January 13, 2008
Thomas Nast helped bring down the crooks at Tammany Hall with cartoons. Boss Tweed, the chief antagonist of Nast, crook and leader of the Tammany Gang, understood that Nast’s drawings could do him in better than just hard hitting reporting — the pictures were clear to people who couldn’t read.
But a cartoon has to get to an audience to have an effect.
Here’s one below, a comment on the security wall being built in Israel, that got very little circulation in the west at Christmas time. Can you imagine the impact had this drawing run in newspapers in Europe, the U.S., and Canada?
It’s a mashup of a famous oil painting related to the Christian Nativity, from a London-based artist who goes by the name Banksy. (Warning: Banksy pulls no punches; views shown are quite strong, often very funny, always provocative, generally safe for work unless you work for an authoritarian like Dick Cheney who wants no counter opinions.)
Tip of the old scrub brush to Peoples Geography.
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
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Art, Cartoons, Dissent, History, Palestine, Political cartoons | Tagged: Art, Banksy, Cartoons, Dissent, Israel's Wall, Mary and Joseph, Media, Palestine, Political cartoons, Politics | 
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Posted by Ed Darrell
December 30, 2007
CBS-3 News in Springfield, Massachusetts, reports a man has been arrested and arraigned for the burning of three U.S. flags in the area. He entered a “not guilty” plea.
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
3 Comments | Dissent, Flag etiquette, Patriotism | Tagged: Politics, US Flag | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
December 26, 2007
An Associated Press story in the Boston Herald notes three recent incidents in which U.S. flags were burned, in what appears to be a protest of some sort.
Police say a flag-burning incident in Northampton may be the work of an anti-American anarchist group.
The 5-by-9 foot American flag that hung from a birch tree outside of Eamon Mohan’s house on Bridge Street was reduced to ashes in the Friday night blaze.
A typewritten note left at the home and signed by the “American Patriot Liberation Front” claimed the United States was oppressing millions of people around the world. But police say they are unfamiliar with the group.
Police are investigating whether the flag burning is linked to two other incidents in western Massachusetts this month. A post office flag was thrown in a Dumpster and burned in Greenfield earlier this month and an American flag was stolen last week from outside a home in Amherst.
Notes similar to the one in Northampton were found in both cases.
U.S. flags should not be displayed at night, unless lighted, or unless the site is specifically exempted from that condition of flag display by an Act of Congress.
The Boston Globe reported the family harmed in the latest incident was honoring a child in the military:
Mohan’s family did not appear to be targeted, police said.
Mohan’s daughter, Megan, 19, is a US Marine, currently in training, and his son, Eamonn, 17, plans to join after his 18th birthday next month.
“I’m extremely proud of their serving this fine country,” said Mohan, 43. “No country is perfect, but we do a lot of good around the world that isn’t publicized.”
The note was signed by the “American Patriot Liberation Front.” Police said they were unfamiliar with the group. The group is not listed in the telephone directory, and no contact information could be found for it on the Web.
The protesters appear able to write: Why not a letter to the editor of the local newspaper? Such protests, to the point and to a greater audience, are part of what the flag stands for. The flag burners probably don’t note the irony.
Stupid protests give a bad name to protest.
More information:
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1 Comment | Dissent, Flag etiquette, Politics | Tagged: Flag etiquette, Politics, protest, US Flag | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
December 2, 2007
Alun Salt correctly pins the difficulty of dealing with stupidly planned debates, those that give credence to the uncredible merely by allowing them to appear — in this case, in regard to the Oxford Union’s ill-thought notion to invite neo-fascists and Holocaust deniers in to discuss “freedom of speech.”
This is exactly the same issue that arises when the tinfoil hats group asks a distinguished scientist to “debate” a creationist, or when someone demands a forum for David Barton to discuss the Christian nature of the design of U.S. government.
Freedom of speech and freedom of the press include the freedom to be stupid, and the freedom to believe stupid and false things. Our First Amendment does not create a privilege to waste the time of other people who do not share such beliefs.
I wish Mr. Salt had the answer we need in Texas: What do you do when the tinfoil hats people take over the Texas State Board of Education and demand that religious superstition replace science in the science classes?
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
2 Comments | Accuracy, Dissent, History, Holocaust, Holocaust denial, Rampant stupidity, Voodoo history | Tagged: Free speech, Holocaust denialism, Oxford Union, Science, Texas State Board of Education | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
December 1, 2007
Rosa Parks: “Why do you push us around?”
Officer: “I don’t know but the law is the law and you’re under arrest.”
From Rosa Parks with Gregory J. Reed, Quiet Strength
(Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Pub. House, 1994), page 23.
