Rebel yell?

The scene: Friendly's in Gettysburg, PA
The perp: dude in a baseball cap decorated with a Confederate flag and the word 'Rebel' across the front
The crime: he probably gets to vote, despite his manifest disdain for the national flag, and for the republic and constitution for which it stands

In Gettysburg, of all places. The re-enactors and fans in Confederate grey (or their Union blue) don't bother me at all. Perhaps they should, but it seems, well, historical. Ugly dude in the diner, though, not so much. I don't get to vote, since I'm a non-citizen. Fair enough. But I probably have more respect for the United States as a polity and an idea than he does. So if he wants to be a rebel, strip him of his rights as a citizen, and let him be a noisy bystander like me.

By the way, the chocolate mudslide ice cream is back, and it's tasty - particularly with hot fudge sauce.

Road Rage

A few days a week, I drive three children (two of them mine) to school in Harrisburg. Of course, I drive carefully, refrain from swearing at idiot drivers, and generally attempt to model calm and responsible driver conduct. Some days it is particularly hard, today was among the hardest. Not because of some bizarre and life-threatening action by a truck driver or because (as is all too common) someone is following me too closely at high speed. This was something in front of me, that forced me to draw back even further than usual in the hope that the kids would not see such obscenity.

An SUV in front of me had a sticker on the back saying:

No Husseins in the White House.

Barely-disguised code in the current climate for "No Ni&&@#$ in the White House." So thank you, McCain-Palin campaign, for empowering racist hicks everywhere to be out and proud about their feebleminded, fearful hate. John Murtha acknowledged today that endemic racism in western PA will reduce the size of Obama's victory here. Sadly, it is not restricted to the west - we have our very own bigots here in the Capital Area.

How can we bring up decent, open-minded children with that kind of example around them? Hope and work for an Obama victory, of course. Model civility. And, like Wendy in South Park, confront and fight cancers wherever we encounter them.