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Patriotic Ideals
Obama
defends his commitment to patriotic ideals by telling
a town hall meeting in North Carolina that "I always have the flag in my
heart."
He just won't wear one on his lapel or salute
it during the National Anthem.
Obama's Famous Crotch Salute
Kinda brings this to mind.
The Crotch Salute Returns
Obama repeats the crotch salute during the playing of the
National Anthem at Memorial Day Services at Arlington National Cemetery,
May 25, 2009.
No Questions
A combative Barack Obama said Tuesday that Republican John McCain
"doesn't know what he's up against" in this election and challenged his
rival to stop questioning his character and patriotism.
Obama certainly is thin-skinned, isn't he?
Of course if he didn't work for and hang out with this guy,
named Chicago's "Citizen of the Year" in 1997, then maybe
there wouldn't be a question.
And maybe if he showed the proper respect for America and its symbols,
there would be fewer people asking these questions.
The photo was taken to promote Ayers’s book, "Fugitive Days" and
published by Chicago Mag in their August 2001 issue.
This guy is still a hard-core communist as he proudly announces on his
red communist star-headed
website.
I can't imagine why anybody would question your
patriotism, Obama?
First U.S. President To Hold Press
Conference Without American Flags Present
Rush Says, "He Is A Foreigner"
Rush Limbaugh said yesterday that as far as
loyalties go for Barack Obama, he is a "foreigner."
"This guy is
on a mission to fundamentally reform or transform this country. He
doesn't like it the way it was founded. He's got the same view of
this country that Reverend Wright has, that his father had, that
communists have of it. Now he's got his leadership position over
it. This stuff is not accidental. The job loss? The
economic destruction? Drilling moratoriums in the Gulf of Mexico
for no reason whatsoever? Nationalizing businesses?"
"We
think this is altruistic? We think Obama is just misguided but
he's actually trying to help things? This is crazy. My whole
point is? Nobody with a modicum of intelligence who really is
trying to improve employment and economics in this country would do
anything that Obama's done. And if they were serious, they would
realize their mistake and do the opposite now. Rather than
compound this with more bailouts and more deficits, more stimulus plan.
I know it's fun to sit around and speculate how they're all gonna feel
the day after the election, some of the rank-and-file Democrats.
But when it comes to Obama -- as much as you might not want to do it, as
much as it might be very uncomfortable to think this way -- you have to
try to comprehend this."
"He sees the last 20 months as a
triumph. He does not see this as a debacle. He is doing
exactly what he intended to do."
"He is pleased with himself.
Let me put it this way. We don't need a birth certificate to know
that Obama is a foreigner, in this sense: He's born in the United
States, but he doesn't think like most of us think. He doesn't
look at this country and its people, its history, its accomplishments
the way most of us do. He doesn't look at our history with pride.
There's no American exceptionalism as far as Obama's concerned.
Obama looks at America the way Reverend Wright looks at it, the way
Minister Farrakhan looks at it. Obama looks at America, sees the
country the way the rest of the hardcore left sees it, and you know who
the hardcore left are: Ayers and that crowd. He's one of them.
This has been the thing I've been trying to convince people of ever
since just before the election."
Stephen Dinan
says members of Congress on Monday called on Obama to issue a public
correction after he incorrectly labeled E pluribus unum the
U.S.'s motto in a speech last month, rather than "In God We Trust."
The lawmakers, members of the Congressional Prayer Caucus, also said
Obama was making "a pattern" of dropping the word "Creator" when he
recites the self-evident truths of the Declaration of Independence.
"By misrepresenting things as foundational as the Declaration of
Independence and our national motto, you are not only doing a disservice
to the people you represent you are casting aside an integral part of
American society," the representatives said in a stern letter asking for
him to correct the speech.
Last month, while speaking at the
University of Indonesia in Jakarta, Obama was trying to stress the
similarity of the U.S. and Indonesia and said "it is a story written
into our national mottos."
"In the United States, our motto is
E pluribus unum -- out of many, one," he said, then compared it
to the Indonesian motto, "Bhennika Tunggal Ika -- unity in diversity."