Photo: Mrs. Parks being fingerprinted in Montgomery, Alabama; photo from New York World-Telegram & Sun Collection, Library of Congress
Today in History at the Library of Congress states the simple facts:
On the evening of December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks, an African American, was arrested for disobeying an Alabama law requiring black passengers to relinquish seats to white passengers when the bus was full. Blacks were also required to sit at the back of the bus. Her arrest sparked a 381-day boycott of the Montgomery bus system and led to a 1956 Supreme Court decision banning segregation on public transportation.
Rosa Parks made a nearly perfect subject for a protest on racism. College-educated, trained in peaceful protest at the famous Highlander Folk School, Parks was known as a peaceful and respected person. The sight of such a proper woman being arrested and jailed would provide a schocking image to most Americans. Americans jolted awake.
Often lost in the retelling of the story are the threads that tie together the events of the civil rights movement through the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s. As noted, Parks was a trained civil rights activist. Such training in peaceful and nonviolent protest provided a moral power to the movement probably unattainable any other way. Parks’ arrest was not planned, however. Parks wrote that as she sat on the bus, she was thinking of the tragedy of Emmet Till, the young African American man from Chicago, brutally murdered in Mississippi early in 1955. She was thinking that someone had to take a stand for civil rights, at about the time the bus driver told her to move to allow a white man to take her seat. To take a stand, she remained seated. [More below the fold] Read the rest of this entry »
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
10 Comments | Civil Rights, Dissent, Famous quotes, Heroes, History, Human Rights, Politics, Quotes | Tagged: Civil Rights, Famous quotes, History, Human Rights, Politics, Quotes, Rosa Parks | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
October 13, 2007
Two Christian leaders were arrested after they held up copies of anti-war petitions they were trying to deliver to the White House.
Earlier in the day they had delivered the petitions to leaders in Congress, in both the House of Representatives and Senate.
In unrelated news, surgery to remove George Bush’s fingers from his ears was unsuccessful.
(Would it hurt Bush to just gracefully accept the petitions and deprive these people of a chance to be arrested?)
[Video of the arrest is posted with the press release. Thanks to those who wrote to let me know whether my attempt to embed the video here worked (it didn’t).]
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
2 Comments | Afghanistan, Dissent, History, Iraq, Politics, Religion, War | Tagged: anti-war petition, Bush White House, Religion, United Churches of Christ | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
September 10, 2007
Some people can’t let go of the past, and like the greedy chimpanzee who grasps the rice in the jar, and then is trapped when he cannot pull out his fist nor will he give up his prize to save his freedom, they trap themselves out of a good life.
Like this fellow, whose father’s dislike of an old political position of Pete Seeger kept them both from a good concert. He appears to agree with his father, though, thinking that somehow Seeger is responsible for the evils of Stalinism, and complaining that Seeger was tardy in making note of the fact that Stalin was evil. And Instapundit’s Glenn Reynolds agrees, profanely, and inaccurately, as I’ll explain below the fold. But heed this warning: I’m explaining at length.
Get a life, people! Pete Seeger did.
Read the rest of this entry »
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9 Comments | Cold War, Dissent, Heroes, History, Music, Patriotism, World War II | Tagged: Cold War, Dissent, Heroes, History, Music, Patriotism, Pete Seeger, Woody Guthrie, World War II | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
August 17, 2007
Remember the two people kicked out of President Bush’s Independence Day speech in West Virginia for wearing protest t-shirts in 2004? Nicole and Jeffery Rank, now of Corpus Christi, Texas, were charged with trespassing.
But they were invited to attend the speech.
According to an Associated Press story via MSNBC, a judge dismissed the trespassing charge. The couple sued Bush for violating their First Amendment rights. Bush’s lawyers settled the case, agreeing to pay the couple $80,000.
“This settlement is a real victory not only for our clients but for the First Amendment,” said Andrew Schneider, executive director of the ACLU of West Virginia. “As a result of the Ranks’ courageous stand, public officials will think twice before they eject peaceful protesters from public events for exercising their right to dissent.”
In the course of the suit it was discovered that the official advance manual for the Bush White House urged removing dissenters from speech audiences, so the original claims that the action was just overzealous local officials was refuted. One wonders if the advance manual has been changed.
When asked if are glad they decided stand up for their beliefs, both answered “absolutely” without hesitation.
“We have thoroughly not enjoyed our 15 minutes [of fame]. It’s cost us personally and professionally,” Jeff Rank said. “The thing that we’re fighting for, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, is just too important to this country to lay down on something like this.”
The First Amendment may have been wounded, but it’s still alive.
Other resources:
Tip of the old scrub brush to blueollie.
