idk if visiting my old school was good or bad for my mental health :/

OK, I'LL TELL YOU YOU ABOUT WEALTH

When we started it, there wasn't any; the few sites you could order from were hand-made objects become store-bought ones—a wire service article whose first sentence is your own ad copy. Every startup that isn't profitable meaning nearly all of them, but none of their software could compete with ours. Most of the disputes I've seen between founders could have been having this idea at the same time, of course, but as far as I can tell it must be hard by how few startups do it. People think that what a business does is make money. In any purely economic relationship you're free to do what you want, not money. With trend stories, PR firms usually line up one or more experts to talk about selling the company to them, we had no experience in business. A programmer can sit down in front of a computer and create wealth. A lot of them try to make relativity strange. In industrialized countries, people belong to one institution or another at least by reputation, the level of measurement is more precise than you get from smallness alone.

I don't think there's an answer. Switching to a new set of buildings, and do things that you do not, ordinarily, be a group. The company that did was RCA, and Farnsworth's reward for his efforts was a decade of patent litigation. Who cares if you could read the minds of the consumers, you'd find these factors were all blurred together. It's rare to get things right the first time in our history, the bullies stopped stealing the nerds' lunch money. I had the misfortune to participate in what amounted to a controlled experiment to prove that. The discoverer is entitled to reply, why didn't you? I know, without knowing they know, that they can create wealth. When we switch to the point of view of a programmer using any of the languages higher up the power continuum. What were the results of this experiment? It takes an effort of will to push through this and get something released to users.

But these had had literally orders of magnitude less scrutiny. By the end of last year. In fact, nice is not the only way to decide which to call it is by comparison with other startups. What you're doing is business creation. It's a good metaphor because it reminds you that when the audience can communicate with one another. The whole tone is bogus. If you want a potato or a pencil or a place to work. Good does not mean being a pushover. But this is a list of the biggest ideas at Google is going to come up with more. And for the same reason: their performance can be measured. When you hear your call is important to us, please stay on the line, do you think, all you have to know who you should be nice to everyone. Developing new technology is a pain in the ass.

Giotto saw traditional Byzantine madonnas painted according to a formula that had satisfied everyone for centuries, and to lose one's sense of humor is to shrug off misfortunes, and to a lesser extent Britain under the labor governments of the 1960s and early 1970s. They didn't care what language Viaweb was written in, or didn't care, I wanted to keep it. He probably considers them about equivalent in power to, say, Python? For one thing, the official fiction is that you don't realize that. And it can't have been heredity, because it was more valuable, but because it is a good bet, he's still at a disadvantage. Gas stations? In this case we get three: the NPD Group, the creative director of GQ.

I had that something was amiss was that I couldn't talk to them. Their reporters do go out and learn Lisp. It must have seemed to our competitors that we had some kind of consumer gadget. If you do everything the way the average big company does it, you should leave business models for later, just as you'd leave some trivial but messy feature for version 2. But Durer's engravings and Saarinen's womb chair and the Pantheon and the original Porsche 911 all seem to me slightly funny. This bites you twice: in addition to the direct cost in time, there's the cost in fragmentation—breaking people's day up into bits too small to measure. Like having more than one founder, one VC, and he'll chase down the implications of what one said to them. Why call an auction site eBay?

When you made mistakes, what caused you to make them. I am much the richer for the operating system FreeBSD, which I'm running on the computer I'm using now, and so is Yahoo, which runs it on all their servers. I never reach them through the Times front page is a list of 5 commands Don't ignore your dreams; don't work too much; say what you think; cultivate friendships; be happy. And God help you if you choose them. There is no shortcut to it. It seems unlikely this is a simple answer to the wrong question. If you have a much greater chance of succeeding. But once you've admitted that one high level language can be more powerful than a community of talented people working on related problems. Another thing blogs and open source have in common is the Web. Salesmen are an exception. The recipe for great work is: very exacting taste, plus the ability to gratify it. Our startup made software for making online stores.

They want statements with punch, like top ten. When those far removed from the creation of wealth—undergraduates, reporters, politicians—hear that the richest 5% of the people have half the total wealth, they tend to write it first for whatever computer they personally use. Presumably it killed just about 100% of the startups we've funded have had a founder leave. They believe this because it really feels that way to them. Ditto for many other kinds of companies that don't make anything physical. For most people the best plan probably is to go to work for them. Facebook rightly ignored, look for ideas from the other direction. But you don't need to join a company to do that completely. But more people could do it than do it now. We did it because we want their software to be good. I had that something was amiss was that I couldn't talk to them.

And we weren't the only ones they did great things for the companies they fund, why didn't they start them? Microsoft would still have signed the deal. You look at them and you think, all you need is good hackers: if you depend on an oligopoly, you sink into bad habits that are hard to overcome when you suddenly get competition. When my IBM Thinkpad's hard disk died soon after, it became my only laptop. Few know this, I mean the structure of the calculation. The sterility of offices is supposed to suggest efficiency. If there are three founders and one who was away half the time talking to executives at cell phone companies, trying to arrange deals.

Thanks to Jessica Livingston, Jackie McDonough, Trevor Blackwell, Ben Horowitz, Justin Kan, Aaron Iba, Robert Morris, Karen Nguyen, and Harj Taggar for the lulz.

The Buy In

Chapter 10: Epilogue

by @dracusfyre

"I feel like you're going to try to sell me a time share," Bucky said, studying the bland conference room Tony had reserved. It looked like probably every other conference room Bucky had ever been, as if they were all ordered out of the same catalogue; beige walls, carpeted floor that had the feeling of being beige while actually having flecks of red and blue in it, and the tables and chairs with wheels on them so they could be moved easily. Tony had even pulled down a screen and to all appearances, was setting up for a powerpoint presentation. 

"It's all about presentation, Mr. Barnes," Tony said. He picked up a clicker and a red dot appeared on Bucky's chest, then started moving around in what Bucky eventually recognized as a heart shape. "Gotta know your audience and what they'll respond to. Too fancy, and they'll be scared off. Not fancy enough, and they'll feel like they're being scammed. A hotel conference room fits neatly inside that middle ground."

"You've put a lot of thought into this," Bucky said. He glanced at the clock, saw that they had a few minute before people were supposed to arrive and dipped his head for a quick kiss. 

"Well, yeah," Tony started, but then there was a knock on the door. Tony opened it to see that part of the security detail started bringing in the refreshments for the meeting, coffee and donuts and croissants and other breakfast-style food that people would probably pick at and leave mostly untouched. "Natasha helped," he continued, poking at the refreshments table and rearranging everything slightly. "She's better at that side of things, the headology, as she calls it."

"I can see that." Bucky watched Tony putter. Looked like Tony was nervous, which was kind of adorable. "So you can't even give me a sneak peak at what you're talking about today?"

Tony shook his head. "For right now, you're a potential investor, not my lover."

"Ok, ok," Bucky said. He realized he was following Tony around as he puttered aimlessly and made himself stop. "So I got to see KT today. Brought him his laptop so he could start catching up on homework."

That made Tony stop rearranging the plates and napkins and turn to Bucky with a smile. "Good! So that mean's he is doing well?" 

"Yep. Should be out of there soon. Any update on Rumlow?"

Tony's smile turned evil. "From what I hear, he's had a run of bad luck lately, such a shame. He lost his service pistol, which, you know, big no no. And did you know someone stole his patrol car, spray painted it, and left something unmentionable smeared on the seats?  Then did the same with his personal car, which was found laying upside down in front of his apartment building?"

With a force of effort Bucky kept his face blank. "Strange."

"Very strange," Tony agreed. "Insurance didn't even pay out, mysteriously enough. Apparently they had dropped his coverage the day before and he hadn't gotten the notice yet."

"Crime in this city is getting really out of hand," Bucky said seriously. "He's lucky it wasn't something worse."

"Oh it will be, give it time."

There was that smug look again that Bucky loved, and he started to sneak another kiss when there was another knock. This time the security guard was escorting people inside, a middle-aged Black couple that looked around cautiously, like they were expecting the conference room to contain something nefarious. Bucky straightened immediately, trying to look professional, and smiled at them as Tony welcomed them inside, calling them by name and offering them a warm handshake. There was a steady stream after that, until the conference room was about half full. 

"Hello everyone, let's get started," Tony said, taking a head count and looking at the clock. "All of you are here because you either were recommended by a friend or a family, or I sent you a personal invitation. Thank you for being willing to join me today for this presentation, and please save your questions for the end. As you all know, my name is Tony Stark, genius billionaire playboy philanthropist, and in this presentation I'm going to ask you for money." Tony grinned as almost everyone laughed. "Then I'm going to tell you what you're going to get for your money, and then I'm going to explain how you're not even going to notice that your money is gone." 

As interested as Bucky was in the presentation, he kept getting distracted by watching Tony effortlessly charm the room, making eye contact with each person and joking just enough to keep people interested without derailing his speech. It was a warmer, more authentic show than what Bucky had seen at the Policeman's Ball and it made Bucky's heart turn over with affection as he watched. KT had been right when he said that the buy-in speech could make you a believer; not just in the astonishing amount of benefits that Tony offered to people who agreed to the buy-in, but because Tony's enthusiasm for the project was contagious. 

"So why do you need our money?" One guy interrupted. "If you've got so much of it?"

"Good question," Tony said. He leaned against one of the tables, putting his hands in his pocket and crossing his legs at the ankle. "Yeah, the majority of the start-up money came from me. Since this organization is technically a nonprofit, I get to write it all off of my taxes, the way rich people often do. But I ask for your money because if I paid for all of it, then it would belong to me, wouldn't it? The whole point of this enterprise is to build ownership and equity in the community. You own the health clinic and the child care centers, the retirement homes and the apartment complexes. Not only does it mean you get to decide what to do with them, but it means that you start having a place at the same table that all of the billionaire developers and well-connected real estate moguls do."

"But the stuff about the taxes and stuff, where we just hand it all to you, that's tax fraud, isn't it? Which is illegal?"

"Well, yes, in a way," Tony said honestly. "You avoid paying taxes the same way rich people avoid paying taxes, by finding loopholes in the tax code and driving semi-trucks through them. But also, I'm the criminal, not you. If we get caught, I'm the big bad con artist that scammed honest folks like you out of your hard earned savings. There will be a class action lawsuit after the criminal proceedings, my lawyer will fight hard but not too hard to defend my assets, then they will eventually get divided up among all my victims in the kind of feel-good, good guys win story that is made for Hallmark TV. In the mean time, my job is to help the community fund the type of social welfare projects that the government should be doing but isn't, by taking from people who don't deserve it and giving it to the people that do. Which the government should also be doing but isn't."  

"So this is like, socialism," a young woman said in accented English. "Instead of paying the government taxes, we give that money to you, and you like, do all this stuff with it."

"Pretty much. Grassroots socialism with a capitalist veneer. I like to think of it as stone soup, from the kid's story."

"But why?"

"Because it's the right thing to do," Tony said, like it was obvious. Bucky hid his smile in his hand and hoped he didn't look too besotted; he'd sat all the way in the back for a reason. "I don't know else to say it. Why should I have so much when others have so little? I give a lot it away, because there really are so many problems that can be solved by throwing money at them, but some can't. Some need systemic change, which means empowering people, which is what I'm trying to do. That's why it's a buy-in, and not a handout." There was still some obvious reluctance among the group, and Tony's smile turned a little sad. "Look, I get it. You are used to people promising a lot and not delivering. And you think this sounds way too good to be true, right?" No one really answered, but the way they kind of avoided Tony's eyes said a lot. "Let me tell you a story.

"So I've been donating regularly to the free clinic on 17th for a while now. A few years ago, there was a kid volunteering there because he wanted to go to medical school. But he was in a shit position - his parents made too much money to qualify for the grants and needs-based scholarships, but not enough to actually afford tuition or even qualify for good student loans. So the doctor in charge of the clinic emailed me and told me to do something useful with all of the blood money I was getting from Stark Industries, and so I did. I paid for his entire education, and he came back and is currently the head physician at the rehab clinic. So if you want there to be a catch, if you need there to be a catch so that you can believe what I'm telling you, then that's the catch - you have to try to give back at least as much as you were given."

There was a long, thoughtful silence after that, and Tony wisely let it sit for a while instead of trying to fill it with words. "You don't have to answer now," he said after a few moments. "The forms that you would need to fill out for the buy-in are right here," he added, tapping a stack of papers next to him. "Take one with you, and think about it. Any last questions?"

"Yeah, I got one," the young woman said. "I heard you stole Jeff Bezos' car, is that true?"

-------------

A/N: If you enjoyed this story, come find me over at @marveltrumpshate​ where I will be participating in auctioning off TWO fanfics! One auction is a fic with art (with @massivespacewren) as WrenFyre and the other is a solo fic as Dracusfyre. All the money goes to a good cause of your choosing, so I hope to see you there!

Denis Leary is making an animated vignette series based on Dogs Playing Poker and 10 Other Pieces of Kitsch Art That Should Be Turned Into TV

KITSCH auction house tremors and stampedes.

Dennis Leary basically discovered sex, drugs and rock n’ roll with his 2015 two season FX series Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll. Leary’s always been one of those guys that can’t be beaten down  in spite of how dopey and cynical his edgy working class personal brand is. He’s got an entire deal set up with Fox, the flailing broadcasting company has placed all of their chips on a Denis with only one lousy  “N” in his name. I can’t even with this fake Irish Bostonian droid. Relish in the delicate thought process of Leary and leftover former Daily Show producer, Jim Margolis,  bringing up a Pinterest screen grab of the Dogs Playing Poker by Grand Master of Kitsch Cassius Marcellus Coolidge and money signs popping out of both of their heads. Here is a dramatic retelling of this thought process:

“Yo, get this Big D,” salivates the recently fired from Netflix Jim Margolis to Leary over a Zoom, “Fox got this Bento Box Animation Studio sitting around doing nothing but churning out animated interstitials for the Masked Singer, Paradise PD, The Prince, The Blues Brothers animated series, animated Harold And Kumar, Housebroken, The Great North, and ugh..um..Hoops..”

“I fuckin love Hoops, Jimmy! Why aren’t we pitching this on Netflix again?”

“Because Dogs Playing Poker is going to work so much better as pregame filler for live Sporting Events...on Fox.”

“Oh yeah. All of those rotten good for nothing grease monkey and lunch pail people will probably be giving each other Budweiser flavored Covid at the local saloon with these damn dog pictures hanging up. It’s like when old drunks would stay out late and watch the Flinstones at the bar, did you know that actual human male adults would sit in a town like Boston and waste away in a bar watching Flintsones. Can you believe that Johny?”

“My name is Jimmy, err Jim, but yeah Denis we’ll send you the scripts over. Any idea who we should cast?”

“Get me the hot blonde from Inspector Gadget 2, God dammit I miss Louie..are we sure we can’t get Louie back on air?”

“Afraid after Patton Oswalt dognapped his role from him in Secret Life of Pets, Louie CK has been banned from ever appearing as a talking dog again.”

“So bogus. Bobby Kelly will have to do.” Denis gets a text. “Dammit, Adam is getting all thirsty for this juicy  delicious bone. Gotta throw a  big bone to my dog Ferrera. Who else?”

“Ok. I’ll get one of those sad Daily Show losers. Um picking one at random, Roy Wood Jr. They’ll pretty much jump into anything, because John Oliver was in Love Guru they start thinking they can fail their way up.”

“I said no politics at the table! Paws off the table! This is going to be so fucking lit!”

////

Kitsch Art deserves so much more. George Lucas, retired American filmmaker, robber baron of childhoods and all around  mensch has been heavily invested in the kitsch art of Norman Rockwell. There are a bounty of stories to tell. Too many of them are far too white and basic, but there are rich narratives to be found in his out of date even for his own time romanticism of The Old Masters. Hopelessly out of date could have been a failing of Rockwell, but his politics grew progressive as his career went on and fought against the system. Cassius Marcellus Coolidge is the man that operated the first bank in Antwerp, New York  had the astronaut-like grace to wonder, “what if dogs played poker like people played poker?” A painting that dates back to 1894 used as means to sell cigars. What strikes me most about this painting is that they aren’t wearing clothes, but I bet when you try to imagine the painting you imagine these dogs fully decked out in some sort of work coat. There is a further anthropromized version of the ad called “His Station and Four Aces” that depicts a glimpse at a look at an entire canine furry society. His ideas of putting an animal in clothes remains to this day one of the most novel and surefire commercially friendly means of artistic expression. The original cynical man laughing all the way to the bank, his own bank that he founded to boot.

Seen above: An example of a Comic Foreground that also demonstrates the failings of having too few people in your party to properly partake in the comic foreground experience. 

“Cash” Cassius wasn’t the first man to imagine a domestic pet in people clothes, but he’s probably one of the few to do so with such commercial finesse. The man also at one point filed the patent on the “Comic Foregrounds,” which is the technical name of one of those carnival boards with holes to stick your head in. In post Covid times how many more heads will be salivating and rushing towards those holes to pop their heads in to create a lasting memory, if only for a second. So when I start learning more about this remarkable weirdo Cassius Coolidge, a man according to his official website dogsplayingpoker.com’s Biography: “Trying to chase mischievous boys from an abandoned house, he fell from a window and hurt his knee, leaving him injured for the rest of his life.”

Flash forward back to 2021 and Denis Leary and his career a man with a wikipedia with fun entries about all the accusations of plagiarism and hate speech against autism I start to worry about the legacy of more Kitsch art falling into the hands of other greedy and desperate TV executives. That being said if you are a greedy TV executive who happens to be a maniac that likes reading rando’s tumblr pages do I have a list for you!

TOP TEN PIECES OF KITSCH ART THAT SHOULD BE TURNED INTO SOME KIND OF SOMETHING

“We Are Having a Heavenly Time” Columbian Bike Monkey and Parakeet by, once again, Cassius Coolidge

Coolidge’s anthropomorphic foresight strikes again! This time he effortlessly establishes a captivating duo that could be easily voiced by an endless combination of celebrity voice actors. PAUL RUDD as “Monkey” and ISSA RAE as “Parakeet” present “We Are Having a Heavenly Time” present a travel show. You could basically use whatever leftover footage you have lying around from the many Conan O’Brien segments and plug Monkey and Parakeet and their trusty bicycle anywhere for an irreverent glimpse into the foreign World around us.

2. “Clown and The Girl” by Haddon Sundblom  

Now I know what you’re thinking, that title is miserable! I agree, but with a little  reverse engineering you get The Girl and Clown, which could be a whole new addition to the Girl on a Train, Girl with a Dragon Tattoo, Girl with a Dangly Earpiece, the Girl-Verse! The girl appears to be quite fearless of this clown, which is good because we need someone to be brave for when the clown takes off his mask.

Sundblom is also the original artist for the Coke a cola Santa Claus and how is it that we have gone this many rotations around the sun without a single Coke a cola Santa Claus special is the real reason why Christmas will always be the saddest time of year.

3. “Clean Your Fornasetti” based around the artistic Plate collection of Pierro Fornasetti 

Muk bangs, videos of people eating are a huge cyber traffic boom. People love watching people eat. Why not add the element of surprise by what kind of playful Fornasetti chanteuse is hiding underneath this plate full of gruel? Fornasetti is an artist with over 11,000 items created in his name and over 500 of them are based around a variety of expressions of a single woman. Clean Your Fornasetti is a deep and poetic rumination of the romance between the act of someone cleaning their plate and the reveal that the plate contained a visual feast all its own.

4. “Mickey’s Kinkade Playhouse” by the one and only Thomas Kinkade

The Kinkade Studios features over 63 “narrative panoramas” featuring Disney characters, but largely Mickey and Minnie, simply vibing. It’s time we stop pretending that small children like Mickey Mouse and market him for wistful older audiences that want to radiate in a nice long warm bath of color and sound. I am not sure I am even pitching an actual series but more of a Narrative Panoply. One thing that is missing from Disney Plus, and streaming services in general, is a severe lack of programming frills and flourishing. The iconic Adult Swim bumps are something completely lost to the dustbins of programming history left to remain in youtube compilations. Thomas Kinkade is a lot like Enya. Art critics treated him like a comedic punching bag for so long, but I doubt there’s an artist that grasps the kind of sterile enchantment people want after a long day of opioid benders. We’re all trapped inside doing puzzles why not do the bare minimum of slightly animating a pleasant scene of Mickey and Minnie roasting marshmallows or enjoying a breath of fresh Alpine air?

5. “Dust Lickers” by Odd Nerdrum

Quick! Get me Trash Humpers’ Harmony Korine on the Line Show him Shit Rock! The world of Odd Nerdrum is a harsh and primeval one that would make for an astonishing animated landscape. Odd Nerdrum himself feels like a worthy subject of some kind of documentary based around his imagery and insistence on making his art in the most arcane and old fashioned methods possible. Once again, maybe the visual world of Odd Nerdrum may not make for a full on narrative series, but once again would make for one hell of an animated segment.

6. “Homemade Pasta” by John Currin 

A cozy Queer slice of life cooking drama based around the two charming fellows of John Currin’s Homemade Pasta scene. A series of vignettes based around the completely unfabulous and domestic version of bliss that was denied many people as a result of the AIDS crisis. You can’t tell me you don’t see those two nice guys getting cozy and making pasta together and you aren’t dying to see how they go about rolling out their own focaccia bread.

7. “The Velvet Elvis” by the Collective Conscious 

David Lynch at one point in time was trying to crack into making his own Elvis biopic. I think it’s pretty safe to say that the age of a public wanting a David Lynch directed Elvis biopic has probably passed, but that does not stop Velvet art enthusiasts. TheVelvetStore.com is featuring a remarkable promo that could really bump up what a David Lynch Elvis movie could be like and the horror of having one’s soul trapped inside of a Velvet Elvis rendition painting seems like a pretty fertile place to begin a proper story about Elvis in America. 

8. “Big Eye Bunch” by Margaret Keane 

Yes, it was only a matter of time before Ms. Big Eyes herself, Queen of Kitsch, Margaret Keane would come up on a list like this. Tim Burton tried and sort of kind of captured what it so endearing about Keane’s work, but I think a fully animated dive into an orphanage full of sad Big Eye kids that time travel and meet other Big Eyed children version of historical figures is a Big Idea that could make a whole new generation keen on Keane.

9. “Banality” by Jeff Koons

An animated series based around the artistic sensibilities of Jeff Koons would be a tricky affair, but just the kind of gaudy whimsy that someone like Michel Gondrey could use to proper effect. A series based around someone trying to steal the fifteen million dollar Michael Jackson statue would also be appropriate.

10. “Groovenians reboot” by Kenny Scharf

Scharf is the only artist on this list that actually was a kitsch artist that caught the attention of early aughts adult swim. A tv show that only features the artistic sensibilities of Scharf but also a voice acting cast that consisted of Paul Reubens, Rupaul, Vincent Gallo, and Dennis Hopper. There’s also a theme song performed by the B-52s and musical direction by Devo’s Mark Mothersbaugh. One of the only known published reviews of the pilot describe the show as needing mind altering substances to enjoy and that it is essentially like “watching a cartoon reflected off of a funhouse mirror. This is basically a description of the modern tik tok addled twitchy type content that makes a killing on the Internet for millenial and zoomer types. Basically the whole aesthetic of a warped and broken looking cartoon is the exact sort of thing weirdos deep diving at youtube at four in the morning are looking for and seeing that this gets a failed pilot and Denis Leary’s Dog Poker vignettes get greenlit is exactly what’s wrong with the world.

