Patriotism down your throat

Returning from a overlong Fourth of July weekend, filled with beer, BBQs and baseball, it's clear that a patriotic frenzy is going to be visited upon our collective asses this election season. Baseball led the way with their 'Welcome Back Veterans' extravaganza this weekend with caps all blue, some uniforms changed to look like desert camis... the horror. They claim, of course, this is apolitical, a filthy lie. This is due to be repeated this September 11 as well. The mind boggles at what football might do to top it.

The NYT took a look at giant American flags at sporting events, and reported the warning from a manufacturer of some of the mega-flags:

“It’s a feeling. It’s a feeling that takes over a whole stadium. If anyone in the stands opened their mouth and objected, there would be hell to pay.”

The Triumph of the Will lives on. There will be no free speech zones in America's stadiums and ballparks in our wondrous future.

Since much of sports is now being sponsored by the DoD, this is right and proper. Treating returning veterans as charity cases can let the military budget off the hook, and allow more recruitment advertising. Everybody wins!

The real impact of all this faldural might be to increase the chances of McCain getting elected, and to help to conceal the uncomfortable fact that the country and the world has real problems that should be urgently addressed. Since both presidential candidates, both political parties, and the media are fully on board with the Bush administration's head in the sand, steal all you can approach to policy, it has a good chance of working up to the elections.