jingoism | Cryptic Philosopher

Oahu – Rep. Steve King (R-Idiocracy) found the microfiche of President Obama’s 1961 birth announcement in two Hawaiian newspapers. While he can’t deny the likely authenticity of these announcements, he also cannot rule out the possibility that he is insane (that is the only explanation I can think of for Rep. King’s subsequent wild-eyed speculation):

We went down into the Library of Congress and we found a microfiche there of two newspapers in Hawaii each of which had published the birth of Barack Obama. It would have been awfully hard to fraudulently file the birth notice of Barack Obama being born in Hawaii and get that into our public libraries and that microfiche they keep of all the newspapers published. That doesn’t mean there aren’t some other explanations on how they might’ve announced that by telegram from Kenya. The list goes on.

No word yet on whether he has considered the possibility of time travel. Or space aliens. Or improbable quantum fluctuations creating Barack Obama, fully formed, from a pile of aluminum recycling.

– Fox News doesn’t think our Olympic champions are being patriotic enough, because they don’t compete decked out from head to toe in American flag regalia or something. Our athletes should do it to show how America is exceptional, and also because other nations do it, but America is still exceptional, because shut up. (If you can make it through then entire almost-5-minute clip from Fox News in the linked article, you are made of stronger stuff than I.)

– Bryan Fischer compares kidnapping children from gay or lesbian parents to freeing slaves, thus failing at both American history and basic human decency. I wish I was making this story up.

Photo credit: ‘Oahu’ by Earth Sciences and Image Analysis, NASA-Johnson Space Center [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.

Memorial Day was observed on Monday, May 28. I was in Mexico at the time, paying for things in pesos and generally contributing nothing to the U.S. economy. Specifically, I was in Cancún, in a part of Mexico never once invaded, occupied, or wrested away from Mexico by the U.S. I’ve spent two 4th of July holidays abroad (Belarus and Spain, long story), but this was my first Memorial Day outside my home country.

I don’t usually make a big thing out of Memorial Day. I try to take a moment to appreciate the sacrifice others have made, sometimes in noble causes and sometimes not so much, that I don’t have the cojones to make. Typically, though, I find the holiday to be yet another opportunity for unabashed and shameless jingoism.

As we dive head first into what is likely to be an absurdly acrimonious election season, I expect to hear a great deal of rah-rah patriotism out of the Republican party, combined with accusations of Democrats hating the troops, blah blah blah. It’s worth a reminder of what Republicans really think of the troops.

Delegates to the Republican National Convention found a new way to take a jab at Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry’s Vietnam service record: by sporting adhesive bandages with small purple hearts on them.

Morton Blackwell, a prominent Virginia delegate, has been handing out the heart-covered bandages to delegates, who’ve worn them on their chins, cheeks, the backs of their hands and other places.

I am referring, of course, to the 2004 Republican National Convention. Continue reading →

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Tag Archives: jingoism

This Week in WTF, August 10, 2012

Belated Memorial Day Tirade