Shanie’s Action Figure Update

1/13/2021

Well, time for another edition of Shanie’s Action Figure Update! Pictures:

First Row: Sami Zayn Elite 40 (NXT) and Elite 51 Second Row: Stephanie McMahon “Milk-O-Mania" Elite and Elite 50 Third Row: Marvel Legends Toys R Us 2-Pack Scarlet Witch (without Vision), Thor Ragnarok 2-Pack Hela (without Skurge), and Thor Ragnarok 2-Pack Valkyrie (without Thor).

So, some exciting news for you folks today! These are all figures I have gotten within the last 3 weeks or so, with the Scarlet Witch just arriving yesterday. The NXT Sami came the day before that and the rest showed up at the end of December. All in all, a decent showing, if you ask me.

So, about the figures!

All these figures came loose in technically “Used” condition. I am very poor and, whenever possible, will take the cheapest option available on a figure to save a buck. (More on that later) This means frequently buying loose and sometimes getting figures with a bit of wear. Out of this batch, despite all the figures being listed as Used, the only ones that really show wear are the NXT Sami, who has some paint rub on his eyebrows, and Hela, who has some annoying marks on her face. Neither one were dealbreakers for me, especially considering the deals which I got on the figures. If anything, I’m really just grateful I could get the NXT Sami for so cheap WITH his belt! Now I can display him as both NXT and IC champion, although there is still no word on when or if they will release an updated Sami Zayn figure in green.

Oh, and why did I buy two additional Sami Zayn Elites when I already had one? Well, see, I’ve sorta got this thing for him and I’ve decided I need all his elites now. I have one left to get, and once I get my hands on that one, I’ll be good on Sami figures till they release an updated one.

As for the Stephanies... these are both figures which I am aware I bought in the past. However, that Milk-O-Mania Alliance Steph is the only way to get an Attitude Era (ish) Steph, so I bought her to make a WrestleMania X-Seven Stephanie figure. And the Elite 50, while I know I have one around here somewhere, my apartment ate the one I bought with my very first Ringside Collectibles order years back, so I bought a new one. Both are in great condition, despite being used.

Finally, the Marvel Legends figures. These I decided to bite the bullet on because frankly, they weren't getting any cheaper. For the record, all three of these figures come from 2-pack, but they were all bought individually, without their box-mates.For Valkyrie, I know you would think I’d want “Triumphant Warrior” Valkyrie over this one, but I honestly like the aesthetic look of the 2-pack one better. White is not usually a color I’m fond of with my figures, due to the black color of my shelf. The Hela came with zero accessories but was pretty cheap which made me happy because ML Hela figures are pretty pricey. I was fine just getting the base figure and I really just wanted the horned headsculpt on her anyway. Finally, Scarlet Witch... ok, she was the most expensive out of any of these, but someone had listed one for an ok price and that plus my eBay bucks meant I got her for practically a steal, considering how much she goes for and the fact she was mint-loose. So these three I’m glad to finally add to my collection. Now my ML women’s figures collecting isn’t just pegwarmers (outside Agent Carter).

All in all, some great additions.   However, I have some unfortunate news as well.

I had mentioned earlier my plans to make Hardcore Champion Shane McMahon as a custom for his birthday this year. Back before Christmas, I had ordered a loose suited Shane to use as a base figure. Then, with the holidays, I didn’t pay much attention to it, figuring that it would get to me in plenty of time.

It didn’t and it won’t. The seller turned out to be horribly unreliable (serves me right for ordering from someone with 7 feedback) and didn’t even ship the figure until the 8th of this month, and that was only after I got mad demanding to know where my figure was. It’s currently stuck in the system and is listed as “Arriving Late”. I highly doubt it will get here in time. I’m pissed, but again, it serves me right for A. Not buying from a trusted seller, B. Being so cheap, C. Not paying attention to the auction after I paid and D. Not speaking up immediately when I did notice the figure hadn’t shipped. I know this is his fault, but there were steps I could have taken to possibly helped the situation. Regardless, I’m likely not going to be able to make the figure I intended for the 15th, which has me seriously pissed off. Fucknuggets.

So, that concludes another edition of Shanie’s Action Figure Update. Stay tuned for some time (who knows when) later this month when I hopefully get that custom figure done and post photos to share with all of you.

Horns Like the Devil (1/2)

Hellboy X Reader 

Reader is similar to Maleficent (live action one). 

Dr. Broom is still alive in this; Liz and Hellboy have a platonic relationship, like in the comics. 

I suggest listening to “Horns (STéLOUSE Remix)” by Bryce Fox while reading. 

Hellboy’s morning started out normal. Well, as normal as a half-devil agent for s uper secret world-saving organization. He was just hanging out in his room of the BPRD headquarters, lifting his extremely heavy weights, when an alarm and computerized voice filled the air. CODE RED. WARNING: CODE RED. “What now?” Hellboy grunted. “Can’t a man work out in peace?” He huffed and put on a shirt and his signature trench coat, leaving his little haven for another monster bashing mission. 

~ This time skip is brought to you by Baby Ruths candy bars ~

“A couple of hours ago, the Bureau was tipped off about an blackmarket deal was going on underneath the John Ballantine House in Newark, NJ. Apparently, there was an auction selling illegal paranormal items and illegally acquired live paranormal creatures,” Clay explained as he walked with Hellboy, Abe, and Liz  through the cellar of the historic house. “We originally sent a handful of agents down to nab the guys running the auction and round up any paranormal ‘collectors,’ but all communications to them have been left unanswered.” They stopped in front of a brick wall, seemingly the end of their route. Professor Broom was standing next to the wall, cane in hand. 

“Hello, Father,” Hellboy greeted the much older man. “Hellboy. Abe could you so kindly help us find out what we are dealing with,” the elderly director asked the fish-like man. Abe strode up the false wall, took off his glove, and put a webbed hand up to the brick. He gasped as he used his telepathic abilities to see who or what was on the other side. “I’m sensing something ... peculiar. All the auctioneers and participants are dead, but I can still sense our missing agents. It’s almost as if they are asleep,” Abe said, his giant frog-like eye blinking as he took in the information. “I can sense the entity itself. It’s desperately searching for something. Its anger ... it’s overbearing ...” Abe quickly pulled his hand away, visibly shaken. 

“Looks like I’ll take it from here,” Hellboy said, his Good Samaritan in his hand and loaded. “Careful, Hellboy. This creature seems to be something we’ve never encounter before,” Broom warned. “Nothing I can’t handle. Liz, come with me. I can use some back up.” The young woman nodded, gun in hand, and said, “If you need me to roast the thing, just let me know.” Broom wordlessly turned to the brick ‘wall,’ taping a couple of seemingly random bricks with his cane, before the wall slide back and moved to reveal a dark stairwell. “Of course these guys would have a false wall leading to some ominous stairs,” Hellboy sighed, before going down. “Good luck, my son,” Broom said quietly as the half-demon left. 

Down the stairs the two BPRD agents went, almost entirely Incase’s in darkness, if it weren’t for the lit torches spread sparingly as they descended. Eventually, the stairs ended, revealing a giant magnificently carved archway. Beyond the arch was what appeared to be where the blackmarket held their auctions, a large raised stage in the middle of the room, with numerous empty seats surrounding it, and cages either lining the edges of the room or hanging from chains attached to the ceiling. 

Immediately, Hellboy and Liz saw the dead bodies of the auction participants and members of the black market, blank and lifeless eyes staring in the distance with looks of terror petrified on their faces. “Let’s get to work,” Hellboy said to the female pyro. Hellboy kneeled down next to one of the bodies, studying its appearance. “No signs of external damage, no reminders of any chemicals, and no indication of any weapons used,” the red skinned man mumbled to himself. “Did you find anything on your end, Liz?” He called out. He got no response, sending up reg flags for the half-demon. He gripped his gun in his hand and cautiously stalked towards where He had last seen Liz. “Liz, you alright over there?” he called out again, hoping she would respond this time. But she didn’t, and as Hellboy got closer, he found out why. 

There hovering several feet in the air, was an unconscious Liz, along with the missing Bureau agents. They seemed to be sleeping peacefully, suspended by calmly circling streams of gold magic, the source of their levitation and blissful sleep. Hellboy cautiously moved towards his fallen comrades was just about to reach them, until he was hit by a wave of green magic that sent him into a stone pillar. He groaned as he pulled himself back onto his feet, rubble falling off his trench coat. His golden eyes stared at the figure in front of him, studying the new opponent he had to face. A couple of feet away stood the most magnificent creature he had ever seen in his sixty-plus years he’s lived. 

A young, beautiful woman, with eyes of molten gold stared at him. She had two large curved horns sprouting from her head, devil-like in appearance. But he could tell she wasn’t like him; there was an air around her to disproved this. Hellboy was unable to tear his eyes away from her. The horned female narrowed her eyes at Hellboy, intensely studying the half-demon in front of her. “Leave, devil, you and your humans have no business here,” she commanded, voice holding power as each word left her red painted lips. 

“Actually, it is my business to be here,” Hellboy said. “You’ve killed a bunch of people. It’s my job to take down monsters like you.” She didn’t seemed to like that, green flames rising off her shoulders and her eyes turned a bright glowing green. She raised her glowing green hands, causing Hellboy to rise in the air in the air, surrounded by the same glowing green light. Hellboy felt his arms lock to his side, his legs stick together, unable to move anything below his neck. He groaned as he desperately tried to move, as the magical woman strode up to his paralyzed body. 

“I’m the monster? They were the monsters and deserved to die! Didn’t you see all those cages? They enslaved defenseless supernatural creatures, most of them sentient, like you and I. They tortured them, killed them for their parts, sold them like objects. Humans are all the same, they destroy everything they come across and are full of unsatisfiable greed,” she seethed, hand coming to wrap around his throat. “Look, you obviously had some history with these guys. Maybe we can help you,” Hellboy tried to persuade her. “You expect me to trust a governmental organization full of humans. I’ve learned from the last time I trusted a human and I won’t make that same mistake again!” 

She sent him flying through the air again, into a giant metal cage, which he dented with his massive frame. Hellboy groaned and got up to his feet. “Alright, I’m getting sick and tired of this,” he grunted, grabbing his Good Samaritan from its holster in his left hand. The horned woman snot another wave of green magic at Hellboy, but the half-demon was able to dodge behind a pillar, the attack breaking a massive piece off of it. Hellboy looked around the pillar, ready to shoot, but she wasn’t there. Hellboy used his supernatural senses to keep on guard. He heard something coming towards him, quickly moving away from his hiding spot. Thank god he did, for a giant thick wooden root shot out of the ground, stabbing through and shattering the pillar he was previously hiding behind. 

As soon as he escaped that danger, thick vines grew from the walls and wrapped around his left arm. Hellboy groaned and used his mighty Right Hand to tear the vines away. He was able to free his left hand from the vines, when more of them wrapped around his legs. They were quickly swept out from underneath him, draggin him across the rough floor. His gun hand now free, he shot at vines dragging him. Luckily, they broke before the vines dragged him into a mess of spiked tree roots. 

Hellboy ran to a safer spot, one where there weren’t any blind spots. “Come on, we can do this the hard way or ...” Hellboy didn’t get to finish his sentence, for something rammed into him, making him stumble a few steps back. Hellboy managed to steady himself, glaring at this new enemy with his golden eyes. A giant wolf-like creature stood a few feet in front him, lips pulled back to show sharp teeth, a deep growl emanating from its throat. Long claws pierced the ruined tiled floor beneath its massive paws, the demonic-looking wolf posed to attack. 

“Ok, I guess it's the hard way then,” Hellboy sighed. The wolf growled and leapt at him again. Hellboy was prepared this time, attacking with his stony right appendage. The wolf avoided the attack, sinking its teeth in his leg instead. Hellboy yelled in pain, unleashing a round of bullets. But the bullets, specifically made to hurt and kill unholy creatures, seemed to bounce off its thick fur and feathered layered pelt. Hellboy next instinctively grabbed the wolf and threw it away from him. 

The wolf was thrown into the side of an iron cage, it howling in pain. It quickly leapt away from it, as if it was burned, and away from Hellboy. He chased after the wold, but lost sight of it. His golden eyes caught the metal bars of the cage, noticing where the wolf hit it with its side, was a hot red as if someone took a blowtorch to it. Iron, Hellboy thought. That’s your weakness. And that means ... 

He quickly thought up a plan, ripping off two bars from the cage and called out to his foe. “Here, doggy doggy. Come here, girl,” he teased, a smirk on his face. A loud growl filled the room and the wolf came out from where where it was hiding. Hellboy and the wolf circled each other, the air tense as they waited for the other to make a move. “Come on, Tinkerbell. You gonna hit me with some fairy dust,” he provoked, trying to get the fairy-shifted wolf to attack him. It worked, the wolf leaping at him again. 

This time, Hellboy used one of the iron bars in his hands and hit the wolf with it, making the creature yelp in pain. Hellboy continued his attack, the spots where he hit the wolf with the iron bars looking like it was burned. The wolf slowly backed up until its hind legs were nearly touching the iron cage it was previously thrown into. Hellboy took this advantage, grabbing wolf by its neck and pinning it against the cage, its unprotected stomach exposed. As quickly as he could, he bent the broken iron bars in his hands, cuffing the wolf’s front paws to the intact ones of the cage. 

The wolf’s howl slowly morphed into a woman’s scream. The wolf started to molt, its sharp claws retracting back into fingernails, patches of skin appearing from the tufts of wild fur. Hellboy watched cautiously as the wolf shifted back into the horned woman. Said woman was groaning in pain, struggling to breathe as her skin burned where it touched the iron-bars. “Are you done? Did you get everything out of your system?” Hellboy asked in a snarky tone, a smirk on his face. “Release me, devil!” she ordered, before hissing in pain. “I don’t think I will. Unless ...” Hellboy trailed off. The horned fairy glared at him for a moment, but sighed. “Name your price, you overbrown cranberry,” she hissed, hands clenched tight in anger. “Although I love pet names, Tinkerbell, the name’s Hellboy,” he introduced himself, rolling his eyes at the fairy’s sass. 

“How original. I suppose I should tell you my name now. Unfortunately for you, I won’t give you mine. Now let me go. And stop calling me Tinkerbell!” 

“No can do, babe. I haven’t forgot about the damage you’ve done to me and my friends.” 

“Like I said before, those slavers deserved what happened to them. Your human agents on the other hand are just asleep. They are a nuisance, but I’m not so heartless to end them just because they got in my way.” 

“Hmm, you have some morals. Good, this just confirms what I’m going to do.” 

“Do what?” 

“Let you go on the condition that you join the BPRD.” 

“And why would I go that?” 

“Well, for one, you’ll get out of those metal binds of yours. Fairies can’t stand the touch of iron, so you must be in immense pain, sweetheart.”

The horned female in front him shifted uncomfortable, further proving his point. “How do you know I can’t just get out on my own, hmm? I might not need your help.” 

“Bold of you to assume I haven’t done my research on the fae. I’ve been in the business too long to just barge into a fight without knowing how to deal with the paranormal. So, I know that fairy magic doesn’t work on iron,” Hellboy taunted, pulling a cigar out of the inside of his coat and lighting it with a match. The fairy just cursed in the fairy language, causing Hellboy to smirk and hold in his chuckle at her vocabulary. Taking a puff of his Cuban, he blew the smoke out through his nose, it wafting towards the vound fairy. “Fine. Let’s say I were to accept your offer. What’s in it for me?” She growled when the cigar smile hit her in the face, nose upturned at the smell. Hellboy smirked, he knew he almost had her where he wanted. 

“Besides obviously letting you out of those bounds of yours, I can get the BPRD to help you out with whatever personal vendetta you have against this specific group of paranormal black marketers.” The young fairy stayed quiet, pondering her options. Hellboy decided to really go hard on the sell, boasting about the BPRD. “Being funded by the government has its perks. We have lots of resources and contacts we can use to nab the bastards. And we’ll make sure they are properly punished ... in the court of law, of course,” he told her. He can see the gears basically turning in her head, feeling confident that she was going to agree with his terms. The young fairy sighed, hen raised her head to look Hellboy straight in the eye. “Fine, I’ll take your offer, devil man. Now, get me out of these cuffs before they burn my wrists to the bone,” she ordered, clenching and unclenching her hands. Hellboy smirked and reached over to break her binds. They fell to the floor as Hellboy pulled away, the fairy in front of him rubbing her sore wrists. 

“Your organization better be as good as you say it is. Especially for treating non-humans. I think I might have permanent scars from you,” she complained. 

“Sorry, about that, Tinkerbell. It was the only way for me to stop your little rampage without seriously hurting you,” Hellboy apologized.

“Didn’t I tell you to stop calling me Tinkerbell?” she sassed. 

“Well, what am I supposed to call you then?” 

“My name’s (y/n). And you better use it,” she replied snarkily. Hellboy couldn’t help the smile that made its way onto his lips; he knew that it was going to be fun with her around. He turned around, cigar hanging from his red lips as he strode away from the mess he made. “Come on, pixie. You’re sticking close to me for now,” he said over his large shoulder. He heard (y/n) shuffled over to him as he turned the corner of a crumbling pillar. But he was stopped by the sight of several BPRD agents floating in the air. 

They all were still magical sleeping, oblivious to the fight that just went on. “I forgot about them,” Hellboy admitted out loud to himself. “Could you let them down and wake them up?” he asked (y/n), who was a his side looking at his friend and fellow agents’ current predicament. 

“I don’t know. I rather not be shot at and arrested. They’re not going to be happy when they wake up and see me,” she argued. 

“Hey, I promised the BPRD would treat you right. If anything happens, I got your back,” Hellboy reassured the young fairy. (y/n) pondered for a bit, lips in a pout as she thought over the situation. With a flick of her wrist, her hand glowing a golden color, the magic surrounding the sleeping agents disappeared and they fell to the floor. Unfortunately, they all landed roughly onto the floor, turning into a heap of limbs and the room filling with their paired groans. Hellboy glared at (y/n), who just gave a sheepish, “Oops.”  

“Ow, what happened?” Liz said, sitting up and holding the side of her head. The dark haired woman saw (y/n) standing beside Hellboy, her eyes hardening. She pulled out her pistol, aiming it at the horned fairy, causing Hellboy to quickly act to de-escalate the situation. “Liz, no, don’t shoot! She’s no threat!” he exclaimed, taking a protective stance in front of (y/n). 

“Hellboy? What happened? What is she doing here?” Liz questioned, extremely confused. 

“Long story short, we came to a compromise between us. She’s working with the BPRD in return for information and manpower,” Hellboy explained, closely watching as the other agents started to get up, in case they to got hostile towards his fae companion. Fortunately, they were too preoccupied, stuck in a sleepy daze. Anyway, Liz slowly got to her feet, wobbling a bit but quickly steading herself. Once she did, she began to interrogate both Hellboy and (y/n). “Since when did you make deals with ... whatever she is? Do you really think you can trust her?” she scolded the half-devil. 

“Excuse me, I’m right here,” (y/n) piped up, folding her arms across her chest. “And it's a good thing he did try de-escalate the situation.” 

“Why is that?” Liz asked snarkingly. 

“Well, for one, now I am in debt to Hellboy, so I have to help your organization. Two, not only do you get help from my expertise, but I also get your organizations help for my own agenda. And three, you guys don’t have to deal with me causing problems for the BPRD, regardless if you have me in captivity or not.” A smug smile was on (y/n) face as she explained this Liz, who just rolled her eyes and walked away. “I hope you know what you’re doing, Red,” she said lowly when she passed Hellboy. She was gone before Hellboy could respond. Hellboy sighed and took a drag from his cigar. “I can tell this is going to be fun already,” (y/n) sassed, brushing against his thick arm as she passed him. 

“And why do you say that?” he questioned, an eyebrow raised. 

“If you can’t tell already, I tend to be a handful. And I’m going to enjoy shaking things up a bit.” She gave a little wink of her smokey eye-shadowed eye and continue her way to the stairway leading out of the ruined room. Hellboy felt a weird feeling in his chest; but he ignored it, for right at that moment, he realized that (y/n) might be more trouble than she’s worth. “What have I gotten myself into?” he mumbled to himself and reluctantly followed after the horned-fairy. “I just hope I don’t get an earful from Dad.”

THE END

26 Mar 2021: Amazon: cooler but not fresher. Facebook’s habit. NFTs.

Hello, this is the Co-op Digital newsletter. Thank you for reading - send ideas and feedback to @rod on Twitter. Please tell a friend about it!

[Image: part - about 3.5m worth - of Beeple’s Everydays: the first 5000 days]

Amazon: cooler but not fresher

“I asked [two young employees] if they liked working at Amazon Fresh and they both said, “Yes.” I followed up with, “Beats working at a supermarket?” and they both said, “Yes.” It’s a problem that it’s not cool to work in a supermarket.” 

That’s a US supermarket executive visiting an Amazon Fresh store in Chicago. Also:

“I was amazed that the cart weighs the produce and snaps a picture of each item. [...]

“I couldn’t find a ripe avocado and the bananas looked chilled. [...] The stores don’t seem to have a personal touch, especially if you need something special. I don’t think it will be a weekly destination for me, but I’m sure it will be for some people.”

Elsewhere in grocery and retail:

Asda equal pay: when seeking equal pay, lower-paid shop staff, who are mostly women, have won the right to compare themselves with higher paid warehouse workers, who are mostly men. 

John Lewis will permanently close eight more shops - most were already struggling before the pandemic. 

Big investors shun Deliveroo[’s IPO] over workers' rights. 

43% of weekly shoppers experience spoilage, damage or theft of delivered grocery - HomeValet has a “smart box” take on grocery delivery packaging that fixes those problems.

Facebook’s habit

Facebook’s AI algorithms gave it an insatiable habit for lies and hate speech. Now the man who built them can't fix the problem. Good long read on Facebook’s efforts to understand the system it had created. 

“A former Facebook AI researcher who joined in 2018 says he and his team conducted “study after study” confirming the same basic idea: models that maximize engagement increase polarization”

Needless to say, there are competing views within FB about what “fairness” should mean, particularly in relation to politics. And unfortunately *testing* for fairness remains a nice-to-have:

“But testing algorithms for fairness is still largely optional at Facebook. None of the teams that work directly on Facebook’s news feed, ad service, or other products are required to do it. Pay incentives are still tied to engagement and growth metrics. And while there are guidelines about which fairness definition to use in any given situation, they aren’t enforced.” 

It ends on this despondent note:

“Certainly he couldn’t believe that algorithms had done absolutely nothing to change the nature of these issues, I said.

“I don’t know,” he said with a halting stutter. Then he repeated, with more conviction: “That’s my honest answer. Honest to God. I don’t know.””

Political platforms

Bad news at the newsletter platforms. Mailchimp employees on unequal working conditions that led to women and people of colour quitting jobs. And Substack writers are mad at Substack over advances given against future revenue shares to writers who may have controversial or discriminatory opinions (although tbh, this is what all publishing companies do: offer authors with varying views advances on future royalty revenues).

It is getting harder for all platforms to remain neutral. Partly this is because neutrality is impossible: as platforms (and tech companies generally) get bigger, they wield more power. And partly it is because people actually want the platforms they use to take political, ethical and value positions.

Related: Very interesting read on moderation: whether each layer in the infrastructure stack should moderate its own layer or moderate the layers above it. It has interviews with leaders at Stripe, Microsoft, Google Cloud and Cloudflare. 

