American Flag Blog

Could it be that the result of nationalized health care is that you can’t get any?

I think she was going about it all wrong anyway - she should have started with a government psychiatrist.

By TREVOR KAVANAGH
Sun Political Editor

TONY Blair yesterday faced a woman who pulled out SEVEN of her teeth after failing to find an NHS dentist.

Great-grandmother Valerie Halsworth, 64, removed them with her husband’s pliers.

She pulled out a seventh tooth over the weekend before meeting the PM in Coventry yesterday.

The cleaner, from Scarborough, North Yorks, has a gum disease that causes her teeth to loosen.

Mr Blair told her: “I can’t suddenly just produce more dentists. We have to train them. I can’t force them from the private sector into the NHS.”

Valerie said: “Mr Blair didn’t seem as though he had an answer.

“The ten teeth I have got left are OK. But in another month or two I’m going to need a dentist.

“It would be nice for somebody to take them out properly for me.”

She added: “The only way to get rid of the pain from my teeth was to pull out the infected ones.

“I had a few pints of lager then screwed up my face, put the pliers against the tooth and yanked. It’s lucky I like milk pudding and mashed potato.

“My husband can’t stand to watch. But he’s lucky — he had all his teeth pulled out 30 years ago and got a set of false teeth for about a fiver.”

The confrontation came on a live question and answer session with the PM on Sky TV.

Mrs Halsworth — who cannot afford private dentistry — said three foreign dentists in her home town all proved unsatisfactory.

Last March 3,000 people queued for a new NHS dentist in the town.

This seems to be a trend - Bill Gates, Ann Coulter and now Bill Kristol. Although I’m sure none of these good people enjoyed having a pie thrown at them - especially in front of a crowd - as a form of protest, it seems almost benign. Having grown up watching Soupy Sales and Johnny Carson, it’s hard to feel indignation over a pie in the face.

As  Americans, we have at our disposal any number of options for legal political protest. Throwing a pie crosses the line from legal non-violent protest to illegal violent protest, without the usual accompanying intimidation. In fact , it  carries with it  a message of endearment - you only throw a pie in the face of someone you really like. Go figure.

Earlham student hits pundit with pie

Associated Press - March 30, 2005

RICHMOND, Ind. — A pie in the face didn’t silence conservative pundit William Kristol during a speech at Earlham College.

A man who later was identified as a student at the private Quaker college jumped onto the stage and splattered Kristol with the pie Tuesday night about 30 minutes into a speech about U.S. foreign policy.

Members of the audience jeered the student as he walked off the stage, then applauded as Kristol wiped the goo off his face with a paper towel and said, "Just let me finish this point," the Palladium-Item reported.

The student was suspended and could face expulsion following a disciplinary review, Earlham Provost Len Clark said today.

The school, which did not release the student’s name, said Kristol was hit by an ice cream pie. Some of the pie also hit college President Doug Bennett, who was sitting on the stage.

Clark issued a written apology complimenting Kristol for his "graciousness."

Kristol, the editor of The Weekly Standard in Washington who was chief of staff to Vice President Dan Quayle, finished his speech after he was hit by the pie and then took questions from the audience before spending 30 minutes talking with students and others who gathered at the edge of the stage.

Earlham is a liberal arts college of about 1,200 students that is well-known for its peace studies program.

How could you possibly verify the authenticity of this flag? Maybe an eye-witness could be found, "Yup, I’d recognize it anywhere - 50 stars and 13 stripes - just like the one I saw."

Minnesota buyer balks, Pentagon flag back up for sale [Associated Press]

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - The Minnesotan who made the top bid for an American flag in an online auction has backed out of the sale and the flag was put back up for auction.

David Nicholson of Orange, Virginia, put the flag up for auction on eBay, saying it had been flying over a construction crane at the Pentagon during the September Eleventh terrorist attack. He said he was selling the flag to raise money for his kidney cancer treatment.

Twenty-six-year-old Todd Schimmel of Mound, Minnesota, won the auction yesterday with a bid of $371,300. But Schimmel backed out after it was questioned whether the flag was really flying during the terrorist attack.

Schimmel didn’t return phone calls from The Associated Press. A request for comment e-mailed to the eBay account of the high bidder brought a brief response: "Flag is a fake I’m not accepting."

Nicholson said he called Schimmel, and that Schimmel told him he did not want the flag and hung up on him.

Report: Pope may require feeding tube

Associated Press

VATICAN CITY — Pope John Paul II may have to return to the hospital to have a feeding tube inserted, an Italian news agency reported today. It stressed that no decision had been made.

