Thursday, October 18, 2007

Halloween for dummies

This story appeared on Drudge yesterday:
This year's elaborate display at the Madison home of David and Cheryl Maines was no different than in year's past. But because of recent events surrounding hateful symbols of nooses, public outcry has caused the creators to yank the decorations altogether.
Here's the dummy. It's pretty lame, eh? That thing wouldn't be hanging outside the AC abode. But racist?
"This is very sensitive. This is something that has gone on in American history that we won't forget," Millie Hazlewood. "But we don't have to keep on recycling and bring it back up, and at this point in time, no."
Well fine, but it's doubtful the Maines were making a political statement in favor of re-instituting public lynchings. The guy claims it was a cheap rendition of this. Who knows?

But there are some interesting parallels between this story and the Brossard Mexican flag-cutting event. Some are saying that conservatives are engaged in selective outrage between the two. Not really. There are some important differences.

The Reno bar owner was intentionally disrespecting the symbol of our country on public street, technically a violation of the law even if not enforced. It's not as if it was during some kind of Cinco de Mayo celebration. It was meant to be offensive. That said, Brossard could have been arrested and charged, and most on the right were OK with that.

But the main argument lefties were making at the time was that the flag is only a "piece of cloth" and people should have just tolerated the display. Those same folks are not likely to say, "hey, the dummy is just plastic". And there's your selective outrage.

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