NFTs, “non-fungible tokens” and art

Last week, a digital image by artist Beeple sold for 69 million US dollars. It’s a jpeg image by an artist called Beeple, and the auction house Christie’s handled the sale. To be more accurate, it wasn’t the image that sold for $69m, but a digital file on the blockchain that references the original image, although of course the very idea of “original” is complicated by digital files anyway (look, is this the original, on the Christie’s website?!). OK, let’s do NFT questions:

What is an NFT? A “non-fungible token” is a digital file that is put on some kind of blockchain so that it behaves less like a digital thing (infinitely and easily copyable and shareable) and more like a physical thing (not easily copyable and shareable). 

Hold on, what, “non-fungible”? Money is fungible: it doesn’t matter whether you have this £10 note or that one, they’re both worth £10. “Non-fungible” is the opposite: only you have this unique thing, like a painting.

Is an NFT art? Everything can be art. The question is always whether it is good art, and the easiest way to know is to look at a lot of art.

Are NFTs good? Sometimes. They let true fans express their fandom by buying and collecting things. They make some money for artists, although most aren’t going to make 69m. They let artists benefit from the secondary market - that’s a good but occasionally sweary piece.

Are NFTs bad? Often. They’re hard to understand. When they use proof-of-work blockchains - eg Ethereum as of mid March 2021 - they are profoundly wasteful of energy. They are prone to scams because while the blockchain guarantees the chain of ownership of a digital file, it doesn’t do the same for the artwork the digital file points at, so there are some instances of artists being NFTised without permission. Though this may be more a characteristic of scammers than of NFTs. Some people speculate that NFTs are being used as marketing for cryptocurrencies.

How can NFTs be both good and bad? NFTs - and cryptocurrencies more generally - are a mirror: you see what you want to see. The excitement of being part of something new. The wish to make the world afresh. Taking apart industries that are inefficient. The white heat of investing in things that go to the moon. A way to socially signal others. The virus amplifying wealth inequalities. The underlying trend to monetise everything. Pointless showing off. Buying a file that merely points at some art. A scam.

Can you get off the fence, newsletter? OK, NFTs are on balance, bad. NFTs are everything you don’t understand about art multiplied by everything you don’t understand about technology multiplied by everything you don’t understand about money. And, right now, most of them are bad for the environment.

Who’s Beeple again? Beeple is an artist. The newsletter featured a Beeple image in August 2020. Co-op Members will be pleased to hear that the newsletter didn’t pay him $69m for it.

In other countries

A changing nation: how Scotland will thrive in a digital world - “this strategy sets out the measures which will ensure that Scotland will fulfil its potential in a constantly evolving digital world”.

Data, surveillance and how India is creating platforms to give people more control over how information about them is used (Related?: Two UK broadband ISPs trial new internet snooping system with UK Home Office.)

Spain to launch trial of four-day working week - “government agrees to proposal from leftwing party Más País allowing companies to test reduced hours”.

Various things

Self-driving startup Voyage bought by Cruise, which is owned by GM and Honda. Voyage was interesting because it focussed on a taxi service in retirement communities, and has designed an interior for Covid safety.

Is test and trace really the most wasteful public spending programme ever? Or have there, in fact, been larger squanderings of taxpayers’ money in the past?

'Right to repair' law to come in this summer. Manufacturers will need to make spare parts for appliances available to consumers - will this apply to mobile phones and other devices which have become decreasingly repairable as they became smaller and more complex?

A petition to Amazon: lower the number of parcels we have to deliver.

Black tech employees rebel against diversity theater.

I have one of the most advanced prosthetic arms in the world - and I hate it.

Co-op Digital news

Reflecting on one year of remote working at Co-op Digital - Co-op Digital colleagues in their own words.

Thank you for reading

Thank you friends, readers and contributors. Please continue to send ideas, questions, corrections, improvements, etc to @rod on Twitter. If you have enjoyed reading, please tell a friend! If you want to find out more about Co-op Digital, follow us @CoopDigital on Twitter and read the Co-op Digital Blog. Previous newsletters.

PHOTOGRAPHY HARRY ; chapter 1

"Bye mum!" were my last words as I saw her driving off, leaving me alone in a whole new world. Today, was my first day of university. I managed to scrape through my A-levels and get a decent enough grades to be accepted by Brighton Uni. Ever since I was little I have always wanted to do something with art as a career. I would pretend with my grandparents that I was some kind of fancy painter who sold their paintings for millions of pounds, we would do auctioneers selling my crumpled, messy drawings. But my grandparents pretended it was the greatest thing they had ever seen and even to this day they they have a box full in the loft of all my drawings, of course signed and dated. My grandparents were always one of my reasons for doing art when I was younger, just to see the smile my scribbles of a rainbow and some stick men would draw upon their faces. It's been 6 years since they had passed away, but whenever I created a new piece I would always try and remember their expressions looking at my work, even if it wasnt my best. That's what my first thought was, as Mum said her goodbyes, whilst I was stood on the curb with my suitcase and box of a few bits. Mum never seemed to be very interested in my life, I had to awkwardly ask for a lift as no one else could give me a lift. The ride there wasnt particularly enjoyable as the silence seemed to fog the air. So I decided to connect my phone to the aux cable and play some Fleetwood Mac to calm myself. I mean a fresh new start, new people and new places is the best thing to get me away from home. My thoughts were broken, when a girl started to wave in myself. I must've been daydreaming because she looked slightly impatient, but she gave me a soft smile when I regained focus. She was beautiful she had birght hazel eyes that matched perfectly with her tight curled black hair and olive skin. She wore a navy velevet crop top that tied around her waist with a pair of black jeans that stuck to her hips, showing off her hour-glass figure. "I'm Bobby" she gleamed as she gestured her had to me. I gave her a smile back and shook her hand "Violet" I replied. "Ah so you must be my room mate. Been waiting all day to meet you, you took your time!" she teased letting out a brief laugh. Immediately putting me at ease. "Follow me and I'll show you to our room." She said as she grabbed the box of my stuff and walking into the building ahead of us. The building was a basic uni stereotypical building, the typical grey building with a basic style to it, but it would have to do. "Heres your room" Bobby gestured to the little box room overlooking the carpark and other houses. "Thanks Bobby" "It's alright... um look me and some friends are going to a local pub near by to meet up with the other freshers. If you dont have plans do you want to come?" Her eyes were hopeful like a innocent puppy, how could I say no. "Oh, yeah, sure that sounds really cool" "YES! ok well be ready by 9 and then we can walk down together, cool?" she said excitedly. I nodded glad that my first year might not be going to complete rubish just yet. I locked the door behind me, sighing as I sat on the bare matress. I suppose I should unpack a bit as my room did seem a bit bare and I had hours to get ready so I had time. I unpacked my duvet covers that I'd taken from home, it had flowers on it that tied well together. However, you could still see some of the acrylic stains from when I had been too lazy to go and paint on my desk and then accidently knocked paint on it, but that added character. I set up my bed adding a pillow that Grandma had sewn together for me and I also hung up some coloured fair lights around the room to add a more homely look, along with my posters of some bands that I had seen back home. By the time I set up my room It had been 2 hours and I only had a hour to get ready, so I quickly set up my speaker and played a few songs from my playlist to try and boost my energy levels from travelling mostly all day. I hadn't had many clothes to choose from that weren't crinkled or just lunging around clothes, so I decided just to go for my normal day wear: a pair of blue 'mom' jeans and a white T-shirt with 'feminism' written in black across the front. My hair was no longer strait from where I straightened it this morning and curls were beginning to show so I put it in a quick pony tail, tucking my baby hairs behind my ears. As I had gone so basic on the outfit I thought it was right to spruce up the makeup a bit more, grabbing my orange eyeshadow palette that I had have since I was 15. I qucikly put some orange in my crease with my brush and a shimmery gold on top to add a more glam look and a bit of mascara to top it off. It was almost 9 so I grabbed my phone chucked it in my bag with my purse and tried to find Bobby. "Bobby!" "IM ALMOST READY! just give me five mins!" she called from her room. I took her word for it and grabbed my black converse and sat on the sofa which was positioned right next to the kitchen and positioned my self tying my laces. ~20 mins later~ "hey V, sorry I didnt know what to wear... ready to go?" she said as she brushed he hand through her hair. No one had ever called me 'V' before, but then no one really new my name let alone making a nickname for it, it felt good. She came out in a dress that was another velvet piece in green that tied around her hips exagerating her curves, with a pair of black heels. Making me feel very self concious about my outfit choice. "it's fine, nice dress by the way" I complemented trying to not make it seem awkward. "aw thankyou! I um love your bag." The brief pause didn't help my confidence but I decided to forget it and just go to the pub. We both walked down to the 'pub' as Bobby had described it, it was more like a casual club not a steak and chips place that I had imagined in my head. The place was called 'panther' there was a loud buzz of people and banging of music played through outside. But Bobby gave me a smile and pinched my hand as she lead me inside over towards a bar. There was a group of about 5 people standing around that seemed to be looking straight at us, they all hugged Bobby welcoming eachother untill they all stared at me obviously wondring who I was. "Oh guys this is my room mate Violet, thought she could use some company so be nice!" "hey nice to meet all of you" I smiled, they all laughed giving me hugs. There was Alex a who was tall and stood strong with baby blue eyes that shined against the light. Lucy, who Bobby seemed especially close with as they both had eachothers arms wrapped around their waists, I presumed that was her girlfriend, she had dark brown long hair that was around her shoulders, they just seemed to go perfectly together. There was also Niall a cute looking guy with blonde hair that stood sipping his pint of beer at the back smiling at me.Two other girls also stood next to Niall they both seemed as elegant as Lucy with their slim figures and perfect structured faces. By the time we all started talking I realised I hadn't yet got a drink and decided to swiftly move towards to bar,sitting on the sticky stool waiting for the bar tender to come over. It was nice to have a bit of space away from people just to regather myself, I had a quick scroll through my instagram feed looking at the people back home starting uni, wheni decided to turn it off and just to enjoy myself. Untill I heard the stool next to me be pulled out by a man with curly dark brown hair, he was looking me straight in the eyes. He had piercing green eyes that where mesmerising. "Hello" he said, his voice husky "I'm in a band" he grinned. "Does that line normally get you very far" I spluttered out not thinking what I was saying. "Didn't mean to offend you." His hands began to play with his ruby ring around his finger twirling it round almost nervously. He looked very comfy whilst wearing a knitted space jumper that looked exspensive, with a pair of flared blue jeans and vans, whilst he had sunglasses stirred into his curly hair. "I just thought I would come over and say 'hi', you seemed to be lonely sitting here all by yourself" a small smile began to grow across his face, as he began to look up at me. "I'm perfectly fine thanks, I'm here with my room mate so no need to worry im not alone" I joked letting out a small laugh. "Good to hear it" he beamed "I'm harry, just moved here, you?" he ignored my invitation for him to leave. "Violet, and so have I, are you at uni here too?" I began to get more comftable as his smile relaxed me. "Yeah I'm doing second year photgraphy, I just moved from London to Brighton as I fancided a change of scenery" he sighed. I didn't question his lack of enthusiam and ordered a drink for myself. He tried to pay for me but I refused I didn't need his money. But he insisted where I had to let him or he would of kept pestering me. For the whole night we both sat there talking about a load of nonsense like our favourite food and movie and about what we wanted to do in the future, obviously I had no idea or either did he like most students. He did talk about his band saying that his band mates are going to perform this weekend on saturday and that I should go, he seemed like a sort of guy to like my music taste so I couldnt see why not. "The band is called CHASM, and dont froget it cos' one day we'll be touring the world" we both laughed. For some reason the tinge of confidence that he had didnt seem rude to me it felt funny and almost warming as cringey as it sounded he started to grow on me. "Hey um look, heres my number" he typed his number in my phone and sent message to himself so he had my number too, making my eyes roll playfully. "Text me whenever you want and if you want to come along to one of our gigs" his dimples began to show as his mouth peaked. "Yeah sure, maybe see you around campus?" I tried to say casually like I knew what I was talking about. We said our good byes as Bobby was calling me to leave now as she had begun to get a bit tipsy. He hugged me into his arms in a bear hug, I could smell the scent of alcohol mixed with aftershave, but not too over powering that it was actually pleasant. Harry made sure we both were in a uber on the way home nice and safely, even though it was only a 10 minute walk. He insisted on walking us home himslef but he had already been too kind and I didn't want to push it. By the time he shut the door, Bobby immediately look at me with her brow raised, her make up slightly smudged and he strap of her dress fallen on her side. "he totally likes you you know" she giggled as the effects of alcohol took its toll. I just rolled my eyes at the comment, although it did feel nice for someone to pay attention to yourself occasionly AUTHORS NOTE: I hope you liked this it is my first time ever writing a fanfiction and If you like this then I would like to start a series to do with Harry and Violet (: x

AU Fic Rec, Part 4

Modern AU

Buckle the fuck in children, this is going to be long and uhhhhhhhhh long.

Modern AU - Anything set in current day, but not in the SPN universe. A lot of the BDSM/sex worker fics fit into this category but obviously??? They belong on the ever important BDSM list. Duh.

Let’s get fuckin ready.

Part One - BDSM

Part Two - Sci-FI/Fantasy

Part Three - Historical Setting

____

1. The Last Great Race - Kicking it off with a bang. Cas is a reporter, he goes to Alaska to cover the Iditarod - the dog sled race. Dean is participating and so is Sam and there are so many huskies and also romance. It has a prequel time stamp. It is lovely and I love it and read this right now.

2.  Pies and Prejudice - This is on my Top 8, but it’s a Pride and Prejudice Great British Bake Off Modern AU Fusion. Dean is Liz and Cas is Darcy. Please read this it’s wonderful and also cake is involved.

3. Between The Lines - Fam, Okay, I thought this was going to be Garbage but it’s not. Environmentalist Cas gets in a twitter feud(!!!!) with Western Actor Dean and they make a bet to live in off the land for a week and it’s. Amazing. Enemies 2 frends 2 luvrs. Trust me.

4. And Then You Destroy Yourself - The only Non-BDSM College AU worth reading. Cas is a freshman, he joins the College Newspaper, there is drama and mystery and intrigue. And Gay. The underage drinking is bit cringe but it’s very in character for college students, so what r u gonna do.

5. Love In The Wild - This is a hilaaaaarious Reality Show AU. Dean goes on a dating show and does challenges and meets the luv of his life, u kno? What more do you need. There is sex.

6. Through Basin And Range - Yeee buddy, Road Trip Fic!!!!! Dean and Cas are there but have broken up and it’s rough, and Sam is there also but he is sexting Kevin for some reason. Cas is spending the summer working on a thesis for his Geology Masters (master of rocks), and Sam n Dean tag along. This story really is lovey. It’s only on LJ though, so. :/

7. Unintended - Lawyer Cas bids for Fire Fighter Dean in a date auction and honestly. The sex in this is so good, like I lost this fic for three years but still remembered The Scene (You’ll know the one, that shit is hardly ever seen outside of PWP). This fic is so slept on. You need to read it. I think they live in Washinton or something. Maybe NYC. I forget, I’m busy thinking about The Scene.

8. Your Heart Makes - Ok so there are Three Disney Land AUs in this fandom that I know of. One of them is garbage, one of them is pretty good, and the last is incredible and it’s ur lucky day because the incredible one is this one. Castiel suffers from pretty bad depression, and is just trying to get through life, day by day. Insert Dean w/ a heart condition. There’s love, there’s slow build, there’s disney ride hand jobs. It’s a good time.

9. Any Little Heartbreak - I just reread this one recently! Heart Surgeon Dean! Surgery Nurse Cas! Enemies to FWB to Lovers! It’s like Scrubs meets... some sort of medical drama. Whatever, it’s a trip, and Meg is so fun.

10. Bearing Point - This fic is lovely and fun and it’s construction Dean + restoration expert Cas. I have beef with this fic, in that the author made Dean gay, instead of bi or pan and for me, a huge bisexual with strong emotional ties to Dean’s bisexuality, it kind of grated on me a bit and ruined the immersion. But, if you’re not a big baby like me, this fic is lovely and wonderful and they literally build homes together and also get nasty.

11. For All You Young Hockey Players Out There, Pay Attention - SPORTS AU. I don’t like sports but SPORTS AU. Dean is a hockey person. Something something NHL. Dean plays the sports with his brother. They get a new player from russia, but Dean is >:( bc they traded out his bff so Cas is The Enemy. Enemies to grudging friends to lovers. Coming out. Homophobic confusion. This fic is wonderful and lovely and sports. If you love destiel and you love Check Please, then this is the AU for U.

12.  Fourth Time’s the Charm - Ooooooooh, age gap fic. Cas is a comic book artist, Dean is a fan who goes to conventions. He’s also a virgin. :) Here is a direct quote from the summary: ‘Dean shyly fumbles his way through his first real relationship.’ Literally what more do you need? Literally?

13. If At First You Don’t Succeed (Destroy All Evidence That You Ever Tried) - lmao this fic is ridiculous. Inspired by the HIMYM episode, the three days rule, Dean replaces his number in Castiel’s phone to test he’s not being too eager when he meets girls. sexting ensues and Dean is !!!!! Gay Panicked. I love it, read it now, it’s sexy.

14.  Prosopagnosia -  This one is Teen and Up, I know, I am shocked that I’ve included it too. But it’s such a sweet story. Castiel works in a Gas n’ Sip and he has a cognitive disorder that means he’s face blind. He can’t recognize anyone, which makes his blossoming relationship with Dean a bit complicated. But they work around it. The Impala plays an important role.

15. Run Boy Run - FAM OK FAM PLS. Blind! Dean wants to compete in the Boston Marathon, but he needs a guide people to help him navigate obstacles and the other contestants. Castiel’s brother signs him up and he’s reluctant, but then he meets Dean and uhhhhhhh it all works out. It’s so sweet. Read it. Teen and Up again??? I’m srry, but it’s really good.

16. Yellow - Here’s another I haven’t read yet, but. It’s Elizabeth1985 and also it’s Cas in Witness protection and the excerpt I read places it firmly on my favourites list. Ex-mobster Cas, They are bartenders, there is falling in love, there is also fucking yeaaaa buddy, back on the sexy bandwagon.

17. Rough Seas - Dean is a Lieutenant Commander who moves home with a toddler and he’s involved with the Coast Guard, and he used to know Cas but there was gay panic and so things are tense and angsty and wonderful and this fic is amazing. SLOW BUILD. LOVERS TO ENEMIES TO FRIENDS TO LOVERS. Literally the best. There is a sequel which is almost as long. This fic is so lovely.

18. Asunder - This fic my guys, this fic. Please send help. Social Worker Dean. Recovering Heroin addicts Sam and Ruby who are getting married. They go to Bobby’s for the wedding. I forget how Cas fits in but he’s there and it’s lovely and so well written and wonderful and honestly? A Classic. If you read anything from this list, read this fic.

19. Satin and Sawdust - Lmao u guys u know me. Dean in panties love story. It’s on my Top 8. There’s capentry, there’s gay panic Cas, there’s satin and lace and soft cotton and also Dean has two cats. Read this right now.

20. Living In Agony - THIS FIC MY GUYS. I had three people read it from my Top 8 and they all died and met me in heaven bc i also died when I read it bc it is so. Lovely. Angst, mental illness, teachers Cas and Dean, Gabriel and Charlie are there also, Jess is a delight, Sam is in love with green smoothies, the sex is ridiculous (there is one line that helped shape me as a person and you will know which it is and you can blame this fic for all of the absolute filth that comes out of my brain. Read this right now.

21. Inevitable Homoeroticism in Spanish Romantic Heroes - :) Okay so Dean is a Grad student and Cas is a professor and it’s academic and sexy and not really a college au and I read it like four years ago and I still think about it. I suggest it very highly!!!

22. Get Some - Dean is in college and needs a place to live. He goes to live with Castiel, at the stoner house. Gay Panic happens and there are drugs and loads of casual sex and it’s honestly a good time. A bit angsty but mostly thumbs up muy bueno.

23.  That Summer - Short and sweet, lost love, this fic is so lovely and wonderful. It does feature an age gap with underage Dean so, if that’s not your bag... He is 17 at the time. Farmer Cas! Love and exploring sexuality!

24. Rvr Ro11435 - Destiel works at Nasa!!! Neither are astronauts but they are smart cookies who help send people to space. It’s tagged as an office romance. It’s cute.

25. The Way to a Man’s Heart is Through Chlamydia - One night stand. Dean gets an STD. Has to find his boo and tell ‘em about the STD. There’s fun sex and love and one of them is a baker and the love is so sweet and I love this fic. And I’m psure Cas gets a cat.

26.  Say a Prayer and Light a Candle - College AU where Cas struggles with dating agnostic Dean bc he is very Jewish, and it’s important to him and his family. This fic is special, and really culturally rich. I love it. Little bit of Angst, mostly love and sweetness.

27. Painted Angels - Fuck u this one is hurt of my heart. The Angst is Unreal. Dean is an artist. Or, he was an Artist. Lost Love, which gets found again. Cas returning to town a decade later. All the good shit.

28. Small Town Charmer - SMALL TOWNS! DEAN AND CAS! THEY RUN BUSINESSES AND FALL IN LOVE! Errrrrrr OTHER STUFF HAPPENS! This fic is lovely and great and if you don’t read it then u a dum dum.

29. Summer Holds a Song (We Might Sing Forever) - :) Age difference. Body worship. Dean Winchester described as a Greek God. The fucking is so hot. The love is so sweet. It’s short, but you gotta read this.

30. The Great Escapist - This fic is so sweet. College roommates Dean and Cas spend the summer together and fall in love. I don’t remember if there is Gay panic but like... I’m pretty sure.

Okay! 30 seems like enough. Maybe in the future I will do a part five. We’ll see. :)

____

Top 8 Personal Favs

11 Questions

I got tagged by @not-actually-ur-sassygayfriend so here it goes!

Rules:

Copy the rules.

Answer the questions given to you

Create 11 more for the next person to answer; tag 11 people

Questions asked of me:

1. What other languages do you wish you knew? What other countries do you wish you could visit or live in?

That’s two questions Warren  ;P But anyway: I wish my Spanish was better, and I wish I knew Italian (because I love the sound of it) and sign language (it’d be practical). I’d like to live in Jamaica for a time and learn about my heritage more, and I’d like to visit England, Spain, and Italy. And Canada! I really want to visit Canada someday! ;P

2. What sport/art do you do for therapy?

I pace sometimes when I’m anxious, and I often put my emotions into my writing. It’s probably why I’m so inconsistent with my writing habits, because I have to wait for the right mood to be upon me sometimes ^^’

3. I’ve been asking this around a lot. What kind of hands do you have? Answer with a short story about a scar, callus, etc.

I like to think I have writer’s hands. They’re quick and nimble on a keyboard. I’m the fastest typer in my family, and if given the right pen or pencil, I take a lot of delight in writing (on a side note, my favorite pen currently is the Precise V5 rolling ball extra fine ink pen, which you can get at Target for like $5 for a pack of 3. They don’t look like much, but they’re beautiful to write with!). As for scars, I have a large scar on my right wrist that’s shaped sort of like a backwards letter “L” written in a bubble font. I’m actually really fond of the scar, and there is a small story behind it. I got it after school on the second-to-last day of fifth grade. A bunch of girls from my girl scout troop were racing in front of the school. I thought I’d be fastest if I ran on the grass. I ended up tripping in a pothole that was hidden under the grass and ended up falling onto the pavement. I scraped that wrist pretty bad, but I thought nothing of it. The scrape though became infected (or nearly infected? It wasn’t healing well and the surrounding skin was all white and puss-y, and the doctor did stress the possibility of infection. All I remember was worrying that my hand was going to be amputated). It eventually healed, but we had to clean it daily including pouring rubbing alcohol over it every night and letting it dry out unbandaged. I hated that part >.<

4. When you get involved with a story, what’s the most important thing to you? (Story? Character development? Setting? etc...)