The official motto of the U.S., designated by a 1956 law, is "In
God We Trust." E pluribus unum is the motto on the
Great Seal of the United States, and appears on the ribbon held in the
beak of the eagle that dominates the obverse side of the seal.
He’s Just Not That Into You America
Jim Funkhouser
says, from the perspective of a leader, there are two types of
loyalty. The first is the sort that Steven Jobs has for Apple.
If you checked Jobs’ closet I’m sure you would find Apple T-shirts,
Apple ball caps, etc. The walls of his posh estate(s) are probably
covered with Apple awards, Apple photos, Apple banners, etc. His
car keys: Apple keychain. His license plate: APPLECEO. His
favorite pie… you guessed it.
Jobs loves his company just as many
CEOs do. They love to promote them, talk about them, brag about
them, etc. Most often they consider the people who work for them
to be extended family. With Jobs this passion for his company is
palpable, and it’s easy to imagine that if he someday succumbs to his
health challenges his final thoughts will linger on the people, places,
and things that are the Apple Corporation.
The second type of
loyalty doesn’t spring from an economic creation, it grows out of a
patriotic fervor for one’s homeland. Military leaders, political
leaders, and even leaders of civic organizations can appreciate the
depth of feeling that can at times overwhelm these otherwise pragmatic
men and women. "My Country right or wrong" most often makes sense
to this group, and they probably count themselves as fortunate that they
can express their love of Country proudly. America, in theory and
in practice, is a nation that any leader should find easy to defend, and
love.
Patriotic loyalty is a natural emotion for any politician,
and it’s hard to imagine a politician of any stripe reaching the office
of the Presidency of the United States without this very human trait.
Hard to imagine until recently that is.
Barack Obama does love
America, but not in the sense that he would take a bullet to defend her
from enemies foreign or domestic. He loves America in the same
sense that Steven Jobs loves Apple. Obama doesn’t want the
American Corporation to fail, but he neither thinks that the idea of
America is any more special than the idea of France, or China, or Kenya
for that matter. He isn’t married to America, he is going steady.
He likes her a lot, and she may be his favorite Country, but his loyalty
is a mile wide and an inch deep.
It’s not that Obama has at times
refused to salute the American Flag, it’s more likely that such an
impulse just doesn’t flow naturally into his mind. It’s not that
he intentionally mispronounces "corp(e)sman" when introducing military
service personnel, it’s more likely that our nation’s military customs
are simply not his passion. No lapel pin? Failure to salute
a Medal of Honor recipient? Anti-American comments abroad?
None of these precludes Obama from running a secular corporate state
like a detached technocrat, so they are easily jettisoned as superfluous
flotsam.
One problem with detached technocratic leadership is
this: Our enemies seldom have dispassionate leaders. America
playing the role of Obama’s "friend with benefits" gets dangerous for us
when the bully in the alley pulls a knife. Our paramour might hold
the door for us, but will he take a shiv in the gut defending our honor?
Does a Country need to believe that its leader is passionately loyal
to the ideas, traditions, and culture that animate its desire to remain
united?
The answer seems self-evident. When Michelle Obama called
us out as being a "down-right mean Country" we waited with futility for
a response from her spouse that rejected such a notion. When she
offered that it took the election of Barack for her to finally manifest
any feelings of pride in America what we longed for was a passionate
defense of land of the free and the home of the brave.
I mention
Michelle because I believe that the words from a politician’s spouse are
more likely to offer credible insight into a candidate than the words of
the candidate themselves. Michelle may have never uttered the
words "America is a down-right mean Country" to Barack, but it strains
credibility to think that he never had an inkling that his wife loathed
the Country that gave her the freedom to raise a wealthy and healthy
family.
The Obamas, like most married couples, may not agree on
every minute policy detail, but they definitely agree on any idea as
large the goodness or badness of their own Country. Their preacher
simply consecrated the family ideology, which hopefully stops short of
eliminationalism.
Sorry for your luck Miss America, but your
boyfriend is simply using you to advance a statist agenda. He
likes your logos, and your patents, and your balance sheet, but your
corporate strategy of "until death do us part" is antiquated. If
you start to pull away expect a plethora of flowers and chocolate, but
as for that ring you’re longing for America, forget it. He simply
isn’t that into you, and he probably never will be.
