The Liberal Avenger: Freedom Walk Dog Tags

A Massachusetts born and bred, Berkeley-educated, liberal coming to you from beautiful blue New England...

Best of LiberalAvenger.com:

The sordid tale of Michelle Malkin and her puppeteer husband Jesse - two voices, acting as one, wrapped up in a pretty package. Easy-to-digest racism for the masses.

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Writers

"At times, conservatives have even trod into arguing in favor of a war ethos (see, for instance the popular bumper sticker: "War Has Never Solved Anything, Except for Ending Slavery, Fascism, Nazism and Communism"); at other times -- as in all the talk about "shock and awe" in the Iraq invasion -- they have even suggested there is a kind of beauty to violence, especially in the service of the imposition of American will. "

"Let's do the sign of the cross. It'll make us feel real boss."

- Skafish

"Look, can we all at least agree on one thing -- if the 'I didn't do it' administration is re-coronated, that come November 3, EVERYTHING IS THEIR FUCKING FAULT."

"Arbolist... Look up the word. I don't now, maybe I made it up. Anyway, it's an arbo-tree-ist, somebody who knows about trees."

- George W. Bush, USA Today, 08/21/2001

"There are no mirrors in Bush's church."

- Tim Appelo, Seattle Weekly, 12/08/2004

"Perhaps travel cannot prevent bigotry, but by demonstrating that all peoples cry, laugh, eat, worry, and die, it can introduce the idea that if we try to understand each other, we may even become friends."

- Maya Angelou

"To those who consider the war a mistake but still fear the consequences of military withdrawal, we ask these questions: when will enough be enough? If not now, when?"

- An Appeal to Global Conscience (via j a c k *)

"How much productivity has been wasted, not reducing our dependence on oil, but to entice us to buy more that is made with, and which consumes for its continuance - oil. It would be as if a man who had been poisoned, rather than reaching for the emetic, reaches for another dose of the poison."

- Stirling Newberry, So We Want a Revolution, 03/18/2005


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Friday, September 09, 2005

Freedom Walk Dog Tags

The liberal blogosphere will be well represented at this weekend's Freedom Walk in Washington, DC in the form of the Reverend Mykeru.

Mykeru shared the excitement of his walker's gift package with me... The highlight? A set of cheap stamped metal toy dog tags...

I grew up with guns and army-men and GI-Joe, etc. I realize that the driving force behind the existence of those things was commercial... Boys like guns and toy soldiers and GI-Joes so companies make them, sell them and even do things to heighten demand for them.

Toy dog-tags from Stars and Stripes is a bit of a different story, though, I think. (This is where I get overly liberal). We have a national myth about the infallability of the American dogface GI and the righteousness and glory that is allegedly inherent in every war. Part of perpetuating that is fetishizing(?) war "things" for children and young men. Presenting a child with a set of toy dog tags sends a subtle positive message about the military, soldiering and the war.

There was a recent wingnut furor over a group of veterans protesting a Blue Angels airshow... These peace-oriented veterans objected to the use of the Blue Angels to bend young minds in favor of war... Wingnut killing-lovers were livid as a result.

[Update: Atrios just posted about the tags as well.]

[Update #2: Recommended reading - Wingnut Outrage!]

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