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
1 Comment | Civil Rights, Dissent, First Amendment, Jurisprudence, Justice, U.S. Constitution | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
August 6, 2007
Bloggernista linked to a video where Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., pins Bill O’Reilly for his scurrilous attacks on bloggers. O’Reilly fans shouldn’t watch.
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
Leave a Comment » | Accuracy, Dissent, Ethics, Politics, Weblogs | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
July 28, 2007
What’s wrong with this picture?
They didn’t mean to, but there it is: Flag displays not in accordance with the U.S. Flag Code at every turn — flag desecration! Or, as Power Line titles it, “A Minnesota 4th of July.” You can see the slide show here. I point out some Flag Code violations in a slide-by-slide list, after the fold.
No, I’m not calling for the Sheriff of Buncombe County, North Carolina, to dispatch his deputies to arrest everyone in Apple Valley, Minnesota, who participated in the 2004 4th of July Parade — not even if they are Ron Paul supporters (in 2004, who knew?). Heck, we’d need to do the same for Duncanville, Texas (I was there; I probably still have some photographs somewhere), and probably for Provo, Utah (“the nation’s biggest Freedom Day celebration”) and Prescott, Arizona, and 15,000 other towns in America where citizens turn out on the celebration for our Declaration of Independence and have a parade. Of course, most of those towns are not fettered with North Carolina’s outdated and uconstitutional flag desecration law, either.
Fact is, most people are not too familiar with the U.S. Flag Code, and in their attempts to have a good time and celebrate the good stuff in and of this nation, they sometimes do not hew to the Flag Code’s call.
Which means simply that we need to do a better job of educating citizens on how to respect their flag and display it respectfully; and it also means we shouldn’t get all worked up whenever someone screams “FLAG DESECRATION!” to alarm us and make us rally around George Bush (who, as we saw in the last post, needs some Flag Code education for himself).
To his credit, Scott Johnson at Power Line is not a huge backer of flag desecration amendments to the Constitution. Nor are the other two contributors at PowerLine, except for their frequent complaint that the First Amendment “protects flag burning and nude dancing” but not whatever it is they want to rant about at that moment.
But if these über patriots think all this Flag Code bustin’ is good patriotism, where does a deputy in Asheville, North Carolina, get off telling people they can’t use the flag in their protest? Isn’t that THE core value the flag stands for, that citizens can protest?
Or, is it really true that the Bush defenders have politicized the nation so badly that only some political statements are protected by the First Amendment? We, our people, fought King George III to win the right to speak our minds. We shouldn’t yield to anyone that right won with the blood of patriots.
Read the rest of this entry »
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6 Comments | 4th of July, Accuracy, Boy Scouts of America, Dissent, First Amendment, Flag ceremony, Flag etiquette, Girl Scouts, Patriotism | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
July 28, 2007
The Volokh Conspiracy notes the arrest of an Asheville, North Carolina couple for improper flag display — they flew the U.S. flag upside down (a universal sign of distress), and with protest notes attached to it.
Details from the Asheville Citizen-Times.
The newspaper also notes that the flag desecration statute appears not to have been used since the Vietnam War era (anybody care to guess which political views got cited?) . A local fireworks sales stand in the area displayed U.S. flags in violation of the Flag Code near July 4, but while news abstracts appear to show the stand was cited for a violation of the sign code, there is no indication it was cited for the flag desecration code.
We need to amend the Flag Code, to authorize flag displays that have become popular recently, such as shirts that resemble the flag, flag decals in autos, flag bumper stickers, and other displays that technically violate the Flag Code — unless, of course, we want to try to criminalize innocent attempts to honor the flag. Flag desecration cases almost always have a political component, however, and such prosecutions should generally be suspect under the First Amendment — don’t you agree?
How much of the ire against the Kuhns in Asheville was prompted by their support of Ron Paul for president? (See the photo of their protest signs, and note the lawn sign in the background.) 
If someone has the details of the fireworks stand case near Asheville, please send them along — was the stand in the same county as Mark and Deborah Kuhn?
Update: The Mountain Xpress story carries a slightly different tone, identifying the Kuhns as “activists,” and featuring interviews of eyewitnesses to the arrests.
Other improper flag displays, below the fold.
Read the rest of this entry »
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7 Comments | Dissent, Elections, First Amendment, Flag etiquette, Politics | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
May 22, 2007
European Union rules require member states to do something about indoor air pollution. European states are banning smoking in public places. Gone soon will be days when we can joke about Britons and their Player’s cigarettes, or the French and their Galois habits.
