• Red SKELTON reciting Pledge of Allegiance

    This is a fine rendition:

    http://media.causes.com/604250?p_id=42563578

    P.S. A member wrote me wondering what my comment would be regarding Red's reading of the Pledge, had I made one.

    I posted it originally as just to be thought-provoking. I recall that Red was very formative to my sense of humor because my Dad was a big fan. He would let out a roar and if it missed me I would ask him for a brief explanation why he thought it funny. So I have fond memories associated with the Red Skelton Show.

    Like the member who questioned me for a comment, I too have mixed feelings about American History and its reflection in the Pledge of Allegiance. The main one with Red though seems to be a current events comment for the time, about some secular humanist philosophy putting the "IN GOD WE TRUST" trust into it (maybe). It did seem as though Red was commenting about a specific petition to remove God from the Pledge.


    Regards,

    David Merrill.
    Comments 5 Comments
    1. motla68's Avatar
      motla68 -
      Unfortunately as much as we were raised to pledge to this flag, plain and simple it is a form of idol worship with a bunch of sugar coating on top. When we bind ourselves to these things on earth we limit our existence to who we are in the image of the creator, not to the image of some flag or a statute in a harbor. The other thing is the openness to black politics in this. The bible says we are not to add or take away from his word, but we do that every time we elect ourselves to be surety for the instruments upon this earth. tyranny has a back door and it is called convenience, this country has survived man years without credit cards or loans and then the bankers come in and waive their Golden Carrot around making us think it is almost free when it actually robs the nation of it;s wealth via IMF bailout attached to all these instruments of convenience.
      Certain president's tried to warn us I believe, but were muted by the control that banks already had on the treasury.
    1. Darkcrusade's Avatar
      Darkcrusade -
      Under the flag code, as modified by the Second National Flag Conference in 1924, the old straight-arm salute was mandatory for school children. U. S. school children's straight-arm salute to their flag and Nazis' salute to their Führer is the same.
      http://religiousfreedom.lib.virginia...ne_v_gobi.html
      In a 1940 Supreme Court ruling that upheld state laws mandating recitation of the Pledge (Minersville School District v. Gobitis), Felix Frankfurter asserted that "Conscientious scruples have not, in the course of the long struggle for toleration, relieved the individual from obedience to a general law.

      In Litchfield, Illinois, "an angry crowd spread an American flag on the hood of a car and watched while a man repeatedly smashed the head of a Witness upon it."
      http://www.whitman.edu/rhetoric/deci...ginia-flag.htm

      "I hoped to beat up these people," one enforcer of patriotic virtue said after he and other members of the Greatest Generation took part in the Litchfield pogrom. "Why, they wouldn't even salute the flag! We almost beat one guy to death to make him kiss the flag."Those were extreme measures, of course, but they were tragically necessary in order to make the infidel make Islam (submission) to the divine State and its sacred totem.

      While officially sanctioned persecution of Witnesses by FDR's corporatist state wasn't nearly as intense, at least 1,500 members of the sect were assaulted in more than 300 separate attacks following the Gobitis ruling.

      "In Imperial, a town outside Pittsburgh, a mob descended on a small group of Witnesses and pummeled them mercilessly," recounts Gordon. "One Witness was beaten unconscious, and those who fled were cornered by ax- and knife-wielding men riding the town's fire truck as someone yelled, `Get the ropes! Bring the flag!'"


      http://freedominourtime.blogspot.com...-imperium.html
    1. Darkcrusade's Avatar
      Darkcrusade -
    1. allodial's Avatar
      allodial -
      "Allegiance to the flag/Flag"
      Could be construed to refer to allegiance to a flag officer such as a commander in chief (relevant might also be Article II, Section 2, Clause I of the Constitution--a kind of ...commission, no?)

      The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States, when called into the actual Service of the United States; he may require the Opinion, in writing, of the principal Officer in each of the executive Departments, upon any Subject relating to the Duties of their respective Offices, and he shall have Power to grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offenses against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment.
      A flag officer is a commissioned officer in a nation's armed forces senior enough to be entitled to fly a flag to mark where the officer exercises command. The term usually refers to the senior officers in an English-speaking nation's navy, specifically those who hold any of the admiral ranks; in some cases it applies also to those holding the rank of commodore. In U.S. usage it is additionally applied to general officers in the Army, Air Force, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard entitled to fly their own flags.


      1916-1945.



      1945-.


      Current U.S. Secretary of Defense's flag--note four stars (General/Admiral of the Army/Navy).

      There has never been a single (as in only one and no more) commander in chief in the United States of America. Even today (Edmund Gerald Brown, Jr. as) the Governor of California is the commander in chief of the military forces of California.

    1. allodial's Avatar
      allodial -



      To reiterate ... by 1892 when the "Pledge of Allegiance" was said to have been created, it would have been widely known that the word 'flag' could refer to a flag officer. The U.S. Constitution apparently made provisions for at least one. If it isnt obviated enough consider the geniuses that go around talking about their "commander in chief" (flag officer).

      The paraphernalia of nationism is quite new. Even flag-worship is new. In the late nineteenth century "Old Glory" was indeed a popular emblem, so popular that merchants used it to hawk corsets, cough drops, and player pianos. There was nothing sacred then about the flag, precisely because the cult of the nation did not yet exist. The elaborate etiquette that now surrounds the national regalia was not concocted until 1923, the handiwork of the War Department and the newly formed American Legion. The object of the flag code was to transform the country's banner into a semi-holy talisman and so give the abstraction called the nation a semblance of life. No doubt the War Department half succeeded. When certain anti-Vietnam War protesters wanted to enrage their fellow citizens they burned American flags, proving how caught up in the flag cult, one way or another, most Americans had become. Why Johnny Can't Read
      The phrase, "Under God," was added by Congress and President Eisenhower in 1954 at the urging of the Knights of Columbus(7). (Source: The Strange Origin of the Pledge of Allegiance)
      The American Legion's constitution includes the following goal: "To foster and perpetuate a one hundred percent Americanism." one of its major standing committees was the "Americanism Commission" and its subsidiary, the "Counter Subversive Activities Committee." (ibid)
      The Strange Origin of the Pledge of Allegiance
      The Rise of American Fascism

      Perhaps if you live in a military district, you're expected to swear allegiance or presumed to have sworn allegiance to one or more flag officers of the United States.