Posted on 06/18/2007 4:38:38 AM PDT by PJ-Comix
Oh the horror! The absolute HORROR! Come with me and watch this tale of woe as a poor widdle DUmmie had his sacred virginal ears exposed to the (GASP!) national anthem. You can read all about this violation of his human rights in this DUmmie THREAD. So, DUmmie, can we NOW question your patriotism? Let us now watch the DUmmie writh in agony at this exposure to the national anthem in Bolshevik Red while the commentary of your humble correspondent, never before realizing what a fascist Francis Scott Key was, is in the [brackets]:
Was at the car place getting the car serviced, and all of a sudden, the P.A. system broke into a flag saluting bloisterous voice of the National Anthem. I couldn't avoid it any place on the premises, as I was already outside sitting on the curb. Felt like I was in some natzi camp getting ready for the showers. Needless to say, I voiced my opinion on the matter to the management. Told them that I was not at a sporting event, funeral, union meeting, blah blah and asked him when Wagner was scheduled. Told them that the National Anthem blasting at the car dealership was nationalistic and a bit over the top and creepy. What do you think?
[I think you have a strong case for the Hague against that car place for causing a crime against humanity by subjecting your progressive ears to the national anthem.]
We are headed down the slippery slope. I have a feeling that in the coming years, Americans are going to wish they had paid closer attention in History.
[First you hear the national anthem in public and the next thing you know you are forcibly marched into a Wal-Mart detention center. It is indeed a slippery slope.]
I'm with Luis Bunuel: I don't even want to hear it at sporting events. Of course some people would say that this makes me unpatriotic. To which I would reply: bullshit, it just makes me nonjingoistic and nonnationalistic.
[It makes you a nonrational DUmmie like Luis Bunuel.]
I could do without it there too, but then I don't go to sporting events, so I don't have to be bothered with that.
[Good news! Bukowski's doesn't play the national anthem at drinking events.]
Is Houston the only place that has replaced "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" with "God Bless America" (at least the last time I was at a game)? I was floored. I wouldn't stand, as it is not our national anthem. My husband was afraid I was going to get lynched.
[How about if we play the DUmmie anthem... "They're Coming To Take Me Away!"]
I share your creep-itude. I wish more people truly understood the difference between patriotism and nationalism. Or jingoism.
[USA! USA! USA! Thus began the Third American Empire.
Was this a national/regional chain, or a private garage? That would have given me the creeps, too. Good for you for speaking out.
[So you got the creeps every day in school when they played the national anthem?]
I'll bet you're not the only one who didn't like being assaulted by the loud music. Anybody trying to have a conversation or who was making a phone call would be annoyed, I would think.
[FUnnie how you complain about the national anthem but not about loud rap music full of N-words and F-words. That stuff assaults my ears almost daily.]
Smart business people stay out of politics...
[Only a DUmmie could see playing the national anthem as being politically partisan.]
I don't think you should have voiced your complaint. They probably just think you're a jerk, now.
[Along with the thousands of DUFU readers who think the same thing.]
It wasn't a car wash on a military base, was it? You get treated to the tune twice a day, when the flag goes up, and when it comes down--they DO give you a warning, though, so you can run for cover and not get stuck standing and saluting in a parking lot halfway to your car....
[WARNING! WARNING! Your liberal ears are about to be subjected to the national anthem! All DUmmies are advised to enter protective shelters until the cessation of this song!]
I'm tired of war-mongering, and that song is a celebration of a moment in war.
[It celebrates the moment when the war-mongering fascists in Ft. McHenry withstood a British bombardment.]
“Reveille is played at flag raising, and Retreat is played at flag lowering.”
Thank you. I was in a hurry this morning and did not make this point. In 25 years, I have yet to hear the Anthem as that DUmmie mentioned.
“If it was, it certainly smoked them out, didn’t it?”
You started this, didn’t you? LOL. I won’t tell anyone.
“To The Color” is what I always heard in school.
LOTS of lightning today. When they hit I was sure glad I unplugged my computer. Anyway, the trick is to let the initial heavy rain and lightning pass and then go outdoors.