Every once in a while as I recount the great Tobacco/Health Wars, my kids remind me that they never saw a cigarette commercial on television. Once, we caught a showing of past ads, and I was truck nostalgic by Fred Flintstone’s testimony for Winston cigarettes — the kids gasped: “Fred Flintstone used to smoke!”
Everybody smoked, once upon a time, it seemed. 1940s and 1950s magazines have ads in which doctors and athletes claim cigarette smoking is either unharmful, sheer pleasure, or even health promoting. Got a cigarette cough? Switch to menthol cigarettes! Mouth burns? Try a filter cigarette.
Today, kids wonder why Virginia did so well selling tobacco to Britain — who in their right mind would have smoked? they ask.
The Internet Archive has an abundance of film material on tobacco. The films come from the University of California – San Francisco: Read the rest of this entry »
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
3 Comments | Business Ethics, Current History, Dissent, Economics, First Amendment, Free market economics, Freedom - Economic, Geography - Physical, History, History Revisionism, History video sources, Hoaxes, Movies, On-line education, Politics, Public health, Science | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
March 26, 2007
Here are some of the posts I’ve been thinking about over the past couple of days:
Iraq and Vietnam: Writings by Hudson has been reading about LBJ and Vietnam. Santayana’s ghost appreciates the exercise.
Camels in the Outback, camels in the dogfood: Would you believe a million camels are feral in the Australian Outback? And now, with a drought, it’s a problem. The Coffee House alerts us.
What if everybody in your organization came to you for help? The Drawing Room tells us why you’d be wise to work for such a thing.
U.S. soldiers protest the war: No, not the current war — African American soldiers protest the Filipino conflict. Forgotten soldiers, forgotten war — you’d do well to reacquaint yourself with this chapter of U.S. history at Vox ex Machina.
Leaks about the incident that got us into the war: No, not yet the Iraq war (see how you jump to conclusions?). POTUS reflects on LBJ and the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, and the leaks and lack of intelligence that may have gotten us into a quagmire.
Earthquakes in Tornado Alley: Tennessee Guy points to an article that wonders about the New Madrid Fault, and whether it is tensing up for “the Big One” to shake West Tennessee (and the rest of the Midwest), or it is going to sleep for a millennium.
Science and racism: A collection of Darwin’s writings that touch on race and slavery, for your bookmark file.
Cool school libraries: We’re not talking about air conditioning.
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
1 Comment | Charles Darwin, Civil Rights, Dissent, Education, Elections, Evolution, History, History blogs, Leadership, Lessons of Vietnam, Patriotism, Politics, Presidents, Public libraries, Santayana's ghost, Theodore Roosevelt, Vietnam, War, Weblogs | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
March 9, 2007
1968 brought one chunk of bad news after another to Americans. The year seemed to be one long, increasingly bad disaster. In several ways it was the mark of the times between the feel-good, post-war Eisenhower administration and the feel-good-despite-the-Cold-War Reagan administration. 1968 was depressing.
What was so bad? Vietnam manifested itself as a quagmire. Just when Washington politicians predicted an end in sight, Vietcong militia launched a nationwide attack in South Vietnam on the Vietnamese New Year holiday, Tet, at the end of January. Civil rights gains stalled, and civil rights leaders came out in opposition to the Vietnam war. President Johnson fared poorly in the New Hampshire primary election, and eventually dropped out of the race for the presidency (claiming he needed to devote time to making peace in Vietnam). Labor troubles roiled throughout the U.S., including a nasty strike by garbage collectors in Memphis. It didn’t help to settle the strike that the sanitation workers were almost 100% African American, the leadership of Memphis was almost 100% white, and race relations in the city were not so good as they might have been – the strike attracted the efforts of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and Martin Luther King, Jr. – who was assassinated there in early April. In response, riots broke out in 150 American cities.
More below the fold, including the key confession to “penetration.” Read the rest of this entry »
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6 Comments | 1968, Dissent, Elections, Free speech, Freedom - Economic, Freedom - Political, Heroes, History, Hoaxes, Space exploration, Vietnam | Tagged: 1968, Confessions, Elections, freedom, History, Hoaxes, Lloyd Bucher, North Korea, Space exploration, USS Pueblo, Vietnam | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
March 5, 2007
Really.
I can’t gloss this at all, and so far it checks out as presented. Political Teen Tidbits is a blog run by a bright young Texan with a conscience. She’s trying to draw attention to the bizarre cases that keep coming out of Texas’ immigration detention practices.
Political Teen Tidbits thinks we should let the 9-year-old Canadian kid out of jail. Go read the details — what do you think?
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
1 Comment | Dissent, Ethics, Human Rights, Immigration, Jurisprudence, Justice, U.S. Constitution, Weblogs | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Millard Fillmore's Bathtub 
