Monday, June 20, 2011

Monday's Odds and Ends

NBC Deletes "Under God" and Twitterverse Goes Nutty - The United States Golf Association held it's annual US Open Golf Championship no more than a pitching wedge away from the Nation's Capital this past weekend. Sunday's final round was broadcast by NBC.



During NBCs opening video montage that included children reciting the pledge the network decided to edit out the words "under God" and indivisible.

3 hours into the broadcast NBC issued a meek apology:

"We began our coverage of this final round just about three hours ago, and when we did it was our intent to begin the coverage of this U.S. Open championship with a feature that captured the patriotism of our national championship being held in our nation's capital for the third time," announcer Dan Hicks told viewers. "Regrettably, a portion of the Pledge of Allegiance that was in that feature was edited out. It was not done to upset anyone, and we'd like to apologize to those of you who were offended by it."

It seems clear that NBC deliberately removed the words "under God" and considers those offended to be nothing more than a very small minority.

The pledge in the current form is simple and straight forward:

"I pledge allegiance to the flag
of the United States of America,
and to the republic for which it stands,
one nation under God, indivisible,
with liberty
and justice for all."

But before you get all upset with NBC consider that the original pledge was this:

"I pledge allegiance
to my flag
and the republic for which it stands:
one nation indivisible with liberty
and justice for all."

Cedar Posts was raised back in the day when the pledge was a daily routine in grades K-5, so I have come to expect the words "under God" which were added in 1954.

But the pledge has changed often since it was first introduced more than 100 years ago. And good thing because I suppose this photo of children reciting the pledge and saluting the flag in 1941 might be a little disturbing.



Back in 1941 reciting the pledge without "under God" while holding your arm straight out and elevated was considered a very patriotic way to show your love of our country. Of course now it would be considered an insult to just about everyone. Thank you Italy and Nazi Germany.

So maybe its time to remove the "Under God" from the pledge? Change it up a little, I'm thinking a "rap version" ..... maybe recognizing beer and pizza how about you? You can find more about the Bellamy Salute here and the history of the pledge here.

More about CMPD Lieutenants - Word is that Chief Monroe plans on add the re-created position next month. Seems all RACs will become Lieutenants. There may be others that get the automatic change. Also noted is that sergeants going through the captain's selection process may find themselves instead as Lieutenants.

In case you missed it - An off-duty Chicago Police officer was dressed as a clown and leaving a community event for toddlers when he fatally shot a man trying to rob him on the South Side Friday night. The officer described is "very active" in the community and was in the costume because he was entertaining toddlers attending a sleepover at a daycare center prior to the shooting, according to police News Affairs Officer John Mirabelli.

The officer was leaving the fundraising event when the incident occurred, and no children were nearby, according to Mirabelli.

The suspect approached the off-duty Chicago Police officer about 10:10 p.m. in the 1900 block of West 87th Street, produced a gun and tried to rob the officer, according to a statement from police News Affairs.

The officer and the robber struggled, and the gun discharged and struck the robber, the statement said. The weapon was recovered at the scene.

The man, believed to be in his 20s, was dead on the scene, according to the Cook County Medical Examiner’s office.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Justice Served!

Anonymous said...

Cedar that photo of the classroom in 1941 is crazy. I have to admit I thought the pledge was like 200 years old and that is always had one nation "under God".....

I think the NBC US Open thing has the media going in hyper mode.

Thanks for your effort to cool down the madness.

Anonymous said...

Who knows what the process for Lt. is going to be?

The thing is, THERE ARE NO RULES OR REAL PROCESSES ANYMORE!

It is almost entirely at the whim of rodney and his posse.

Who knows when and what the next round of promotions will bring?

For sure Vicki and Sheri are lobbying hard for being promoted to DC......as is every other Butt smoocher at CMPD.

There are some REAL leaders at cmpd, but the chances of them being promoted are just about nil.

It will be diversity and paybacks that will determine promotions...with maybe one or two qualified white males thrown in for appearances.

Should be interesting...

Anonymous said...

its - a possessive, similar to your, NO FUCKING APOSTROPHE
it's - a contraction of "it is", as in 'it's fucking simple', A FUCKING
APOSTROPHE

Need a trick? Fine - when using it's or you're, expand the contraction. If
"you're head is full of shit" becomes "you are head is full of shit" and doesn't make any sense (maybe it will to you because you're a fucking idiot), then you are using the wrong word.

Rea Road Neighborhood Coalition said...

Funny comment even with all the F-Bombs.

Note to the rational, normal people in the world: Thanks for understanding!

To everyone else, its a BLOG! So before you work yourself into a stroke, please consider these ten points:

1) Most of this is "Orginal Content"
2) done on the fly from a BlackBerry
3) By someone wjo can't spell
4) or type
4) and has limited math skills.
5) While most people can "read around" typos,
6) this writer has come to accept that some people are obsessed with even the smallest of tiny details.
7)Sad but over the years I have come to learn that small people have small lives, and live in small homes where the littlest things drive them crazy.
9) I have to laugh and hope they aren't armed and that the bus route doesn't run close to their homes.
10) But its OK with me if you want to rant your life away.

Anonymous said...

Its or it's who cares? If you want perfect read a newspaper! Oh wait never mind.

Anonymous said...

Can't wait to see the "new" video of the riot downtown....exactly how much is released and if it has been, ummm, "edited".

And, really, it took rodney all this time to "find" this snippet of video? Believe that? Well, he is "absent" from his job frequently, so that might explain it! :)

Let's see, how long does he have to stay to get his retirem ent? Everyone is counting the days....

Anonymous said...

Let's hope DC Harold and his YesMan PZ are feeling refreshed after both being on vacation last week! Seems they both needed a "time out".
Do you think they got a little sane perspective while on Vacation?
Nawwww.....

Anonymous said...

i see they decided to do the "video dump" instead of selecting....smart choice....they listened for once!!

Anonymous said...

Anon 4:42
It is blatantly obvious to ALL now that Rodney has been intent on "diversifying" the department at ANY cost to the long term success of the department.
All of the unqualified people of diversity that have been put in positions that they do not have the experience or qualifications for are going to come home to roost...after rodney is gone...so he does not care.
He can say he "diversified" cmpd. But at what cost?
And it now seems the dept. will be over the top diversifed.
But if he promotes either Sheri or Vicki to DC, he is just asking for publicity and trouble.
Sheri certainly does not have the experience or the humbleness of character to be DC.
And Vicki? Well, I think she said it all herself on her tape she made for her "reality" show, don't you think? She disqualified herself with her obvious biases.