You know, I thought it used to be true that during a storm, one should shut off all electrical things, including the computer--but that it's not true any more.
Enlighten please.
Out here in the Sandhills of Nebraska, some years more than other years, but definitely this year, we get thunderstorms of immeasurable magnitude, and here I sit, merrily punching away on the keyboard as miles-long lengths of lightning thunder all around.
In case someone doesn't know this a single Sandhills thunderstorm of moderate or mild magnitude packs more "punch" than all of the man-made nuclear devices in the world put together.
Now, I wouldn't be sitting here, merrily punching away, but I've heard the past few years that it's no longer true that one has to shut everything down during a thunderstorm.
Once again, a DUmmie spouting off his/her fantasy. Only the severely mentally retarded would "think" things such as this...
I started reading this thread when my 7 year old came by to cover the Loony Left cartoon. He said, “That’s scary.”
I wonder does this DUmmie not realize that it was that "moment in war" and many more like it that gained it its' freedom!
The thought of the “foul footsteps pollution” comes to mind regarding DU.
I’m glad you got the rain, we have a drought here in central Indiana.
I believe it's up to the camp commander what is played. To the Color and Reveille are both bugle calls that have been used for raising the flag.
I wish I could recall what calls were used both at Ft. Hood and in Germany, but I can't.
Well, I've seen my share of components fried from a power surge, I'll continue to unplug whenever a storm threatens. And that's even with surge protection in line.
Now, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute, sir.
I grew up with this notion that one was to shut off, and if possible unplug, sensitive electrical appliances during a thunderstorm, and I used to do that.
But now I’m wondering if, while it seems reasonable and makes sense in theory, on paper, if it is one of those phenomenons that just never happens.
I got suspicious about this when I left the big cities and moved back to rural Nebraska, where I resumed the habits and customs of childhood, including this turning-off-and-unplugging things.
But one night I happened to be in a lonely isolated house in the Sandhills, during a violent thunderstorm; the whole family was there as the lightning thundered and roared and hail pelted down.
Papa was in his easy-chair, watching television. Mama was on the land-wired telephone, chitchatting. The kids were doing kid things on the computer. The dishwasher was running, the top of the electric stove was heaped with simmering food, the washing machine was running, and I assume (not having any way of knowing) the radio was blaring.
I commented, “Uh, folks, there’s a storm outside; is it really safe to have all this electricity running around?”
They looked at me as if I were Bozo from Outer Space.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, Papa said; we know that, but while it makes sense in theory and on paper, have you ever known of it to actually happen, the television exploding, the telephone electrocuting, the computer dying?
I stopped in my tracks.
No, while all my life I had heard that such was supposed to happen, I was not personally acquainted with any instance where it actually happened.
This was six years ago, and since that first summer back in rural Nebraska, I’ve had ample opportunities to discuss the issue with others; yeah, they’ve heard of it, and it makes sense, but.....it never happens.
The question was expanded to include “have you ever read any stories in the newspapers about such catastrophes; the explosions, the property damage, the electrocutions?”
Nope, nobody even if 90 years old could recall even reading one single newspaper story about such an event.
The question was expanded further to include “have you ever heard any credible second- or third-hand rumors about such a thing ever happening to a remote someone, such as a former neighbor’s grandfather’s ex-brother-in-law’s third cousin down in Texas or Florida or something?”
Nope, even the sharpest ears had never heard a credible second- or third-hand rumor about such an event happening to some stranger.
Along the way, I did encounter one person who knew a person who had won the Powerball lottery jackpot—the odds at the time being 1-in-147,000,000, making that a very rare person indeed for one to have known.
Now, I would NOT recommend anybody else follow my advice—since it seems reasonable in theory and on paper, it just might happen—but as for me, myself, while lightning is crashing through the windows here and the cats are cowering in cold terror underneath the bed, I sit in front of the computer, nonchalantly keyboarding away without a care in the world.
Frank:
I used to repair PC’s. And part of my repair work always involved boards, cards, modems, etc. that were fried during electrical storms. And, I’m not talking all that long ago, and I’m including hardware behind surge protection.
