Teabagged at the Wilmington Riverfront (Updated) (Updated Again) 6
I braved the inclement wind and rain to attend the MadHattery in Wilmington today. No, I couldn’t bring myself to go inside. The WNQ* was too high.
I was reminded of the words of a friend of mine when Cowboy Bob played my college during midterms:
Dozens thronged the stage . . . .
Some pictures.
Here is the gathering hordette:
Here’s another view.
Because there was a chilly rain, the brave patriots of reaction chose to meet inside. Frankly, the winter at Valley Forge it was not.
Here’s a view. Yeah, I know it’s blurry. Ansel Adams I’m not.
Eventually, the room was pretty packed. There might have been as many as 300 or 400 persons there (I must qualify this by saying that I am no more qualified to estimate crowd sizes than the average beat cop). For perspective, the population of Wilmington is about 70,000; the population of New Castle County is approximately 400,000. With a generous estimate of 400, the crowd was approximately 1/2 of 1 percent of the population of the city. And, frankly, most of them looked as if they came from the ‘burbs.
Here are some props that didn’t get used, at least while I was there, because of the bitter cold and driving snow chilly rain and moderate wind.
And here are two views of the MadHatterMobile:
There were some interesting picket signs which, more than anything, illustrated the hordette’s ignorance of what is actually going on:
Repeal the Pork (Must not have consulted Tom DeLay on that one–ed.)
Reset Term Limits (They’ve never been set–ed.)
Stop Higher Taxes, Yes We Will (Most of the persons their looked to be within the income levels whose taxes have actually been cut, for Pete’s sake–ed.)
No Taxation without Liberation (Crap–ed.)
The Blank Check Stops Here (Talk to Paulson–ed.)
I Have Good Credit by My Money Is Worthless (Talk to the Zombie Banks–ed.)
No Taxation without Deliberation (Actually, this one was fairly clever. It was also printed. Probably by some lobbyist group–ed.)
On top of everything else, these clowns were waving tiny American flags to direct what traffic there was, in direct violation of the code of flag etiquette, that states that, in inclement weather, the flag shall be illuminated. Furthermore, many were wearing garments which violated flag etiquette. But that is the mode of the wingnut; the wrap him- or herself in the flag, rather than to respect the rights and liberties and sacrifices for which it stands.
Rather than just linking, I shall quote from the code of flag etiquette, because, frankly, that sort of stuff frosts my cupcake:
- The flag should be lighted at all times, either by sunlight or by an appropriate light source.
- The flag should be flown in fair weather, unless the flag is designed for inclement weather use.
- The flag should never be dipped to any person or thing. It is flown upside down only as a distress signal.
- The flag should not be used for any decoration in general. Bunting of blue, white and red stripes is available for these purposes. The blue stripe of the bunting should be on the top.
.
- The flag should never be used for any advertising purpose. It should not be embroidered, printed or otherwise impressed on such articles as cushions, handkerchiefs, napkins, boxes, or anything intended to be discarded after temporary use. Advertising signs should not be attached to the staff or halyard.
- The flag should not be used as part of a costume or athletic uniform, except that a flag patch may be used on the uniform of military personnel, fireman, policeman and members of patriotic organizations.
.
- The flag should never have any mark, insignia, letter, word, number, figure, or drawing of any kind placed on it, or attached to it.
- The flag should never be used for receiving, holding, carrying, or delivering anything.
- When the flag is lowered, no part of it should touch the ground or any other object; it should be received by waiting hands and arms. To store the flag it should be folded neatly and ceremoniously.
The flag should be cleaned and mended when necessary.- When a flag is so worn it is no longer fit to serve as a symbol of our country, it should be destroyed by burning in a dignified manner.
Addendum:
Don Viti went inside.
Addendum-de-dum-dum
More from himself.
_______________
*WNQ = “Wingnut Quotient.”
April 15, 2009 at 7:24 pm
Donviti got called an asshole too. I got video and photo’s of the madness from inside. The photo’s are up now. Shame I missed you! dang
April 15, 2009 at 7:25 pm
You never even bothered to listen.
April 15, 2009 at 7:59 pm
Mr. Head, there was nothing new there. Just the same old wingnut garbage.
April 15, 2009 at 10:01 pm
I think dick head is right, you could have learned a lot from Charlie DUPONT Copeland. He was worried about all this debt being passed onto his children.
Of course he left out that his children are Duponts and wont ever have to worry about debt. But, that’s not important!
April 15, 2009 at 11:17 pm
[chuckle] My children’s debt won’t matter if the country crashes tomorrow. I think that Mr. Head might consider lifting his eyes from the muck and viewing the light.
Or thinking with the other head, as the ladies might say.
April 16, 2009 at 5:22 am
It was a protest. Stupid or not, they have a right to protest. I may disagree with what they did or said, but I’ll defend their right to do it.
The “right” has not cornered the market on stupid protests. I’ve seen lots of stupid “liberal” protests. PETA and Green Peace come quickly to mind. At least the tea baggers were not violent – stupid maybe – but not violent. No police cars were overturned, no stores were looted and burned, no bottles or rocks were thrown.
As for the Flag Code, that is violated every time a professional sports team (and many college and high school teams for that matter) put on their uniforms. Heck, I violate it every time I put on my umpire uniform. Every shirt and jacket I own has a flag patch. A local car dealership uses the flag in various forms of advertising. I have neighbors who fail to bring in their flags when it rains or they leave it out overnight and do not illuminate it. Maybe I should call the flag police… Examples of flag code violations (in what one could term patriotic or unpatriotic ways) are too numerous to mention and add little to the substance of your argument.
The song remains the same…