"God Bless America" billboard on fire in SF bay area

[BrotherBuzz]

Just heard about it on the radio. It may be just an expression of free speech or possibly a message from higher up. Details are sketchy.

[CalebHayes]

1. Message from Tomas Jefferson.

[maggrwaggr]

2. Wow. I'd love to see a picture of that

I HATE that mantra.

God Bless America. How about something actually from the Bible. Like "blessed are the meek."

God Bless America translates into The Rest of the World Can Go To Hell.

[corporatewhore]

5. friend made a poster that said god forgive america

[JohnOneillsMemory]

48. With the 'Bless' crossed out? I'd like to see that.

Every time I've passed this ex-sign I've imagined painting on this modification but it is on a busy highway and I can't imagine getting away with it. I do have a strong sense of self-preservation.

That might be why the torchers were so extreme in their 'editting.' It might've been easier to pull off and get away. It is the wet rainy season so it wasn't a serious fire hazard, I hope. Wouldn't want to vandalize Nature.

[Eureka]

6. Yeah but....

it's not as insulting as referring to the President, especially the unelected fraud, as "leader of the free world" IMHO, particularly since the start of the * term.

:-)

[Room101]

3. The Bay Bridge is surrounded with.......

A huge Savage Billboard and two "United we stand" murals. :puke:
The "god bless America" slogon makes me sick, but it is wrong to burn the billboard down.

[wuushew]

7. We don't know it was arson

it could just be incredibly sweet irony.

[Renew Deal]

4. Is God on our side?

hmmm

[Columbia]

8. I'm sorry, I'll have to disagree here

Destruction of private property because one disagrees with the message is decidedly not free speech. If anything it is an act of hate and violence.

[JohnOneillsMemory]

9. Disagree. This might be the one on Hgwy 101 south of Petaluma

that is in the public eye. That is, many thousands of people a day have to see this horrible mix of Nationalism and Dominionism. I've often wanted to either torch it myself or change the 'Bless' to 'Forgive.' It's puffy rhetoric like this that perpetuates the Big Lie that it is a path to Heaven to kill for your country. What's the difference between that and Islamic suicide-bombers?

And now I'll post my synopsis of Dominionism again:

Religion is the biggest arrow in the quiver of the Culture War to hijack control of the biggest weapon on the planet, the US government. Television is a close second for filling the collective American mind with manipulative fearmongering. Combined, they are a 24/7 Nuremberg rally of adrenalin and endorphins, a daily drip of red-white-and-blue indoctri-Nation-alism.

'THE CHOSEN FEW' IS BEING MORPHED INTO 'THE MASTER RACE'
THE SAME WAY 'GET OSAMA' WAS MORPHED INTO 'GET SADDAM'! GET IT?

We are living in the closing minutes of a religious culture war that the American Taliban, called Dominionists, are winning.
The US Constitution (of-by-for the people) is being gutted and replaced with the Bible (Divine Right of Kings.)

This is the basic model of this religion-fueled fascism:
Supreme Dictator Smiting Evil-doers Wrathfully Without Legal Restraints. Sound familar?
Yup. George W. Bush as the American Ayatollah.

The inflammation of the old anti-semitic, anti-homosexual, anti-abortion, and anti-porn 'passions' is cover for a very real and documented campaign to make this country into a Hitlerian theocracy fueled by fundamentalist Christian religious passions called 'Dominionism.'

It’s teachings are the opposite of those of Jesus Christ.
Wealth=virtue/Poverty=sin, Monarchy=Success/Democracy=failure. Killing=justice/Peace=danger.
It is totally Orwellian and some animals are definitely more equal than others.

'Might Makes Right' is WINNING over 'The Rule of Law.'
We are experiencing the return of Eugenics (elimination of the 'weak') in our government's policies that looks very much like the old systems of feudalism, slavery and holocaust.
Have you noticed the body-count in the last three years with no end in sight?