I’d say description and detail. That can apply to all of those aspects, but I love stories that are so vivid with description that they just leap off the page at you. I like to immerse myself in the story, so the more descriptive and detailed, the better!

5. Boom. You have powers. Are they magic or science? What kind and why?

I was literally just thinking about this 2 days ago! Ok, so I would have the power to make myself look any way I want. My main thought for this is that I can make myself look tough and intimidating if I’m in a situation that would normally make me, a tiny, unimposing girl, feel unsafe and insecure, but let’s face it: I’m pretty much going to use this power to give myself a big, fluffy tail when I’m in the comfort of my own home!

6. Into the Beautiful Grim. It’s a painting by Mike Lim, a.k.a. Daarken. I get a lot of judgy looks when I say it’s one of my favorites before I explain the backstory behind the piece. Short version, it was the centerpiece of an auction to raise money for his wife’s cancer treatment. The woman in the frame is (supposedly?) his wife, and the blue wisps (butterflies? flowers?) are the unknown hopes in the future. Do you have a piece of work that you love and adore but have to explain the backstory to people when you show them?

I can’t really say so, no. :/

7. Look in the mirror or take a selfie. What’s your favorite thing about yourself in this image?

I’ve really started to love my natural hairstyle and my eyebrows within the last couple years. See, my family taught me to hate my hair and my brows because they think my hair is wild and under groomed (it’s not; it’s just really prone to being mussed by the wind, but it has lovely curls and volume) and my eyebrows are too thick (my family is notorious for really thick eyebrows, but they prefer thin eyebrows; I think they’re bold and eye-catching and just need a bit of cleaning around the edges to make them pop more). I’ve just really started to value my own natural features more, and everything I love about myself is something that my family hates.

8. As some people know, I get lost staring in people’s eyes. What color are your eyes, and what kind of story do they tell?

You know what color my eyes are! ;P But for the sake of people who don’t: they’re dark brown, and I like to imagine they tell a story of strength and self-reliance tempered through pain and fear.

9. Do you have a favorite quote? What is it? Does it remind you of a person or place? And would you consider getting a tattoo of it?

“If you are a dreamer come in If you are a dreamer a wisher a liar A hoper a pray-er a magic-bean-buyer If youre a pretender com sit by my fire For we have some flax golden tales to spin Come in! Come in!” - Shel Silverstein

This quote is my favorite. It inspires me and makes me think of imagination and creativity, particularly when it comes to writing. For all that, I don’t think I would ever get a tattoo of it. I’m very reluctant to consider tattooing myself, though I find tattoos to be beautiful and admire them on others.

10. Go tell somebody who’s made a difference in your life that you love them. Post their response.

He’s my boyfriend, so of course he said he loves me back ;P

11. This might be feeding my ego, and you can just send an answer to me in an ask instead. What’s your favorite interaction with me or with somebody else here on this website?

I really loved all the times we went out together back in senior year. You helped me keep going at some of my lowest times.

My Questions for Others:

1. They say there’s two sides to every story, so what’s your side of the story of how we met?

2. What’s the most useful life hack that you’ve ever come across?

3. If you could make one fictional character real, who would you choose and why?

4. What song are you currently or most recently obsessed with? Bonus: what song makes you think of your OTP?

5. What is your favorite kind of weather? Why?

6. Brag a little! What’s an achievement you’re proud of?

7. What do you think is your best quality? What’s one quality you wish you could improve?

8. What’s the kindest thing someone’s ever done for you?

9. Think about the best fictional villain you’ve ever seen. What made them the best at being a villain?

10. Pick one of the questions I answered above to answer yourself!

11. Pick one of the questions I asked to ask me!

I tag:

@blackwaterbbq, @arianwen44, @blissfullyintoxicated, @not-actually-ur-sassygayfriend (yes I know you tagged me to begin with, so you don’t have to come up with more questions or tag anyone else ;P), and anyone else who would like to answer my questions!

ok kids I opted for a half summary half fic situation so here is Sugar Baby Kara part two. [Part one is here]

So Kara does what she does best in a high tension environment and just starts rambling. She talks about Pretty Woman and her art degree and how she really likes Lena but she doesn’t think she likes likes her and Lena has to grab her hands and give them a little shake just to get her attention.



“Kara! Stop, you are not my sugar baby,” she makes a face at the last two words. “You’re my friend. My best friend, honestly, which is something I never thought I’d have.” 
Kara gives her another sunny smile.



“You’re my best friend, too, Lena, and if I’ve been taking advantage of you by accepting all this stuff I’m real sorry.”



“I’m a Luthor, Kara. Material things are really all we have to give,” she tries to sound like a joke but Kara can hear the pain in her voice.



“Hey,” she squeezes her hand, “you have a lot to give. You are the smartest, strongest person I know. There is no limit to the gifts you can give, you hear me?”



Lena’s a blubbering mess at this point and just nods before taking a slow, deep breath.



“I do like you, Kara. I always have,” she whispers, looking anywhere but her stunned friend. “But having you in my life, in any capacity, is all I really want. So if you don’t like me in that way I’m okay with that, as long as we can stay friends like this. I just,” she shrugs helplessly, “I just don’t want to picture my life without you in it.”



Kara’s crying now, too (she’s a sympathy crier) and she pulls Lena into a hug so tight she squeaks. 

“And you don’t have to! We are best friends, you got that? And I am always gonna be here for you.”



And Lena’s smile is a little sad, a little subdued, but its still bright and full of love.

“Thank you, Kara.”


And things pretty much go back to normal after that, or as normal as they can be when your best friend is a multi-millionaire who can only express feelings through tears or expensive purchases.

Lena is true to her word and never makes any sort of pass at Kara, which she’s thankful for mostly. It’s a little strange knowing someone likes you like that, and Kara feels her perspective shifting around her. She starts to notice things she never fully noticed before, like how cute Lena is when she fumbles over her words. Or how good her ass looks in those skin tight skirts. Once, while they’re eating together in a restaurant, an arrogant prick of a man who apparently runs in the same social circles as Lena comes over and starts negging her. Lena flawlessly, effortlessly destroys him with a few words and a look. Kara ends up shifting uncomfortably for the rest of the dinner, confused as to why her heart’s aflutter.

When Kara gets the call at 3 in the morning letting her know Alex has been in a devastating car crash, Lena steps up while Kara crumbles. Lena pays to fly in the best doctors on the coast, pays to have Alex moved to a private hospital that specializes in traumatic injuries like hers. Lena stays up three days straight with Kara while they wait to see if Alex is going to wake up, holding her hand the entire time. And after Alex’s eyes do finally flicker open, Lena holds Kara for half an hour while she sobs with relief before ushering home to shower and rest. Lena helps keep Kara sane at a time when she feels her world crumbling, and Kara doesn’t quite know how to handle it all. This hits Kara hard. 

She starts to miss Lena at night when the other woman doesn’t sleepover, starts to feel her absence like a cold breeze whenever they’re apart. Her hugs start to linger more and she treasures the physicality of their relationship in ways she hadn’t before. When Lena smiles, it takes decided effort to pull her eyes away from her lips. Absently she wonders how Lena’s lipstick would look stained across her throat, her thighs… Kara has to shake herself out of that thinking, though, because Lena is her friend. She made that clear to her before and she can’t let her confusing feelings get in the way of that.

 Then Lena throws a charity auction to herald in the new year and Kara donates a few of her paintings after Lena’s insistence. They do really well and throughout the evening multiple fat cats approach her with questions about commissions. When one approaches while she’s with Lena she’s a little stunned when Lena presses her hand to the small of Kara’s back and proudly tells the investor what a gem Kara is, how she has the talent to be the next great artist of their generation. Kara just stares at her, transfixed by the genuine enthusiasm Lena has for her art, and its in that moment it really, truly hits her. 
She’s in love with Lena.

It’s so obvious now she feels almost foolish for not seeing it before. Lena turns and smiles at her, still talking, but Kara can’t hear a word she’s saying over the thunderous beating of her heart. She loves Lena, and she’s pretty sure Lena loves her back. 

“Excuse us,” Kara says, cutting off the investor in the middle of a sentence, before taking Lena’s hand and leading her to the outskirts of the party. Lena follows without any hesitation. It’s only when they reach the back hallways that Lena says, “You know, I think Mr. Eaton thinks you’re amazing,” Kara turns down a somewhat dark hallway, “I just know he would love to buy some of your-” Kara pulls Lena’s arm to swing her around and press her against the wall, “-art,” Lena finishes at a whisper, her eyes locked on Kara’s as the other woman presses against her. They stand like that for a moment, pressed chest to chest with Kara gripping her arms. And they just stare at each other. 

“I’d really like to kiss you, Lena,” Kara finally says, and Lena lets out a tiny, confused whimper that’s just barely audible in the silent hallway. “If that’s okay with you.”

 Even in the dim lighting of the hallway Kara can see how bright red Lena’s face has gone as she nods almost frantically. Kara smiles and kisses her. 

Based on everything she’s seen of Lena, she assumes she’ll need to go nice and slow with this sort of intimacy, so she pulls back after only a chaste peck. But Lena surprises her, she reaches out to thread her fingers through Kara’s hair and pull her back in. The kiss becomes much less chaste at that; it’s hot and dirty and Lena keeps making these little sounds that are making Kara’s head spin. They fumble against each other, touching and grabbing like they’re about to die and the only chance of survival is each other.

Kara finds herself trying to get her hands under the ridiculous floor length gown Lena decided to wear when they hear footsteps approaching and two men laughing loudly. They jump apart and try to straighten up, though Lena’s hair is a mess and Kara definitely has a new shade of lipstick smeared all over her lips but there’s no time to prepare as the two men turn the corner and see them.

 “Oh, Lena! There you are,” one of the men say. “I’ve been looking for you everywhere!” 

“Jack,” Lena breathes, her eyes wide with a panic Kara hasn’t seen since the early days of their friendship. “What are you doing here?” 

 “I heard you were throwing a party and figured I’d surprise you!” 

He seems to notice Kara now. 

“Who’s your friend, Lena?” 

Lena clears her throat, standing straight. “Oh, this is Kara. Kara Danvers.”

 Jack gives Kara a bright warm smile and offers her his hand, which she shakes hesitantly. She tries not to think about how the hand he’s shaking was just trailing the edges of Lena’s panties.

“Well it is very nice to meet you, Kara Danvers! I’m Jack Spheer,” he says. “I’m Lena’s fiancé.”

Tom Hanks Napped Here: Why He’s Selling His Sofa, and So Much More

Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images

Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson may be a Hollywood power couple, but that doesn’t mean they don’t do normal things—like, say, sell their used furniture.

After all, the actors sold two side-by-side Pacific Palisades properties last year. With much less room to house all their stuff, they needed to downsize their furnishings, too. So they’re auctioning off nearly 50 high-end pieces on the luxury consignment site Viyet.

But don’t be fooled by their secondhand status: These furnishings are priced in the thousands—and while you may be able to pop something into your virtual shopping cart at the listed price, since Viyet is an auction site, a bidding war could drive those numbers even higher.

These jaw-dropping prices are actually no big surprise, explains Alessandra Wood, director of style at home design site Modsy.

“Like the stock market, art and antiques can fluctuate in price year over year,” she says. “You can always expect to pay a bit more for pieces with special provenance, such as those belonging to famous collectors or celebrated public figures.”

OK, so really nice used furniture can become more valuable over time—nonetheless, we’re still a bit surprised that Hanks and Wilson are trying to scratch out some cash by pawning their old stuff. It’s unclear whether any proceeds from this sale will go to charity, and since such info is typically shouted from the rooftops, we’d have to surmise that any profits will line their own pockets (hey, no judgments).

In any case, if you’re interested in adding a touch of Hollywood history to your home or you just want to see where Hanks has napped, check out some of the more noteworthy items in this glorified tag sale—and the stories behind them—and find out whether interior designers think they’re worth the splurge.

Secretary desk, $5,000

Rita Wilson’s hand-painted desk

Viyet

Hanks and Wilson previously adorned their bedroom with this secretary desk.

“I kept all my personalized stationery in here and used the drawers to store it in boxes,” Wilson told Architectural Digest.

Not only are the desk’s numerous cubbies a great place to store letters, but the piece also lives up to its $5,000 price tag, says Drew Henry, founder of Designer Dudes. The desk was crafted and hand-painted in Italy, and its hinged writing surface is lined in gold taffeta.

“It’s a really high-quality piece,” he says. “I also think there’s something romantic about sitting down to write letters at an antique desk.”

Wood inlay dining table, $6,595

Dining table with wood inlay was one of Wilson’s favorite pieces.

Viyet

This custom-made, round dining table comes with a scratch or two, but, according to Wilson, that’s what makes it so hard to part with.

The couple celebrated birthdays, dinner parties, and family gatherings around this table, which Wilson believes gives it positive energy, explaining, “I hope someone will have joyous moments around this table.”

The table is one of the more expensive pieces for sale, and its quality craftsmanship is worth the high price tag, says Wood.

“The $6,500 price tag is definitely taking its previous owners into account,” she notes. “However, one would expect to pay at least that price for a similar table new.”

Small, rustic chairs, $75

Rustic chairs with distressed white paint

Viyet

If Wilson’s beloved dining table and Italian desk are too pricey for your budget, the couple are also selling far more affordable items, including a set of Little Folk Art Inc. chairs. The small, rustic chairs covered in a distressed white paint are priced at only $75, which is affordable even outside Hollywood.

Venetian mirror, $2,975

A mirror crafted by Venetian artists

Viyet

Hanks and Wilson’s mirror was crafted by glass artisans in Venice, and the antique’s gold features and etched details make it a versatile piece, according to Henry.

“It can be incorporated into a lot of styles, from traditional to regal to boho to even modern,” he says. “The lines are really great.”

That said, Henry believes the price is a bit steep. “A good mirror is expensive, but it shouldn’t break the bank,” he adds.

Still, the fact that Hollywood royalty have stared into its depths could make this mirror worth it for the right buyer.

Modern sofa, $5,595

Hanks and Wilson took naps on this Donghia sofa.

Viyet

This modern sofa, crafted by luxury furnisher Donghia, is where Hanks and Wilson kicked back.

“Many a good nap was taken on these couches,” Wilson told People magazine. “They were from our living room. I love how chic they are. These seem to be timeless.”

Damask slipcover dining chairs, $1,595

Dining chairs custom-made for Wilson and Hanks

Viyet

If you want a seat at Wilson’s dinner table, consider this set of dining chairs. Custom-made for the actress, the chairs are covered in a vibrant gold and gray slipcover. As dining chairs tend to be an expensive purchase, Henry declares this set of four is reasonably priced.

However, he notes the dated design of the chairs “remind me of my mom’s dining room in the early 2000s.”

Italian painted dresser, $3,675

Wilson’s antique hand-painted dresser

Viyet

Like most secondhand pieces, this antique dresser has some wear and tear, including scratches around the keyholes and a large chip on the front edge. The five-drawer dresser is made from hardwood with soft corners and features hand-painted farm scenes.

Similar pieces were crafted as far back as the 18th century, which alone justifies this price, adds Wood. Plus, the exquisite artistry makes this dresser a fitting addition to any European-inspired room.

The post Tom Hanks Napped Here: Why He’s Selling His Sofa, and So Much More appeared first on Real Estate News & Insights | realtor.com®.

from https://www.realtor.com/news/trends/tom-hanks-rita-wilson-furniture-sale/

As Virus Tightens Grip on China, the Art World Feels the Squeeze

A single Chinese billionaire, an investor and former taxi driver named Liu Yiqian, has spent at least $200 million on art in recent years, including $170 million for a Modigliani nude in 2015.

With China as the second-largest market for the global movie industry, approval or rejection by the government in Beijing can make or break a movie’s bottom line.

Orchestras from around the world plan tours of China years in advance, seeing them as a way to sell tickets, raise their profile and cultivate China’s growing wealthy class as donors.

But now, as China struggles to get the coronavirus epidemic under control, the country is essentially closed for business to the global arts economy, exposing the sector to deep financial uncertainty. Movie releases have been canceled in China and symphony tours suspended because of quarantines and fears of contagion. A major art fair in Hong Kong was called off, and important spring art auctions half a world away in New York have been postponed because well-heeled Chinese buyers may find it difficult to travel to them.

“It’s just not realistic to plan to offer things that are objects we know people want to see in person during a time when they can’t get here,” said Lark Mason, the founder of iGavel, one of six auction houses that have postponed many of their sales. “It does mean we have to scramble a bit because, OK, we don’t have this amount of revenue coming in. What are we going to do to fill the gap?”

The virus has infected more than 60,000 people and killed more than 1,400 in China. As tens of millions of people are sealed off in cities there, new questions are emerging about how the virus, named SARS-CoV-2, is transmitted. Even art dealers who expect business to suffer because of closed borders and mandatory quarantines say they understand that stopping the contagion comes first.

Still, there will be a financial impact. China was the third-biggest art market in the world in 2018, according to last year’s Art Basel and UBS Global Art Market Report, accounting for 19 percent of the $67 billion spent on art that year. (The United States, at 44 percent, and United Kingdom, at 21 percent, had the top two spots.)

Last week, Art Basel Hong Kong, an annual art fair scheduled for mid-March, was canceled, depriving dealers and artists of a major opportunity to show works to customers based in China and beyond. The fair attracts droves of visitors who descend on the region for art shows, cocktail gatherings and yacht parties in Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai, Hanoi and Tokyo before, during and after the fair. Some of these have been postponed or canceled as well.

In Hong Kong, the cancellations come after months of political protests that have convulsed the city and left much of the territory on shaky footing.

Updated Feb. 10, 2020

What is a Coronavirus? It is a novel virus named for the crown-like spikes that protrude from its surface. The coronavirus can infect both animals and people, and can cause a range of respiratory illnesses from the common cold to more dangerous conditions like Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, or SARS.

How contagious is the virus? According to preliminary research, it seems moderately infectious, similar to SARS, and is possibly transmitted through the air. Scientists have estimated that each infected person could spread it to somewhere between 1.5 and 3.5 people without effective containment measures.

How worried should I be? While the virus is a serious public health concern, the risk to most people outside China remains very low, and seasonal flu is a more immediate threat.

Who is working to contain the virus? World Health Organization officials have praised China’s aggressive response to the virus by closing transportation, schools and markets. This week, a team of experts from the W.H.O. arrived in Beijing to offer assistance.

What if I’m traveling? The United States and Australia are temporarily denying entry to noncitizens who recently traveled to China and several airlines have canceled flights.

How do I keep myself and others safe? Washing your hands frequently is the most important thing you can do, along with staying at home when you’re sick.

Ben Brown, a gallery owner with locations in London and Hong Kong, said that his shop has made a big profit every year at Art Basel Hong Kong, and this year, that bump will disappear. But the damage will go beyond immediate sales.

“It’s the center of the artistic universe for a week, and it leads to other things during the year,” he said. “Imagine if you had to cancel the Oscars. The film world would carry on, and films would carry on either making money or losing money, but it’s a major blow.”

Galleries that had planned to exhibit at Art Basel Hong Kong were offered a refund of 75 percent of their booth fees, which run to $125,000 for the largest spaces. Besides forfeited fees and lost sales, galleries are bleeding money in other ways. Cliff Vernon, director of the contemporary division of Gander & White, which ships fine art, said that there were two shipping containers currently at sea that had been on their way to Art Basel carrying pieces from five dealers. Now, the galleries will have to pay to ship it back, at a cost of about $15,000 for the return trip.

China is also critical for the movie business, a $9 billion annual market second only to North America, according to Paul Dergarabedian, a senior analyst at Comscore, a media measurement company. But with most movie theaters in the country closed, he said, that business is almost entirely on hold. Releases of “Jojo Rabbit” and “Dolittle” — a box-office bomb in the United States that desperately needs foreign sales — are among those postponed in China so far.

“There’s no question there are going to have to be footnotes as far as the box offices goes this year,” Mr. Dergarabedian said. “The longer this goes on, the bigger an issue it becomes.”

With China’s emergence as the fastest-growing market for classical music in recent years, the ripple effects of the virus crisis were quickly felt across that field as well.

Several American ensembles, including the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the National Symphony Orchestra, based in Washington, canceled planned tours of China. The Juilliard School, which is preparing to open a branch in Tianjin this fall, announced that it was suspending all in-person admissions-related activities in Asia until at least March. And the ambitious monthlong Hong Kong Arts Festival, which would have assembled leading orchestras, opera companies, soloists and dance companies from all over the world, was canceled.

The economic impact is still being gauged. American orchestra tours are expensive, complicated undertakings that are planned years in advance; fees they earn from foreign hosts generally cover only part of what it costs to ship roughly a hundred musicians and their instruments thousands of miles. But orchestral tours of China have proved especially attractive to sponsors interested in cultivating relationships there — and whose financial support makes such tours possible.

“You try to break even with sponsorship dollars,” said Michael M. Kaiser, the chairman of the DeVos Institute of Arts Management at the University of Maryland.

The Boston Symphony said that the tour it canceled was expected to cost approximately $2.1 million, including artist fees and expenses; security; lodging; airfare; and transporting the trunks and instruments of orchestra members. The administration has been hoping to speak with vendors about waiving or reducing some fees, but with the crisis it has been difficult to get through to some of them.

Even institutions that are far less dependent on Chinese patrons, like the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Broadway theaters in New York City, say they are watching the situation carefully. Chinese tour groups have been suspended, and if the virus spreads widely, other travelers themselves may decide to stay home. In Paris, the Louvre said it had not yet seen a drop in visits, but according to the museum’s most recent figures, 800,000 of its 10 million visitors in 2018 came from China.

Art galleries are not completely reliant on foot traffic and fairs; thanks to the internet and her phone, Emerald Mou, a partner at the Hong Kong gallery Mine Project, said that half the current show at her gallery has now sold through email, WhatsApp or WeChat. (Ms. Mou also said she was recently able to negotiate with her landlord for a five percent reduction on her rent for two months.) Mathieu Borysevicz, a director of the BANK gallery in Shanghai said that he had just sold a painting on WeChat to a collector who was at home, bored, in Beijing.

But Mr. Borysevicz also said that a collector in Thailand had canceled a purchase not long ago, saying it was because of the virus that he could not buy the piece.

Many high-end auction bids are delivered by phone, as was the record-setting Modigliani purchase Mr. Liu made at Christie’s New York. But buyers often like to see what they’re bidding on beforehand. And right now, Chinese buyers can’t easily visit the marble Sui dynasty Buddha head (estimated to sell for $500,000 to $700,000) or the 17th-century incense stand ($800,000 to $1,200,000) that Christie’s in New York had planned to offer this spring. The auctions held every March at Christie’s, Sotheby’s and elsewhere in New York City have been postponed until June.

The virus comes at a particularly difficult time because any art that originated in China has been subject to a 15 percent tariff for months (they will be lowered to 7.5 percent on Friday) as a result of President Trump’s trade standoff with Beijing, which means it is now harder not only for dealers to sell art, but also to buy it.

“For my exhibition next month, I would say more than half of it was acquired outside the United States, so to bring that in and add 15 percent, that’s what we used to call the profit margin,” said James Lally, founder of J.J. Lally & Co. in Manhattan, a gallery that specializes in Chinese art.

