Need a plastic White House? How about an "I love Washington" sweatshirt or a Stars and Stripes for the car? Well, thanks to communist China, you won't break the bank.
As Washington simmers over trade and currency spats with Beijing -- policymakers need not stray far to test America's addiction to the fruits of China's great economic leap forward.
Little more than a flick of a patriotic frisbee from the White House is a cornucopia of tourist kitsch, at knockdown prices courtesy of low-wage workers halfway across the globe.
Tourists can choose a "President of the United States" baseball cap, with a pirated official seal across the front -- good value at 12 dollars.
Or plump for a pewter-style handheld statue of Abe Lincoln or a model of the US Capitol for eight dollars.
Even more ironic is the seven buck scene of one of the quintessential moments of American mythology, the raising of the US flag by marines at the World War II battle of Iwo Jima.
In one of the most patriotic nations on earth, each of these pieces bears a "Made in China" sticker on its base.
Saturday, May 21, 2005
What Can I Say?
Some things require little comment:
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2 comments:
I mean, how can I be shocked, giving all else that has been done in the name of God, Guns and Apple Pie by this worst administration of my lifetime. But this really takes the case. I'm indeed outrage-fatigued from just about everything I learn these days. But thanks for yet another reminder of how whacked people's sense of patriotism is. If all they want to do is wave a flag, and not understand what it means, and why people fought to defend it (freedom, including freedom from WAR), then how can they really call themselves a patriot? A patriot looks out for his fellow citizens. He doesn't run around calling them traitors. A patriot defends the right of others to do something the citizen abhors, because that's what it means to live in a democracy. A patriot would not want the symbols of our great land to be made in a country that does not share the same (albeit waning) freedoms. A patriot in hard times would want to see that jobs go to fellow patriots first.
Thanks, Lisa, for yet another mirror on our society. I'm sorry to see it's such an ugly view!
If you want to see something really ugly, read the comments on the NYT piece at digby's blog - there's this troll called "Real World" who just takes the cake...you just basically want to say, look dude, you support torture as official US policy. Just come right out and admit it, won't you?
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