Respect what I respect!

Might be important to note here that "disrespecting the flag" would ordinarily involve doing something to it. Burning it. Wiping one's bottom with it. Standing on it. Spitting on it.

That's "disrespecting the flag".

On the other hand, there's failing to stand for it. Failing to salute it. These are not actions, but a person simply refraining from an action. It is "failing to give the flag respect" not actively "disrespecting the flag".

Think of it like Islamic Mosques. There's probably one in your town. You've never gone over and disrespected it by vandalizing it but you've never gone and kissed it or prayed in it either.

So you've not "disrespected the mosque" but you have "failed to respect the Mosque".

Care to know the difference between a Jihadi and an American Patriot?

Jihadists do not typically care that you "failed to respect a Mosque" they wait till you do something disrespectful to it before getting angry.

American Patriots? Apparently nowadays "failing to respect the flag" is an anger worthy offense. In need of name calling and punishment.

Pictured: Respect what he respects the way he respects it, or you are disrespectful!

An Easy Question

Clive Bundy using guns to take over Federal property is an acceptable form of protest in conservative world.

But an unarmed black man kneeling is just waaayyyy out of line.

At least we ain't disrespectin' the sanctity of the football field.

I'm glad to hear that it's not about race - but I'm suspecting why some might see that kind of difference in reaction and suspect that it is.

I would enjoy hearing one day what kind of protest is acceptable

to conservatives. I know that if it's a protest for a conservative cause, then it's "all the usual".

But what is the acceptable form of protest if a black were to think that we need to have a national discussion on police brutality?

No, no, I'm not asking what they should NOT do in their protests, heaven knows we've heard plenty about the inappropriateness in them being in parks like the Tea Party or on streets like Martin Luther King did or in public in general like any other protest either.

And the inappropriateness of them waving their arms or waving signs or yelling loud or swearing or chanting. We know no traffic is to be blocked, like the patriots did in the Boston Massacre, or violence used, like in the Boston Tea Party.

We know it should not disrespect the flag, the nation, the military, the veterans, the police, the President, or the government in general. It should not disrespect anything that any conservative respects.

It should not be while at work or on the clock or if too much money is earned or if their salary is too high or if it's a game or just a private event in general.

I mean, great, we're all good now on the "don'ts".

Just need to know now how and where they can. Any suggestions would be appreciated. If they'd not be laughably ineffective or fall far short as to what whites get to do, that'd be even better.

But come on. It's not about race, right? So this should be an easy question.

Quit it.

Every time the blacks protest - by marching in a street or standing on the corner or sitting in the park or kneeling at a ball game - I hear the same thing.

"They need to protest differently!" is what all the comments boil down to.  The complaints are that they are blocking traffic, or that they are too rough in having their faces dent the riot batons of police, or they are interfering with those who wanted to get to work in 12 minutes instead of 17, or when they avoid all that and instead just kneel, that they are disrespecting the flag and our veterans.

This last makes me say, "Quit it".

First off, let me re-iterate the absurdity of claiming that your problem with black protestors is their "method" of protesting.  I've yet to hear of any method of a black person protesting that doesn't have some conservative - non-racist, of course - telling me why that way of protesting is bad.

Apparently, to protest appropriately, a black person needs to remain at home, preferably under his bed, duct tape over his mouth, quietly thinking - well, thinking good thoughts, that in no way would disrespect anything.

Second off, I'm tired of this whole, "We stand because of this" thing, where they then drag in a photo of a dead veteran.  Really?  Really?

So the flag of any nation must always be stood for?  Never protested?  Nazi flag, Soviet flag, North Korean flag?  There is never any freedom for any in those nations to refuse to honor those flags, because to do so would dishonor the soldiers who fought under those flags?

But let us leave aside the flag for the moment - which is but a piece of cloth, and cannot be "disrespected" - and focus on the soldiers.

Can we examine - without laughing - the absurdity of claiming that soldiers who in theory fought for freedom are somehow upset with blacks exercising freedom?  Can we also examine the absurdity - and disrespect - of millions of non-veteran sports watchers claiming to take offense on behalf of the soldiers dead and alive?

I have two words for all non-veterans who attempt to silence black people out of "respect" for me:

Quit it.

I didn't serve so you could sit through the National Anthem at home while complaining about a black guy not standing.  I didn't serve so you could tell me what I served for.  I didn't serve for the "freedom" to shut up and never offend you.  I didn't serve so that black people could be killed by the police and the rest of us make excuses.

And I didn't serve so you could go on and on about your great love of a flag you never bothered to fight for, or even offer to fight for.  Don't tell me what you'd do in a "Red Dawn" situation, I can clearly see what each of you non-veterans did when you were 18 and had every chance to show that fire, that fierceness and that fondness of the flag.

Jack crap.

And as for my fellow veterans - well, I know you know better.  There was never a platoon or squad yet that ever was unified in political views, nor was it even about that.  We served - and some fought - so that we could all be as wrong and as dumb as we cared to be back home.

So if you care to - I'd be the last to insist - why not lay off those guys who kneel?  I personally think that we all served and fought to defend corporate interests and make rich bastards richer, but if you truly came away from your term of enlistment thinking that it was all for freedom, then here's a novel idea - let those guys have their freedom to kneel.

