members of the Tea Party Movement believe that a healthcare bill that was far less than 2,400 pages, had been read by people who voted for it, and addressed portability, pre-existing conditions, tort reform, opening the market to every insurer nationwide, etc. would have been completely acceptable. It wouldn't be what we have now when ObamaCare kicks into full swing, Socialized Medicine.

The Tenth Amendment has been trod on to the extent that it really doesn't exist anymore. Most people who participate in the Tea Party Movement want Education and a host of other issues to be matters under control of the States - with more emphasis on local control and self-determination. They don't trust the Federal Government to do the right thing. It's much easier for us to exercise our votes locally and make real change over matters that impact ourselves and our children than it is in massive national elections where vast, horribly expensive bureaucracies end up make decisions about how our children will be educated (for example).

That's what these screaming 'radicals' believe in. Ask yourself this simple question:

###

Tea Party Coverage (2)

There were between 300 and 350 protesters at Santa Ana, CA between noon and 1:30. It was one of five venues for Tea Party protest in Orange County today.

Opus #6 (famous blogger)(left) and my daughter Emilie on the right.

NBC interviewed Emilie on film asking why she was there, asking her background, etc. She accounted herself well under their scrutiny. They didn't interview the old, angry white man standing next to her (that would be me).

A view of some of the people who were present.

Tea Party Coverage (1)

I'm going to do a couple of blog entries today.

I've been scouring the internet for the place the bus is supposed to pick me up and deliver me to the Tea Party Protest. After all, I expect some insurance company to give me a pre-made sign, a sack lunch, a t-shirt, an "envelope" for my participation and a ride home at the end of the day... Because this is all fake, right?

I was at Searchlight, Nevada where CNN reported that "two dozen people" gathered together at Harry Reid's home town to kick off the Tea Party Express that will wind its way across America.

I was at Santa Ana, California last 4/15 when the media didn't even show up because the crowd was made up of "rednecks", firearm owners, mostly employed, traitors to their race (non-white people), women, and people who bathed (how can it be a real protest if people are well dressed? - Sen. B. Boxer [D-CA]) --- essentially people who don't matter to either the state run media or the oligarchs in Washington, DC.

Today I'll be at Santa Ana at noon, and in Corona, California in the afternoon to witness this rag-tag band of PATRIOTS (it's a dirty word now in Washington, DC these days - they sling the word as if it was mud) who want to affirm individual responsibility, smaller government, rational taxation, affirmation of the Tenth Amendment (State's Rights), etc. And I want to invite "progressives" to come and look at the future of America - because hope and change has taken on a whole new meaning.

ENDA - another Obama Outrage

Does the outrageous conduct of the regime in power in Washington DC ever end? It clearly hasn't for the last year and a half.

The House Committee on Education and Labor is prepared to send the  Employment Non-Discrimination Act  (ENDA) to full committee markup as early as next week.

ENDA will make “gender identity” a protected minority. States, local governments and businesses with more than 15 employees will be forced to recognize it as such. Translation: ENDA will force businesses and schools to accommodate cross-dressers, drag queens and transsexuals in hiring, promotion, restroom and shower use. In one week, barack hussein obama, Nancy Pelosi, and their Congressional allies could force cross-dressing teachers on every school district in America.

Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA), a homosexual, is openly admitting that under ENDA, a man who dresses in women’s clothing could legally get naked in front little girls in restrooms and shower facilities.

Frank claims to have worked out improvements with “the transgender community.” In his own words:

Essentially, there are full protections for people who are transgender with a couple of provisos: One – the employer can ask for a gender consistent dress code. No mustaches and dresses. Two – people with one set of genitals do not have a legal right to get naked in front of the other set, is the basic way to put it. Some accommodation has to be made there. If you insist on the right for unrestricted access to bathrooms – we lose. And we’re making some accommodations here. And we worked it out with the transgender community.

The Employment Non-Discrimination Act should have never been seriously considered in the first place. There are already laws on the books regarding hostile work environments, etc. that protect gay and lesbian people. This law is designed to force transsexuality and cross-dressing down the throats of Americans and it's simply WRONG.

Nancy Pelosi is from San Francisco where cross-dressing and transgender identity is one of those things that is open and accepted. I understand this. In fairness to Ms. Pelosi, maybe she's simply representing her constituents. 

However, it's not what AMERICA wants. And it's not fair to those of us who are not transgender/gender-confused (I'm trying to be polite). We don't want their livestyle and dress choices shoved down our throats by the Federal Government.

Is Rep. Alan Grayson Crazy?

