Someone sent me an e-mail regarding "Obama's plan to change the national anthem." Reading it took a minute. Realizing it was either a lie or a joke took about 10 seconds. Proving it was both took about 1 minute. The e-mail:
Hot on the heels of his explanation for why he no longer wears a flag pin, presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama was forced to explain why he doesn’t follow protocol when the National Anthem is played.
According to the United States Code, Title 36, Chapter 10, Sec. 171, During rendition of the national anthem when the flag is displayed, all present except those in uniform are expected to stand at attention facing the flag with the right hand over the heart.
“As I’ve said about the flag pin, I don’t want to be perceived as taking sides,” Obama said. “There are a lot of people in the world to whom the American flag is a symbol of oppression. And the anthem itself conveys a war-like message. You know, the bombs bursting in air and all. It should be swapped for something less parochial and less bellicose. I like the song ‘I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing.’ If that were our anthem, then I might salute it.”
It is very obvious that the article is a spoof. All it take is a moment's worth of reading the articles. Or you could just look at the column's name: JOHN SEMMENS: Semi-News -- A Satirical Look at Recent News
But some would rather swallow a lie than supports their beliefs than spend a moment to look for the truth. -------- Note: This is the second time I received this e-mail. I thought I posted about it before, but I didn't see it on a very quick look. If I missed seeing it, and am posting about it again, I apologize.
Posts: 17278 | Location: Lincoln Place, Granite City, IL, USA | Registered: 06-03-02
I would support changing the national anthem. I believe it should be "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" because the last two words of our current national anthem would sound much more natural on the end of that song.
(For those of you who don't know, the last 2 words of "The Star Spangled Banner" are "Play ball!" They're the only 2 words the whole crowd is ever certain of.)
Posts: 1196 | Location: A danger to this country and the free world | Registered: 03-18-04
<--- raising hand, "Guilty. I took the bait on this one."
That surprise me because I am always checking rogue e-mails for my mom and should have immediately recognized this one. Of all people, gat straightened me out.
And Raku, "Play ball" are the only words in the National Anthem I shout on key.
Posts: 7920 | Location: in the backwoods of North Carolina | Registered: 06-07-02
Actually, I would much prefer "America the Beautiful" as our national anthem. It speaks more to our country and what it offers us. Hearing Ray Charles sing it still brings tears to my eyes.
It's my impression that people today take everything literally, which neutralizes satire. Swift, Ambrose Bierce, Mark Twain, Will Rogers, and others were great satirists. I wonder if the bulk of readers today are even capable of appreciating them.
Posts: 7646 | Location: On Vacation | Registered: 06-06-02
Originally posted by aminator2002: It should really be changed to "I'd like to buy the world a coke."
That would more accurately portray our great nation.
Instead of the traditional: I'd like to get the world to buy a coke from us and swallow both it and American ideology ? (Pity that the world doesn't see the need for the latter, a fact which appears to have eluded the Administration)
Originally posted by frankvan: There's such a thing as the American ideology ? . And the current administration represents it to the world ?? God forbid!
Yes, but I suppose that's how much of the world, Britain included, thinks. We've had some difficulty understanding the actions and pronouncements of the present Administration, but tend to assume that, incomprehensible or not, they must represent some ideology.
In broader terms, we have difficulty with the concepts of 'being unAmerican' and of 'patriotism' of which some Americans speak. We only know of treason.We can't translate unAmerican by unBritish or unFrench or unEuropean, words which don't exist in our vocabulary or thinking.
It may be unAmerican to think that any other people, any other culture or any other country is different from America, may not want what Americans want or may not think as they do.It may be unpatriotic not to wear a metal pin with a flag on it.If so, quite a number of Americans must be both truly American and patriotic. How well that, in the long run, serves the interests of America or Americans is , at best, debatable.
Hey! Cut us a little slack, Fred. It takes a little more than 232 years to get us thoroughly homogenized. A few of us have the same opinion of us as you do. Have some patience and watch what we do with the next administration.
Fred, we even had within Congress a House Un-American ACtivities Committee. Of course, the Committee was denounced by then retired President Harry Truman as being - you guessed it - un-American!
Posts: 7920 | Location: in the backwoods of North Carolina | Registered: 06-07-02
I've been trying to think what the British could have as unBritish activity.So far the only one I can think of is 'queue jumping'[queue=line] which is the aggravated offence, what you'd term 'a felony', to the 'misdemeanour' of 'not looking to see if there is a queue'. The former is punishable with loud tutting and mutterings under the breath. If the offender persists the punishment is someone saying 'I'm sorry [we always apologise to the offender, and , indeed, whenever we can,to anybody we meet, offence or no] but there's a queue'. The lesser offence is punished by quiet, almost inaudible tutting and silent looks.
Behaviour of this kind is associated with foreigners , which is why it's unBritish.
It's also easy for an outsider to commit this unBritish activity unwittingly. That's because we have invisible queues.There is no visible queue in a pub or at a bar but there is an order in which we expect to be served and everyone knows what it is.The bar staff know, or should,but if they get it wrong they are soon corrected by the person who is approached, who, of course, knows the order, not by the customer who should have been. The person wrongly approached says to the barman 'I'm sorry,I think this/that gentlemen/ lady/ is first' and order is restored, the barman apologises to everyone and the correct person says 'Thank you',or, if the wrong choice was next but one, 'No, I'm sorry [note] that's all right , you go first' (You may guess the rest. If the pub is quiet this may to-and-fro once more)
Otherwise the only matters remotely close are what an older, middle class, generation termed 'not cricket' and what the working class still calls 'being out of order' (and its aggravated offence: 'being well out of order).'Order' here is not as in 'order for serving' by the way. These are indefinable for outsiders but we all know what they are when they occur
A Parliamentary UnBritish Activities Commission would be stuck for proper cases (except against foreigners and those of foreign origin, not yet integrated) Come to think of it, that's a bit like the unAmerican Activities Commission
Spices, sauces, funny comedies, actual weather changes besides rain and no rain, baseball (instead of that funny game played by guys in ice cream uniforms)
"And what's more, we have a variety of different last names."
She's got you there, Fuse.
Posts: 17278 | Location: Lincoln Place, Granite City, IL, USA | Registered: 06-03-02
(Pity that the world doesn't see the need for the latter, a fact which appears to have eluded the Administration)