Georgie's brain is much worse than you think and he's being used for terrible purposes. Here's a British clinical psychologist's researched analysis of the boy king. He interviewed Georgie's family, friends and such and determined that he was abused as a child and developed an 'authoritarian personality,' the root of fascism. Read it and weep for him and us.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1033904,00.html
(So George, how do you feel about your mom and dad?)-CLICK

And this personality is being exploited to further the creation of a Hitlerian Theocracy called ‘Dominionism’, which has been going on in this country for the last thirty years. Read it and wonder what the hell we're in for next now that Eugenics is domestic policy and Imperialism is foreign policy.
http://www.axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/article_5160.shtml
(God Bless America, The Constitution is Dead)-CLICK

If you'd like to read the full speech of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia back in the dark ages of January 2002 when he said that 'democracy interferes with the Divine Right of Kings and he's doing something about it,' read this and wonder what century we're living in and just what that Constitution was for, anyway.
http://www.prodeathpenalty.com/scalia.htm
(God's Justice and Ours)-CLICK

Eugenics, isn’t that a little dramatic? Social conditions have not improved in the United States since 1980.
Using data from the UN and World Bank, researcher Richard Estes created an Index of Social Progress that
Takes into account health, education, human rights, political participation, population growth, the status of women, cultural diversity, ‘freedom from social chaos’, military spending, and environmental protection.
In a list that included 163 countries, the United States ranked 27th. Estes, who has researched world social development for 30 years, found the pace of social development to be "on hold" since 1980, putting the U.S. on the same level as Poland and Slovenia in the current "report card.” Yet the US ‘defense’ budget is the size of the next 15 largest in the world combined.
(US Ranks 27th in World Social Progress)-CLICK.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2003-07/uop-ur2071703.php

How can they get away with it when everyone seems to be pissed off at Georgie and we're supposed to be able to vote the bastard out of our White House? By fixing the electronic voting machines for 'the House.' Read this and decide which country to escape to this fall when Georgie is reinstalled, like a 'Manchurian Candidate' to finish the job he was sent to do-eliminate democracy, create a police state, and conquer the world as Superman Jesus in a Cowboy Hat.
http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0225-05.htm
(Diebold, Electonic Voting, and the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy)-CLICK

LATE BREAKING NEWS-FEB. 26 2004
Right now the Dominionists are introducing legislation to replace 'The People' as the authority in our democracy’s Constitution with ‘God’ in a bill called ‘The Constitution Restoration Act of 2004,’ exactly the opposite of what it really is, just like the Patriot Act, the Help America Vote Act, the Leave No Child Behind Act, and the Clear Skies Act. The legalities of the Christian Theocracy are being used to destroy our laws as if by the Taliban in Afghanistan.

This is not a test! It is absolutely real and happening right now while the media are busy covering gay marriage and Mel Gibson’s bloody crucifixion porn film, ‘The Passion of the Christ.’

“…on February 11 , 2004 Dominionist leaders in congress made their move; they introduced a bill in both houses called The Constitution Restoration Act of 2004. Among the sponsors of the bill are Rep. Robert Aderholt (Alabama), Rep. Michael Pence (Indiana), Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama, Sen. Zell Miller (Georgia), Sen. Sam Brownback (Kansas), and Sen. Lindsey Graham (South Carolina).

The House version is H.R. 3799 and the Senate version is S. 2082. The bill limits the U.S. Supreme Court and federal courts to hear cases involving “expressions of religious faith by elected or appointed officials.”

Although the claim by its sponsors appears to be that the intention is to prevent the courts from hearing cases involving the Ten Commandments or a Nativity Scene in a public setting from being reviewed, the law is drawn broadly and expressly includes the acknowledgment of God as the sovereign source of law by an official in his capacity of executing his office.”

http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0402/S00172.htm
(The Constitution Restoration Act of 2004)-CLICK

[Webster Green]

13. That IS the one....

I drive by it all the time, and every time I saw it I had thoughts of how nice it would look with minor changes. "Fuck Bush", in huge lettering, that sort of thing. Tonite when I drove by, it was ablaze.

Pity! Sign o'the times!

[Katha]

15. I'm a student at Sonoma State University

Seven miles north of Petaluma. I know that sign as well as I know the North Bay's cow pastures.

[Webster Green]

17. Heh..I was headed to SSU when I passed the sign tonite...

Howdy neighbor!

[JohnOneillsMemory]

26. I'm so glad it's that sign. My mother teaches at SSU. Cool place.

The Top 10 Censored Stories Project is based at SSU.

Cesar Chavez, icon of the Free Speech Movement at Berkeley in 1964 used to teach there and my history teacher mother would bump into him at the copy machine.

I'm tempted to jump in the car and go see that flamed out sign.

[LoZoccolo]

21. Dr. Bronner? I thought you'd passed away!

Well it's nice to see you're still here! Hey, great soap, man. But what's with the labels?

[BrotherBuzz]

36. Peppermint or Almond?

Hey, I buy that stuff just for that cool Essene Rabbinical label. Hours of interesting reading.