U.S. Representative Alan Grayson (D-FL), pushed the U.S. Attorney General to persuade the Federal Court to levy a monetary fine and a 5 year prison sentence against a vocal critic for alleged violations of Federal Election law that, even if true, represent minor transgressions. IS ALAN GRAYSON crazy? (CLICK HERE) Obviously there are more than a few people who would answer "yes" to that question. I don't know if he's clinically - technically - insane or if he's simply emotionally unbalanced, described by some as a very rich, large, spoiled child. I'd like to answer that question but I can't. 

He has constituents who admire him for bullying tactics that are sometimes characterized as "courageous". Then again, there were people in the German Reichstag in the 30's who admired the new chancellor. So there is no accounting for tastes on either side. 

No, I don't live in Rep. Grayson's Congressional District, however he is a United States Congressman, and as such, his votes impact people nationwide, not simply those who voted him into office in Orange County, Florida. If there is a mantra that could best characterize Rep. Grayson, it would be "NATIONALIZE and SOCIALIZE" -- and exempt me from what I voted for.

Maybe he isn't crazy after all. He was smart enough to exempt himself from ObamaCare. Wikipedia puts his net worth at $31 million, so he may be able to afford a personal physician for himself and his family. Well he would if he was anyone else. As a US Congressman, he has the Rolls Royce of healthcare plans (no, not subject to ObamaCare) and We The People get to pay for it.  

My verdict:

ALAN GRAYSON is not as crazy as he acts. 

We are subject to ObamaCare and he isn't!

Tea Party Day

April 15 is now the traditional Tea Party Day. Perhaps one day it will be declared a national holiday - the day THE PEOPLE gathered on village greens to fire the shot heard round the world - - and TOOK BACK their country.

I want YOUR suggestions on what should be on signs my daughter Emilie and I carry as we protest! I gave the responsibility to Emilie to come up with ideas and she is shucking the creative effort off on blog followers!

Emilie (pictured above) needs four slogans (two on each sign) for the protest and solicits your input.

Winners will see photos posted of us holding our signs at the Santa Ana, CA Tea Party Protest on April 15th!!

Value Added Tax

The Democrats are beating the drum for a Value Added Tax (VAT) to pay for the deficit (that in fairness, all administrations have been running up). The new national healthcare system in the US will be enormously expensive and we need to pay for it somehow. $2,000,000,000,000.00 over the next ten years will be expended to pay for the healthcare of roughly 10 million Americans who are currently uninsured - and about the same number of illegal aliens, who will also benefit. 

Since roughly 40% of Americans don't pay income tax, those who do simply don't make enough money to cover the two trillion dollars in healthcare costs or the twelve trillion dollars in other spending we're in the hole on. The current administration can't conceive of spending less, so we must tax more. And they seem to like VAT.

VAT will act more or less like a super-national sales tax. No more free ride for internet purchasers trying to avoid paying state sales tax. If you're buying something at the point of sale, in California, for example, you'll pay your 10% sales tax (in Los Angeles) and then another X% VAT that goes to the federal government. "Witness the experience of the European Union. When the 12 largest nations of Europe first began using the VAT in the late 1960s, it averaged a bit over 13%. Today, it averages 20.5% across those same European Union nations — a 54% increase." (source: IBD)

So, let's say I wanted to buy a hamburger & drink in Los Angeles and presume it costs $3.00. Presuming that the US goes the way of Europe in terms of the amount of VAT, I'd pay $3.00 for the hamburger & drink and $1.00 in VAT and sales tax. Or if I bought a car for $30,000, I'd pay $10,000 in VAT and sales tax.  Sound like change you can believe in?

The net effect is to produce a cash-and-carry underground economy to avoid paying VAST taxes. A black market if you will, of tax free goods. Good for America?

America does not have a revenue problem, it has a SPENDING PROBLEM. We need to spend within our means -- whatever that means. If it means we spend less on entitlements, Americas will simply have to get used to paying for their own services and saving for retirement rather than hoping "other people's money" will carry them through.

Mainstream Media and Southern History

Though I have blogged on this issue before and have left comments on other people's blog, perhaps it's time to take the issue on again. My friend, The Black Widow (who is neither racially black nor a female) reminded me that the mainstream media/state-run media is stirring up trouble again. There is a link at the bottom of this post to the Black Widow's Blog.

The War of Northern Aggression/Civil War/War Between the States/War of the Rebellion was known by many names. It came about because the industrial North and the agricultural South could not compromise on issues of Constitutionality. One of those issues was slavery of negroes in Southern States. 

When the original colonies confederated formed the Articles of Confederation and later crafted a Constitution, there was nothing in either document which said that the states had to remain with the rest in perpetual union. Had that clause been included, there would have been no Constitution. Each State (northern or southern) required its own sovereignty over issues not specifically outlined in the Constitution (10th Amendment - part of the Bill of Rights). As a result, the Southern States felt legally justified in leaving the Union. Legally, I think they were on firm ground. There was nothing in the body of US Law that forbade it. The Constitution of the United States ALLOWED for slavery and for the apportionment of Congressional representation based on counting slaves for that purpose.