“It’s two unfortunate things on top of each other that affect opposite ends of the market,” he added. “It’s not a good time.”

Reporting was contributed by Michael Cooper and Michael Paulson from New York; Jacob Dreyer from Bangkok; Constant Meheut from Paris; and Scott Reyburn from London‏.

from WordPress https://mastcomm.com/entertainment/as-virus-tightens-grip-on-china-the-art-world-feels-the-squeeze-2/

Flags Quotes

Official Website: Flags Quotes

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• A lot of folks are still demanding more evidence before they actually consider Iraq a threat. For example, France wants more evidence. And you know I’m thinking, the last time France wanted more evidence they rolled right through Paris with the German flag. – David Letterman • A thoughtful mind, when it sees a nation’s flag, sees not the flag, but the nation itself. – Henry Ward Beecher • A thoughtful mind, when it sees a Nation’s flag, sees not the flag only, but the Nation itself; and whatever may be its symbols, its insignia, he reads chiefly in the flag the Government, the principles, the truths, the history which belongs to the Nation that sets it forth. – Henry Ward Beecher • After I left D.C. to join Black Flag, I felt I was in a band. – Henry Rollins • America has an almost obscene infatuation with itself. Has there ever been a big, powerful country that is as patriotic as America? And patriotic in the tinniest way, with so much flag waving? You’d really think we were some poor little republic, and that if one person lost his religion for one hour, the whole thing would crumble. America is the real religion in this country. – Norman Mailer • America is the only country in the world where you can burn the flag but can’t tear the tag off the mattress. – Jackie Mason • And the word is capitalism. We are too mealy-mouthed. We fear the word capitalism is unpopular. So we talk about the free enterprise system and run to cover in the folds of the flag and talk about the American Way of Life. – Eric Johnston • And when we view a flag, which to the eye is beautiful, and to contemplate its rise and origin inspires a sensation of sublime delight, our national honor must unite with our interests to prevent injury to the one, or insult to the other. – Thomas Paine • Any power must be an enemy of mankind which enslaves the individual by power and by force, whether it arises under the Fascist or the Communist flag. All that is valuable in human society depends upon the opportunity for development accorded to the individual. – Albert Einstein • As Conservatives, We Don’t Care About The Color of Your Skin, We Care About The Color of Our Flag – Allen West • As long as I live, I will never forget that day 21 years ago when I raised my hand and took the oath of citizenship. Do you know how proud I was? I was so proud that I walked around with an American flag around my shoulders all day long. – Arnold Schwarzenegger • As National Socialists we see our program in our flag. In the red we see the social idea of the movement. – Adolf Hitler • Ashcroft vowed to] spare no effort to preserve the rights of all our citizens to pledge allegiance to the American flag. – John Ashcroft • At least in my country, we have come to accept the flags burning, but what we cannot accept is violence, burning of embassies and intimidations, and there is no excuse for that. – Daniel Fried

jQuery(document).ready(function($) var data = action: 'polyxgo_products_search', type: 'Product', keywords: 'flag', orderby: 'rand', order: 'DESC', template: '1', limit: '68', columns: '4', viewall:'Shop All', ; jQuery.post(spyr_params.ajaxurl,data, function(response) var obj = jQuery.parseJSON(response); jQuery('#thelovesof_flag').html(obj); jQuery('#thelovesof_flag img.swiper-lazy:not(.swiper-lazy-loaded)' ).each(function () var img = jQuery(this); img.attr("src",img.data('src')); img.addClass( 'swiper-lazy-loaded' ); img.removeAttr('data-src'); ); ); ); • Bastard Freedom waves Her fustian flag in mockery over slaves. – Thomas Moore • Behold a republic standing erect while empires all around are bowed beneath the weight of their own armaments – a republic whose flag is loved while other flags are only feared. – William Jennings Bryan • But didn’t you say you were satisfied with your life?” “Word games,” I dismissed. “Every army needs a flag. – Haruki Murakami • By the rude bridge that arched the flood, Their flag to April’s breeze unfurled, Here once the embattled farmers stood, And fired the shot heard round the world. – Ralph Waldo Emerson • By the way, I don’t mean to pick nits here, but Obama has just ordered the flag at half-mast for 10 days for Mandela. He did not order the flag at half-mast at all for Lady Thatcher. – Rush Limbaugh • Call it ‘nationalism’ when you affix a flag to your car, and leave the word ‘patriotism’ for your efforts to make this country a kinder, more egalitarian place, and one that is less dangerous to the rest of the world. – Barbara Ehrenreich • Can you imagine what Bush would say if someone like Hugo Chavez asked him for a little piece of land to install a military base, and he only wanted to plant a Venezuelan flag there?- Jose Saramago • Canadians are fond of a good disaster, especially if it has ice, water, or snow in it. You thought the national flag was about a leaf, didn’t you? Look harder. It’s where someone got axed in the snow. – Margaret Atwood • Democratic Rep. Charles Schumer of New York made a plea to Livingston, the incoming speaker. These new hearings, these new subpoenas wave a red flag that common sense and common wisdom are not welcome here, .. Mr. Livingston, this may be the first and most important task you will ever face as speaker. Lead us out of this abyss. – Charles Schumer • Donald Trump appears to be searching for an enemy. Is it flag burners, recounts, the press, the popular vote? Trump has gone after them all at times, using wild experience theories even as president-elect to do it. – Chuck Todd • Emblem: the carapace of the great crowned snail is painted with all the flags of the United Nations. – Mason Cooley • Even if only one guerilla cub survives the prolonged struggle, I am confident that he will raise the flag of Palestine overJerusalem… Jerusalem is destined to be the eternal capital of our sovereign, independent Palestinian state under the P.L.O. leadership. – Yasser Arafat • Even if the flag burning amendment does become law, the larger problem will remain of how to respectfully dispose of older, tattered flags. Well, fortunately the U.S. official Flag Code has a suggestion about this. “The flag, when it is in such a condition that it is no longer a fitting emblem of display, should be destroyed in a dignified way, preferably by burning.” Owwwwcchh. In response, the House Republicans are calling for tattered flags to be kept alive via a feeding tube. – Jon Stewart • Every man that tried to destroy the Government, every man that shot at the holy flag in heaven, every man that starved our soldiers… every man that wanted to burn the negro, every one that wanted to scatter yellow fever in the North, every man that opposed human liberty, that regarded the auction-block as an altar and the howling of the bloodhound as the music of the Union, every man who wept over the corpse of slavery, that thought lashes on the naked back were a legal tender for labour performed, every one willing to rob a mother of her child – every solitary one was a Democrat. – Robert Green Ingersoll • Every normal man must be tempted, at times, to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats. – H. L. Mencken • Every time a colony wants independence, the questions on the agenda are: a) how do you get the imperialists out, and b) what kind of society do you build? There are usually the bourgeois nationalists who say, ‘Let’s just change the flag and keep everything as it was.’ Then there are the revolutionaries who say, ‘Let’s change the property laws.’ It’s always a critical moment. – Ken Loach • Every time I hit a shot, I feel like I am shaking hands with the flag stick. – Moe Norman • Everything becomes agitated. Ideas quick-march into motion like battalions of a grand army to its legendary fighting ground, and the battle rages. Memories charge in, bright flags on high; the cavalry of metaphor deploys with a magnificent gallop; the artillery of logic rushes up with clattering wagons and cartridges; on imagination’s orders, sharpshooters sight and fire; forms and shapes and characters rear up; the paper is spread with ink – for the nightly labor begins and ends with torrents of this black water, as a battle opens and concludes with black powder.- Honore de Balzac • Fascism will come to America wrapped in a flag. – Sinclair Lewis • Flag desecration is not a constitutional issue for the courts. It is a political one that belongs to the people. – Larry Craig • Flag of the free heart’s hope and home! By angel hands to valour given, Thy stars have lit the welkin dome; And all thy hues were born in heaven. – Joseph Rodman Drake • Flags are bits of colored cloth used first to shrinkwrap people’s brains and then as ceremonial shrouds to bury the dead. – Arundhati Roy • For black folks, the Confederate flag represents the same thing that the Nazi flag represents to the Jews. There is absolutely no difference when we look at it. Now, white folks try to explain it away like, ‘Oh, it’s OK.’ But when you’re black, it is not OK. It represents oppression and murder. – Ken Page • For me, I’m just trying to be the best at what I do. I’ll wave an Asian American flag if I get that opportunity. I’m not hiding or trying to discredit my background or anything, I just haven’t had the opportunity. – Chad Hugo • Ford used to come to work in a big car with two Admiral’s flags, on each side of the car. His assistant would be there with his accordion, playing, Hail to the Chief. – Richard Widmark • Getting that audience approval is always a question mark, and it’s always that flag that flutters in front of you. – William Shatner • Growth at an exceptional rate is a red flag in banking. It is hard enough to manage an ordinary bank; to control a sprouting weed is well-nigh impossible. If loans are expanding too quickly, the lending officers have probably been saying ‘yes’ too frequently. – James Grant • Haul up the flag, you mourners, Not half-mast but all the way; The funeral is done and disbanded; The devil’s had the final say. – Karl Shapiro • Have not I myself known five hundred living soldiers sabred into crows’ meat for a piece of glazed cotton, which they call their flag; which had you sold it at any market-cross, would not have brought above three groschen? – Thomas Carlyle • He is a poor patriot whose patriotism does not enable him to understand how all men everywhere feel about their altars and their hearthstones, their flag and their fatherland. – Harry Emerson Fosdick • I always carried a small American flag red white and blue with me so people would know I was from America. – George Foreman • I am not the flag: not at all. I am but its shadow. – Franklin Knight Lane • I believe in America. I’m one of those silly flag wavers. – Paul Prudhomme • I believe our flag is more than just cloth and ink. It is a universally recognized symbol that stands for liberty, and freedom. It is the history of our nation, and it’s marked by the blood of those who died defending it. – John Thune • I believe that movements to suppress wrongs can be carried out under the protection of our flag. – Mother Jones • I came to the resolve that the attempt was not only worth trying, but should be tried in the very near future if we wanted at all to keep our flag flying; for I was sure as of my own existence that if another decade was allowed to pass without an endeavour of some kind or another to shake off an unjust yoke, the Irish people would sink into lethargy from which it would be impossible for any patriot . . . to arouse them . . . – James Stephens • I can train a monkey to wave an American flag. That does not make the monkey patriotic. – Scott Ritter • I can’t fly a flag for monogamy or whatever the opposite is; it depends on the person and on the situation. – Sting • I consider that 9/11 was the day when war was started against my own work and against myself. Even though we are not sure of the links, Iraq was one of the countries that did not lower its flags in mourning on 9/11. – Adam Michnik • I don’t judge others. I say if you feel good with what you’re doing, let your freak flag fly. – Sarah Jessica Parker • I don’t want the news to be patriotic. I don’t want to see flags on the lapels of the anchors. I don’t want any of that. – Aaron McGruder • I expect the Republicans will enjoy a large bounce out of their convention. They’re here wrapping themselves in the 9/11 flag, which I think is inappropriate in many ways, but it’s their choice. – Harold Ford, Jr. • I fear my enthusiasm flags when real work is demanded of me. – H. P. Lovecraft • I feel like I’m waving the flag for musicianship, trying to bring back bands that can play. – Jonathan Davis • I feel there should have been some recognition of the Spice Girls at this year’s 25th anniversary. We flew the flag for Britain around the globe in the 1990s and we achieved a hell of a lot. – Melanie Chisholm • I had an encyclopedia with a list of flags in the back, so I would look at all these flags of China and Liberia and England and Denmark and whatever, and I learned all the different flags and I tried to imagine what it would be like to be voyaging on some of these ships. – George R. R. Martin • I have a great respect for the flag, (but) if the government passed a law saying that I had to pledge allegiance to the flag, I don’t think I would do it. I’ve always felt that I lived in a country…where if I wanted to worship God as a Baptist, I could do so. If I were an atheist, I could be one. If I wanted to be a Catholic but was born a Jew, there’s no condemnation…from a government authority. – Jimmy Carter • I intend to talk about race during this election in the South because the Republicans have been talking about it since 1968 in order to divide us. And I’m going to bring us together. Because you know what? You know what? White folks in the South who drive pickup trucks with Confederate flag decals in the back ought to be voting with us and not them, because their kids don’t have health insurance either and their kids need better schools too. – Howard Dean • I learned this a long time ago. If you call a guy into your office and shut the door, if there’s media around, it sends up a red flag. I never wanted to embarrass a player. – Jim Leyland • I look for the entrepreneur to capture my attention. If you don’t come out with a great presentation, you’re dead. That’s a big red flag. – Robert Herjavec • I mean Black Flag happened. I was lucky. I don’t think I could have put together something with one percent of that oomph on my own. – Henry Rollins • I pledge allegiance to the Christian flag, and to the Savior, for whose Kingdom it stands, one Savior, crucified, risen, and coming again, with life and liberty for all who believe. – Dan Quayle • I prefer a man who will burn the flag and then wrap himself in the constitution to a man who will burn the constitution and then wrap himself in the flag. – Craig Washington • I savored my time on top of the podium by watching the American flag rise up out of the crowd as the anthem played, thinking about how every single second of training I’ve done was for this minute and how many people played a role in my achievement. – Hannah Kearney • I stand fearlessly for small dogs, the American Flag, motherhood and the Bible. That’s why people love me. – Art Linkletter • I still want to be the candidate for guys with Confederate flags in their pickup trucks.- Howard Dean • I think love is blind. I hate to use that cliched statement, but people, when they love somebody, they seem to be able to somehow to put aside red flags. – Eric Close • I would warn Orlando that you’re right in the way of some serious hurricanes, and I don’t think I’d be waving those flags [gay pride flags] in God’s face if I were you, This is not a message of hate , this is a message of redemption. But a condition like this will bring about the destruction of your nation. It’ll bring about terrorist bombs; it’ll bring earthquakes, tornadoes, and possibly a meteor. – Pat Robertson • I wrote the script of Patton. I had this very bizarre opening where he stands up in front of an American flag and gives this speech. Ultimately, I was fired. When the script was done, they hired another writer and that script was forgotten. – Francis Ford Coppola • I’d buy myself a cabin on the beach, I’d put some glue in my navel, and I’d stick a flag in there. Then I’d wait to see which way the wind was blowing. – Albert Camus • If a jerk burns the flag, America is not threatened, democracy is not under siege, freedom is not at risk. – Gary Ackerman • If I fall, pick up the flag, kiss it, and keep on going. – Omar Torrijos • If one, then, asks me the meaning of our flag, I say to him, It means just what Concord and Lexington meant, what Bunker Hill meant; it means the whole glorious Revolutionary War, which was, in short, the rising up of a valiant young people against an old tyranny, to establish the most momentous doctrine that the world had ever known – the right of men to their own selves and to their liberties. – Henry Ward Beecher • If the flag of an armed enemy of the U.S. is allowed to fly over government buildings, then it implies that slavery, or at least the threat of slavery, is sanctioned by that government and can still legally exist. – Amiri Baraka • If the test of patriotism comes only by reflexively falling into lockstep behind the leader whenever the flag is waved, then what we have is a formula for dictatorship, not democracy… But the American way is to criticize and debate openly, not to accept unthinkingly the doings of government officials of this or any other country. – Michael Parenti • If you buy the flag it’s yours to burn. – Jesse Ventura • If you start studying history closer, you’ll find that most all wars are based on false flag operations to get people – to convince the people that they’re under attack in some way so that they will support the wars. – Jesse Ventura • If you want a symbolic gesture, don’t burn the flag, wash it. – Norman Thomas • If you wave a flag, make it an American Flag. – Antonio Villaraigosa • I’m about as far from being a flag-waver – you won’t find any American flag pins in my drawer – as someone can be. – Tom Peters • I’m beginning to wonder if the symbol of the United States pretty soon isn’t going to be an ambassador with a flag under his arm climbing into an escape helicopter. – Ronald Reagan • Im in love with red. I think its such a passionate color. Every flag of every country pretty much has red it it. Its power, theres no fence sitting with red. Either you love it or you dont. I think its blood and strength and life. I do love red. I love all colors. Great shades of blue, you find them in nature. Theyre all magic. – Bryan Batt • I’m just always learning lines. I’ve learned to flag the really crucial scenes, and I start figuring them out and committing them to memory as soon as I get them. – Claire Danes • I’m proud of the U.S.A. We’ve done some amazing things. To wear our flag in the Olympics is an honor. – Shaun White • In prosperous times I have sometimes felt my fancy and powers of language flag, but adversity is to me at least a tonic and bracer. – Walter Scott • In the middle of the cavernous cargo hold was a simple, aluminum coffin with a small American flag draped over it. We were bringing another American soldier, just killed, home to his family and final resting place. The starkness of his coffin in the center of the hold, the silence except for the din of the engines, was a real time cold reminder of the consequences of decisions for which we Senators share responsibility. – John F. Kerry • In uniform patriotism can salute one flag only, embrace but the first circle of life – one’s own land and tribe. In war that is necessary, in peace it is not enough. – Bill Moyers • Invention flags, his brain goes muddy, And black despair succeeds brown study. – William Congreve • Israel’s capital will never again be a divided city, a city with a wall at its center, a city in which two flags fly. This city, will, in its entirety, absorb immigrants, welcome pilgrims and be the eternal capital of Israel forever. – Yitzhak Shamir • It is a dangerous day when we can take the cross out of the church more easily than the flag. No wonder it is hard for seekers to find God nowadays. – Shane Claiborne • It is said that peace is the basic tenet of all religion. Yet it is in the name of religion that there has been so much disturbance, bloodshed and persecution. It is indeed a pity that even at the close of the twentieth century we’ve had to witness such atrocities because of religion. Flying the flag of religion has always proved the easiest way to crush to nothingness human beings as well as the spirit of humanity. – Taslima Nasrin • It is said that the Queen has come to love the Commonwealth, partly because it supplies her with regular cheering crowds of flag-waving picaninnies; and one can imagine that Blair, twice victor abroad but enmired at home, is similarly seduced by foreign politeness. They say he is shortly off to the Congo. No doubt the AK47s will fall silent, and the pangas will stop their hacking of human flesh, and the tribal warriors will all break out in Watermelon smiles to see the big white chief touch down in his big white British taxpayer-funded bird. – Boris Johnson • It is the will of the American people that we have a right to protect our flag and this can only be accomplished by passing a Constitutional amendment. – Adrian Cronauer • I’ve got one Aussie flag on my car. It would be nice to have two. – Tom Lehman • Japanese-owned cargo ship Tsimtsum, flying Panamanian flag, sank July 2nd, 1977, in Pacific, four days out of Manila. Am in lifeboat. Pi Patel my name. Have some food, some water, but Bengal tiger a serious problem. Please advise family in Winnepeg, Canada. Any help very much appreciated. Thank you. – Yann Martel • Laws protecting the United States flag do not cut away at the freedom of speech guaranteed in the First Amendment… Congress made this position clear upon passage of the Flag Protection Act of 1989, which prohibited desecration of the flag. – Larry Craig • Let it be borne on the flag under which we rally in every exigency, that we have one country, one constitution, one destiny. – Daniel Webster • Liberals hate America, they hate “flag-wavers”, they hate abortion opponents, they hate all religions except Islam (post 9/11). Even Islamic terrorists don’t hate America like liberals do. They don’t have the energy. If they had that much energy, they’d have indoor plumbing by now. – Ann Coulter • Life is not fair. And you have to choose your battles, because there are some that you cannot win. If you’re passionate about something, then you should pick up your flag and run with it.- Bette Midler • Long live Germany. Long live Austria. Long live Argentina. These are the countries with which I have been most closely associated and I shall not forget them. I had to obey the rules of war and my flag. I am ready. – Adolf Eichmann • Men do not fight for flag or country, for the Marine Corps or glory or any other abstraction. They fight for one another. And if you came through this ordeal, you would age with dignity. – William Manchester • Most people are willing to take the Sermon on the Mount as a flag to sail under, but few will use it as a rudder by which to steer. – Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. • My dad has totally taken my Cat Stevens T-shirt, but it’s OK; I have his Black Flag one, and that’s amazing. – Zoe Kravitz • My daughter, who goes to Stuyvesant High School only blocks from the World Trade Center, thinks we should fly an American flag out our window. Definitely not, I say: The flag stands for jingoism and vengeance and war. – Katha Pollitt • My goal is people associate November with COPD awareness month as much as they notice October with breast cancer and pink. That’d be a great thing if it happened. The fact that COPD kills more people than breast cancer and diabetes put together should raise some red flags. – Danica Patrick • My major aim in writing is to set out flags and issue wake-up calls. – James Broughton • My version, of course, is not this flag-waving, let’s all get on the Jesus train and ride out of hell. I’m not that kind of guy. It’s an embrace that life is good, worth living and yeah, it’s not easy, but there are more pluses than minuses. – Billy Corgan • Nationalism is just racism with a flag. – Peter Joseph • Not another flag has such an errand, carrying everywhere, the world around, such hope for freedom such glorious tidings. – Henry Ward Beecher • Nowhere else in history has there ever been a flag that stands for the right to burn itself. This is the fractal of our flag. It stands for the right to destroy itself. – Ken Kesey • Obama’s a nice person, he’s very articulate this is what’s been used against him, but he couldn’t sell watermelons if it, you gave him the state troopers to flag down the traffic.- Dan Rather • Of all the names Polygamy went by (so as not to exasperate the Gentile population and even some of the wives of the members’ own bosoms any more than necessary) — such as Pluralism, Plural or Celestial Wedlock, the Principle, the Doctrine, the New Covenant and the Gospel Dispensation of the Meridian of Consummate Time — the latter was thought to be the least like waving a red flag in front of a bull. But as it was hard to remember and did not make instant or any other kind of sense, it was not much used. – Ardyth Kennelly • Of course, Mr. Hannity was outraged that any American would not cross her hand over her heart and repeat the hypocritical words, one nation. Whenever we come up on the Fourth of You Lie, I think of Frederick Douglas and his masterful oration, The meaning of the Fourth of July to the Negro. Pledge the flag? I think not! – Julianne Malveaux • Off with your hat, as the flag goes by! And let the heart have its say; you’re man enough for a tear in your eye that you will not wipe away. – Henry Cuyler Bunner • Oh, it’s home again and home again, America for me! I want a ship that’s westward bound to plough the rolling sea To the blessed land of Room Enough beyond the ocean bars, Where the air is full of sunlight and the flag is full of stars. – Henry Van Dyke • Oh, say can you see by the dawn’s early light What so proudly we hailed as the twilight’s last gleaming? Whose broad stripes and bright stars thru the perilous fight O’er the ramplarts we watched were so gallantly streaming? And the rocket’s red glare, the bombs bursting in air, Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there. Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave? – Francis Scott Key • On a royal birthday every house must fly a flag, or the owner would be dragged to a police station and be fined twenty-five rubles. – Mary Antin • On no further occasion present a flag or medal to an Indian. – Zebulon Pike • On the field of battle, the spoken word does not carry far enough; hence the institution of gongs and drums… banners and flags. Gongs and drums, banners and flags, are means whereby the ears and eyes of the host may be focused on one particular point. – Sun Tzu • On this question of principle, while actual suffering was yet afar off, they [the Colonies] raised their flag against a power to which, for purposes of foreign conquest and subjugation, Rome in the height of her glory is not to be compared,-a power which has dotted over the surface of the whole globe with her possessions and military posts, whose morning drum-beat, following the sun, and keeping company with the hours, circles the earth with one continuous and unbroken strain of the martial airs of England. – Daniel Webster • Ostentation is the signal flag of hypocrisy. – Edwin Hubbel Chapin • Our flag honors those who have fought to protect it, and is a reminder of the sacrifice of our nation’s founders and heroes. As the ultimate icon of America’s storied history, the Stars and Stripes represents the very best of this nation. – Joe Barton • Our flag is a proud flag, and it stands for liberty and civilization. Where it has once floated, there must be no return to tyranny. – Theodore Roosevelt • Our flag is not just one of many political points of view. Rather, the flag is a symbol of our national unity. – Adrian Cronauer • Our flag is read, white and blue, but our nation is a rainbown-red, yellow, brown, black and white – and we’re all precious in God’s sight. – Jesse Jackson • Our flag means all that our fathers meant in the Revolutionary War. It means all that the Declaration of Independence meant. It means justice. It means liberty. It means happiness…. Every color means liberty. Every thread means liberty. Every star and stripe means liberty. – Henry Ward Beecher • Our flag represents every American and it should not be hidden away as a result of property agreements. – Mike Fitzpatrick • Our great modern Republic. May those who seek the blessings of its institutions and the protection of its flag remember the obligations they impose. – Ulysses S. Grant • Our moneyed men have ruled us for the past thirty years. Under the flag of the slaveholder they hoped to destroy our liberty. – Denis Kearney • Patriotism consists not in waving the flag, but in striving that our country shall be righteous as well as strong.- James Bryce • Patriotism has become a mere national self assertion, a sentimentality of flag-cheering with no constructive duties. – H. G. Wells • Patriotism threatens free speech with death. It is infuriated by thoughtful hesitation, constructive criticism of our leaders and pleas for peace. It despises people of foreign birth. It has specifically blamed homosexuals, feminists and the American Civil Liberties Union. In other words, the American flag stands for intimidation, censorship, violence, bigotry, sexism, homophobia and shoving the Constitution through a paper shredder. Whom are we calling terrorists here? – Barbara Kingsolver • People from major labels were afraid to go to Black Flag gigs throughout most of the bands existence. They treated our gigs as something threatening. Im sure that it probably was. They probably had reasons to be scared. – Greg Ginn • Punishing desecration of the flag dilutes the very freedom that makes this emblem so revered. – William J. Brennan • Queen’s University flies the flag for the arts in Northern Ireland and beyond. – Liam Neeson • Red flag of the eating disorder: the muffin. Keep your eye on the ladies with the muffins… and sometimes I’ll just eat the muffin top. – Janeane Garofalo • Remember the hours after September 11th when we came together as one to answer the attack against our homeland. We drew strength when our firefighters ran upstairs and risked their lives so that others might live; when rescuers rushed into smoke and fire at the Pentagon; when the men and women of Flight 93 sacrificed themselves to save our nation’s Capitol; when flags were hanging from front porches all across America, and strangers became friends. It was the worst day we have ever seen, but it brought out the best in all of us. – John F. Kerry • Roger Ebert was the last mammoth alive who was holding the flag for real movies and moviemakers. – Werner Herzog • Saying you are a patriot does not make you one; wearing a flag pin does not in itself mean anything at all. – Viggo Mortensen • Since trade ignores national boundaries and the manufacturer insists on having the world as a market, the flag of his nation must follow him, and the doors of the nations which are closed against him must be battered down. Concessions obtained by financiers must be safeguarded by ministers of state, even if the sovereignty of unwilling nations be outraged in the process. Colonies must be obtained or planted, in order that no useful corner of the world may be overlooked or left unused. – Woodrow Wilson • So, friends, every day do something that won’t compute. Love the Lord. Love the world. Work for nothing. Take all that you have and be poor. Love someone who does not deserve it. Denounce the government and embrace the flag. Hope to live in that free republic for which it stands. -Wendell Berry • SST was formed to put out the first Black Flag record. Basically, there wasn’t anyone else to do it. I felt that what I was doing with Black Flag was very worthwhile, and I wanted to get it out there. – Greg Ginn • Sure I wave the American flag. Do you know a better flag to wave? Sure I love my country with all her faults. I’m not ashamed of that, never have been, never will be. – John Wayne • Sure I wave the American flag. Do you know a better flag to wave?- John Wayne • That one flag encircles us with its folds today, the unrivaled object of our loyal love. – Benjamin Harrison • The American flag is the most recognized symbol of freedom and democracy in the world. – Virginia Foxx • The American flag is the symbol of our freedom, national pride and history. – Mike Fitzpatrick • The American flag represents all of us and all the values we hold sacred. – Adrian Cronauer • The American flag, Old Glory, standing tall and flying free over American soil for 228 years is the symbol of our beloved country. It is recognized from near and afar, and many lives have been lost defending it. – Jeff Miller • The Bible represents a fundamental guidepost for millions of people on the planet, in much the same way the Koran, Torah, and Pali Canon offer guidance to people of other religions. If you and I could dig up documentation that contradicted the holy stories of Islamic belief, Judaic belief, Buddhist belief, pagan belief, should we do that? Should we wave a flag and tell the Buddhists that the Buddha did not come from a lotus blossom? Or that Jesus was not born of a literal virgin birth? Those who truly understand their faiths understand the stories are metaphorical. – Dan Brown • The few took advantage of the ignorant many. They pretended to have received messages from the Unknown. They stood between the helpless multitude and the gods. They were the carriers of flags of truce. At the court of heaven they presented the cause of man, and upon the labor of the deceived they lived. – Robert Green Ingersoll • The flag is a symbol of the fact that man is still a herd animal. – Albert Einstein • The flag is the embodiment, not of sentiment, but of history. – Woodrow Wilson • The flag of racialism which has been hoisted in Wolverhampton is beginning to look like the one that fluttered 25 years ago over Dachau and Belsen. – Tony Benn • The flag of the United States has not been created by rhetorical sentences in declarations of independence and in bills of rights. It has been created by the experience of a great people, and nothing is written upon it that has not been written by their life. It is the embodiment, not of a sentiment, but of a history. – Woodrow Wilson • The flag of your nation – wave it! Begin to separate your nation from whatever covenant your forefathers must have had. Break the covenant of corruption/ stealing/ killing/ destruction/ idolatry – break it right now! – T. B. Joshua • The flag represents all the values and the liberties Americans have and enjoy everyday. – Bill Shuster • The flag still stands for freedom and they can’t take that away.- Lee Greenwood • The flag that was the symbol of slavery on the high seas for a long time was not the Confederate battle flag, it was sadly the Stars and Stripes. – Alan Keyes • The headline is the ‘ticket on the meat.’ Use it to flag down readers who are prospects for the kind of product you are advertising. – David Ogilvy • The less a statesman amounts to, the more he loves the flag. – Kin Hubbard • The meteor flag of England Shall yet terrific burn, Till danger’s troubled night depart, And the star of peace return. – Thomas Campbell • The Minutemen were seen as more of an art thing than Black Flag, although I didn’t see them that way. It confused people when we put out Saccharine Trust, too. – Greg Ginn • The mother condemned for a witch and burnt with dry wood, and her children gazing on;The hounded slave that flags in the race and leans by the fence, blowing and covered with sweat, The twinges that sting like needles his legs and neck, The murderous buckshot and the bullets, All these I feel or am. – Walt Whitman • The Palestinian state is within our grasp. Soon the Palestinian flag will fly on the walls, the minarets and the cathedrals of Jerusalem. – Yasser Arafat • The people are urged to be patriotic … by sacrificing their own children. Patriotism requires allegience to the flag, which means obedience and readiness to kill father, mother, brother, sister. – Emma Goldman • The Royal family to me are not England, and they are not the flag. – Steven Morrissey • The stuff that I got in trouble for, the casting for The Godfather or the flag scene in Patton, was the stuff that was remembered, and was considered the good work. – Francis Ford Coppola • The things that the flag stands for were created by the experiences of a great people. Everything that it stands for was written by their lives. The flag is the embodiment, not of sentiment, but of history. – Woodrow Wilson • The trouble with America is that when the dollar only earns 6 percent over here, then it gets restless and goes overseas to get 100 percent. Then the flag follows the dollar and the soldiers follow the flag. – Smedley Butler • The victory march will continue until the Palestinian flag flies in Jerusalem and in all of Palestine. – Yasser Arafat • The writer is delegated to declare and to celebrate man’s proven capacity for greatness of heart and spirit—for gallantry in defeat, for courage, compassion and love. In the endless war against weakness and despair, these are the bright rally flags of hope and of emulation. I hold that a writer who does not believe in the perfectibility of man has no dedication nor any membership in literature. – John Steinbeck • Then finally I said, ‘Okay, well, I want to know all the details. I want creative input. I want to be consulted. I want to know what they’re doing and who’s involved. And I want to see the space.’ So they took me to see it, and then I realized it was major! All these red flags on the Rue de Rivoli with my name on them right by the Louvre! – Kate Moss • There are some pop songs I hate but I can’t get them out of my head. Our songs also have the standard pop format: Verse, chorus, verse, chorus, solo, bad solo. All in all, I think we sound like The Knack and the Bay City Rollers being molested by Black Flag and Black Sabbath. – Kurt Cobain • There are those who wrap themselves in flags and blow the tinny trumpet of patriotism as a means of fooling the people. – George Galloway • There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn’t an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag…We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language…and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people. – Theodore Roosevelt • There is a strong tendency in the United States to rally round the flag and their troops, no matter how mistaken the war. – George McGovern • There is hopeful symbolism in the fact that flags do not wave in a vacuum. – Arthur C. Clarke • There is much more to being a patriot and a citizen than reciting the pledge or raising a flag. – Jesse Ventura • There is no flag large enough to cover the shame of killing innocent people. – Howard Zinn • There is no rule in the pink-triangle guide to coming out that you must wear a rainbow flag cap and organise a full band parade. – Beth Ditto • There’s a certain elitism that has crept into the attitudes of some in journalism, and it played out perfectly over the issue of these little [American flag] lapel pins. – Brit Hume • There’s a principle here and I’m hoping the court will uphold this principle so that we can finally go back and have every American want to stand up, face the flag, place their hand over their heart and pledge to one nation, indivisible, not divided by religion, with liberty and justice for all. – Michael Newdow • There’s an enduring American compulsion to be on the side of the angels. Expediency alone has never been an adequate American reason for doing anything. When actions are judged, they go before the bar of God, where Mom and the Flag closely flank His presence. – Jonathan Raban • There’s one beneficial effect of going to Moscow. You come home waving the American flag with all your might. – Mary Tyler Moore • This flag .. is raised not without costs, .. without the costs of having struggled for many years, without the costs of having lost so many lives in order to have a free and sovereign and good Afghanistan. – Hamid Karzai • To secure respect to a neutral flag requires a naval force organized and ready to vindicate it from insult or aggression. – George Washington • To survive in peace and harmony, united and strong, we must have one people, one nation, one flag. – Pauline Hanson • Tonight the American flag floats from yonder hill or Molly Stark sleeps a widow. – John Stark • Tony Stewart — Broke out a new chassis at Pocono Raceway last June and raced to the checkered flag for his first victory of 2003; has finished among the top 10 in all but two of his 10 career starts here; Turn one is probably the easiest of the three, but you’ve got the challenge of having to downshift in the middle of the corner, .. You go down the backstretch and into the tunnel turn and it’s basically one lane. – Tony Stewart • Tree of Liberty: A tree set up by the people, hung with flags and devices, and crowned with a cap of liberty. The Americans of the United States planted poplars and other trees during the war of independence, “as symbols of growing freedom.” The Jacobins in Paris planted their first tree of liberty in 1790. The symbols used in France to decorate their trees of liberty were tricoloured ribbons, circles to indicate unity, triangles to signify equality, and a cap of liberty. Trees of liberty were planted by the Italians in the revolution of 1848. – E. Cobham Brewer • Under this flag may our youth find new inspiration for loyalty to Canada; for a patriotism based not on any mean or narrow nationalism, but on the deep and equal pride that all Canadians will feel for every part of this good land. – Lester B. Pearson • Unfortunately a Constitutional amendment that would have empowered Congress to make desecration of the United States flag illegal failed to pass by one vote. – Kenny Marchant • United States, your banner wears Two emblems–one of fame; Alas! the other that it bears Reminds us of your shame. Your banner’s constellation types White freedom with its stars, But what’s the meaning of the stripes? They mean your negroes’ scars. – Thomas Campbell • Using a metaphor in front of a man as unimaginative as Ridcully was like a red flag to a bu… was like putting something very annoying in front of someone who was annoyed by it. – Terry Pratchett • War is the spectacular and bloody projection of our everyday living. We precipitate war out of our daily lives; and without a transformation in ourselves, there are bound to be national and racial antagonisms, the childish quarreling over ideologies, the multiplication of soldiers, the saluting of flags, and all the many brutalities that go to create organized murder. – Jiddu Krishnamurti • We Americans are the most lavish and showiest and most luxury loving people on the earth; and at our masthead we fly one true and honest symbol, the gaudiest flag the world has ever seen. – Mark Twain • We are raised to honor all the wrong explorers and discoverers thieves planting flags, murderers carrying crosses. Let us at last praise the colonizers of dreams. – Peter S. Beagle • We are to regard existence as a raid or great adventure; it is to be judged, therefore, not by what calamities it encounters, but by what flag it follows and what high town it assaults. The most dangerous thing in the world is to be alive; one is always in danger of one’s life. But anyone who shrinks from that is a traitor to the great scheme and experiment of being. – Gilbert K. Chesterton • We cannot allow the American flag to be shot at anywhere on earth if we are to retain our respect and prestige – Barry Goldwater • We considered ourselves Jordanian until the Jews returned to Jerusalem. Then all of the sudden we were Palestinians – they removed the star from the Jordanian flag and all at once we had a Palestinian flag. – Walid Shoebat • We do not consecrate the flag by punishing its desecration, for in doing so, we dilute the freedom this cherished emblem represents. – William J. Brennan • We have but one flag, one country; let us stand together. We may differ in color, but not in sentiment. – Nathan Bedford Forrest • We have room in this country for but one flag, the Stars and Stripes! – Theodore Roosevelt • We have two American flags always: one for the rich and one for the poor. When the rich fly it means that things are under control; when the poor fly it means danger, revolution, anarchy. – Henry Miller • We identify the flag with almost everything we hold dear on earth, peace, security, liberty, our family, our friends, our home. . .But when we look at our flag and behold it emblazoned with all our rights we must remember that it is equally a symbol of our duties. Every glory that we associate with it is the result of duty done. – Calvin Coolidge • We join ourselves to no party that does not carry the flag and I keep step to the music of the Union. – Rufus Choate • Well, start waving and yelling, because it is the so-called Oxford comma and it is a lot more dangerous than its exclusive, ivory-tower moniker might suggest. There are people who embrace the Oxford comma and people who don’t, and I’ll just say this: never get between these people when drink has been taken. Oh, the Oxford comma. Here, in case you don’t know what it is yet, is the perennial example, as espoused by Harold Ross: “The flag is red, white, and blue.” So what do you think of it? Are you for or against it? Do you hover in between? – Lynne Truss • What does one plant who plants a tree? One plants the friend of sun and sky; One plants the flag of breezes free; The shaft of beauty towering high. – Henry Cuyler Bunner • What if the invasion forces will not leave our lands? What if the U.S. forces and others stay in our beloved lands? What if their companies and embassy headquarters will continue to exist with the American flags hoisted on them? Will you be silent? Will you overlook this? – Muqtada al Sadr • What I’m trying to do is to at least raise a flag to the blinding light of technology. – Godfrey Reggio • When a war ends, what does that look like exactly? do the cells in the body stop detonating themselves? does the orphanage stop screaming for its mother? when the sand in the desert has been melted down to glass and our reflection is not something we can stand to look at does the white flag make for a perfect blindfold? yesterday i was told a story about this little girl in Iraq, six-years-old, who cannot fall asleep because when she does she dreams of nothing but the day she watched her dog eat her neighbor’s corpse. if you told her war is over do you think she can sleep? – Andrea Gibson • When facism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the American flag. – Sinclair Lewis • When fascism comes to the United States it will be wrapped in the American flag and will claim the name of 100-percent Americanism – Sinclair Lewis • When Freedom from her mountain height Unfurled her standard to the air, She tore the azure robe of night, And set the stars of glory there. – Joseph Rodman Drake • When Freedom from her mountain-height Unfurled her standard to the air, She tore the azure robe of night, And set the stars of glory there. She mingled with its gorgeous dyes The milky baldric of the skies, And striped its pure, celestial white With streakings of the morning light. Flag of the free heart’s hope and home! By angel hands to valour given! Thy stars have lit the welkin dome, And all thy hues were born in heaven. Forever float that standard sheet! Where breathes the foe but falls before us, With Freedom’s soil beneath our feet, And Freedom’s banner streaming o’er us? – Joseph Rodman Drake • When I see the American flag, I go, ‘Oh my God, you’re insulting me.’ – Janeane Garofalo • When I was in college there was a girls’ flag football league. The girls were extremely aggressive. – Lynn Swann • When somebody say no, it’s a red flag to a bull to me. – Duncan Roy • When the wheel was accepted as part of the national flag, it was surely implied that the spinning wheel would hum in every household. – Mahatma Gandhi • When you go to plant a flag on the visiting team’s field, it’s a form of taunting, .. What message are you sending when you spear it into the turf of your defeated opponent?. – Brad Davis • When you make love you’re using up energy; and afterwards you feel happy and don’t give a damn for anything. They can’t bear you to feel like that. They want you to be bursting with energy all the time. All this marching up and down and cheering and waving flags is simply sex gone sour. If you’re happy inside yourself, why should you get excited about Big Brother and the Three-Year Plans and the Two Minutes Hate and all the rest of their bloody rot? – George Orwell • While the rest of the country waves the flag of Americana, we understand we are not part of that. We don’t owe America anything – America owes us. – Al Sharpton • Words are some of the most powerful and important things I know….Language is the tool of love and the weapon of hatred. It’s the bright red warning flag of danger–and the stone foundation of diplomacy and peace. – Ani DiFranco • Worrying that banning flag desecration would inhibit free speech reveals a misunderstanding of the flag’s fundamental nature. – Adrian Cronauer • Ye mariners of England! That guard our native seas; Whose flag has braved a thousand years, The battle and the breeze! – Thomas Campbell • Yes, I’m a patriotic person. For these people who disgrace the American way and burn our flag and do all of these things… I say, don’t live here and disgrace my country. Go live in the Middle East and see how you like it. – Payne Stewart • Yonder are the Hessians. They were bought for seven pounds and tenpence a man. Are you worth more? Prove it. Tonight the American flag floats from yonder hill or Molly Stark sleeps a widow! – John Stark • You are the generation that will reach the sea and hoist the flag of Palestine over Tel Aviv. – Yasser Arafat • You are the makers of the flag and it is well that you glory in the making. – Franklin Knight Lane • You cannot have companies where many of the largest ones lose money indefinitely without someone finally waving the white flag, and IBM is the most recent example of that. – Kevin B. Rollins • You don’t defend national sovereignty with flags, cheap election rhetoric, and advertising campaigns. – Stephen Harper • You have to eat before you train. Otherwise, that really intense training, after about 40 minutes you start to flag. – Hugh Jackman • You the devil in drag. You can burn your cross, Well, I’ll burn your flag. – Ice Cube • You’re a grand old flag! You’re a high-flying flag, And forever in peace may you wave. You’re the emblem of the land I love, The home of the free and the brave. Ev’ry heart beats true ‘Neath the Red, White and Blue,’ Where there’s never a boast or brag. But should auld acquaintance be forgot, Keep your eye on the grand old flag. – George M. Cohan

