Monkeys Who Say "YES!" as Icaraus Plummets From the Sky

 Frankly, if I were the flag, I’d be completely, tuckered out. The marketplace for patriotism has the Stars and Stripes working overtime – Particia J Williams – The Nation – 7/5/10 p9


And what does the Flag Code have to say about Patriotic Display? And is it law if it is not enforceable? Yes, it is part of the US Code – it was enacted by Congress – law is usually enforceable but not necessarily. In the case of the Flag Code you may be in violation of the specific legislation (law) but not subject to any official censure. Some common but improper usages of the American flag include:

          - Displaying the flag out of doors at night without it being properly lit
          - Displaying a non all-weather flag out of door on an inclement day
          - Displaying a flag out-of-doors on other than a stationary flagstaff or from a building for other than
                       patriotic  purposes
          - Carrying the flag in a procession in a position other than on the marching right (you motorists –
                       move  that flag to the right side of the vehicle)
          - Flying another flag or pennant higher than the US flag (unless you are a Naval Chaplain)
          - Displaying a flag of another nation or international organization in place of the US flag (unless done at
                       the UN Headquarters in New York City).
          - Displaying the US flag on the same staff as that of another national flag
          - Leaving a flag on a casket that is lowered into a grave
          - Dipping a flag to honor a person or thing
          - Carrying the flag horizontally (see images)
          - Using a flag or the flag design in apparel, bedding or drapery (no flag underwear, don’t wrap
                     yourself in the flag)
          - Displaying a flag that is festooned, drawn back, drawn up, hung in folds or touching the ground or
                     floor
          - Displaying a flag from the radio antenna of your car or behind your motorcycle (it is being used in a
                    manner in which it can be easily torn, soiled or damaged – an if you do this at least display it on
                    the right side of your vehicle, and by all means, make sure that it is an all-weather flag)
          - Using any flag part (or flag design) as a costume or athletic uniform. The one exception is a flag
                    patch, which can be affixed to the uniform of military, fire, police or patriotic organization
                   uniforms. No more flag label pins folks.

Is it not ironic that much patriotic display (or what purports to be patriotic display) is in violation of United States Code (and these are the same folks who decried flag burning which is in accord with the Code if burning it in protest - your right to free speech). But you are safe as no federal agency has the authority to issue “official” rulings binding on civilians or civilian groups regarding the usage of the flag. But this leaves open whether state or local agencies can – I did not find any instances where they have which doesn't mean that none do.  There are a few enforceable violations – k nowingly mutilating, defacing, maintaining on the floor or trampling upon it. You are allowed to burn if your are either disposing of a damaged flag or if done as an act of protest. Happy Birthday America!

Repression diminishes a man as much as promiscuity – Victor Serge – The Unforgiving Years, 2007 p26

Relationships are exclusions – all that is outside, stays on the outside if a relationship is to work. They believe they are coming, but they are really going. They do not know this now, but they will

In you everything provokes, everything sings / Like an Italian roulade, / And a cherry mouth / Demands a dry vineyard – Osip Mandelstam – Tristia, 1987 p79

Science asks how
We want to know
       Why
The difference
        Is somewhere between
The symbol and its meaning
And we don’t even know
       Where
The blue pine forest / is chained to my leg. / The view around is wide open, / like a messenger without orders – Osip Mandelstam – The Voronezh Notebooks, 1996p62

The Haitian Revolution
The Execution of Sacco
         And Vanzetti
How can these be compared
To Mussolini making
         The trains run on time


Discent can have fatal
Consequences – engage
         In it
         With a heavy heart


There is more to community values
Than preserving housing prices


Brutal winter will toast us / with cold and clear Rhine wine // The frost offers us in a silver pail / the white wine of Valhalla – Osip Mandelstam – Tristia, 1987 tia p31


Careers are built
On what matters
           Our canons shout this


It is left to poetry to
Proclaim what careers
          Omit


Lincoln scholarship
           Is safe scholarship

History should not be written to make the present generation feel good but to remind us that human affairs are complicated – Margaret MacMillan

There yet remains a universe
       Of existence beyond
The mainstream
Which also is not at all a part of any
       Backwater

Survival is a kind of philosophical life – Raymond Federman – The Twofold Vibration, 1982 p85

Icaraus always falls into an horizon – a bit player in his own drama

Oh, the meager wrap of our life, / Like the thin language of joy! / All things were in ancient times, / All will be again and only the instant / of recognition is sweet to us – Osip Mandelstam – Tristia, 1987 p41

We devise processes that then process us – we think but rarely think about what we think about – life escapes its material existence via man.

People drawn by the black words flattened and disseminated on the surface of the paper inside the black inkblood, that was the challenge, never to speak the reality of the event but to render it concrete into the blackness of the words – Raymond Federman – The Twofold Vibration, 1982 p118

The universe it turns out has a resonance of ten cycles per second and when we get detuned from it bad things happen to us – “we tend to over analyze, and have negative thoughts”  – it’s something like Nike's slogan – “just be in the Yes!” “Put your feet firmly on the planet. Think the thought ‘Yes’” – Oh yes (Sue Morter)