Spanning the State: Kiss my ass, George III Edition

Carla Axtman

Happy Birthday, USA! We love ya!

From yesterday's Hillsboro Rotary 4th of July Parade (Yes, held on the 3rd. But it was still awesome):

Now, let's Span the State!

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I don't know if there's just something in the water or if we're in for a long slog of weird wild animal altercations, but there's been a rash of them this week.

In Ashland, a couple walking their dogs near the post office were attacked by a doe, who reared up on her hind legs and went after the dogs. The week before in Cave Junction, a dog sitting on a porch was killed by a doe. Local authorities say they've received five calls in recent weeks from people reporting deer attacks. Steve Niemela, an assistant biologist with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife says that the aggressive behavior by deer, who are normally docile creatures, can often be seen during late June and early July as they are protecting their young.

A black bear who biologists say was likely kicked out of his territory by a bigger, stronger bear headed in to Sisters this week in an apparent attempt to look for new digs. The bear ran up a tree and was eventually coaxed down by the promise of cantaloupe and barbecue sauce. Authorities believe the bear is relatively docile as they think it's the same bear they'd seen earlier in the week being chased by a deer. Poor bear..what a rough week.

A Beaverton couple got a jolt this week when a coyote charged their dog while it was off-leash during their walk along a wooded trail. At first they believed it was another dog, but the aggressive behavior by the animal indicated to them that it was in fact a coyote. The dog and the couple were unharmed.

Oregon film producer Eric Edmonds of Clatskanie produced a short film that was shot and edited entirely on an Apple iPhone 4. The film, entitled "Apple of My Eye" was uploaded to YouTube and Vimeo, generating a national buzz.

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    Pet peeve #601

    I counted about 16 or so violations of the Flag Code.

    Section 8. [b]Respect for flag

    (d) The flag should never be used as wearing apparel, bedding, or drapery. It should never be festooned, drawn back, nor up, in folds, but always allowed to fall free. Bunting of blue, white, and red, always arranged with the blue above, the white in the middle, and the red below, should be used for covering a speaker's desk, draping the front of the platform, and for decoration in general.

    (j) No part of the flag should ever be used as a costume or athletic uniform.

    Back in the day, DFH's were punched out or arrested for wearing flag shirts or pants and now every Tom, Dick and Mary put on their "Sunshine patriots" costume and eat off of flag plates, blow their noses in flag handkerchiefs, and generally have no idea that there even is a flag code.

    The hypocrisy is stunning on both sides of the aisle.

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      Grant Remington, Well, it would seem that having violations of the flag code be allowed or ignored is definitely preferable to having violators of said code be punched out, IMHO.

      You should lighen up about this, anyway. Any flag is only as good as whatever history and current reality it represents, and, on that score, the United States' flag is definitely no better and is actually worse than other flags, based on what the U.S. has done to other countries and peoples and also constitutional violations that have affected U.S. citizens.

      What would the Iranian flag represent if the U.S. CIA had not overthrown Mossadegh in '53? What would the Haitian flag represent if the U.S. hadn't battered that poor country for over a century and, also, currently refuses to recognize its majority party (Lavalas) and kidnapped its elected president in 2004? What does the Rwandan flag currently represent (autocratic government and invasions and genocide in the Congo, with U.S. support)?

      And on and on.

      In 1969, old-style Republican Senator Everett Dirksen gave a speech in the U.S. Senate which consisted of him reading a laundry list of all U.S. foreign interventions that have been undertaken since the founding of the U.S. The list was long- at least one per year, on average, since the founding of the country.

      What does the United States' flag represent?

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