CounterPunch
June 24 , 2005
Hiding Behind the Flag
Which Flag Would Jesus Burn?
By DAVE LINDORFF
The flag amendment which just passed the House by a huge margin, and which may pass in the Senate this time around and even become a part of the Constitution, was predictable. After all, the last refuge of a scoundrel is patriotism, and the scoundrels infesting the capital, who put this country into an unwinnable and pointless war based upon lies, along with the gutless sycophants in Congress who backed them, are now being increasingly called to account by an American public finally grown weary of the war and the lies.
The joke is that the flag is desecrated daily for commercial purposes, waving proudly in front of the corporate headquarters of war profiteers like Haliburton, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Bechtel, GE, Westinghouse and Exxon Mobil, and the homes of tax cheats like disgraced Tyco CEO Dennis Kozlowski. It decorates all manner of commercial products from the backsides of women’s shorts to a line of patriotic condoms.
None of this abuse of the national symbol bothers the right-wing charlatans in Washington. Only burning the thing.
You have to wonder what these important people, who earn $158,100 a year of our tax dollars to do their work, will do next to earn their paychecks. Will they pass a constitutional ban on pie throwing? Make it illegal to parody the president?
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