You'll find that your body, your mind and your soul are made of sterner stuff, and they kneeling will do no lasting damage to you.

Finally, quit pretending - veterans and non-veterans - that this is over some employment contract or how they are "on the clock".  There's not a one of you that doesn't spout off your dumb political opinions - and everyone else's opinions on politics are always dumb - every break, every lunch, and oft times every hour.

If you can stand at a water cooler and blather about why Hillary sucks - and yes, we all know she does - then some guy pre-game can kneel during a song.

Police are killing minorities in disproportionate numbers.  Your kids are going to remember you being upset by that - or being upset at how a black person displays grief over that.

Leave me out of it either way.

Since you ask...

As a veteran, I think the usual line is that we were fighting for freedom. And to uphold the Constitution. I'm not as sure of that at 48 as I was at 18, but let's go with that.

Apparently the President, and some of my friends, are now imagining that what I was really serving for was to make sure that our nation was safe for conformity, and to make sure that sportsmen would be forced to stand and honor the flag against their will.

Um, no. That wasn't what I was serving for. Sorry for the confusion. I was serving because I honestly believed back then that we had freedom, and that it was worth preserving.

"Freedom" meaning that it was okay for people to think or worship or vote or speak or sit or stand differently than I or others.

Let us pause and consider something - how often do we hear criticism of BLM or Antifa for their "violent" protests? And justly so, if and when they are violent, as violence is not a freedom.

But here are some few ball players simply kneeling in peace. Is our democracy too fragile to withstand that? If it is, then golly, we've already lost and have no further use for that flag anyway. Call up Rocketman, we give up.

I also would sharply question - as a veteran - how many complaining actually stand at attention in their living room giving the civilian salute to the flag during that anthem. We used to do that.

I doubt most complaining on facebook do that any more, if they've ever done it a day in their lives.

Let's also remember the story in the Book of Daniel, where King Nebuchadnezzar tried to force everyone to give honor and respect to the image he erected. That - like a flag - was a symbol not of God, but of the Nation-State.

Daniel and his friends were correct to resist being forced to acknowledge State authority then, and Colin and his friends are correct to resist being forced to acknowledge State authority now.

It doesn't matter if you agree with them - heck, I'm not even saying whether I agree with them. But it is their right.

Egyptian DACA

Conservatives tend to forget that Joseph broke the law in disobeying King Herod and fleeing to another nation without asking permission. True, he had a great reason. But I suspect those fleeing narco-terrorism did too.

General Idiocy

I could speak on the Constitutionality - or lack thereof - that is inherent in a Sheriff checking IDs before a person can enter a storm shelter.

But instead I'll point out that Tinhorn McUnchristian here has - like so many others in America's militarized police army - awarded himself four, count them, four stars.

It only actually takes one star to be called "General", but this "man among men" has theoretically so distinguished himself down there in Dogpatch County as to have managed the second star, then for yet more brave deeds, the third, and then for who knows how many valorous acts later, the fourth.

Ahh, if only I could sit with him a spell, perhaps rocking on a porch with some lemonade, and here tell his tales of the Invasion of the Drunk Drivers or the Night of the Living Wife-Beaters. Maybe if he was of a mind, he could show me some of his battle scars from that time Jimmy McBumpkin didn't want to pay his traffic citation.

I will pray that he has not acquired PTSD in his long climb up the ladder of rank.

Uh huh.

What's even more impressively idiotic about this is when it's remembered that it used to be that to be just a Colonel - a rank below that of a one star Brigadier General - you used to have to be sufficiently well off to equip and provision 500 men.

I am some how sensing that his deputy/soldiers are not paid for out of his own pocket. And that he is not serving for love of God and Country.

In any case, the fourth amendment has been suspended down there now, so if you've a ton of parking tickets, but fear flooded out jails where the guards will abandon you to seek safety, then you'd best just brace yourself.

Apparently it's the death penalty for such offenses now.

Cop Stations

You know, it's all well and good for some to defend cops every time, no matter what. After all, I know others who are going to figure the cop is wrong, every time, no matter what.

Yet at the end of the day, you still get all these stories like a kid being tazed off of his ATV and killed or a nurse being arrested for doing her job, or a woman being shot because a cop in a car was afraid, or a black kid - too many to list - "fit the description" and so had to die in fuzzy circumstances.

Shouldn't the side of reason want some reasonable corrections made, if nothing else so as to stop costing property tax payers so much in a paying off these lawsuits? Oh, and to save a life or thousand? Per year?

Probably the most reasonable solution I've yet heard would be to have cops sitting at a cop station like firemen sit at a fire station. And they only respond when called.

After all, 98% of the crap you hear starts with "he had a tail light out" and ends with "and so I had to shoot him".

So lets end this practice of they unconstitutionally roaming about looking for trouble, and thus inevitably making it where they cannot find it.

What would that do for traffic regulation compliance? Well, I think it would be okay. We have no shortage of cameras, so just up the penalties for wreckless driving, and if any are in an accident, the tape is reviewed, and the person who broke a regulation gets hit triple what he'd be hit with now.

That and he'd be civilly liable to the other driver.

I really think that is enough.