American Flag Blog

Just when it looks like Al Gore could not be any less credible, he opens his mouth again and takes it down yet another notch. According to the Drudge Report today, Gore is now targeting cigarette smokers as contributors to global warming.

Gore was at the U.N. last night on a dual mission - to educate America’s enemies about the dangers of global warming and to sell them his latest book (special Diplomat Discount! Only $19.95!). Gore told the assembled thugs that people who smoke cigarettes are a “significant contributor to global warming.” This from the guy who has accepted money from the tobacco industry, who several times voted in Congress in favor of the tobacco industry, and who infamously said in a 1988 speech, “I want you to know that with my own hands, all of my life, I put [tobacco] in the plant beds and transferred it. I’ve hoed it, I’ve dug in it, I’ve sprayed it, I’ve chopped it, I’ve shredded it, spiked it, put it in the barn, and stripped it and sold it.”

Today, it’s the cigarette smokers. Tomorrow, given the fact that humans exhale carbon dioxide, that most feared greenhouse gas, the target of the global warming folks will be humans. Maybe Gore should chew on that awhile the next time he thinks about opening his big mouth to exhale.

If you are inclined to believe that the animal rights group, PETA, is a credible organization, this little tidbit should put a hasty end to that.

As part of Six Flags Great America’s autumn “FrightFest” promotion, the park is sponsoring a cockroach eating contest. Any guest willing to eat a 3″ long Madagascar hissing cockroach wins the right to go to the front of the waiting lines for rides. Seems like a reasonable reward for performing such a disgusting task.

But PETA sees it differently - they are calling the contest “gratuitously cruel.” It’s one thing to elicit sympathy for little four-legged mammals (they’re so cute!) or even birds and fish (some of them star in Disney movies), but were talking insects here. Huge multi-national corporations like SC Johnson (Raid), Scotts Miracle-Gro (Ortho), and Bayer have bet the farm on the general public’s permanent aversion to insects. Add to that, the fact that the cockroach tops the list of the most repulsive of insects, and PETA has a real non-starter on it’s pristine hands.

As anyone who lives in a region where the cockroach thrives can tell you, you never quite get used to them. And for many, eliminating as many roaches as possible from their immediate environs is like a part-time job.

My advice to the knuckleheads at PETA - stick with the animals.

British pop star George Michael, not content to stay at home and play with his make-up, is on tour for the first time in well over a decade and he’s using the opportunity to take the usual low, crude shot at our President.

As part of his show, a huge blow-up George Bush pops up over the stage holding a mug of beer in one hand and a cigar in the other. Then Michaels, after fumbling with George’s zipper, releases a blow-up bulldog with a United Kingdom flag on it’s back that appears to have the bite on the President’s pants. Of course, the crowd loves it because, well those are the kind of people that would pay to see George Michaels in the first place.

Michaels’ most notable acomplishments include:

• Member of the 80’s duo, Wham! (yes, the exclamation mark is part of the band’s name).
• A 1998 arrest in a Beverly Hills men’s room. He had exposed himself and was performing unusual parlor tricks for the benefit of an undercover cop.
• He was the victim of a sharp-eyed photographer this summer who spotted a disheveled Michaels strolling out from behind a bush with a Mr. Norman Kirtland. Kirtland was apparently not a regular receiver of Michael’s affections and was described as a “pot-bellied, 58-year-old, jobless van driver.”

As a credible critic of people in high places, Michaels’ credentials seem to be at least as good as most of the other misfits who are at the forefront of the leftist movement.

Little Clute, Texas, burst onto the national stage this week when Velasco Elementary principle, Sam Williams had hand-held Mexican flags distributed to the students and then requested that they stand while adult “volunteers” led them in the Pledge of Allegiance to the Mexican flag. Williams was genuinely taken aback by the sudden, and mostly angry, attention his little exercise in “diversity” generated.

The people who are out of touch with reality in this saga are not Williams and his NEA colleagues but the millions of Americans who become outraged by stories like this. The truth is that our schools have become a place where our children are indoctrinated by the teaching establishment with secularist, leftist anti-Americanism. These are not isolated instances but the norm, and not just in our high schools and colleges, but our grade schools as well. That’s why Williams was caught off-guard - he was just doing what they do in American schools.

Take for example, the case of Kentucky teacher Dan Holden. Just a few weeks ago, Holden burned American flags in two seperate classes for the supposed purpose of getting his students to think about freedom of speech. To Americans who love their country and respect their flag, burning the American flag is offensive and wrong. If Holden’s sole purpose was to get his students to think about free speech, why didn’t he show cartoon drawings of the Prophet Mohammed, or tell a Hillary Clinton joke (there’s quite a few good ones going around), or accuse the ACLU of being a communist organization. The reason is simple - those things are offensive to the left while burning the American flag is not.

