Seriously, whatever you may think of the music (not going to argue that at all), the verbiage and the story it tells is actually pretty nifty.

In current, non-poetic language:

Hey, can you see that flag? We saw it last night at sunset, and we saw it occasionally through the night from the big explosions and stuff. Now it’s dawn – can you see it? Has our army withstood the assault, or did they surrender?

That’s it. It’s flowery poetry stuff, and it’s old. Yay. Go read bloody ANYTHING ELSE poetic from more than 100 years ago, and tell me this is any worse.

Burning a flag is a clear message to the state from the people that we don’t like what it’s doing. It should fall under 1st amendment protections.

That one always seemed really odd to me – it’s my property, I can burn it. What I SAY by that is irrelevant. It’s mine; I can burn it.

Now, there are laws about when and how things may be burned in public, and if they are reasonable and being enforced evenly, then fine (public safety). But otherwise…

It’s mine; I can burn it. What is the 1st Amendment crap people are tacking on the end?

(Actually, this reminds me of the brisk business people over in the Middle East run in Israeli flags – gotta buy em before you can burn em, eh? Kinda funny, really.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhnUgAaea4M

And to any red-necked, knuckle-dragging Copenhagen dippers who want to write/shout at me, “U!S!A!,” “love it or leave it,” etc., etc., ad nauseam, take a good look at the flag you wank off to. It was probably made in China.

Nancy Lebovitz @17 — Rand was talking about The Internationale (also answered @50, I see now). She also liked The Song of the Broken Glasses, which has always intrigued me. I halfway suspect that might be the tune they use in “The Devil’s Ball” when the wine glasses are breaking each other.

Other Sean @30 — Albert Brooks did a great routine about rewriting the national anthem (“Nobody sings it on the way to work any more…”). It’s at YouTube, and also on his first album, “Comedy Minus One.”

I’d also support any other Mojo Nixon song.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8C7i9kdEf8

John M. Burt (#79):“It would serve us right if, when the last U.S. troops were withdrawn from Afghanistan, an Afghan chorus were to serenade us with the third verse.“

Speak for yourself. I didn’t send the troops there and if the powers that be had asked me, I’d have told them to spend their own damned money on that nation-building project.

Also, considering that the ultimate victors once the US military pulls out will be one or another type of theocratic autocracy, I see no reason to cite any verse about a “land of the free” in that hell hole. I pity the civilian who is caught in the middle, and the grunt with his boots in the sand taking orders from those who truly deserve derision, watching his friends get killed for no good reason.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident: That all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these rights are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness…”

So yes, according to First Principles as well as our nation’s founding document, it is a birthright. Other countrys’ governments violating that right does not invalidate it, nor does it give our government the moral authority to do the same.

But here’s an idea: what if we were to adopt a very widespread song, L’Internationale, but give it our own lyrics:

All people are created equal
With rights to life and liberty
The State must be the People’s servant
That they might be safe and free
And if the State should shirk its duty
The People then must stand
Their right’s to alter or abolish it
And remake it by their hand

I’m only about half joking here . . . .

*It would serve us right if, when the last U.S. troops were withdrawn from Afghanistan, an Afghan chorus were to serenade us with the third verse.

Gentry Semper Fi (#33): “AS IN: If You Don’t Like It Get The F*$K OUT“

I was with you on the meaning of the song, until you started channeling the ghost of Spiro Agnew with his ridiculous “Love it or leave it” bullshit.

While Native Americans likely have the most valid reason to tell others to leave, the people who usually toss that cliche around, in my experience, are people who are least deserving of the title of American. When some Democrat/”liberal” asshole wants to transform the US into a socialist paradise and thinks my freedom-oriented objections are an impedance, they tell me that the “will of the people” trumps my “extremism” and that I should leave if I don’t care for the whims of the mob. Not that you’re like them, as far as I can tell, but I think you’re also wrong with this:

Gentry Semper Fi (#76): “The rights you and Patrick Popehat want to change were given to you by Men and Women willing to stand up for something bigger than themslves…“

Nobody gives rights to anyone. Rights are inalienable, even for people born in China, North Korea, etc.. Governments violate those rights, but they can’t nullify them any more than they can create them. Rights are not the product of any political or military action, but the logical result of us being rational beings.

It may be necessary to use military force or political resistance to protect our rights, i.e., to stop others from violating them. I, for one, am grateful to those who honorably risk their lives in that effort, though I would emphasize that this applies only in situations where the lives or freedom of Americans are actually at risk.

Brandon; My credibility is neither false or fictious MOS: 0331 11-84~85 Marine Barracks NAS ADAK AK. > 11-85~1-87 Aco. 1st Bn. 5th Marines > 1-87~5-88 Persian Gulf + Operation: Earnest Will > 5-88~1-89 HQco. SS plt 24th Marines..

Now ask the citizens of China, North Korea, Russia, Syria &/or Iran if Free Speech is a “Birthright”?
The rights you and Patrick Popehat want to change were given to you by Men and Women willing to stand up for something bigger than themslves, endure a 25 hour bombardment by “Rockets Red Glare and Gave Proof, that yes The Flag Was Still There”!! And yes I will be the first, to stand with you and defend your Free Speech rights, but I also reserve my Free Speech right to tell Patrick or you your wrong. To respect the history that went into the adaptation of the National Anthem & Pledge..

There’s bound to be some ‘look at me’ in any movement. I think there’s still a fair amount of legitimate outrage at the preeminence of the state over the people. Burning a flag is a clear message to the state from the people that we don’t like what it’s doing. It should fall under 1st amendment protections. These people don’t need to be dealt with.

If “crowd pressure” is enough to compel you to stand, then try reciting the first paragraph of the Declaration of Independence instead.