[JohnOneillsMemory]

54. Check out the info. on Dr. Bronner. (Thanks, Dennis Miller, for the ref.)

"Bronner has had an eventful life. The son of a Jewish German soap maker, he emigrated to the U.S. and pleaded with his father to do the same when the Nazis came to power. The old man refused. One day Bronner got a postcard with the words, "You were right. --Your loving father." He never heard from his parents again."

http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a3_386.html


"Bronner wants to convince mankind of the virtues of the "All-One-God-Faith," which, together with the "Moral ABC," his answer to the Ten Commandments, will unite the human race. The details of this can be a bit hard to follow. For example: "Replace half-true Socialist-fluoride poison & tax-slavery with full-truth, work-speech-press & profitsharing Socialaction! All-One! So, help build 4 billion Hannibal wind-power plants, charging 96 billion battery-banks, powering every car-factory-farm-home-monorail & pump, watering Babylon-roof-gardens & 800 billion Israel-Milorganite fruit trees, guarded by Swiss 6000 year Universal Military Training," etc."

[Columbia]

32. Speech is speech

And we should protect it all - even those we don't agree with.

So what if it is in the public eye? Do you think that free speech rights stop in public? Hell no. If we go by your contention, no one would ever be able to hold any rallies or protests again. Is that something you want especially in this day and age?

[maggrwaggr]

53. a billboard is not free speech

not if it's owned by Viacom or Clear Channel, as we should be extremely aware of by now

[Vittorio]

10. I agree with you, Columbia.

[K8-EEE]

12. I Agree Columbie-- Dissenters Should Picket Or Put Up Another Billboard

It's not OK to torch property just because you disagree with it.

[maggrwaggr]

19. I disagree. It's time for some heavily symbolic action

To hell with being "nice". Nice gets you fucked up the ass.

What's disgraceful is that in this country everybody's sitting back and just waiting for the elections, when we've got a murderous criminal administration in power killing thousands of people.

Why be nice? We should have taken back our country months and months ago. And thrown these assholes where they belong -- in jail.

[K8-EEE]

23. No You Are Wrong

The Bushies will just use incidents like that to play on fears of what his opponents envision for America. Vandalism does not help the cause at all. I will be putting a Kerry sign in my yard and I don't approve of somebody burning my house down for "symbolic action."

[Joanne98]

35. The Bushies are probably the ones who did it

n/t

[K8-EEE]

42. I Wouldn't Put It Past Them

Really I wouldn't....they seem like they're getting kinda desperate.

[Columbia]

24. Symbolic action means destroying property that doesn't belong to you?

Just because you don't like what it says?

You know condoning this kind of action means you would think it is ok for them to do the same to your property.

C'mon Dems, we are above this kind of behavior.

[K8-EEE]

30. Absolutely....Ever Come Out To See Your Fence Grafitti'd? SUCKS!

I hate vandals.

[JohnOneillsMemory]

40. I don't condone destroying property or someone's speech.

Notice my reverence for Cesar Chavez.

However I find that particular expression of nationalism and religion to be extremely offensive and inflammatory, pun intended.

I believe that 'God Bless America' is hate speech which inspires people to kill other people. This expression has the moral equivalence of 'God Bless White People.' The choice of words is by definition exclusive, not just a warm fuzzy inclusive.

Nationalism is worse than racism and is the last -ism to be recognized as a destructively artificial way of dividing up the human family. I think we can all agree that religious war is...tacky, yes?

Not having the big pile of money it takes to put up a counter-message that thousands of people a day must see while driving through an otherwise beautiful pastoral setting, I take delight in the destruction of that particularly offensive eyesore. And I don't believe in outlawing hate speech, either. Outlawing words is barbaric.

Unfortunately, this highway billboard will probably be replaced at great expense with funds that would be better spent in the service of the spender's 'God', say, feeding the homeless. So someone's intrusively unavoidable image of Big Foam Fingered pseudo-theocracy will be in my face once again.

[JohnOneillsMemory]

45. I agree that torching that sign is an opening for more propaganda.

Especially since it happened in the SF Bay area. Some freeper types think that Berkeley should be nuked. And the homophobia types make the Bay area Ground Zero for their prayers of hatred.

Remember the kid who became 'The Marin Taliban'? Gawd, the stereotyped California Crazy who 'blames America first'?
I can hear Rush and Ahnuld and Tom Delay already...

But I'm still glad that someone had the chutzpah to be so politically incorrect. I guess that's because of the recent US-backed coup in Haiti and the 9/11-like carnage that just happened AGAIN in Iraq. How many-270 dead and 400 wounded?