A more absurd scene could hardly be imagined: Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez standing before the most complete collection of political thuggery in history, gleefully identifying the President of the United States as the Devil himself, and in mid-town Manhattan no less. And to top it off, he waves around a copy of “Hegemony or Survival: America’s Quest for Global Dominance” by the undisputed heavy-weight of the sniveling America-Hater set, MIT prof Noam Chomsky, as if to make the ridiculous point that Chomsky represents the true America.

Let’s revue. Hugo Chavez, after failing to take control of Venezuela in a 1992 coup, eventually ascends to power in a democratic election in 1998, largely possible because of the efforts of the United States to foster democracy in Latin America. He then steers his country sharply leftward, eventually sparking a protest march on the Presidential Palace by disaffected constituents. By this time Chavez, having had enough of this democracy stuff, orders his henchman to fire on the crowd and a bloodbath ensues.

The marchers mistakenly believed that with democracy came the freedom to peacefully protest, and for that mistake, many paid with their lives. The Venezuelan people got the message, but three days later, the Army removed Chavez from power and installed Pedro Carmona who promptly began dismantling the entire Venezuelan Government. After only 30 hours, the Army reinstated Chavez as El Presidente for reasons that are not entirely clear but most likely because they negotiated for a piece of Venezuela’s oil wealth.

Of course, Chavez got the last laugh as he methodically removed key military figures and replaced them with his own people. Since then Chavez has consolidated his power so that now, he is in complete control of the country’s oil wealth and is almost entirely unopposed by any political rival.

And so now here he is, in the country that enabled him to come to power, accusing President Bush of crimes that Chavez himself is guilty of, and he’s aided by the slugs of American society, the America-hating left led by Noam Chomsky. Only in America.

Conservative radio talk show host and author Dennis Prager, has completed a revealing two-part interview of Boston College poli-sci professor Howard Zinn. Zinn is probably best known for his “A People’s History of the United States,” a text which has been widely used for more than twenty years in colleges and high schools across the country.

Zinn is a Marxist and is admittedly not adverse to manipulating facts to support his very anti-American views. Sadly, “A People’s History” has helped create a generation of Americans who hate their own country and believe that America is a force for evil in the world.

Prager does an admirable job of exposing some of the fallacies in Zinn’s arguments and as a result, exposes the flaws in leftist thought in general, although in some instances, he doesn’t take it far enough. For example, Prager questions Zinn on whether the Korean War was a net benefit to the World. Zinn admits that the North Korean regime is “monstrous” but maintains that since “several million people” died in that struggle, it wasn’t worth it. He also admits that North Korea would now control the entire Korean Peninsula if the U.S. had not intervened.

Zinn thinks there is a way to oust the world’s tyrants from power without war and Prager correctly replies that “You believe that there would have been another way to get rid of the Korean communists — whom we both agree are monstrous — as opposed to the Korean War. . . . This is the naivete of the Left, that ugly things can be gotten rid of in sweet ways.” And then he fails to state the obvious, letting Zinn off the hook.

North Korea is under the fist of a regime so repressive that a satellite view of the Korean Peninsula at night shows South Korea lit up like Vegas and absolutely NO lights on in North Korea. It’s been more than 50 years since the Korean War and yet, with all the blathering from Zinn and other like-minded “intellectuals,” no one has come up with a way to oust Kim Jong Il. Zinn and his fellow travellers love to bite the hand that feeds them, basking in freedom and affluence while demonizing America. And of course, they never offer any real solutions.

On the bright side, the people of South Korea have thrived for those 50 plus years in freedom and capitalism, thanks to the sacrifice the United States made on their behalf.

A small cabal of City Councilmen in Bainbridge Island, Washington, recently tried to nix the Pledge of Allegiance from future City Council proceedings. The trouble was, they planned to put an end to the pledge away from public scrutiny by communicating via emails. City Councilman, Jim Llewellyn, who spearheaded the effort, said in one email, “Since this isn’t exactly official City business lets not get too hung up on the open meetings act with respect to this decision … just tell us how you feel,” Alas, they were caught.

Councilman Llewellyn, however, apparently underestimated the number of conservatives on Bainbridge Island, who showed up at a City Council Meeting in force. Llewellyn, who referred to Bainbridge Island as “…our little island, our little bastion of liberalism…” was forced, along with the rest of the Council, to stand up and recite the Pledge of Allegiance when an overflow crowd of island residents, including a lot of veterans, showed up in protest.

Fred Scheffler of American Legion Post 172 put it succinctly when he told the Council, “You (were elected) to do the business of Bainbridge Island, not inject your personal prejudices, not in the nether-regions of cyberspace.”

Scheffler’s allusion to “personal prejudices” refers to Llewellyn’s distaste for the American flag. In one email, Llewellyn said, “If George Bush needs to wrap himself in the flag I’m sure as hell not going to pledge allegiance to THAT flag.”

It’s hard to tell whether the wacked-out American left hates George Bush because he is a Christian or they hate Christians because Bush professes to be one or if the two hatreds are entirely unrelated. But in any case, it’s clear following the well-publicized remarks from Rosie O’Donnell that the leftist core of the Democrat Party is willing to carry the banner of Islam and join the Jihad against Christians and Jews.

