Rep. Todd Akin is under fire for claiming that saying the Pledge of Allegiance “drives liberals crazy.” However, the Missouri congressman seems to stumble on the words when he leads a group of teabaggers in Washington.
Red Skelton did it a bit better:
Of course, Democrats do not help themselves by sitting through the pledge as a protest to the Republicans taking over one of their legislative houses:
Of course, there appear to many conservatives in places like Texas who hate both the pledge and the nation that it represents:
What did he say “me specticals, me testicals, your wallet” in his mindless mantra?
As a Missouri resident and an observer of wingnuttery in all of its glory nothing sums up, for me, the movement, yesterday’s crowd or Akin’s pandering better than that old nugget of poli-sci commentary from Randy Newman, “Rednecks”:
“Last night I saw Lester Maddox on a TV show
With some smart ass New York Jew
And the Jew laughed at Lester Maddox
And the audience laughed at Lester Maddox too
Well he may be a fool but he’s our fool
If they think they’re better than him they’re wrong
So I went to the park and I took some paper along
And that’s where I made this song
We talk real funny down here
We drink too much and we laugh too loud
We’re too dumb to make it in no Northern town
And we’re keepin’ the niggers down
We got no-necked oilmen from Texas
And good ol’ boys from Tennessee
And colleges men from LSU
Went in dumb. Come out dumb too
Hustlin’ ’round Atlanta in their alligator shoes
Gettin’ drunk every weekend at the barbecues
And they’re keepin’ the niggers down
CHORUS
We’re rednecks, rednecks
And we don’t know our ass from a hole in the ground
We’re rednecks, we’re rednecks
And we’re keeping the niggers down
Now your northern nigger’s a Negro
You see he’s got his dignity
Down here we’re too ignorant to realize
That the North has set the nigger free
Yes he’s free to be put in a cage
In Harlem in New York City
And he’s free to be put in a cage on the South-Side of Chicago
And the West-Side
And he’s free to be put in a cage in Hough in Cleveland
And he’s free to be put in a cage in East St. Louis
And he’s free to be put in a cage in Fillmore in San Francisco
And he’s free to be put in a cage in Roxbury in Boston
They’re gatherin’ ‘em up from miles around
Keepin’ the niggers down
CHORUS”
Just substitute Todd Akin’s name for Lester Maddox (Or Bachman’s et al) and you’ve got a pretty good idea of the current face of an old plague IMO. I watched a lot of the coverage of the crowd and I was struck again by what a stunningly white crowd it was, as are most of the teabag protest crowds.
See what happens when you put more than 2 words together. My, my. I guess it really is sage advice to remember this: Better to keep your mouth shut and be thought a fool rather than open it and remove all doubt. Bush was the master. Not much hast Cheneied.
Tower of Babel and speaking in tongues comes to mind. Sooner or later one of them is going to trot out with a hand full of snake’s and there no longer will be any doubt.
Driven crazy with laughter perhaps.
Listen up, screwheads. A flag is a piece of cloth. You might as well be swearing allegiance to a dress or a dish towel. No one, I repeat – NO ONE, has ever died for a flag. They’ve died for the ideals a flag may represent like FREEDOM (which by the way includes the freedom to not be a Christian or even burn the flag), but no one has ever died for a flag. Second, allegiance is just like respect. It’s EARNED. Thankfully not all of us are so easily programmed as children. Finally, if you neocon dipsticks want to really drive liberals crazy? Read a book that wasn’t written by Limbaugh or Beck or Pastor Polyester Suit, preferably science and/or history. You clowns getting educated would really make us crazy. Why? Because when you were done pulling your head out of your personal dark stinky place, you’d be liberals too. HAHAHAHAHAHA!
Have a nice day.
Me thinks the Buddha has allegiance confused with respect.
Allegiance is something you OWE to the country of which you are a subject or citizen.
“You clowns getting educated would really make us crazy”. =IRONY
No, imposter. You mistake what one actually owes as a matter of basic principle and the social compact. If my government is not delivering the goods, I owe them nothing. Ergo, that allegiance is earned by government’s good performance. “Governments (derive) their just powers from the consent of the governed” That’d be Thomas Jefferson, sport.
your nick = IRONY
buddha,
I may be the one who is confused.
Where did you find your definition of “allegiance”?
Everything I read tells me that allegiance is something owed, in exchange for protection.
Allegiance is something owed from birth. Therefore, natural allegiance is not something earned.
I am not familiar with your customs. Is “sport” used like “over” is in radio communications?
sport
George Bush was the bestest president EVER. OMG–this stuff really works! Thank God he flubbed it or the damage might have been permanent!
Imposter,
So the American Flag has magical properties that have kept me safe? If not then why (by your definition) should I pledge my allegiance to it? We’re a country founded on the fact that the government is in place by the will of the people, not that the people are protected by the will of the people. I say, let’s make all of those who hold elected office pledge allegiance to America’s citizens, and stop forcing our kids to pay homage to a symbol (by the way, I’m also anti-Santa Clause).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETiXXf0ZqRQ
We’ll try this again with a different version of the clip. In case it doesn’t embed, it’s Penn and Teller’s Flag trip, well worth the 5 min. of your time. They’re my favorite conjurers still performing.