FWIW, I shut down, unplug, then go find a good book. Or, I may take the moment to enjoy one of my fine bourbons and some good jazz (if the hour allows). Oh, and I don’t include household appliances or TV’s in this; just my computer hardware.
The other thing is, we have our own electric utility in our town. There are times where, inexplicably, power has gone out. At such times, I always unplug my computer equipment to prevent any ‘surge’ occurring when the power comes back on.
I guess I’m just a cautionary guy :)
There’s nothing wrong with being cautionary; I’m ultra-cautious myself, being about the last Republican in Nebraska to dump Hagel, for example, because I want to be sure a ship’s sinking before I abandon it.
Nebraska, being sparsely populated outside of Omaha and Lincoln, is served by mom-and-pop telephone companies, because during the heyday of the old AT&T, it wasn’t considered a big enough of a “market” for that giant to serve.
These small businesses of course have expanded over the years, from telephones into cable television and internet service.
They find that telephone, television, and internet usage actually spikes—and quite a bit—during thunderstorms, even though in theory and on paper, it should evaporate, as your own experiences and observations have shown.
Life, as you know, is if nothing else, chance and luck, despite all “plans,” “precautions,” and well-thought-out procedures. This in fact is one of the basic tenets of Christianity (and just about every other religion)—despite that man thinks he can “control” something, oops, he can’t.
The day after Christmas, well into the middle of January, the area around here was without electricity, due to extremely high winds and ice knocking down transmission towers. Five other far-flung residences and I are at the far edge of this public power system (Nebraska has no privately-owned electrical utilities), the most primitive and last-maintained.
We miniscule few had no problems, no problems at all, and plenty of electricity, while thousands of others went without. And this, on the weakest and least-updated portion of the entire system.
Some people are just lucky, and of course I and all these others who use the telephone, the television, and the computer during thunderstorms, know that, and are appreciative of our good luck.
But what use is good luck unless one uses it?
My guess would be those spikes were from people trying to remain in touch during bad or scary weather. But certainly, not all storms will shut down service. Or as in towns and cities, parts of the grid may be affected while others aren't. Often, services remain active in very spotty, goofy patterns.
I'm not saying that just because a storm is due to pass through I automatically shut my system down. Yesterday we had some storms come through with thunder off to the South (that's most often the course). I stayed online throughout. Unless it bears right down on us, or it's slated to be sometime overnight, I won't shut down. For those possible overnight occasions I do, because I just don't want to take the chance, or have to get up in the middle of the night to fool with it.
I guess I'm basically lazy that way :)
Nothing wrong with that, sir, and you’ve obviously seen things I’ve never seen in my life, fried computers.
Incidentally, as for weather conditions, after I moved and changed from land-line internet service to wireless, I noticed weather conditions DO affect the internet (wireless).
The problem being, it’s the weather in southern Minnesota and western Utah, not the weather above me, that does it; I assume, without really know what I’m talking about, it’s maybe perhaps possibly because the local internet service provider uses some antennae in those areas to bring the internet here to the Sandhills of Nebraska.
Oh, yes. My laptop's wireless but I have it wired ethernet to a wireless router most of the time. I only use wireless if I have it away from the desk. But in those circumstances, I've seen more 'fluctuations' in signal during weather events; if not downright outages.
I also had a Dell tower hooked up in a mini network with the laptop, but retired it (mostly) a couple months ago after repeated problems with Windows 2000. Now, I have Ubuntu Linux on it, and only use it for transferring albums over to CD. I can't use the laptop because laptop sound cards don't provide the 'line in' plug which is the plug wired for stereo. The cards are usually too small to handle the extra plug.
There's always something... :)
Didn’t the law recently change, so that veterans and soldiers in civilian clothes can now salute the Colors at present arms?
I spent last week billeted at Fort Myer, VA. When retreat is sounded, people who are inside parked cars jump out, come to attention, and proudly salute when To The Colors is played. As did I.
Anyway, these DU dummies are not as harmless as they seem. Anywhere tyranny comes to power, the line to the KGB or Gestapo recruiting office wraps around the block. Staffed by these kind of people.
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