O’Donnell, who was once billed, “The Queen of Nice,” is now as nasty as they come. In the familiar lecturing style of washed-up comedians who were never that funny to begin with (see: Al Franken), O’Donnell chose the venue of TV’s “The View” to set the rest of America straight about that terrorist cult known as Christianity, “Radical Christianity is just as threatening as radical Islam in a country like America where we have a separation of church and state! We’re a democracy here!”

The left is defending O’Donnell by pointing out that people who have identified themselves as Christians have bombed abortion clinics. Try to find a Christian in America who would not strongly condemn the violent acts of the handful of psychos who have bombed abortion clinics, yet Muslims around the world are lining up in support of the jihadists. The Bible commands to love thy neighbor while the Koran commands the murder of non-Muslims. Just turn on your TV to view the evidence.

And now the Pope has become the target of Muslim ire for suggesting, by way of an obscure reference, that Islam is not a religion of peace. And in response, Muslim leaders are repudiating the Pope’s comments, emphasizing that Islam truly is a religion of peace while followers riot in the streets calling for the Pope’s execution.

Warning today in the Washington Post, “…that Europe and the United States must unite to head off a ‘war of civilizations’ arising from a nuclear-armed Middle East,” Henry Kissinger only hints at the true danger facing western civilization.

Kissinger notes, “The debate sparked by the Iraq war over American rashness vs. European escapism is dwarfed by what the world now faces. Both sides of the Atlantic should put their best minds together on how to deal with the common danger of a wider war merging into a war of civilizations against the background of a nuclear-armed Middle East.”

The “wider war” to be fought “against the background of a nuclear-armed Middle East” is well under way, and much farther advanced in Europe than here. Many thought-leaders in Europe are now on board with the notion that if nothing happens to alter the course, Europe will be an Islamic theocracy before the end of the century. The war pitting western civilization against the barbarbarism of Islam is a war of attrition and we are giving ground rapidly.

Last January, we reported about a mosque in suburban Boonton, New Jersey, that made national news as a victim of an alleged “bias” crime. The mysterious perpetrators had nailed an American flag over the front door of the mosque, an act that caused Muslim leaders to fly into fits of consternation and hyperbole, calling for police to leave no stone unturned in their quest for retribution. Of course, the fact remains that if the victim of the flag nailing had been say, a Baptist Church, the event would have been completely ignored.

A few days ago, we received a belated comment on that particular post from Melissa, who is a resident of Boonton. Here’s what she said:

“I’ve lived in Boonton for 16 years and was home on Sept. 11, 2001. The mosque you’re referring to is only a few blocks from my house. There were no “celebrations” in the streets that day in Boonton. While the members do seem to keep a very low profile, the few inter-actions I have had have always been positive. While it would be nice to have better “neighborly” contact with the women of this Muslim community, residents of Boonton who are not Muslims, do have more contact through their children.

One important mention - on this day Sept 11, 2006, five years after 9/11, I do remember the numbness I felt when that first anniversary came up in 2002. On that day I happened to have found out that the mosque in Boonton had planned a service open to all interested. It was a little strange since I had never been in a mosque before and I felt a combination of nervousness, sadness, self-consciousness (”what would my neighbors think”), curiosity, civic duty and compassion. Finally, it came down to almost a deep felt need to go. And at the last minute I did.

There were a few non-members there and I felt bad that more Boontonites had not come. That evening there was a short sermon/prayer type service, then a little tour (which was interesting because as a woman I was sort of escorted by the women during this part) and finally we had a buffet dinner from a local pizzeria (pizza and subs). I never thanked them for that “out-reach”, but I will always remember that evening. They helped me get through that day. I hope that my presence helped them, because I am forever grateful to them for the great measure of healing that came to me that night.”

Thus Melissa, fresh off the turnip truck and eager to be neighborly, has demonstrated exactly how Muslims have been operating in Europe and now here in their efforts to bring about the Islamization the western world. Melissa has confused “outreach” with “indoctrination” and is now ripe for “conversion.”

It was predicted that a pro-illegal immigration rally in Washington, D.C. yesterday would draw a half million protestors, but instead attracted only a few thousand. Leftist activists who are behind the organization of these events have been left scratching their heads and making excuses.

A veritable explosion of rallies this past spring brought hundreds of thousands of illegals into the streets across America, drawing the ire of legal Americans with their flaunting of the Mexican flag and a belligerent attitude towards our laws. So why the disconnect between the open borders activists and the illegal Mexicans who would be the beneficiaries of their efforts?

The answer most likely is that after the initial public outrage over the Mexican flag displays, and the usual hollow posturing in Congress, illegals have discovered that nothing is going to happen to them and they won’t be going anywhere. As depicted by the Mexican at left, the illegals have openly disrespected our nation and our flag and have figured out that no one will lift a finger to stop them. America has been tested and has lost.