> > >demonizing of the flag.. with the agenda that only bigots will wave it... > Well... having once been imprisoned for possession of a desecrated America flag, that was given to me as a token of freedom by a Yugoslavian friend as a parting gift, I can agree that the co-optation of symbols is a strange and powerful business. It has always struck me as odd that having long hair and being against wanting to go fight in Vietnam got turned into flag burning, burned by others and not me (I was burning other stuff in a more reflective and private practice), as a political protest, but then further that the FLAG developed into a symbol of polarization that if you are one to show a flag in your yard you then must be RIGHT (and I've got one humungous flag to put in the yard), a hawk, a true patriot and all that BS militaristic rigamarole put on usually by loud mouthed bigots that never touched a gun. I think that it should be damned right enough for a libertarian or a lefty or a long haired pacifist theocratic anarchist (And who the hell stole my anarchy?) whatever to be free to wave the flag as well... or to own guns, or several guns, but what really irks me is the onslaught of patriotic showings of the flag by wanna-be patriots that actually, by the rules, are outright desecrations and showings of their ignorant disrespect... in particular all the flags that are getting the living crap beat out of them hanging off of car antennas or truck bumpers. It irks the hell out of me that the symbol of our freedom to piss off our neighbors is being so terribly disrespected. It is for identity problems like this why I get a hair cut every once in a while and shave every morning. On the other hand, if the flag looks good on a babe's butt I'm not going to complain. Then again, when I wear my Malcolm X hat in Brooklyn I got to be prepared for the action! Now there is a dude who stood for inclusion of the peoples and died for it (read his autobiography to the end). ][<en -- To terminate puerile preservation prattling among pals and the uncoffee-ed, or to change your settings, go to: <http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/bullamanka-pinheads.html>