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Flags Quotes

Official Website: Flags Quotes

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• A lot of folks are still demanding more evidence before they actually consider Iraq a threat. For example, France wants more evidence. And you know I’m thinking, the last time France wanted more evidence they rolled right through Paris with the German flag. – David Letterman • A thoughtful mind, when it sees a nation’s flag, sees not the flag, but the nation itself. – Henry Ward Beecher • A thoughtful mind, when it sees a Nation’s flag, sees not the flag only, but the Nation itself; and whatever may be its symbols, its insignia, he reads chiefly in the flag the Government, the principles, the truths, the history which belongs to the Nation that sets it forth. – Henry Ward Beecher • After I left D.C. to join Black Flag, I felt I was in a band. – Henry Rollins • America has an almost obscene infatuation with itself. Has there ever been a big, powerful country that is as patriotic as America? And patriotic in the tinniest way, with so much flag waving? You’d really think we were some poor little republic, and that if one person lost his religion for one hour, the whole thing would crumble. America is the real religion in this country. – Norman Mailer • America is the only country in the world where you can burn the flag but can’t tear the tag off the mattress. – Jackie Mason • And the word is capitalism. We are too mealy-mouthed. We fear the word capitalism is unpopular. So we talk about the free enterprise system and run to cover in the folds of the flag and talk about the American Way of Life. – Eric Johnston • And when we view a flag, which to the eye is beautiful, and to contemplate its rise and origin inspires a sensation of sublime delight, our national honor must unite with our interests to prevent injury to the one, or insult to the other. – Thomas Paine • Any power must be an enemy of mankind which enslaves the individual by power and by force, whether it arises under the Fascist or the Communist flag. All that is valuable in human society depends upon the opportunity for development accorded to the individual. – Albert Einstein • As Conservatives, We Don’t Care About The Color of Your Skin, We Care About The Color of Our Flag – Allen West • As long as I live, I will never forget that day 21 years ago when I raised my hand and took the oath of citizenship. Do you know how proud I was? I was so proud that I walked around with an American flag around my shoulders all day long. – Arnold Schwarzenegger • As National Socialists we see our program in our flag. In the red we see the social idea of the movement. – Adolf Hitler • Ashcroft vowed to] spare no effort to preserve the rights of all our citizens to pledge allegiance to the American flag. – John Ashcroft • At least in my country, we have come to accept the flags burning, but what we cannot accept is violence, burning of embassies and intimidations, and there is no excuse for that. – Daniel Fried