One's fists clench and a mere vandalized billboard is a very restrained reaction to the murderous bullshit perpetrated by 'God Blessed Americans.'

[maggrwaggr]

46. if the billboard belongs to Viacom or Clear Channel fuck yeah!

or would you rather vote them out of power?

You can't.

We are helpless against the corporate media in this country.

When you figure that out, you'll feel the same way I do.

They need to realize if they continue lying the way they are, that there will be consequences.

I say to hell with them. We should burn down all their billboards.

[Columbia]

56. Be my guest

Why don't you go do that if you feel so strongly about it?

Say hello to the judge when you see him for me too.

[maggrwaggr]

57. I noticed you still haven't thrown out any ideas on how

to fight the corporate media.

????

Should we just lay back and enjoy it like a good girl?

I thought if you were getting raped you were supposed to fight back. Claw, bite, vomit, whatever it takes.

[Columbia]

60. Go burn your billboards

If you have such a problem with them. No is stopping you here. We'll call it childish and counter-productive, but if it makes you feel so much better, go on ahead. Just be prepared for the consequences.

As for your rape analogy, it would only hold true if the billboard was physically attacking you. Your rights end when they infringe on the rights of another. And by calling for the destruction of this form of communication, you are condoning the attack on any other kind of communication/speech as well, including your own.

This will be my last post to you in this thread, since I don't think either of us will gain anything from any further discourse on the matter.

[ConsAreLiars]

14. A joke maybe?

You defend the slaughter of thousands in Iraq but are distraught over a billboard fire?

What a joke. Typical.

(edit: n!=b)

[Columbia]

22. My opinions on Iraq are not germane to this discussion

And I've never defended the "slaughter of thousands in Iraq." I have more good will towards the people of Iraq than you ever will.

[lucidmadman]

11. I used to watch Brother Buzz in the '50s...

..growing up in Fairfax and San Anselmo...Pleasant memories...

[BrotherBuzz]

47. Fantastic!

Not many people remember Brother Buzz and his important message. Ralph ChessŽ, the creator of "The Wonderful World of Brother Buzz" introduced us to some early ecology ideas that have stood the test of time. I trust you benefited from his rich gift as well.



Early '50's viewer, too. Mill Valley (home of the horrendous TV screen ghosts). Yes, pleasant memories...Cold cereal, milk, sugar, and early morning television. Was that America, or what?

[lucidmadman]

58. Yeah...that was America...

..it almost makes me cry to think of it sometimes. Early TV in the Bay Area was strange. I remember watching the '30s FLASH GORDON serials as half hour Shows. Fireman Frank? Skipper Sedley? Kid's Show hosts were weird. I remember that it was no big deal to get on the Grey Hound and go into SF for the day. Just to shop and soak up the atmosphere. I used to have an early morning paper route delivering the SHOPPING NEWS...I feel privileged but no one else seems to remember those times...I guess I'm just an old fart at this point.

[BrotherBuzz]

61. Do you remember Captain Fortune?

I've been searching for a couple of years to find the name of the man who played Captain Fortune at the KPIX station (old Van Ness site). The Saturday morning program started with footage of him stepping off a sailing ship at the Hyde Street pier, then hopping on a cable car line for the ride to the TV station. Wore a goatee, captain's hat, and merchant marine attire. Way cool, watching him hang off the cable car, casual. Weird, it was almost fifty years ago, yet it seems like yesterday. Who was that dude? I guess I'm another old fart, too.

I delivered the IJ.

[lucidmadman]

62. Wow!..that is just the vaguest of vaguest of memories...

...I worked for David Allen in the '70s at the BOARDING HOUSE in SF and I know he'd been a kid's show host. I wonder if that was him. He was a booker for Enrico Banducci at the HUNGRY EYE and THE PURPLE ONION back in the day...maybe? Who knows? The IJ...the INDEPENDENT JOURNAL, it was neither! I drift back to those times often. Remember Don Sherwood on KSFO? Remember Casey Kassem on KEWB(channel 91!)?
Pictures of the gone world...I do call it Frisco, I got the right to do so...

[scottxyz]

16. Burning it is also speech

Everyone seems to know what the billboard said.

Now the next line of the dialog has been spoken - it's been burned down.

It's not quite censorship when it's a one-sentence billboard and everyone watches it burn down. We all remember what it said.

[Webster Green]

20. good post, I agree with you...

I found the billboard to be extremely offensive. To me that God Bless America sentiment is arrogant, racist, pseudo patriotic bullshit.

