Monday, July 04, 2011

Waving the Flag

September 11th

Happy Independence Day to all our readers in the USA! And to anyone else who wants to share a beer and a burger on the back deck with the rest of us Americans.

I may be (heck, I know I am) oversensitive and paranoid, but does anyone else find it strange that Google’s Fourth of July doodle does not have an American flag among its iconic representations of the USA?

Go over and check it out — it has the Statue of Liberty, the Golden Gate Bridge, fireworks, an eagle, a guitar with a pumpkin (?), and other odds and ends of traditional American iconography. But no flag.

Accidental or deliberate?

An oversight, or subliminal NWO conditioning?

You decide.


Considering that Gates of Vienna concentrates on the resistance to Islamization in Europe, we have a surprisingly large number of American readers. Only a small portion of them comment, but we know they’re out there because of their steady 50+% in our traffic stats.

We also have a lot of Americans among our donors. This is a nation of generous and open-handed people.

So here’s to our fellow countrymen on this, the 235th anniversary of our independence!

Our deep gratitude to everyone who supported us during the Recent Unpleasantness. It’s not a personal battle, although it sometimes feels like one, and personal support from our regular readers makes it easier to deal with.

Many thanks to everyone, and have a great Fourth!

We’re having huge thunderstorms here, so I was forced to post this using dialup…


Note: This is a festive post. Please refrain from unpleasant and contentious comments on sensitive topics. You all know what those are. You can discuss them somewhere else, or at another time. We all need a break.

14 comments:

Book Solutions for Liberty said...

"a guitar with a pumpkin (?)"
Now, that's spooky.

Happy 4th to you, friend!
L

Van Grungy said...

Golden gate bridge?

San Fran is the opposite of America..

lets all not pray for its redemption..

what's the point of trying anyways..

Zonka said...

Happy 4th of July to y'all, and keep up the good work and fight the good fight...

EscapeVelocity said...

God Bless America!

Baron Bodissey said...

Thank you, Zonka! Great to hear from you. Long time no see.

X said...

Sea to shining sea eh? I guess they tried, at least.

Conservative Swede said...

God save the Americans!

EscapeVelocity said...

"While the storm clouds gather far across the sea / Let us swear allegiance to a land that's free / Let us all be grateful for a land so fair, / As we raise our voices in a solemn prayer."



God Bless America Irving Berlin - Kate Smith First

The song was a hit; there was even a movement to make "God Bless America" the national anthem of the United States.[citation needed] However, there was strong opposition[citation needed] by conservative southerners as well as conservatives who lived in rural areas where there were no Jews living in it,[clarification needed] stating that because Irving Berlin was a foreigner and a Jew, that they would not accept their national anthem to be composed by a member of the minority class.[citation needed] Congress would have had to repeal the "Star Spangled Banner" in both houses by two-thirds of the votes.[dubious – discuss][citation needed]

In 1943, Smith's rendition was featured in the patriotic musical "This is the Army" along with other Berlin songs. The manuscripts in the Library of Congress reveal the evolution of the song from victory to peace. Berlin gave the royalties of the song to the God Bless America Fund for Redistribution to the Boy Scouts of America and the Girl Scouts of the USA. She performed the song on her two NBC television series in the 1950s and in her short-lived The Kate Smith Show on CBS, which aired on CBS from January 25 to July 18, 1960.[4]

Woody Guthrie disliked the song, and wrote "This Land Is Your Land", originally titled "God Blessed America For Me", as a response to "God Bless America".[5]

philip.zhao said...

God Bless America !!

By the way, the song was written by Irving Berlin, a Jew!

Westward Ho said...

I may be (heck, I know I am) oversensitive and paranoid, but does anyone else find it strange that Google’s Fourth of July doodle does not have an American flag among its iconic representations of the USA?

Looking on the bright side, at least there's no mosque! ;-)

Hesperado said...

The capital G is reminiscent of the "Crescent of Embrace" -- the unmainstreamly controversial post-modern architectural memorial for Flight 93 (the plane that crashed in Pennsylvania on 9/11) which many say looks oddly (or suspiciously) like an Islamic crescent.

The architect was Paul Murdoch, who disingenuously denied any conscious intention to inject Islamic themes, including the qibla, into his Flight 93 Memorial project (see here for more).

Anonymous said...

Of course it does not. What do you expect from the "management" of Google?

Anonymous said...

Van Grungy, read the comments on any political topic, in the San Francisco Chronicle. Despite our horrible government and MSM, the real America is alive and well here. Happy 4th to all.

Zenster said...

Happy birthday, America. Long may Old Glory wave!