jQuery(document).ready(function($) var data = action: 'polyxgo_products_search', type: 'Product', keywords: 'flag', orderby: 'rand', order: 'DESC', template: '1', limit: '68', columns: '4', viewall:'Shop All', ; jQuery.post(spyr_params.ajaxurl,data, function(response) var obj = jQuery.parseJSON(response); jQuery('#thelovesof_flag').html(obj); jQuery('#thelovesof_flag img.swiper-lazy:not(.swiper-lazy-loaded)' ).each(function () var img = jQuery(this); img.attr("src",img.data('src')); img.addClass( 'swiper-lazy-loaded' ); img.removeAttr('data-src'); ); ); ); • Bastard Freedom waves Her fustian flag in mockery over slaves. – Thomas Moore • Behold a republic standing erect while empires all around are bowed beneath the weight of their own armaments – a republic whose flag is loved while other flags are only feared. – William Jennings Bryan • But didn’t you say you were satisfied with your life?” “Word games,” I dismissed. “Every army needs a flag. – Haruki Murakami • By the rude bridge that arched the flood, Their flag to April’s breeze unfurled, Here once the embattled farmers stood, And fired the shot heard round the world. – Ralph Waldo Emerson • By the way, I don’t mean to pick nits here, but Obama has just ordered the flag at half-mast for 10 days for Mandela. He did not order the flag at half-mast at all for Lady Thatcher. – Rush Limbaugh • Call it ‘nationalism’ when you affix a flag to your car, and leave the word ‘patriotism’ for your efforts to make this country a kinder, more egalitarian place, and one that is less dangerous to the rest of the world. – Barbara Ehrenreich • Can you imagine what Bush would say if someone like Hugo Chavez asked him for a little piece of land to install a military base, and he only wanted to plant a Venezuelan flag there?- Jose Saramago • Canadians are fond of a good disaster, especially if it has ice, water, or snow in it. You thought the national flag was about a leaf, didn’t you? Look harder. It’s where someone got axed in the snow. – Margaret Atwood • Democratic Rep. Charles Schumer of New York made a plea to Livingston, the incoming speaker. These new hearings, these new subpoenas wave a red flag that common sense and common wisdom are not welcome here, .. Mr. Livingston, this may be the first and most important task you will ever face as speaker. Lead us out of this abyss. – Charles Schumer • Donald Trump appears to be searching for an enemy. Is it flag burners, recounts, the press, the popular vote? Trump has gone after them all at times, using wild experience theories even as president-elect to do it. – Chuck Todd • Emblem: the carapace of the great crowned snail is painted with all the flags of the United Nations. – Mason Cooley • Even if only one guerilla cub survives the prolonged struggle, I am confident that he will raise the flag of Palestine overJerusalem… Jerusalem is destined to be the eternal capital of our sovereign, independent Palestinian state under the P.L.O. leadership. – Yasser Arafat • Even if the flag burning amendment does become law, the larger problem will remain of how to respectfully dispose of older, tattered flags. Well, fortunately the U.S. official Flag Code has a suggestion about this. “The flag, when it is in such a condition that it is no longer a fitting emblem of display, should be destroyed in a dignified way, preferably by burning.” Owwwwcchh. In response, the House Republicans are calling for tattered flags to be kept alive via a feeding tube. – Jon Stewart • Every man that tried to destroy the Government, every man that shot at the holy flag in heaven, every man that starved our soldiers… every man that wanted to burn the negro, every one that wanted to scatter yellow fever in the North, every man that opposed human liberty, that regarded the auction-block as an altar and the howling of the bloodhound as the music of the Union, every man who wept over the corpse of slavery, that thought lashes on the naked back were a legal tender for labour performed, every one willing to rob a mother of her child – every solitary one was a Democrat. – Robert Green Ingersoll • Every normal man must be tempted, at times, to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats. – H. L. Mencken • Every time a colony wants independence, the questions on the agenda are: a) how do you get the imperialists out, and b) what kind of society do you build? There are usually the bourgeois nationalists who say, ‘Let’s just change the flag and keep everything as it was.’ Then there are the revolutionaries who say, ‘Let’s change the property laws.’ It’s always a critical moment. – Ken Loach • Every time I hit a shot, I feel like I am shaking hands with the flag stick. – Moe Norman • Everything becomes agitated. Ideas quick-march into motion like battalions of a grand army to its legendary fighting ground, and the battle rages. Memories charge in, bright flags on high; the cavalry of metaphor deploys with a magnificent gallop; the artillery of logic rushes up with clattering wagons and cartridges; on imagination’s orders, sharpshooters sight and fire; forms and shapes and characters rear up; the paper is spread with ink – for the nightly labor begins and ends with torrents of this black water, as a battle opens and concludes with black powder.- Honore de Balzac • Fascism will come to America wrapped in a flag. – Sinclair Lewis • Flag desecration is not a constitutional issue for the courts. It is a political one that belongs to the people. – Larry Craig • Flag of the free heart’s hope and home! By angel hands to valour given, Thy stars have lit the welkin dome; And all thy hues were born in heaven. – Joseph Rodman Drake • Flags are bits of colored cloth used first to shrinkwrap people’s brains and then as ceremonial shrouds to bury the dead. – Arundhati Roy • For black folks, the Confederate flag represents the same thing that the Nazi flag represents to the Jews. There is absolutely no difference when we look at it. Now, white folks try to explain it away like, ‘Oh, it’s OK.’ But when you’re black, it is not OK. It represents oppression and murder. – Ken Page • For me, I’m just trying to be the best at what I do. I’ll wave an Asian American flag if I get that opportunity. I’m not hiding or trying to discredit my background or anything, I just haven’t had the opportunity. – Chad Hugo • Ford used to come to work in a big car with two Admiral’s flags, on each side of the car. His assistant would be there with his accordion, playing, Hail to the Chief. – Richard Widmark • Getting that audience approval is always a question mark, and it’s always that flag that flutters in front of you. – William Shatner • Growth at an exceptional rate is a red flag in banking. It is hard enough to manage an ordinary bank; to control a sprouting weed is well-nigh impossible. If loans are expanding too quickly, the lending officers have probably been saying ‘yes’ too frequently. – James Grant • Haul up the flag, you mourners, Not half-mast but all the way; The funeral is done and disbanded; The devil’s had the final say. – Karl Shapiro • Have not I myself known five hundred living soldiers sabred into crows’ meat for a piece of glazed cotton, which they call their flag; which had you sold it at any market-cross, would not have brought above three groschen? – Thomas Carlyle • He is a poor patriot whose patriotism does not enable him to understand how all men everywhere feel about their altars and their hearthstones, their flag and their fatherland. – Harry Emerson Fosdick • I always carried a small American flag red white and blue with me so people would know I was from America. – George Foreman • I am not the flag: not at all. I am but its shadow. – Franklin Knight Lane • I believe in America. I’m one of those silly flag wavers. – Paul Prudhomme • I believe our flag is more than just cloth and ink. It is a universally recognized symbol that stands for liberty, and freedom. It is the history of our nation, and it’s marked by the blood of those who died defending it. – John Thune • I believe that movements to suppress wrongs can be carried out under the protection of our flag. – Mother Jones • I came to the resolve that the attempt was not only worth trying, but should be tried in the very near future if we wanted at all to keep our flag flying; for I was sure as of my own existence that if another decade was allowed to pass without an endeavour of some kind or another to shake off an unjust yoke, the Irish people would sink into lethargy from which it would be impossible for any patriot . . . to arouse them . . . – James Stephens • I can train a monkey to wave an American flag. That does not make the monkey patriotic. – Scott Ritter • I can’t fly a flag for monogamy or whatever the opposite is; it depends on the person and on the situation. – Sting • I consider that 9/11 was the day when war was started against my own work and against myself. Even though we are not sure of the links, Iraq was one of the countries that did not lower its flags in mourning on 9/11. – Adam Michnik • I don’t judge others. I say if you feel good with what you’re doing, let your freak flag fly. – Sarah Jessica Parker • I don’t want the news to be patriotic. I don’t want to see flags on the lapels of the anchors. I don’t want any of that. – Aaron McGruder • I expect the Republicans will enjoy a large bounce out of their convention. They’re here wrapping themselves in the 9/11 flag, which I think is inappropriate in many ways, but it’s their choice. – Harold Ford, Jr. • I fear my enthusiasm flags when real work is demanded of me. – H. P. Lovecraft • I feel like I’m waving the flag for musicianship, trying to bring back bands that can play. – Jonathan Davis • I feel there should have been some recognition of the Spice Girls at this year’s 25th anniversary. We flew the flag for Britain around the globe in the 1990s and we achieved a hell of a lot. – Melanie Chisholm • I had an encyclopedia with a list of flags in the back, so I would look at all these flags of China and Liberia and England and Denmark and whatever, and I learned all the different flags and I tried to imagine what it would be like to be voyaging on some of these ships. – George R. R. Martin • I have a great respect for the flag, (but) if the government passed a law saying that I had to pledge allegiance to the flag, I don’t think I would do it. I’ve always felt that I lived in a country…where if I wanted to worship God as a Baptist, I could do so. If I were an atheist, I could be one. If I wanted to be a Catholic but was born a Jew, there’s no condemnation…from a government authority. – Jimmy Carter • I intend to talk about race during this election in the South because the Republicans have been talking about it since 1968 in order to divide us. And I’m going to bring us together. Because you know what? You know what? White folks in the South who drive pickup trucks with Confederate flag decals in the back ought to be voting with us and not them, because their kids don’t have health insurance either and their kids need better schools too. – Howard Dean • I learned this a long time ago. If you call a guy into your office and shut the door, if there’s media around, it sends up a red flag. I never wanted to embarrass a player. – Jim Leyland • I look for the entrepreneur to capture my attention. If you don’t come out with a great presentation, you’re dead. That’s a big red flag. – Robert Herjavec • I mean Black Flag happened. I was lucky. I don’t think I could have put together something with one percent of that oomph on my own. – Henry Rollins • I pledge allegiance to the Christian flag, and to the Savior, for whose Kingdom it stands, one Savior, crucified, risen, and coming again, with life and liberty for all who believe. – Dan Quayle • I prefer a man who will burn the flag and then wrap himself in the constitution to a man who will burn the constitution and then wrap himself in the flag. – Craig Washington • I savored my time on top of the podium by watching the American flag rise up out of the crowd as the anthem played, thinking about how every single second of training I’ve done was for this minute and how many people played a role in my achievement. – Hannah Kearney • I stand fearlessly for small dogs, the American Flag, motherhood and the Bible. That’s why people love me. – Art Linkletter • I still want to be the candidate for guys with Confederate flags in their pickup trucks.- Howard Dean • I think love is blind. I hate to use that cliched statement, but people, when they love somebody, they seem to be able to somehow to put aside red flags. – Eric Close • I would warn Orlando that you’re right in the way of some serious hurricanes, and I don’t think I’d be waving those flags [gay pride flags] in God’s face if I were you, This is not a message of hate , this is a message of redemption. But a condition like this will bring about the destruction of your nation. It’ll bring about terrorist bombs; it’ll bring earthquakes, tornadoes, and possibly a meteor. – Pat Robertson • I wrote the script of Patton. I had this very bizarre opening where he stands up in front of an American flag and gives this speech. Ultimately, I was fired. When the script was done, they hired another writer and that script was forgotten. – Francis Ford Coppola • I’d buy myself a cabin on the beach, I’d put some glue in my navel, and I’d stick a flag in there. Then I’d wait to see which way the wind was blowing. – Albert Camus • If a jerk burns the flag, America is not threatened, democracy is not under siege, freedom is not at risk. – Gary Ackerman • If I fall, pick up the flag, kiss it, and keep on going. – Omar Torrijos • If one, then, asks me the meaning of our flag, I say to him, It means just what Concord and Lexington meant, what Bunker Hill meant; it means the whole glorious Revolutionary War, which was, in short, the rising up of a valiant young people against an old tyranny, to establish the most momentous doctrine that the world had ever known – the right of men to their own selves and to their liberties. – Henry Ward Beecher • If the flag of an armed enemy of the U.S. is allowed to fly over government buildings, then it implies that slavery, or at least the threat of slavery, is sanctioned by that government and can still legally exist. – Amiri Baraka • If the test of patriotism comes only by reflexively falling into lockstep behind the leader whenever the flag is waved, then what we have is a formula for dictatorship, not democracy… But the American way is to criticize and debate openly, not to accept unthinkingly the doings of government officials of this or any other country. – Michael Parenti • If you buy the flag it’s yours to burn. – Jesse Ventura • If you start studying history closer, you’ll find that most all wars are based on false flag operations to get people – to convince the people that they’re under attack in some way so that they will support the wars. – Jesse Ventura • If you want a symbolic gesture, don’t burn the flag, wash it. – Norman Thomas • If you wave a flag, make it an American Flag. – Antonio Villaraigosa • I’m about as far from being a flag-waver – you won’t find any American flag pins in my drawer – as someone can be. – Tom Peters • I’m beginning to wonder if the symbol of the United States pretty soon isn’t going to be an ambassador with a flag under his arm climbing into an escape helicopter. – Ronald Reagan • Im in love with red. I think its such a passionate color. Every flag of every country pretty much has red it it. Its power, theres no fence sitting with red. Either you love it or you dont. I think its blood and strength and life. I do love red. I love all colors. Great shades of blue, you find them in nature. Theyre all magic. – Bryan Batt • I’m just always learning lines. I’ve learned to flag the really crucial scenes, and I start figuring them out and committing them to memory as soon as I get them. – Claire Danes • I’m proud of the U.S.A. We’ve done some amazing things. To wear our flag in the Olympics is an honor. – Shaun White • In prosperous times I have sometimes felt my fancy and powers of language flag, but adversity is to me at least a tonic and bracer. – Walter Scott • In the middle of the cavernous cargo hold was a simple, aluminum coffin with a small American flag draped over it. We were bringing another American soldier, just killed, home to his family and final resting place. The starkness of his coffin in the center of the hold, the silence except for the din of the engines, was a real time cold reminder of the consequences of decisions for which we Senators share responsibility. – John F. Kerry • In uniform patriotism can salute one flag only, embrace but the first circle of life – one’s own land and tribe. In war that is necessary, in peace it is not enough. – Bill Moyers • Invention flags, his brain goes muddy, And black despair succeeds brown study. – William Congreve • Israel’s capital will never again be a divided city, a city with a wall at its center, a city in which two flags fly. This city, will, in its entirety, absorb immigrants, welcome pilgrims and be the eternal capital of Israel forever. – Yitzhak Shamir • It is a dangerous day when we can take the cross out of the church more easily than the flag. No wonder it is hard for seekers to find God nowadays. – Shane Claiborne • It is said that peace is the basic tenet of all religion. Yet it is in the name of religion that there has been so much disturbance, bloodshed and persecution. It is indeed a pity that even at the close of the twentieth century we’ve had to witness such atrocities because of religion. Flying the flag of religion has always proved the easiest way to crush to nothingness human beings as well as the spirit of humanity. – Taslima Nasrin • It is said that the Queen has come to love the Commonwealth, partly because it supplies her with regular cheering crowds of flag-waving picaninnies; and one can imagine that Blair, twice victor abroad but enmired at home, is similarly seduced by foreign politeness. They say he is shortly off to the Congo. No doubt the AK47s will fall silent, and the pangas will stop their hacking of human flesh, and the tribal warriors will all break out in Watermelon smiles to see the big white chief touch down in his big white British taxpayer-funded bird. – Boris Johnson • It is the will of the American people that we have a right to protect our flag and this can only be accomplished by passing a Constitutional amendment. – Adrian Cronauer • I’ve got one Aussie flag on my car. It would be nice to have two. – Tom Lehman • Japanese-owned cargo ship Tsimtsum, flying Panamanian flag, sank July 2nd, 1977, in Pacific, four days out of Manila. Am in lifeboat. Pi Patel my name. Have some food, some water, but Bengal tiger a serious problem. Please advise family in Winnepeg, Canada. Any help very much appreciated. Thank you. – Yann Martel • Laws protecting the United States flag do not cut away at the freedom of speech guaranteed in the First Amendment… Congress made this position clear upon passage of the Flag Protection Act of 1989, which prohibited desecration of the flag. – Larry Craig • Let it be borne on the flag under which we rally in every exigency, that we have one country, one constitution, one destiny. – Daniel Webster • Liberals hate America, they hate “flag-wavers”, they hate abortion opponents, they hate all religions except Islam (post 9/11). Even Islamic terrorists don’t hate America like liberals do. They don’t have the energy. If they had that much energy, they’d have indoor plumbing by now. – Ann Coulter • Life is not fair. And you have to choose your battles, because there are some that you cannot win. If you’re passionate about something, then you should pick up your flag and run with it.- Bette Midler • Long live Germany. Long live Austria. Long live Argentina. These are the countries with which I have been most closely associated and I shall not forget them. I had to obey the rules of war and my flag. I am ready. – Adolf Eichmann • Men do not fight for flag or country, for the Marine Corps or glory or any other abstraction. They fight for one another. And if you came through this ordeal, you would age with dignity. – William Manchester • Most people are willing to take the Sermon on the Mount as a flag to sail under, but few will use it as a rudder by which to steer. – Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. • My dad has totally taken my Cat Stevens T-shirt, but it’s OK; I have his Black Flag one, and that’s amazing. – Zoe Kravitz • My daughter, who goes to Stuyvesant High School only blocks from the World Trade Center, thinks we should fly an American flag out our window. Definitely not, I say: The flag stands for jingoism and vengeance and war. – Katha Pollitt • My goal is people associate November with COPD awareness month as much as they notice October with breast cancer and pink. That’d be a great thing if it happened. The fact that COPD kills more people than breast cancer and diabetes put together should raise some red flags. – Danica Patrick • My major aim in writing is to set out flags and issue wake-up calls. – James Broughton • My version, of course, is not this flag-waving, let’s all get on the Jesus train and ride out of hell. I’m not that kind of guy. It’s an embrace that life is good, worth living and yeah, it’s not easy, but there are more pluses than minuses. – Billy Corgan • Nationalism is just racism with a flag. – Peter Joseph • Not another flag has such an errand, carrying everywhere, the world around, such hope for freedom such glorious tidings. – Henry Ward Beecher • Nowhere else in history has there ever been a flag that stands for the right to burn itself. This is the fractal of our flag. It stands for the right to destroy itself. – Ken Kesey • Obama’s a nice person, he’s very articulate this is what’s been used against him, but he couldn’t sell watermelons if it, you gave him the state troopers to flag down the traffic.- Dan Rather • Of all the names Polygamy went by (so as not to exasperate the Gentile population and even some of the wives of the members’ own bosoms any more than necessary) — such as Pluralism, Plural or Celestial Wedlock, the Principle, the Doctrine, the New Covenant and the Gospel Dispensation of the Meridian of Consummate Time — the latter was thought to be the least like waving a red flag in front of a bull. But as it was hard to remember and did not make instant or any other kind of sense, it was not much used. – Ardyth Kennelly • Of course, Mr. Hannity was outraged that any American would not cross her hand over her heart and repeat the hypocritical words, one nation. Whenever we come up on the Fourth of You Lie, I think of Frederick Douglas and his masterful oration, The meaning of the Fourth of July to the Negro. Pledge the flag? I think not! – Julianne Malveaux • Off with your hat, as the flag goes by! And let the heart have its say; you’re man enough for a tear in your eye that you will not wipe away. – Henry Cuyler Bunner • Oh, it’s home again and home again, America for me! I want a ship that’s westward bound to plough the rolling sea To the blessed land of Room Enough beyond the ocean bars, Where the air is full of sunlight and the flag is full of stars. – Henry Van Dyke • Oh, say can you see by the dawn’s early light What so proudly we hailed as the twilight’s last gleaming? Whose broad stripes and bright stars thru the perilous fight O’er the ramplarts we watched were so gallantly streaming? And the rocket’s red glare, the bombs bursting in air, Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there. Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave? – Francis Scott Key • On a royal birthday every house must fly a flag, or the owner would be dragged to a police station and be fined twenty-five rubles. – Mary Antin • On no further occasion present a flag or medal to an Indian. – Zebulon Pike • On the field of battle, the spoken word does not carry far enough; hence the institution of gongs and drums… banners and flags. Gongs and drums, banners and flags, are means whereby the ears and eyes of the host may be focused on one particular point. – Sun Tzu • On this question of principle, while actual suffering was yet afar off, they [the Colonies] raised their flag against a power to which, for purposes of foreign conquest and subjugation, Rome in the height of her glory is not to be compared,-a power which has dotted over the surface of the whole globe with her possessions and military posts, whose morning drum-beat, following the sun, and keeping company with the hours, circles the earth with one continuous and unbroken strain of the martial airs of England. – Daniel Webster • Ostentation is the signal flag of hypocrisy. – Edwin Hubbel Chapin • Our flag honors those who have fought to protect it, and is a reminder of the sacrifice of our nation’s founders and heroes. As the ultimate icon of America’s storied history, the Stars and Stripes represents the very best of this nation. – Joe Barton • Our flag is a proud flag, and it stands for liberty and civilization. Where it has once floated, there must be no return to tyranny. – Theodore Roosevelt • Our flag is not just one of many political points of view. Rather, the flag is a symbol of our national unity. – Adrian Cronauer • Our flag is read, white and blue, but our nation is a rainbown-red, yellow, brown, black and white – and we’re all precious in God’s sight. – Jesse Jackson • Our flag means all that our fathers meant in the Revolutionary War. It means all that the Declaration of Independence meant. It means justice. It means liberty. It means happiness…. Every color means liberty. Every thread means liberty. Every star and stripe means liberty. – Henry Ward Beecher • Our flag represents every American and it should not be hidden away as a result of property agreements. – Mike Fitzpatrick • Our great modern Republic. May those who seek the blessings of its institutions and the protection of its flag remember the obligations they impose. – Ulysses S. Grant • Our moneyed men have ruled us for the past thirty years. Under the flag of the slaveholder they hoped to destroy our liberty. – Denis Kearney • Patriotism consists not in waving the flag, but in striving that our country shall be righteous as well as strong.- James Bryce • Patriotism has become a mere national self assertion, a sentimentality of flag-cheering with no constructive duties. – H. G. Wells • Patriotism threatens free speech with death. It is infuriated by thoughtful hesitation, constructive criticism of our leaders and pleas for peace. It despises people of foreign birth. It has specifically blamed homosexuals, feminists and the American Civil Liberties Union. In other words, the American flag stands for intimidation, censorship, violence, bigotry, sexism, homophobia and shoving the Constitution through a paper shredder. Whom are we calling terrorists here? – Barbara Kingsolver • People from major labels were afraid to go to Black Flag gigs throughout most of the bands existence. They treated our gigs as something threatening. Im sure that it probably was. They probably had reasons to be scared. – Greg Ginn • Punishing desecration of the flag dilutes the very freedom that makes this emblem so revered. – William J. Brennan • Queen’s University flies the flag for the arts in Northern Ireland and beyond. – Liam Neeson • Red flag of the eating disorder: the muffin. Keep your eye on the ladies with the muffins… and sometimes I’ll just eat the muffin top. – Janeane Garofalo • Remember the hours after September 11th when we came together as one to answer the attack against our homeland. We drew strength when our firefighters ran upstairs and risked their lives so that others might live; when rescuers rushed into smoke and fire at the Pentagon; when the men and women of Flight 93 sacrificed themselves to save our nation’s Capitol; when flags were hanging from front porches all across America, and strangers became friends. It was the worst day we have ever seen, but it brought out the best in all of us. – John F. Kerry • Roger Ebert was the last mammoth alive who was holding the flag for real movies and moviemakers. – Werner Herzog • Saying you are a patriot does not make you one; wearing a flag pin does not in itself mean anything at all. – Viggo Mortensen • Since trade ignores national boundaries and the manufacturer insists on having the world as a market, the flag of his nation must follow him, and the doors of the nations which are closed against him must be battered down. Concessions obtained by financiers must be safeguarded by ministers of state, even if the sovereignty of unwilling nations be outraged in the process. Colonies must be obtained or planted, in order that no useful corner of the world may be overlooked or left unused. – Woodrow Wilson • So, friends, every day do something that won’t compute. Love the Lord. Love the world. Work for nothing. Take all that you have and be poor. Love someone who does not deserve it. Denounce the government and embrace the flag. Hope to live in that free republic for which it stands. -Wendell Berry • SST was formed to put out the first Black Flag record. Basically, there wasn’t anyone else to do it. I felt that what I was doing with Black Flag was very worthwhile, and I wanted to get it out there. – Greg Ginn • Sure I wave the American flag. Do you know a better flag to wave? Sure I love my country with all her faults. I’m not ashamed of that, never have been, never will be. – John Wayne • Sure I wave the American flag. Do you know a better flag to wave?- John Wayne • That one flag encircles us with its folds today, the unrivaled object of our loyal love. – Benjamin Harrison • The American flag is the most recognized symbol of freedom and democracy in the world. – Virginia Foxx • The American flag is the symbol of our freedom, national pride and history. – Mike Fitzpatrick • The American flag represents all of us and all the values we hold sacred. – Adrian Cronauer • The American flag, Old Glory, standing tall and flying free over American soil for 228 years is the symbol of our beloved country. It is recognized from near and afar, and many lives have been lost defending it. – Jeff Miller • The Bible represents a fundamental guidepost for millions of people on the planet, in much the same way the Koran, Torah, and Pali Canon offer guidance to people of other religions. If you and I could dig up documentation that contradicted the holy stories of Islamic belief, Judaic belief, Buddhist belief, pagan belief, should we do that? Should we wave a flag and tell the Buddhists that the Buddha did not come from a lotus blossom? Or that Jesus was not born of a literal virgin birth? Those who truly understand their faiths understand the stories are metaphorical. – Dan Brown • The few took advantage of the ignorant many. They pretended to have received messages from the Unknown. They stood between the helpless multitude and the gods. They were the carriers of flags of truce. At the court of heaven they presented the cause of man, and upon the labor of the deceived they lived. – Robert Green Ingersoll • The flag is a symbol of the fact that man is still a herd animal. – Albert Einstein • The flag is the embodiment, not of sentiment, but of history. – Woodrow Wilson • The flag of racialism which has been hoisted in Wolverhampton is beginning to look like the one that fluttered 25 years ago over Dachau and Belsen. – Tony Benn • The flag of the United States has not been created by rhetorical sentences in declarations of independence and in bills of rights. It has been created by the experience of a great people, and nothing is written upon it that has not been written by their life. It is the embodiment, not of a sentiment, but of a history. – Woodrow Wilson • The flag of your nation – wave it! Begin to separate your nation from whatever covenant your forefathers must have had. Break the covenant of corruption/ stealing/ killing/ destruction/ idolatry – break it right now! – T. B. Joshua • The flag represents all the values and the liberties Americans have and enjoy everyday. – Bill Shuster • The flag still stands for freedom and they can’t take that away.- Lee Greenwood • The flag that was the symbol of slavery on the high seas for a long time was not the Confederate battle flag, it was sadly the Stars and Stripes. – Alan Keyes • The headline is the ‘ticket on the meat.’ Use it to flag down readers who are prospects for the kind of product you are advertising. – David Ogilvy • The less a statesman amounts to, the more he loves the flag. – Kin Hubbard • The meteor flag of England Shall yet terrific burn, Till danger’s troubled night depart, And the star of peace return. – Thomas Campbell • The Minutemen were seen as more of an art thing than Black Flag, although I didn’t see them that way. It confused people when we put out Saccharine Trust, too. – Greg Ginn • The mother condemned for a witch and burnt with dry wood, and her children gazing on;The hounded slave that flags in the race and leans by the fence, blowing and covered with sweat, The twinges that sting like needles his legs and neck, The murderous buckshot and the bullets, All these I feel or am. – Walt Whitman • The Palestinian state is within our grasp. Soon the Palestinian flag will fly on the walls, the minarets and the cathedrals of Jerusalem. – Yasser Arafat • The people are urged to be patriotic … by sacrificing their own children. Patriotism requires allegience to the flag, which means obedience and readiness to kill father, mother, brother, sister. – Emma Goldman • The Royal family to me are not England, and they are not the flag. – Steven Morrissey • The stuff that I got in trouble for, the casting for The Godfather or the flag scene in Patton, was the stuff that was remembered, and was considered the good work. – Francis Ford Coppola • The things that the flag stands for were created by the experiences of a great people. Everything that it stands for was written by their lives. The flag is the embodiment, not of sentiment, but of history. – Woodrow Wilson • The trouble with America is that when the dollar only earns 6 percent over here, then it gets restless and goes overseas to get 100 percent. Then the flag follows the dollar and the soldiers follow the flag. – Smedley Butler • The victory march will continue until the Palestinian flag flies in Jerusalem and in all of Palestine. – Yasser Arafat • The writer is delegated to declare and to celebrate man’s proven capacity for greatness of heart and spirit—for gallantry in defeat, for courage, compassion and love. In the endless war against weakness and despair, these are the bright rally flags of hope and of emulation. I hold that a writer who does not believe in the perfectibility of man has no dedication nor any membership in literature. – John Steinbeck • Then finally I said, ‘Okay, well, I want to know all the details. I want creative input. I want to be consulted. I want to know what they’re doing and who’s involved. And I want to see the space.’ So they took me to see it, and then I realized it was major! All these red flags on the Rue de Rivoli with my name on them right by the Louvre! – Kate Moss • There are some pop songs I hate but I can’t get them out of my head. Our songs also have the standard pop format: Verse, chorus, verse, chorus, solo, bad solo. All in all, I think we sound like The Knack and the Bay City Rollers being molested by Black Flag and Black Sabbath. – Kurt Cobain • There are those who wrap themselves in flags and blow the tinny trumpet of patriotism as a means of fooling the people. – George Galloway • There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn’t an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag…We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language…and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people. – Theodore Roosevelt • There is a strong tendency in the United States to rally round the flag and their troops, no matter how mistaken the war. – George McGovern • There is hopeful symbolism in the fact that flags do not wave in a vacuum. – Arthur C. Clarke • There is much more to being a patriot and a citizen than reciting the pledge or raising a flag. – Jesse Ventura • There is no flag large enough to cover the shame of killing innocent people. – Howard Zinn • There is no rule in the pink-triangle guide to coming out that you must wear a rainbow flag cap and organise a full band parade. – Beth Ditto • There’s a certain elitism that has crept into the attitudes of some in journalism, and it played out perfectly over the issue of these little [American flag] lapel pins. – Brit Hume • There’s a principle here and I’m hoping the court will uphold this principle so that we can finally go back and have every American want to stand up, face the flag, place their hand over their heart and pledge to one nation, indivisible, not divided by religion, with liberty and justice for all. – Michael Newdow • There’s an enduring American compulsion to be on the side of the angels. Expediency alone has never been an adequate American reason for doing anything. When actions are judged, they go before the bar of God, where Mom and the Flag closely flank His presence. – Jonathan Raban • There’s one beneficial effect of going to Moscow. You come home waving the American flag with all your might. – Mary Tyler Moore • This flag .. is raised not without costs, .. without the costs of having struggled for many years, without the costs of having lost so many lives in order to have a free and sovereign and good Afghanistan. – Hamid Karzai • To secure respect to a neutral flag requires a naval force organized and ready to vindicate it from insult or aggression. – George Washington • To survive in peace and harmony, united and strong, we must have one people, one nation, one flag. – Pauline Hanson • Tonight the American flag floats from yonder hill or Molly Stark sleeps a widow. – John Stark • Tony Stewart — Broke out a new chassis at Pocono Raceway last June and raced to the checkered flag for his first victory of 2003; has finished among the top 10 in all but two of his 10 career starts here; Turn one is probably the easiest of the three, but you’ve got the challenge of having to downshift in the middle of the corner, .. You go down the backstretch and into the tunnel turn and it’s basically one lane. – Tony Stewart • Tree of Liberty: A tree set up by the people, hung with flags and devices, and crowned with a cap of liberty. The Americans of the United States planted poplars and other trees during the war of independence, “as symbols of growing freedom.” The Jacobins in Paris planted their first tree of liberty in 1790. The symbols used in France to decorate their trees of liberty were tricoloured ribbons, circles to indicate unity, triangles to signify equality, and a cap of liberty. Trees of liberty were planted by the Italians in the revolution of 1848. – E. Cobham Brewer • Under this flag may our youth find new inspiration for loyalty to Canada; for a patriotism based not on any mean or narrow nationalism, but on the deep and equal pride that all Canadians will feel for every part of this good land. – Lester B. Pearson • Unfortunately a Constitutional amendment that would have empowered Congress to make desecration of the United States flag illegal failed to pass by one vote. – Kenny Marchant • United States, your banner wears Two emblems–one of fame; Alas! the other that it bears Reminds us of your shame. Your banner’s constellation types White freedom with its stars, But what’s the meaning of the stripes? They mean your negroes’ scars. – Thomas Campbell • Using a metaphor in front of a man as unimaginative as Ridcully was like a red flag to a bu… was like putting something very annoying in front of someone who was annoyed by it. – Terry Pratchett • War is the spectacular and bloody projection of our everyday living. We precipitate war out of our daily lives; and without a transformation in ourselves, there are bound to be national and racial antagonisms, the childish quarreling over ideologies, the multiplication of soldiers, the saluting of flags, and all the many brutalities that go to create organized murder. – Jiddu Krishnamurti • We Americans are the most lavish and showiest and most luxury loving people on the earth; and at our masthead we fly one true and honest symbol, the gaudiest flag the world has ever seen. – Mark Twain • We are raised to honor all the wrong explorers and discoverers thieves planting flags, murderers carrying crosses. Let us at last praise the colonizers of dreams. – Peter S. Beagle • We are to regard existence as a raid or great adventure; it is to be judged, therefore, not by what calamities it encounters, but by what flag it follows and what high town it assaults. The most dangerous thing in the world is to be alive; one is always in danger of one’s life. But anyone who shrinks from that is a traitor to the great scheme and experiment of being. – Gilbert K. Chesterton • We cannot allow the American flag to be shot at anywhere on earth if we are to retain our respect and prestige – Barry Goldwater • We considered ourselves Jordanian until the Jews returned to Jerusalem. Then all of the sudden we were Palestinians – they removed the star from the Jordanian flag and all at once we had a Palestinian flag. – Walid Shoebat • We do not consecrate the flag by punishing its desecration, for in doing so, we dilute the freedom this cherished emblem represents. – William J. Brennan • We have but one flag, one country; let us stand together. We may differ in color, but not in sentiment. – Nathan Bedford Forrest • We have room in this country for but one flag, the Stars and Stripes! – Theodore Roosevelt • We have two American flags always: one for the rich and one for the poor. When the rich fly it means that things are under control; when the poor fly it means danger, revolution, anarchy. – Henry Miller • We identify the flag with almost everything we hold dear on earth, peace, security, liberty, our family, our friends, our home. . .But when we look at our flag and behold it emblazoned with all our rights we must remember that it is equally a symbol of our duties. Every glory that we associate with it is the result of duty done. – Calvin Coolidge • We join ourselves to no party that does not carry the flag and I keep step to the music of the Union. – Rufus Choate • Well, start waving and yelling, because it is the so-called Oxford comma and it is a lot more dangerous than its exclusive, ivory-tower moniker might suggest. There are people who embrace the Oxford comma and people who don’t, and I’ll just say this: never get between these people when drink has been taken. Oh, the Oxford comma. Here, in case you don’t know what it is yet, is the perennial example, as espoused by Harold Ross: “The flag is red, white, and blue.” So what do you think of it? Are you for or against it? Do you hover in between? – Lynne Truss • What does one plant who plants a tree? One plants the friend of sun and sky; One plants the flag of breezes free; The shaft of beauty towering high. – Henry Cuyler Bunner • What if the invasion forces will not leave our lands? What if the U.S. forces and others stay in our beloved lands? What if their companies and embassy headquarters will continue to exist with the American flags hoisted on them? Will you be silent? Will you overlook this? – Muqtada al Sadr • What I’m trying to do is to at least raise a flag to the blinding light of technology. – Godfrey Reggio • When a war ends, what does that look like exactly? do the cells in the body stop detonating themselves? does the orphanage stop screaming for its mother? when the sand in the desert has been melted down to glass and our reflection is not something we can stand to look at does the white flag make for a perfect blindfold? yesterday i was told a story about this little girl in Iraq, six-years-old, who cannot fall asleep because when she does she dreams of nothing but the day she watched her dog eat her neighbor’s corpse. if you told her war is over do you think she can sleep? – Andrea Gibson • When facism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the American flag. – Sinclair Lewis • When fascism comes to the United States it will be wrapped in the American flag and will claim the name of 100-percent Americanism – Sinclair Lewis • When Freedom from her mountain height Unfurled her standard to the air, She tore the azure robe of night, And set the stars of glory there. – Joseph Rodman Drake • When Freedom from her mountain-height Unfurled her standard to the air, She tore the azure robe of night, And set the stars of glory there. She mingled with its gorgeous dyes The milky baldric of the skies, And striped its pure, celestial white With streakings of the morning light. Flag of the free heart’s hope and home! By angel hands to valour given! Thy stars have lit the welkin dome, And all thy hues were born in heaven. Forever float that standard sheet! Where breathes the foe but falls before us, With Freedom’s soil beneath our feet, And Freedom’s banner streaming o’er us? – Joseph Rodman Drake • When I see the American flag, I go, ‘Oh my God, you’re insulting me.’ – Janeane Garofalo • When I was in college there was a girls’ flag football league. The girls were extremely aggressive. – Lynn Swann • When somebody say no, it’s a red flag to a bull to me. – Duncan Roy • When the wheel was accepted as part of the national flag, it was surely implied that the spinning wheel would hum in every household. – Mahatma Gandhi • When you go to plant a flag on the visiting team’s field, it’s a form of taunting, .. What message are you sending when you spear it into the turf of your defeated opponent?. – Brad Davis • When you make love you’re using up energy; and afterwards you feel happy and don’t give a damn for anything. They can’t bear you to feel like that. They want you to be bursting with energy all the time. All this marching up and down and cheering and waving flags is simply sex gone sour. If you’re happy inside yourself, why should you get excited about Big Brother and the Three-Year Plans and the Two Minutes Hate and all the rest of their bloody rot? – George Orwell • While the rest of the country waves the flag of Americana, we understand we are not part of that. We don’t owe America anything – America owes us. – Al Sharpton • Words are some of the most powerful and important things I know….Language is the tool of love and the weapon of hatred. It’s the bright red warning flag of danger–and the stone foundation of diplomacy and peace. – Ani DiFranco • Worrying that banning flag desecration would inhibit free speech reveals a misunderstanding of the flag’s fundamental nature. – Adrian Cronauer • Ye mariners of England! That guard our native seas; Whose flag has braved a thousand years, The battle and the breeze! – Thomas Campbell • Yes, I’m a patriotic person. For these people who disgrace the American way and burn our flag and do all of these things… I say, don’t live here and disgrace my country. Go live in the Middle East and see how you like it. – Payne Stewart • Yonder are the Hessians. They were bought for seven pounds and tenpence a man. Are you worth more? Prove it. Tonight the American flag floats from yonder hill or Molly Stark sleeps a widow! – John Stark • You are the generation that will reach the sea and hoist the flag of Palestine over Tel Aviv. – Yasser Arafat • You are the makers of the flag and it is well that you glory in the making. – Franklin Knight Lane • You cannot have companies where many of the largest ones lose money indefinitely without someone finally waving the white flag, and IBM is the most recent example of that. – Kevin B. Rollins • You don’t defend national sovereignty with flags, cheap election rhetoric, and advertising campaigns. – Stephen Harper • You have to eat before you train. Otherwise, that really intense training, after about 40 minutes you start to flag. – Hugh Jackman • You the devil in drag. You can burn your cross, Well, I’ll burn your flag. – Ice Cube • You’re a grand old flag! You’re a high-flying flag, And forever in peace may you wave. You’re the emblem of the land I love, The home of the free and the brave. Ev’ry heart beats true ‘Neath the Red, White and Blue,’ Where there’s never a boast or brag. But should auld acquaintance be forgot, Keep your eye on the grand old flag. – George M. Cohan