The APcom news agency, citing an unidentified source, said the 84-year-old pope might have to have the tube inserted to improve his nutrition since he is having difficulty swallowing with the breathing tube that was inserted Feb. 24.

APcom said the idea of inserting a feeding tube was a hypothesis that was being considered. The procedure involves inserting a tube into the stomach to allow for artificial feeding.

Somehow, it’s hard to imagine American fans behaving this way. Can you imagine a group of guys from, say, Chicago shouting, "Sam Houston, Sam Houston" - well maybe - but it just wouldn’t have the same impact.

Will Weissert / Associated Press (excerpts)

MEXICO CITY (AP) - Mexico topped the United States 2-1 and the CONCACAF World Cup qualifying group on Sunday, and upheld its 71-year unbeaten record at home against the Americans.

Prolific striker Jared Borgetti and Antonio Naelson scored four minutes apart in the first half, and the United States could only reply through Eddie Lewis in the 59th, the first U.S. goal in Mexico since 1984.

Mexico made up for the Americans’ superior size by outhustling the visitors on both sides of the ball, said Mexico coach Ricardo Lavolpe.

"We were always taking the initiative," said Lavolpe, who received a congratulatory call from President Vicente Fox. "For 90 minutes there was only one team on the field."

The crowd booed the U.S. national anthem and a spattering of fans chanted "Osama! Osama!" before play started, and shortly after Lewis’ goal.

The deafening and rabidly nationalistic celebrations in 100,000-seat Azteca Stadium, at near capacity, didn’t stop when Lavolpe was expelled for arguing in the 41st minute. He received a standing ovation from many while being escorted off the field.

About 100 people gathered for a peaceful celebration near Mexico City’s Angel of Independence monument following the game. A few tried to burn a small American flag but ended up trampling on it.

A recent poll conducted for Washington College by the public affairs research firm of Schulman, Ronca & Bucuvalas, Inc. found that of 800 American adults surveyed, less than half even had an inkling that George Washington was the General who led the rag-tag Continental Army to victory over the British in the American Revolution.

The following is a story from the Associated Press. Do you suppose that these perps had a clue whose grave they were desecrating? Not a chance.

March 21, 2005

TROY, N.Y. — Vandals who struck a cemetery last week targeted the grave site of Uncle Sam, police said.

Five monuments at Oakwood Cemetery were overturned, two urns smashed and a flag pole knocked down between Thursday night and Friday morning. The flagpole and one of the urns adorned the grave of Samuel Wilson, a 19th century businessman who helped give the federal government the nickname "Uncle Sam."

A flag was also burned at the cemetery.

"For these vandals to trash the grave site of such an internationally important symbol of America is unthinkable," said Oakwood Cemetery Board of Trustees President Terry Page.

Wilson (1766-1854) was a prominent upstate New York businessman who supplied beef to American troops during the War of 1812. His crates were stamped with the letters "U.S." and soldiers joked the letters stood for Uncle Sam - a name they eventually hung on the government.

Political cartoonist Thomas Nast later created the lanky, bearded Uncle Sam who would adorn recruiting posters and come to symbolize the United States.

Police in Troy, across the Hudson River from Albany, said the vandals could be charged with felonies including desecration of a cemetery and second-degree criminal mischief.

Officials are offering a reward of $1,500 for information about who damaged the cemetery.

If you think folks get upset over flag burning in this country, check out this story the BBC News ran on Thursday:

Flag-Waving Frenzy Grips Turkey
By Jonny Dymond - BBC News, Istanbul

The country has come together to condemn the flag burners. Turkey is in the grip of something close to a flag frenzy - with demonstrations across the country to show support for the Turkish flag.

Trade unions have been handing out flags, and municipalities have been organising flag displays.

The move follows an attempt to burn a Turkish flag in the south-eastern city of Mersin, during the festival of Newroz earlier this week.

The white crescent and star on a deep red background is a very common sight.

Outside petrol stations, in banks, on local government offices, hanging from residential buildings, the flag of the republic is often seen fluttering.

But this week’s fervour is different. It springs from an attempt by two young men to burn the Turkish flag during the festival of Newroz - a time when Kurdish nationalist passions rise.

As news of the attempt spread, so did the outrage. Nudged by the state broadcasting authority, all the country’s television channels are broadcasting with a small Turkish flag in the corner of the screen.

Tens of thousands have attended demonstrations. In the city of Isparta, an effigy of the Kurdish paramilitary leader, Abdullah Ocalan, was burned.

There has always been sensitivity about the flag in Turkey, but there is a new mood in the air. There’s been a resurgence in nationalism in the last few months; the passion being shown in public over the flag is one more example of it.