it comes in pints?

Orcas Island (indeed, most of San Juan County) is occupied (and I use that word most carefully) by a bunch of ancient hippies bent on recreating the 1960s in loving detail. I visit (non-hippie) relatives up there now and then. Code Pink is pretty active there, for example.

The next time that I go up there, I'll see if those graves need American flags....and replace them, if necessary.

Vandals my aching, dying ass.

Events like this just add to the list of reasons why sniper rifles were created.

Little snotrags. Sure, wait until a couple of elderly veterans go home and then sneak into a cemetary to desecrate graves and burn flags. Such bravery! I mean, if I'm a chickenhawk, what does that make them?

I'm thinking we ought to duct-tape their hands and toss them into the barroom of the American Legion, and let the grizzled old vets deal with them. Then we can just wipe up the smudge that's left on the floor.

JeffS, I think I heard that the American Legion had already gone in and undone the damage.

Little snotrags is right. They're not really that much different from those "Christians" (and I use the scare-quotes intentionally) who harrass greiving families, claiming their soldier-sons died because the US "tolerates" homosexuality.

I just hope none of the families of those buried in the graves that were desecrated had to see it.

I'm all for the freedom of speech, but that freedom also carries the responsibility to not act like a douchebag about it.

God bless the men who died for our freedoms and God bless their families and give them solace especially in the face of that excrement.

What I want to know is when does Honor get to trounce the Cowards who did this?! When will it happen that we can honestly see these pukes get their come-uppance?

Then there's the two 13-year-old punks that egged the color guard at a Memorial Day parade.

Nuance.

To quote Eric Cartman, "I. AM. SO. PISSED. OFF. RIGHT. NOW."

I'd say it, but then it's not yet Friday. Got the little shits in my sights, though.... Just a couple more days.... steady now... wait for it....

Ah, screw it. Fuck Johnny E and the little shithead punks and especially the flag burners.

Id gladly do time for beating those fucking bastards to a bloody little pulp on the floor.

We had it locally, too. (http://www.kyw1060.com/print_page.php?contentId=549663&contentType=4)

Hope they're not related. Bastidges.

ricki, the local American Legion did replace the flags, bless them.

But I'll be glad to volunteer for sniper, I mean, guard duty next year.

Seems like an appropriate time to link to this.

Update from my relatives:

"It is being treated as a hate crime. Not freedom of speech. I hope the book gets thrown at those assholes then gets stuffed up their asses."

I'll be glad to do the stuffing. I'll even buy the latex gloves.

Oh, how GLORIOUS, Jeff. It's nice to see what I assume to be a regularly dependable PC crowd have their own book thrown at them. The very notion of "hate crimes" - that the punishment should be more severe or considered because of the motive - has always been offensive to me. A crime is a crime is a crime. I don't care WHY you hurt someone or something that is otherwise innocent and undeserving. Just that you DID. There's no doubt, none whatsoever, that these actions were motivated out of pure hate. Not objection to war or violence fashioned from reason (we can assume by deduction these weren't exactly Quakers carrying out these assaults). Not this faux pacificism that dictates violence is only wrong when those responsible personally object to the politics that foster it; otherwise, fuck it, my victims deserve it for not sharing my perfect world view. But hate and a deliberately obtuse and perverted view of what those men stood and died for. An almost ironic disregard for the fact that the only reason people are able to stand up and defend these cretins, the only reason some people will deem their actions permissable, is because of those graves.

But let's not be so swift with our reactions to violence, guys. That is their way. That is how they respond. Let them have their self-righteous indignation. We will quietly clean up after them, replace the flags they've destroyed, clean up the graves they've desecrated, and thank whatever powers we hold above ourselves, be they secular, Earthly, or otherwise. We are the true pacifists. We only fight when it's necessary. They fight because they're bored, angry, and close-minded. Dignity, respect, tolerance. What they always seem to call for but rarely exhibit. Let's outshine them at their own game and give them the benefit their black hearts can't even give to their granfathers and the other men that made this country the kind of place where they're even allowed to be that kind of person without being thrown in jail.

It's the worst punishment I can think of. I wish they had the intelligence and reason to be ashamed. Maybe someday, they will.

Don't hold your breath, Emily. Snot-nosed brats who haven't grown up already probably won't.

An almost ironic disregard for the fact that the only reason people are able to stand up and defend these cretins, the only reason some people will deem their actions permissable, is because of those graves.

Amen.

But let's not be so swift with our reactions to violence, guys.

I quite understand, Emily, and I doubt that I would have picked up a gillie suit after I calmed down, but I believe that there is at least one Silver Star recipient buried there, a relative of a good friend. If not in that particular cemetary, in another one on Orcas (I forget, it's been a couple years). So it hit fairly close to home.

I wish these a$$holes ever had the ability to feel shame, and I doubt that they ever will. But iit's possible some of them will. I just won't expect it.

Also, many Orcas residents are more than a little angry. East Sound has a wall honoring deployed soldiers (I was on it for a while, during my tour). Many are good people, this vile act shames them, and I feel their pain.

I am most serious when I describe San Juan County as a haven for ancient hippies. It was a refuge for them, way back in the 1960s, and no one wanted to live on those islands (mostly summer houses, fishermen, farmers, and so on); it was cheap for them to live there, and smoke their dope without much hassling from the few cops out there. They are still there, involved in the county government now, and their spawn tend to reflect their not-so-trifling ways.

I used to look at them in disdain. Now I hold them in the deepest contempt. This is their legacy.....a legacy of hate. I won't shoot the bastards (not even in the leg), but they crossed the line, and no one can pretend any more that it's just politics.

If those bastards don't know this, then they are bigger fools than we can ever imagine. But I suspect that a few do know it......and don't care.

What I truly dont understand is how some people - having been born and raised here - can hate this country as they do. Because you have to hate the US to do something as vile and detestable as this.

And the sad reality is that these folks have probebly never lived anywhere else and under a different system of government. I imagine that if they had had to live in a place like Cuba - where even speaking about fidel castro's health is grounds for incarceration - they would have a little more respect for this country and those who sacrificed and gave their all for it.

I wish I could say that I would not resort to violence against thiese pricks, but Im afraid that if I would have caught them in the act, well, lets just say it wouldnt have been pretty.

Val,
It's because in spite of all their carpering about "diversity" and showing love for the dumb, helpless little brown peoples of the Third World (that's the way THEY think of them, not ME) and all that bullshit, they're still provincial, ignorant little fucks who don't know anything else. It's easy to hate this country and see it only for its faults when you've never lived in or studied about one that's worse.

It's easy to hate this country and see it only for its faults when you've never lived in or studied about one that's worse.

And they're pretty much all worse. About the best you can do is "no better".

And when your teachers and the media drone on and on and endlessly on about America's faults, and belittle its virtues -- and when you're kinda dumb -- then it's not too hard to believe you're living in some sort of Orwellian nightmare. (Especially when all you know about Orwell is that it really impresses your fellow "intellectuals" when you invoke his name.)

Of course, they could just be punks.