[Columbia]

28. And burning the sign

Is criminal, anarchist, and fascist bullshit.

[K8-EEE]

31. Juvenile Shit Like This WIll Only Get More Votes For GWB

It's ridiculous. Let's just all burn each others signs down.

[Webster Green]

33. Most things I like are illegal. Anarchy is the wave of the future...

and the fascists are the ones who display these type of signs, not the folks who would burn them down.

[Columbia]

37. I'd really love to live in your world where no one has rights

Not.

[K8-EEE]

41. Like Haiti Right Now

Wonderful law free existence -- with people handcuffed and castrated in the streets...I don't see people breaking down the doors trying to get in there...anarchy has never worked and it will never work, societies and government go together. I takes nothing at all to destroy but creating them and progressing them, takes talent.

[maggrwaggr]

50. that speech is hardly free. Ever rent a billboard?

Why don't you go rent the billboard after it's put back up and put your nice even-handed message on it for the world to see?

[K8-EEE]

38. Fascists AND Stupid Ass Vandals Both Suck

In their own way.

[blurp]

52. There are two kinds of fascists:

The fascists and the anti-fascists.

[maggrwaggr]

55. you're calling me a fascist because I'm anti-fascist?

that's just plain stupid. I'd be insulted if your statement had an ounce of intelligence to it.

[maggrwaggr]

49. and what are your ideas for fighting the corporatist media?

We can't vote them out.

We are helpless against them.

This is what helpless people do. They burn the shit down.

I say burn down every billboard that says Viacom or Clear Channel on it. Which around here would be pretty much all of 'em.

[Columbia]

27. You're right, it isn't censorship

It's destruction of private property. And it's not only illegal, it's immoral and hurtful to our cause.

[maggrwaggr]

51. and the cable news network you own is called ....?

Where, I ask you, is there media in this country that isn't corporatist, lying, and republican and therefore fascist?

How are we supposed to fight them?

I thought this was the Democratic UNDERGROUND.

[corporatewhore]

18. I would have changed the text not burned it but to each his own

[K8-EEE]

25. Free Speech For EVERYONE -- Or For No One.

It's no better than book burning. I wouldn't approve if they did it to one of our messages and I don't approve of doing it to theirs. Besides that, it's just juvenile. Something I would expect from a tantrumming Freeper to a Planned Parenthood billboard. I'm ashamed of this action.

[AZCat]

29. I don't know how well this is covered under the free speech provision

I am not condoning the burning of a billboard, but here in Tucson the city has been fighting for a long time (at least 6 years that I can remember) to eliminate billboards within the city limits.

It has been interesting to watch the struggle develop. The state legislature just voted to eliminate Tucson's ability to do this very thing (it's full of not very nice people) so I am waiting to see what the city will do next.

[K8-EEE]

34. I Contributed To MoveOn Billboards

Which is basically renting advertising space -- and I would be pissed to see that space vandalized by the GWB/Iraq War fans. They can get their own sign.

The message has nothing to do with the zoning of where they can put signs. If the signs are zoned legally then they should not be tampered with.

[AZCat]

39. I'm not disputing your point about vandalism

I was expressing doubt that billboards actually represent a form of protected speech, and I thought it might be an interesting anecdote about Tucson's dilemma.

[JohnOneillsMemory]

59. I vandalized a huge 'Phillip Morris' banner at a concert. "Feels good!"

I just remembered that childish display of destructiveness. Ahhh...

I was an audio engineer at a multi-stage 4 day arts and crafts fair in New England. It was the year that some industry insider snuck out tons of documents proving the tobacco companies had been marketing to youth and other nasty practices.

Each of several concert tents had a corporate sponsor. One tent that wasn't opening until the second night had a huge Phillip Morris banner behind the stage. After I shut down my stage, I went next door and was OUTRAGED to see this murderous corporation represented at a very progressive bohemian arts festival.

In the darkness unobserved, I took a large magic marker to the banner and wrote "YOUR CHILDREN'S TOBACCO COMPANY" all over it. The next day it had been removed never to be seen again.

A few days later, I overheard festival organizers discussing whether they should tell Phillip Morris what had happened to their sponsorship banner and wondering whether they should solicit support from that company ever again.

So, anti-vandalists, what do you think I should have done in this situation. Respect the property of a company that has killed many millions of people? Or use my pen-that's-mightier-than-the-sword?

[eridani]

43. Seriously stupid

What ever happened to Truth in Advertising creative modification?

[corporatewhore]

44. thats what i was thinkin