Before you scream that I am a racist, I'm only citing the law of the land.

There are MANY accounts of soldiers from the North asking soldiers from the South why they're fighting. The typical response was, "because you are here." With two exceptions (Antietam and Gettysburg), almost all of the battles were fought in Southern States. The tragedy of it all was that all of the dead in that war were AMERICANS.

The Southern States were more or less devastated by the War. Blacks slaves were set "free" with nowhere to go - except that many Northern States (particularly New York) made it plain that they didn't want the newly freed slaves settling there. That's history. It is a sad history, but it's part of American history. 

Today CNN and the state-run media in general are running pieces condemning people who live in Southern States from recognizing and remembering their history. That couldn't be more wrong. It doesn't matter how many of the Confederate Soldiers held slaves or whether the North was justified in their invasion of the Southern States. It's part of history and any effort to nullify history means that we're not learning from the lessons it teaches us. Half a million soldiers died in that war, each side feeling it had justice and God on its side. Time to learn, not burn books that disagree with our preconceived notions.

Today we have a socialist regime in power in Washington. They are trying to ram their brand of government down our throats to spite the Constitution. States are suing the Federal Government over ObamaCare. States are enacting laws which prohibit federal firearms laws holding sway in their states (a firearm and ammunition manufactured in a state are not held to be of federal concern under the interstate commerce clause of the Constitution) and for the first time, States can take Federal Government land under the doctrine of eminent domain.

The States are fighting back in the courts and in their own respective legislatures to provide the citizens of those states protection against the Socialist Federal Government. The US National (state-run) media is lashing out in any way it can against any issue of State's Rights that it can -- suggesting that any issue of State's Rights is somehow racist. Fighting against a socialist regime through voting and through enacting laws to curb it's power hungry grab to nationalize and socialize American Industry is in NO WAY racist. Race does not enter into it, and neither does gender. 

THE BLACK WIDOW (CLICK HERE FOR MORE)

Arizona Concealed Carry Law

On Thursday, the Arizona House voted to make the state the third in the nation to allow people to carry concealed weapons without a permit. The legislation, approved by the House 36-19 without discussion, would make it legal for most U.S. citizens 21 or older to carry a concealed weapon in Arizona without the permit now required. Governor Jan Brewer is expected to sign the measure into law.

Arizona will join Alaska and Vermont in not requiring permits to carry concealed weapons. Forty-five other states require permits for hidden guns, and two states — Illinois and Wisconsin — prohibit them altogether.

Firearms restrictions only affect people who want to follow the rules because criminals will carry hidden guns regardless of the law.

Under the measure, Arizonans would still be subject to the background checks federal law requires when buying firearms from a store. People carrying a concealed weapon would be required to tell a police officer if asked, and the officer could temporarily take the weapon while communicating with the gun carrier.

Brewer, a Republican who took office in January 2009, is very supportive of citizen's rights to own, bear and retain arms. Her predecessor, Democrat Janet Napolitano, vetoed several measures pushed by gun-rights supporters before resigning to run the U.S. Homeland Security Department.

On Monday, Brewer signed two bills loosening gun restrictions. One bill broadened the state's current restrictions on local governments' ability to regulate or tax guns and ammunition. The other bill declares that guns manufactured entirely in Arizona are exempt from federal oversight and are not subject to federal laws restricting the sale of firearms or requiring them to be registered.

I like Arizona!

(CNSNews.com) - A new reportpublished by MSNBC.com shows that more guns in the hands of law-abiding citizens results in fewer deaths from the use of firearms. [I never thought I'd see MSNBC put out a pro-firearm story no matter what the reality of the situation is.]

“Firearms in the hands of law-abiding citizens prevent 1 million robberies, murders and rapes every year,” John Pierce, a Virginia-based gun-rights activist with opencarry.org, told MSNBC.com. 

Alan M. Gottlieb, vice president of the Second Amendment Foundation (SAF), called the finding "further evidence that everything the gun prohibitionists have been claiming and predicted over the past two decades has been fundamentally fraudulent.”

EVERYWHERE concealed carrying of firearms has been legalized, crime dropped. Allowing honest people to arm themselves made criminals more wary when committing crime. Criminals will always be armed. Allowing citizens the same right merely levels the playing field.  We're talking reality here, not how life should be in a perfect, utopian world.

The Future

(h/t WoFat)

Just something to think about. We're clearly NOT investing in our children's future.


If the Tea Party Movement means anything, it represents people who are concerned about what we're doing to future generations through present-day irresponsibility.

