{"id":122,"date":"2005-02-02T17:15:56","date_gmt":"2005-02-02T23:15:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hyperthinking.us\/weblog\/?p=122"},"modified":"2005-02-02T17:45:19","modified_gmt":"2005-02-02T23:45:19","slug":"the-50-star-flag","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hyperthinking.us\/weblog\/2005\/02\/02\/the-50-star-flag\/","title":{"rendered":"The 50-Star Flag"},"content":{"rendered":"

Monday, January 31 2005<\/b>
\nGenocide\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s worth a little disrespect<\/a>
\nBret McAtee @ 10:15 pm<\/p>\n

The first thing you have to envision is a mid size gymnasium in a Christian School. At one end of the Basketball court, about 20 feet high, tacked or stapled to a white stucco background, is a normally sized Christian flag. One really has to squint in order to see it since the white Christian flag blends into obscurity against the white stucco background. At the other end of the Basketball court is a huge American flag that looks like it is trying to make it into the Guinness book of World records as the most tacky American flag ever put in a gymnasium. Technically, it is not a flag, but something that looks like it was made out of a giant Lincoln Logs kit, replete with a do it yourself red, white, and blue spray painting manual. I kid you not \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 you could put 6 Christian flags inside the parameters of this American \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Flag.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d A blind man doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have to squint to see this thing.<\/p>\n

Next comes the music. I think they used a phonograph with a vinyl record. At least the recording of the Star Spangled Banner sounded like something that was pressed when Kate Smith was still trim and in her prime. Around me stood a couple hundred earnest God fearing Christians singing at the top of their sanctified voices, and there was my son and I, definitively not standing, trying to ignore the fact that we weren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t being ignored.<\/p>\n

I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m sorry. I just don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get it. Really, it is not like that I haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t tried to get it. Here we are as a nation killing 4000 unborn babies a day and Evangelical Christians want to get all choked up while singing the National Anthem? Here we are trying to make Iraq safe enough so they too can start safely killing babies in their freshly minted Democracy and people want to cast a quick glance at the seated forms of my son and I and whisper \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Psst, Hey Martha, check out that cranky Reformed Pastor. He and his son aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t standing again for the National Anthem.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Well, excuse me if I get in the way of your warm patriotic fuzzies. There they were pounding out at the top of their lungs \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The land of the free and the home of the Brave,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and nobody could see the irony and hypocrisy in that?<\/p>\n

Look, we have no more business honoring this flag and the country for which it stand or singing its Anthem than German Christians had saluting the Nazi Flag and shouting \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcSieg Heil\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 as it passed by. To those who believe that we should snap to attention every time the flag gets unfurled I want to have a couple questions answered. At what point in a holocaust does one decide things have gotten so out of control that one can no longer be a proud American? How many bodies must be offered up to Molech until lines about \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcland of the free and home of the brave\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 begin to curdle in your vocal chords?<\/p>\n

Yes, yes \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 I know \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 I have been told a thousand times. Thinking that way isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t nice and actually making those views known to people hurts their feelings. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Besides Pastor”, (so the routine goes) \u00e2\u20ac\u0153what kind of witness are you if you sit down while the National Anthem is being played or while the colors are being posted?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

More Irony.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

We stopped putting our flag out some years ago. I used to love to put it out. I guess it was in 2001 that it all hit the fan for us. It was a growing thought for various reasons the few years before that, which only exploded into absolute dislike of the symbolism when 9-11 happened.<\/p>\n

So all the things that Bret mentioned in the above article I can understand and totally agree with as well.<\/p>\n

I held a dear affection for the flag, but not for the Empire Strikes Back flag, the older flag, when it had less stars, when “secession” was considered a fine plank to be in any states “constitution”. When the country called These United States was a union of separate states united for reasons that most cannot even fathom today. I somehow had Old Glory shining in my eyes and that clouded my vision of the flag of my lifetime.<\/p>\n

My vision was restored and I saw the ugly flag, and hide it in our hall closet now. I want to throw it away, but since I taught myself proper flag ettiquette so many years ago, I am loathe to destroy it, though I deeply want to.<\/p>\n

I need no flag, but an older flag (reproduction of one) I WOULD fly, if I had one. I’m picky and refuse to consider a NYLON flag though, so I have no flag, with reproductions in fine fabrics being quite pricey. It’s just a flag. It would be a rebel symbol without being considered “racist” by most \ud83d\ude09 But symbols are not to be worshipped, it would only be a symbol of holding to retro-1800 views of sort. It wouldn’t be a fad, as so many are flying one since 9-11. It wouldn’t be a patriotic-nationalistic-pride thing flying a flag. It would be me standing tall and not being ashamed to say what I think.<\/p>\n

But I can do that WITHOUT a flag. A do so gladly. <\/p>\n

The military is one thing, bad enough. But abortion, it’s the killing of the innocent. The life that God gives is plucked from womens wombs by men and women who call themselves “doctors”. What is the first oath they take? Hmmmm. Maybe they just don’t do that anymore, or they just consider themselves above it.<\/p>\n

