UPDATE: High-Noon 8/14/08. File this under "what a difference a day makes." (See bottom photo.) The Jolly Roger is gone--but they did not replace it with the American flag either. Somewhat understandable for the People's Republic of Amherst to have a shortage of American flags.(Original Post 8/13/08 High-Noon) So Amherst is one of a handful of communities nationwide to fly the UN flag in front of Town Hall, the only community in the nation to disallow American flags in the downtown to commemorate 9/11 and now the High School is flying the Jolly Roger in place of Old Glory. Only in Amherst!
Of the two, I much prefer the Jolly Roger!
Damn, now if we can just get rid of that UN flag (it's looking a tad weathered for sure)
I would be guessing either a friendly prank or the teachers celebrating the end of summer school? ;-)
ReplyDeleteWell it is the "special" campus for somewhat troubled kids, so maybe they orchestrated a mutiny and took over the operation.
ReplyDeleteThey could hold teachers hostage in exchange for video games, cigarettes and cold beer.
Maybe they are expressing sadness for school starting 2 weeks from today?
ReplyDeleteI hate the fact that school in Amherst now starts before Labor Day. What a waste of time for the kids and the parents.
Yeah, the teachers/administrators can't be overly pleased
ReplyDeleteI have little respect for pirates' use of force and intimidation and a lot of respect for the United Nations mission.
ReplyDeleteI've never understood the movement in the Republican party to destroy the UN as opposed to fixing whatever aspect of it they disapprove.
Take the Russian/Georgian armed conflict, where would Bush go if not the UN to pressure Russia to retreat to 8/8 boarders and stop bombing the Georgian people? We have interests in Georgia including a democratically elected government, oil and gas resources, and more. As for the 157 US military advisers in Georgia prior to the conflict, I hope we learn their part in this.
Score - Putin 1 Bush 0.
For what it is worth, and much to the surprise of many, the Pirate Flag is one of my personal ancestorial flags and hence any opposition to it is inherently racist and I sentence anyone who complains to doubleunplusgood punishments.
ReplyDeleteEd
(Who really is a direct descendant of Pirates....)
Glad you didn't sentence my to 'walk the plank.'
ReplyDeleteI'll throw my lot in with the Jolly Roger, sans torture, etc.
ReplyDeleteBut not with the UN. O'Reilly needs to read this:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/6195830.stm
Is that Ed Cutting? If so, "hey."
Izzy
Children have been subjected to rape and prostitution by United Nations peacekeepers in Haiti and Liberia, a BBC investigation has found.
ReplyDeleteSo what would you do... Disband the UN or prosecute the men who perpetrate the crime? I think they should be court martialled - that's a trial under military law.
When US soldiers break the law they are held accountable and no one suggests we ought to disband the US. Each service - Army, navy, air force - has its own JAG corps to handle issues related to the law such as rules of engagement and prosecuting or defending alleged criminal behavior by enlisted men and officers.
The UN is not the bogeyman. Neither is the US military.
MR. O: At the least, I would like the see no American taxpayer dollars go to the UN - there's no constitutional mandate to support this very expensive globalist entity which does very little peacekeeping, these days:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.enterstageright.com/archive/articles/1004/1004unday.htm
Cheers, Izzy
correctino:
ReplyDeletedelete first "the"
replace with "to"
IL
> So what would you do... Disband the
ReplyDelete> UN or prosecute the men who
> perpetrate the crime? I think they
> should be court martialled - that's
> a trial under military law.
The issue is not that soldiers gone wild tend to do bad things (ours do too) *but* that the UN command structure fails to properly police its own. US officers are held to high standards and don't get above O-4 without being of good character. This isn't true with tinhorn despots.
The problem, Mr. O, is not that there are soldiers raping and killing (and dealing drugs and stealing things and otherwise being like the population they come from) BUT that the UN tolerates this.
That the peacekeeping armies are NOT as well disciplined as ours....
Iraq is far better off with US soldiers than even Iraqi policemen and the Iraqis sorta know this....
Ed
So its the money, is it? Here's an overview of the Federal Budget for 2009
ReplyDeleteMILITARY: 54% and $1,449 billion
NON-MILITARY: 46% and $1,210 billion
link
from which the US contributes
.607 Billion to UN Regular budget
.607 Billion to UN Peacekeeping
link
What the hell, Bush shipped $12 billion (350 tons) of cash to Iraq, shrink-wrapped on skids... your taxpayer dollars, that vanished like a fart in the wind. $12 billion represents a decade - 10 years - of our UN budget.
Do you know what we pay yearly to occupy Iraq? $262 billion.
I think we get a better bang for our buck with UN peacekeeping.
As an alternative, we could always send our own kids to the locations of armed conflict where our national interests - humanitarian, political, nuclear threats or fincanial - are at stake such as Balkans, Darfur, Georgia, Iraq, Afghanistan.