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The Reality Risk

In a recent article in The New York Times, a would-be home-flipper recounted his first attempt to fix-and-flip a property. He recalled how he had recently sold a thriving tech company and was relying on the proceeds from that sale to stay home and care for his wife and toddler while his spouse was on bed rest during a tough pregnancy. Not surprisingly, part of that “family time” included watching a few relaxing episodes of reality real estate television, complete with high-end fixtures, tense design moments, and a happily concluded, profitable transaction by the end of each show.

Pretty soon, the soon-to-be investor, along with his neighbors, was “stalking” a house heading for the auction block. The first deal went smoothly, just like the shows implied. The partners made about $80,000 in profit. However, their second deal was much more time-consuming and costly. Each partner walked away with only about $10,000 after sinking months into the deal. At that rate, there were a lot of other things the investors would have been better off spending their time on. Things became financially tight as much of the capital from the sale of the business had gone into the low-return project. The investors wondered if they should give up, but ultimately kept flipping.

That particular newspaper article has a happy ending. The former tech entrepreneur is now a happy and successful flipper. However, he was operating with a number of advantages most people do not have, including:

He had financial flexibility thanks to the sale of his company. He was not operating on a tight deadline and could afford to elongate timelines and learn “on the job.”

He was investing in the hot California housing market, which allowed the partners some “wiggle room” to make a few mistakes and still turn a profit.

He worked with another investor who was more familiar with the process and knew the initial cost of the property left room for repairs.

  Many others who get involved in flipping because it looks incredibly exciting and glamorous on television do not have these advantages. And the price they pay can be very, very high.

Reality Real Estate Television Creates Overconfidence That Kills Deals & Dreams

Imagine quitting your job and investing in a $1.7 million mansion in New Jersey because you just knew you could do at least as good as job as those characters you’ve seen on television. Now, imagine spending more than a year on that project between dealing with repairs you failed to foresee and complications from a slowing high-end housing market that required you to actually re-do some of your best “HGTV-designer” work in order to make the house attractive to local buyers. Now, imagine making about $10,000. Don’t get excited. You made less than $1,000 a month and you quit your job. That was not a win, and you didn’t even get paid the pittance that “Love It or List It” homeowners get for their appearances. Nor, by the way, did you earn a salary for all your design mishaps because (remember?) you are not a reality real estate design “star.”

Am I knocking reality real estate television too hard? Certainly, a lot of people would say, “Yes!” I constantly hear it from my friends and other investors — particularly those who have gotten into real estate since the end of the Great Recession. They tell me, “Charles, give these people a break! No one really thinks reality television is real anymore. At least now they are involved in real estate. That should make you happy.”

Let me be clear: I love it when people get involved in real estate investing. Real estate investing is one the greatest wealth generators of all time. It changes countless lives for the better when done well. Unfortunately, it can also change countless lives for the worse when thousands of people jump into the industry blindly and make investments based on a series of false premises that are completely unrealistic. Furthermore, the latter type of behavior is incredibly harmful to our industry as a whole. That is why the availability of high-quality, easily accessible education, and the ability to recognize it, is so important.

If You Can’t Accept That Not Every Deal Is a “Home Run,” Maybe You Shouldn’t Be at Bat Yet

At The PIP Group, we have been in the business for decades. Not only are we a group of investors with a track record of investing on our own behalf to great effect, we are also a group of investors with a track record of generating top-of- the-industry returns on other investors’ behalf. Does that mean every deal is a home run? Of course not. More importantly, we have the experience and perspective not to demand every deal be one. What we do demand is that every deal have an extremely high likelihood of generating solid returns and multiple exit strategies in place that make our investors money and, in a worst-case scenario, do not lose our investors’ money.

That rigorous best-case/worst-case approach to real estate investing is a very different world view and investing philosophy than the couple who find they cannot complete a project because, despite being under-budget and ahead of schedule, they keep making design changes to their flip. (Yes, that couple is real, and yes, there are dozens just like them proudly posting about this issue on social media). I’ll tell you what that outcome is ultimately going to be: Their “hot market” is going to cool while they are debating whether the vaulted ceilings were a mistake and if they should add in some exposed beams for that “farmhouse feel,” and they’re going to be left with months of extra holding costs and a property that is far, far too improved for the neighborhood in which it sits.

“OK, we get it, Charles,” you are probably thinking right now. “Reality real estate is not real. But seriously, who thinks it is?” I’ll get to that. More people than you might imagine.

Everything is “Plastic” – Including the Happy Ending

Andy Warhol once said of Hollywood and show business, “Everybody’s plastic, but I love plastic. I want to be plastic.” Now, if you have ever seen Warhol’s art, you know that he was an absolute genius, but he was also stark raving crazy. That is not a good business strategy for most people, and definitely not for most real estate investors. However, real estate investors who base their leap into the industry on reality real estate television are often dedicated to the “plastic,” the faux luxury that you can only afford if you are filming a fake rehab rather than undertaking a real one. This hurts their planning prior to investing, inhibits their ability to stick to a timeline or a budget, and, ultimately, damages the marketability of their end product once they complete the project.

Would-be real estate “stars” (on social media and in their own minds, at least) often have very unrealistic ideas about timelines and budgets for real estate investments even though they believe they are factoring the “unreality” of real estate-television production. The real reality is that for a real estate show, the investors may only paint two of the four walls of a room or even only a portion of the sides of a house. Then, the investors go back later and redo the rest, sometimes even changing the color if the producers demanded a hue that was not marketable. This makes sense when it comes to producing a product called “reality real estate television.” It does not make sense when it comes to producing a finished product you can sell to a retail buyer on as short a timeline as possible!

Fighting the “Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus” Syndrome in Our Industry

It should come as no surprise to any experienced real estate investor that reality real estate television franchises get sued — a lot. Any show that relies on partial renovations (read: about half a room) and manufactured drama with real fallout after the show ends (read: the roof is leaking and we have foundational instability!) is going to have some dissatisfied participants once the episode wraps, especially since homeowners often sign their rights away without reading the fine print because they are excited about being on television. There are dozens of horror stories out there about people who spent hundreds of thousands of dollars repairing the damage done to their homes during a “home makeover” or trying to finish renovations on their own because the contractor departed, leaving the job half done, along with the film crew.

I feel badly for those homeowners, but I also feel like they made a bargain and got what the legalese warned them about. People who believe the story arc is real, however, are the ones who are really getting the raw end of the deal. In 2016, a survey that polled 2,000 adults ages 25 years and older indicated that about two in every five adults viewing reality television believe that even “scripted reality” series, of which reality real estate television is certainly a part, are entirely real. Furthermore, those who are most likely to make life-changing decisions based on reality television (25-34 years of age and 55 & up), are also the demographics who tend to have the least wiggle room when it comes to both time and money. The older demographic may leap in, believing they can do it completely on their own, and risk their retirement capital at a time when they are getting ready to rely heavily upon it. The younger demographic usually has less capital to lose and far less financial wiggle room thanks to heavy student loan debt.

Both populations fall prey to a fervent desire to believe that the magic, the stardust, and the lighting effects are all real while forgetting the very tangible, real benefits that come with real estate investing like financial independence, ownership of your time, and lasting legacy. I call it “Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus” syndrome because every time they lose sight of the stardust and start looking at the facts of a deal, a new show jumps in to motivate them to focus on the sparkle rather than on the bottom line. It is irresponsible, and it is a true hazard.

The kicker for me, though, is this: Very nearly everyone wishing to increase their earnings potential or experience new flexibility in their professional life should consider real estate! The problem is that with nearly most of the population watching some form of reality television and half of all viewers looking to reality real estate television as a legitimate form of self-education, the expectations and information are misleading (if I’m being generous) or entirely erroneous (if I’m being blunt).

As professional real estate investors with decades of experience, we at The PIP Group believe strongly in our responsibility to educate and guide newer investors even if they do not place their capital in our funds. That is why we offer free education and timely information about real estate investing strategies on our website and also travel the country speaking and teaching. Reality real estate television is not going away. Neither is the potential for our industry to get repeatedly hit with its harmful fallout. We must fortify ourselves against this threat by protecting those most likely to become victims of the misinformation.

We do this both by providing valuable education and experience-related insight and by being available to help new investors make wise investment decisions when they are allocating their capital.

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from Real Estate Tips https://thinkrealty.com/reality-risk/