This country has so much blood on it’s hands, so-called wars, and abortion, the killing of our young, the unborn, and the young men and women in the military.<\/p>\n

Men and women are responsible for the murders of the unborn. Not just doctors, not just women, but regular men and women together conspire, and some are pregnant, some provided the seed, some are doctors. They all consent to kill together, sometimes with or without the consent of any of the mentioned parties. It’s just SO ACCEPTED today. It’s horrific.<\/p>\n

You folks that grew up in this country after Roe vs. Wade was put into play may or may not understand the severity of it. It’s always been this way, you may think. No, in my lifetime it happened, I was small but have known about it, the before and after. So many things have culminated in my lifetime. The last century has been feather in Lincoln’s cap. \ud83d\ude41<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Monday, January 31 2005 Genocide\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s worth a little disrespect Bret McAtee @ 10:15 pm The first thing you have to envision is a mid size gymnasium in a Christian School. At one end of the Basketball court, about 20 feet high, tacked or stapled to a white stucco background, is a normally sized Christian […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[],"tags":[4,10],"class_list":["post-122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-christianity","tag-politics"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":8018,"url":"https:\/\/hyperthinking.us\/weblog\/2025\/05\/29\/kill-that-white-flash-in-chrome\/","url_meta":{"origin":122,"position":0},"title":"Kill that White Flash in Chrome","author":"Maisy","date":"Thursday, May 29, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Chrome white flash is horrible. Every so often I look to see if anyone figured out how to drop it to it's knees. Finally... --enable-features=RemoveRedirectionBitmap Adding that flag to your shortcut, holy crap, my windows machine now shows a red-brown screen instead. Really it should show the Windows ACCENT COLOR\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Computers"","block_context":{"text":"Computers","link":"https:\/\/hyperthinking.us\/weblog\/category\/computers\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":142,"url":"https:\/\/hyperthinking.us\/weblog\/2005\/02\/23\/natural-born-american\/","url_meta":{"origin":122,"position":1},"title":"“Natural Born American”","author":"Maisy","date":"Wednesday, February 23, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Fox News Channel was on this morning, TV, and I heard them talking about the \"plot to assassinate Bush\". A photo of the guy was on the screen. Judge N. said something about the guy being a real American, as American as the next American (he really said \"natural born\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Christianity\"","block_context":{"text":"Christianity","link":"https:\/\/hyperthinking.us\/weblog\/tag\/christianity\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1365,"url":"https:\/\/hyperthinking.us\/weblog\/2011\/07\/12\/new-design-look\/","url_meta":{"origin":122,"position":2},"title":"New look","author":"Maisy","date":"Tuesday, July 12, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"I was trying to get a new look going with my blog here, and not liking anything ... It's near impossible to get the thing I was going for working, so I scaled back and thought and now I like it OK. No photo at the top. No grunge paper\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Computers"","block_context":{"text":"Computers","link":"https:\/\/hyperthinking.us\/weblog\/category\/computers\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":27,"url":"https:\/\/hyperthinking.us\/weblog\/2002\/08\/15\/christian-liberty\/","url_meta":{"origin":122,"position":3},"title":"Christian Liberty","author":"Maisy","date":"Thursday, August 15, 2002","format":false,"excerpt":"Well, drinking alcohol* is a matter of Christian Liberty. My last post talked about drinking a Hot Toddy. I said I might have one that evening. Did I though? No. It sounded good, but I didn't need one. I decided not to have one. Which is my perogative. It would\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/hyperthinking.us\/weblog\/category\/general\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1080,"url":"https:\/\/hyperthinking.us\/weblog\/2010\/08\/16\/ckc-charlotte-review\/","url_meta":{"origin":122,"position":4},"title":"CKC-Charlotte Review","author":"Maisy","date":"Monday, August 16, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"CKC-Charlotte is over. It was good, but something I'm not sure about repeating exactly. All About Me mini-album by The Paper Loft I found the first class OK, wasn't crowded. Daughter and I each had empty spots on the side, with us sitting next to each other. It was warm\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Scrapbooking"","block_context":{"text":"Scrapbooking","link":"https:\/\/hyperthinking.us\/weblog\/category\/scrapbooking\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":83,"url":"https:\/\/hyperthinking.us\/weblog\/2003\/08\/15\/the-four-feathers\/","url_meta":{"origin":122,"position":5},"title":"The Four Feathers","author":"Maisy","date":"Friday, August 15, 2003","format":false,"excerpt":"We watched this movie, The Four Feathers, at home this past week. I really enjoyed it. It's not for the fainthearted. If you don't like any kind of war movie, this isn't for you. It takes you into the Sudan -- 1875. There is a \"sex\" scene, more a sensual\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Movies"","block_context":{"text":"Movies","link":"https:\/\/hyperthinking.us\/weblog\/category\/movies\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hyperthinking.us\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hyperthinking.us\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hyperthinking.us\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hyperthinking.us\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hyperthinking.us\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hyperthinking.us\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hyperthinking.us\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hyperthinking.us\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hyperthinking.us\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}