All Posts Tagged With: "Day"

Obama might, indeed, be worse than a latter-day Jimmy Carter.

Obama might, indeed, be a latter-day Jimmy Carter worries former Clintonista Dick Morris. Last week raised important questions about whether Barack Obama is strong enough to be president. On the domestic political front, he showed incredible weakness in dealing with the Clintons, while on foreign and defense questions, he betrayed a lack of strength and resolve in standing up to Russia’s invasion of Georgia.

First, he says, the Clintons bluffed Obama into amazing concessions. Hillary will speak on Tuesday night in prime time. Chelsea will introduce her. She will get to play a film extolling her virtues produced by Harry Bloodworth Thomason. Bill will speak on Wednesday night. Hillary’s name will be placed into nomination. She will get to have nominating and seconding speeches on her behalf. And, on Thursday night, the last night of the convention, the roll call will show how narrowly Obama prevailed. It will really be the Clinton’s convention.

How can Obama measure up to a resurgent Putin who has just achieved a military victory? When the Georgia invasion first began, Obama appealed for “restraint” on both sides. He treated the aggressive lion and the victimized lamb even-handedly. His performance was reminiscent of the worst of appeasement at Munich, where another dictator got away with seizing another breakaway province of another small neighboring country, leading to World War II.

Finally Obama corrected himself, spoke of Russian aggression and condemned it. The fact is we know so little about Obama. His experience is so thin that it’s hard to tell what kind of a president he’d be but electing him is a BIG risk.

Obama’s strength is in doubt. His palsied response to the Clintons’ attempt to make Denver a Clinton convention is an exhibit. He was easily flim-flamed/ But, In international affairs among dangerous adversaries flim-flam can equal millions and tens of millions dead including millions of Americans.

Obama an over-intellectualizing Hamlet who is incapable of decisive, strong action. With Iran on the verge of acquiring nuclear weapons and Russia resurgent, there isn’t much room for on-the-job learning.

Flag Day is celebrated on June 14 commemorating the adoption of the flag of the United States, which happened that day by resolution of the Second Continental Congress in 1777 making this the 231st anniversary.In 1916, President Woodrow Wilson issued a proclamation that officially established June 14 as Flag Day; in August 1949, National Flag Day was established by an Act of Congress.

George Morris of Hartford, Conn., is popularly given the credit of suggesting “Flag Day,” the occasion being in honor of the adoption of the American flag on June 14, 1777. The city of Hartford observed the day in 1861, carrying out a program of a patriotic order, praying for the success of the Federal arms and the preservation of the Union.

Flag Day is not an official federal holiday but a commemoration of the formal act of adopting the colors and design of the America flag.

The first American flag design that was displayed was a combination of the British flag and 13 stripes one for each of for the original colonies. It was displayed by General George Washington and American troops through out the Revolutionary War. Tradition says it was first raised aboard Continental Navy Commodore Esek Hopkins‘ flagship Alfred on the Delaware River on December 3, 1775, possibly (according to his claim) by the ship’s senior lieutenant John Paul Jones. That flag closely resembled the flag of the East Indian Company so a new design was sought.

A popular story credits Betsy Ross for sewing the first flag from a pencil sketch by George Washington who personally commissioned her for the job. However, no evidence for this theory exists beyond Ross’ descendants’ much later recollections of what she told her family. Another woman, Rebecca Young, has also been credited as having made the first flag by later generations of her family. Rebecca Young’s daughter was Mary Pickersgill, who made the Star Spangled Banner Flag.

In 1795 two stars and two stripes were added to the flag. It was this 25 stripe flag that inspired Francis Scott Key to write the Star Spangled banner that became the national anthem. In 1818 it was decided on a 13 stripe flag with one star representing each state.

Many years ago I met a descendent of Mary Pickersgill, while working at ANDOVER-NEWTON who told me the story. I actually went to Betsy Ross’s home in Boston and ask about it- kind of “cool” reception. Later I was having lunch with a brilliant American history teacher at Bowdoin College (can’t recall his name) who told me Betsy Ross likely did NOT make the first flag but did get paid to make flags adn as such was American first flag maker but likely not the first to make the flag. He had a 15-star flag in his office and told me how the original flag from Fort McHenry. I saw that flag at Smithsonian, amd it had 15 stripes - I counted them.

Idolatry is setting up as an object of worship anything that has taken on supreme, controlling value in one’s life. In ancient cultures, idols representing rain gods were set up because an agricultural society wanted those gods to be propitious towards the people. The Nile River, upon whose annual flooding the prosperity of Egypt depended, became an important deity. The same went for goddesses connected with the moon, because the moon was not only connected with fertility but was seen as the weaver of destiny. The Hebrew prophets loved to mock people who would form a god with their own hands and then bow to it.

In postmodern society, we still set up idols that we perceive are important in preserving value systems that we cherish and are afraid of losing. There are the self-described yellow-dog Democrats, so-called because they would rather vote for a yellow dog than a Republican. Of course, there are Republicans just as fanatically dedicated to their party; they just don’t have such a colorful name for themselves. These are people who are so convinced that their respective parties hold to the correct absolute values that they dare not go against them, any more than an ancient Mayan in the midst of a drought would dare to curse Chaac the rain god.

More specifically, both conservatism and liberalism, as such, have become idols for many and have contributed to the polarization of our society. One doesn’t have to look very far for books on either side that go to shocking lengths to defend despicable acts on the part of politicians identified with those ideologies, simply because the ideologies in question are taken to be unassailable. Abraham was correct in deciding that if God wanted him to do something as unthinkable as sacrificing his only son, the miraculous son through whom the covenant was to be fulfilled, he had better go through with it. Who was he to judge the God who made the universe and therefore makes the rules that govern it? His absolute faithfulness was then rewarded by his being told it had only been a test. Treating our man-made political ideologies that way, however, is a different matter, reminiscent of those absolute monarchies in which the king’s will could be defied only at the risk of death. One thinks of that Medieval Spanish ruler who asked a retainer what time it was, and was told, “Whatever time Your Majesty desires.”

Are we willing to submit so blindly to systems devised by human beings that we treat them as if they were unalterably divine? Our system of government was set up for healthy debate at all levels, in the hope that out of the arguments between the people’s representatives (Jefferson and Adams, for example) and a good deal of evaluation of those arguments on the part of the observers would emerge the truth. If instead we make the truth out to be whatever we hear our idol saying, we are placing ourselves in considerable danger.

Does Bill Maher deserve to be fired again as Newsday says in recent article?

Or is he America’s most politically astute comedian as The Huffington Post said recently?