Yet Another Asshole Who Can't Live With Others

Right on cue, the media gives us another "outrageous" Memorial Day story about people who hate America and the proud American who just loves this country so much he has to put a flag in his yard to prove it.

A Central Florida war veteran faces a lawsuit for flying the American flag in his front yard.

"I don't understand why it would bring down the values of our homes by flying the American flag from a pole in my front yard," homeowner Jimmie Watkins said.

Watkins and his wife, Ria, received a final notices [sic] from the Sussex homeowners' association in Clermont that they must remove the flag or else face legal action.

This is clearly another story where someone moved into an area without bothering to find out if that area was governed by the rules of a "homeowners association." In an era where personal responsibility is a quaint and distant cousin of accountability and common sense, and none of them live around here anymore, there are countless examples where someones "lifestyle" has a conflict with the rules set by the people who got together and agreed upon them.

The former retired U.S. Navy communications officer said he refuses to back down for the American flag.

"Our people are serving today to give us freedom," Watkins said. "To do as we like here within the law of America. It is my right to fly my flag from my pole and until a court of law tells me to haul that down. I will not haul it down. I think about all of the people who have served our nation and all of the lives that it's costs and all of the friends that I've lost."

Actually, the "people who served this nation" also served the people who set the rules for the subdivision. Someone needs to sit down with Watkins and encourage him to grow up and live in the adult world. The explanation would probably go like this:

Your rights don't take precedence over the rights of someone else. They made a rule, and you accepted that rule along with many others when you freely moved in to that subdivision. Where the conflict happened is when you decided to do whatever you wanted to do. You went and bought a flagpole, a shovel, and a bag of quick-setting concrete. You threw your back out putting up a flagpole one day. And then you got a letter telling you to take it down. That's when you dug out that pile of papers that you never read in the first place and had your "oh shit!" moment.

The result was a temper tantrum over the rules. But because you didn't find out what those rules were, you're not expressing your freedom--you're showing everyone how ignorant you are. And when you get caught looking stupid, the easiest thing in the world to do is to pretend to be super-patriotic and indignant and talk about dead Veterans. Well, there isn't a single dead Veteran who died so you could get away with not understanding what your homeowners association rules state with regards to flagpoles and the like.

This association sent Watkins numerous notices and probably tried to work with him. But because Watkins can't live with other human beings, he is using patriotism to win an argument that he lost when he signed the papers accepting the rules of his subdivision.

The homeowners association is not commenting about their rules. But state law said anyone can display a flag in a "respectful manner" as long as it is removable, Local 6 reported.

Watkins, however, has a permanent flagpole in his front yard. So Watkins is not in going to find a solution to the problem by citing the Florida state law, either. The media, of course, loves non-stories like this. It drums up misplaced outrage and allows the mob to rule. The end result is that a hypocritical, immature asshole who can't understand the rules will probably get to keep his flagpole in his yard. And he gets away with it by throwing down the dead Veteran trump card, one that should never get played in the first place.

One Dead In Burning Of US Embassy in Belgrade

All staff are accounted for; likely an employee (Serb national?) or a rioter.

If true, the significance of the fact that the Serbs seized the US flag flying over the Embassy, pulled it down and or burned it is huge.

Preliminary reports say the Ambassador was not in residence, however. But the Marine Guards were inside.

Did we lose the flag as well as the Embassy? Do we have troops in theater? As in, do we have a carrier group in the Med? Do we have adequate forces to evacuate all Americans?

I do know there are US troops in Kosovo, and what their status is--and what they're armed with--now becomes critical.

THIS WAS PROBABLY NOT A GOOD TIME TO HAVE AN OVERSTRETCHED MILITARY, I would hazard to guess.


UPDATE - by Blue Girl - 8:45 Central
Serbian anger at Kosovo's declaration of independence last weekend boiled over today, and about a thousand protesters broke off from a larger peaceable demonstration and overran the American embassy in Belgrade.





The Ambassador was not in residence, and the Embassy was closed this week, in anticipation of civil protests in the wake of Kosovo formally declaring independence. The embassy guards, however, all active duty Marines, were in the facility.

Protesters went over a first-floor railing, entered the embassy and set several rooms alight. One protester scaled the facade of the building and ripped down an American flag, which was later burned by the demonstrators. (No word on whether it was THE flag, since the Ambassador was out of the facility, it might not have been...and only a protocol wonk would care, actually...)

Demonstrators cheered as the attackers, some of whom wore masks to conceal their faces, leaped onto the building's balcony, waving a Serbian flag and chanting "Serbia, Serbia!" A convoy of police firing tear gas was able to disperse the crowd, but when the demonstrations started, there was no outside police presence protecting the embassy facilities.

The unrest wasn't confined to Belgrade, however. NATO troops have sealed the border between Serbia and Kosovo after hundreds of angry Serbs torched customs and police facilities at the border crossings in the towns of Jarinje and Brnjak, which were manned by UN customs officials and Kosovo police.

The border closings will undoubtedly infuriate both Serbia and Serbian Kosovars as it cuts off ethnic Serbians in the north of Kosovo from greater Serbia, which the ethnic Serbs insist they still belong to.

Protesters arrived at the border crossings in convoys of cars and buses in what a BBC correspondent who witnessed the demonstrations said was an obviously coordinated and well orchestrated action.

Kosovo police and United Nations customs officials retreated to a nearby tunnel and as the crowds of Serbian protestors used bulldozers and explosives to demolish buildings at the border crossings. The Kosovo police called on NATO led K-For troops to seal the border and regain control of the situation.

Slobodan Samardzic, Serbia's minister for Kosovo, said that his government "intended to take control of the customs posts" in order to establish what he called the "full authority of Serbian statehood." The strident pose being struck by Serbia right now makes me nervous about how well they will accept a 2,000 strong EU police and justice mission that is shaping up now and will be launched in coming weeks.

The attacks at the border are at least as significant as the embassy protest - they set the international community, at least all the nations that have recognized Kosovo's independence, on a collision course with ethnic Serb Kosovars, as well as the Serbian government, and possibly Russia, too.

I do know one thing for certain - this is a really bad time to have an overstretched military, and an administration that doesn't do diplomacy.