Imposter,
So I should be owe this allegiance as protection money? By merit of geographical accident?
rofl
That’s just funny.
And sport means exactly what you think it means. Sport.
“I should owe”
Oh nal! Why hath thou forsaken me!
Gyges,
As far as I’m concerned, there are no better comic illusionists practicing today than Penn & Teller.
And if no one has seen their film “Penn & Teller Get Killed”? I cannot suggest it highly enough. I laughed until I stopped.
Buddha,
nal cannot serve two masters. Something about that manna stuff. But I bet nal can sing fairly well.
BIL,
As far as straight entertainment value they can’t be beat, but the Amazing Randi has a soft spot in my heart for that stunt he pulled in Australia all those years ago, and his work for rational thinking ever since.
gyges,
A pledge of allegiance to the flag is not to be taken literally. It’s a pledge of allegiance to one’s country.
Black’s Second Edition:
“ALLEGIANCE- By allegiance is meant the obligation of fidelity and obedience which the individual owes to the government under which he lives, or to his sovereign in return for the protection he receives. It may be an absolute and permanent obligation, or it may be a qualified and temporary one. The citizen or subject owes an absolute and permanent allegiance to his government or sovereign, or at least until, by some open and distinct act, he renounces it and becomes a citizen or subject of another government or another sovereign. The alien, while domiciled in the country, owes a local and temporary allegiance, which continues during the period of his residence.”
If you renounce allegiance, you renounce nationality (citizenship).
Imposter:
are you sh . . . me? That definition of “Allegiance” could be right out of Hitlers Hand Book.
We don’t owe an allegiance to our country. We don’t owe anything to our country. Our country is made up of individuals each pursuing our own ideas about how we live our lives. The operative word is “individual”. We protect ourselves, i.e. citizen soldiers. If we fight, we fight because we think liberty is a value. We owe allegiance to no man or country. In a free country that values the individual, the only allegiance owed is to one’s personal values. Hopefully liberty is a value that most Americans share.
I really hope you aren’t a conservative or if you are you aren’t a typical conservative. Your thoughts on this are giving the rest of us a bad name. Do you see what you are saying? Think about it, you would be nothing more than a feudal serf at the whim and mercy of the master.
My allegiance or actually fidelity is to the philosophy that makes America a good country – the sanctity of the individual.
The use of the Pledge of Allegiance, National Anthem and the American flag are poor metaphors, pushed by jingoistic thinkers to hide the fact that they either have no understanding of what makes this country great, or actually disagree with the principles on which it is founded. I love this country for its’ people, its beauty, it’s my birthplace and home, and the fact that on occasion it has represented the best of humanity’s aspirations. Performing a rote pledge, singing a warlike anthem or saluting a flag, does not a patriot or even a good citizen make. Understanding the noblest aspirations of our Founding Father’s, protecting our Constitution from misinterpretation and defending our freedom as citizens are the basis of true patriotism.
byron,
I didn’t invent the definition of “allegiance”.
Please feel free to copy and paste the definition from the source you find to be reliable.
Have we really arrived at a time in which we all make up our own definitions for the words we use? That would be the case with “allegiance”. Wouldn’t it?
Imposter,
I assume you mean that the part about pledging allegiance to the FLAG, and not the rest, otherwise you’re instance on using the literal definition of a word in there makes little sense. If I’m reading you wrong, please let me know.
I think you’re getting the concepts of “citizen” and “subject” mixed up. They are closely related and in some societies can be used interchangeably, but not in this one.
Byron and Mike,
Well put.
Beautifuly stated Mike S.
If flags aren’t the tangible symbol of a country why are they planted on every newly discovered or battle conquered patch of ground, including the moon? No one pledges allegiance to a piece of cloth, that’s just silly.
America makes it easy to pledge allegiance. It’s not founded on place or sovereign family, it’s about an idea that is so succinctly explained in our founding Declaration and Constitution that it’s citizens are graced by the glimpse of national perfection just by reading them. You can hate America’s government du jure and still feel pride in pledging allegiance to the ideal on which it is founded. Owing allegiance to the ideal is the least we should do as citizens, otherwise we’re all just a bunch of Wall Street bankers at heart and you can’t even hope to have an honorable society on that basis.
My 2cents anyway.
Allegiance, respect, pledges, what is owed, what isn’t owed … my head hurts.
I think the flag is an icon. It means different things for different people at different times. I flew the flag to celebrate Nixon’s resignation and my country’s return to the rule of law while my neighbor flew his flag on the same day to honor Nixon’s service as President. Which flag-flying motive was superior? Who had more respect? Who had the greater allegiance?
Of course, my iconic celebration was compromised by Ford’s pardon as my neighbor’s was by subsequent releases of Nixon’s tapes. Our neighbor, two doors to the west, never flew the flag as his religion forbade the celebration of icons. He loved this country because of its freedom of religion and never took the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag.
“I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one Nation UNDER GOD (w00t) indivisible with liberty and justice for all.”
I said this every day in first grade when my teachers were loving and I was a happy little boy who loved to read and hang out with my mom. I think I should start saying it again. I’m going to get a flag for my room.