Rate Obama's performance as President (CBS News)

This is a CBS News poll on Obama's first year performance....

Whatever you think, pro or con, here's your chance to grade the President! 
Everyone should get a shot at this. Takes all of fifteen seconds. 

Take the poll yourself and when you submit your grading of how he is handling the top issues, a second page will come up showing you the current results of how America is voting. Please note, this isn't Fox doing this. This is mostly people who watch CBS. That's telling.

CLICK HERE to rate barack hussein obama's performance.

Obama Easter Message sans Christ

As with many of you, I have become numb to the daily outrage - as many of us call the antics from this White House, from barack hussein obama and his regime.

Today he had the gall to remove CHRIST from his Easter Holiday Greeting. What follows below is not my analysis, but that of Vince Haley. To say that I can not be more outraged than I am is to suspend disbelief. Just when you thought barack hussein obama topped himself, he goes and does it again.

I understand that his faith, whether it's Islam or Black Liberation Theology, dismisses the divinity of Jesus Christ. I understand that he as a man is incapable of understanding Easter as evidenced below. However, it's simply another brick in the wall - one more outrage that America needs to swallow.



(h/t Vince Haley)

President Obama literally edited Christ out of his “holiday greeting” today when he excerpted a sermon given by a military chaplain on Iwo Jima on Easter Sunday 1945.

Below is the relevant paragraph from Obama’s holiday greeting today:

The rites of Passover, and the traditions of Easter, have been marked by people in every corner of the planet for thousands of years. They have been marked in times of peace, in times of upheaval, in times of war.

One such war-time service was held on the black sands of Iwo Jima more than sixty years ago. There, in the wake of some of the fiercest fighting of World War II, a chaplain rose to deliver an Easter sermon, consecrating the memory, he said “of American dead – Catholic, Protestant, Jew. Together,” he said, “they huddled in foxholes or crouched in the bloody sands…Together they practiced virtue, patriotism, love of country, love of you and of me.” The chaplain continued, “The heritage they have left us, the vision of a new world, [was] made possible by the common bond that united them…their only hope that this unity will endure.”

Their only hope that this unity will endure.

Now read below the same paragraph again, but this time note the additional bolded language that comes from the original audio of the 1945 sermon and its context, but which President Obama decided not to include:

There, in the wake of some of the fiercest fighting of World War II, a chaplain rose to deliver an Easter sermon, consecrating the memory, he said:

He has risen. With all due reverence, we apply these words to our beloved dead. 

There are too many air call wings encrusted with the stain of their owners’ life blood, too many marine trousers upon the graves, too many symbols of American dead – Catholic, Protestant, Jew. Together,” he said, “they huddled in foxholes or crouched in the bloody sands under the fury of enemy guns here on Iwo Jima. Together they practiced virtue, patriotism, love of country, love of you and of me. Together they stand before the greatest soldier of them all – Jesus Christ, to receive the token of our triumph.  For Christ has said: “Greater love than this no man hath then that he lay down his life for his friends.”

And so our beloved dead have gone from the world of hate to the world of eternal love. 

The chaplain continued, “The heritage they have left us, the vision of a new world, [was] made possible by the common bond that united them in the drudgery of recruit training or here in the chaos of bursting shouts.  Their only hope: that this unity will endure.”

And so our dead have risen to glory.

The American President is president of all the people, believers and non-believers alike.  So when presidential messages are delivered to mark the special observances of major religious groups, it is understandable that a president will strive to provide some measure of explanation of how a particular religious observance honors values that all Americans can share.

But there are limits. A president cannot possibly hope to be a grand synthesizer of all religious traditions in the United States. Despite his skills, it is above President Obama’s pay grade to construct some kind of civic religion that stands above traditional religions and which should guide Americans going forward.

Instead of providing separate messages to Jews and Christians on the observance of Passover and Easter, President Obama said in this holiday greeting that “while we worship in different ways, we also remember the shared spirit of humanity that inhabits us all – Jews and Christians, Muslims and Hindus, believers and nonbelievers alike.”

Obama then went on to say that “on this Easter weekend, let us hold fast to those aspirations we hold in common as brothers and sisters, as members of the same family – the family of man.”

The problem is that when you start to water down what people actually believe in an attempt to construct a religion of the “family of man”, you start to misrepresent fundamentally the nature of the hope that is at the center of lives of believers.

In the case of Christians, Christ is our hope.  Our hope is in the risen Christ, which we celebrate on Easter Sunday.

But if a president wants to water down religious beliefs in an attempt to find a synthesized religion of the ‘family of man’, you end up removing Christ from Easter, which is, strangely, exactly what President Obama did today in his Easter message. 

Is this the first American president to dechristianize Easter?