Let's have peace and be gay

Gay Pride Flag

The Peace Flag is similar to the Gay Pride Flag. One of the first uses of the Rainbow Peace flag took place in Italy in 1961 against the use of nuclear weapons. The Gay Pride flag came a little later in 1978 and originally had a hot pink and turquoise stripe, that was later dropped. To the right is the current most popular version.

First Peace Flag in Italy,
Pace is Italian for Peace

The amazing harmony is the Rainbow Peace Flag and Gay Pride flag are reflective of a double rainbow. The first lower rainbow has red on top of the bow. If the rainbow is powerful enough a second usually fainter 'upside down' rainbow appears, with purple on top of the bow.




The upper rainbow is reflective of the Rainbow Peace Flag, while the lower rainbow reflects the Gay Pride movement. Therefore the peace and gay movement are mysteriously intertwined on some cosmic level.

I suppose the universe is saying Hippies and Gays just wanna be happy and live in peace? Or perhaps Gays should lead the peace movement? Who knows?

WORLD PEACE FLAG
Original Peace Flag Colours 1961

GAY PRIDE FLAG
Original Colours 1978

The following video was taken next to Big Ben and Parliament in the United Kingdom May 14, 2010. On my way to talk at the UK Flag Institute's Spring Meeting, I just happen to bump into this peace vigil-protest.

St. Patty's Day PLUS!!!

March is that wonderful month with where day light begins its fateful triumph over darkness, at least in the northern hemisphere. This holiday eventually evolved into St. Patty's Day and in America you can drink green beer and get a mint McShamrock Shake!

Here is a proposal to slightly alter and add to St. Patty's Day. The liberal faction of America has demoted this lime light holiday for the Irish in favor of Women's History Month, while the republican business side of America uses this day to promote a bump in sales for alcoholic beverages and sales in silly green stuff.

St. Patty's Day is due for a make over!!!!

I love the Irish and the colour green. But St. Patty's day for us folk that are not Irish kinda' makes the us feel like on the out, kinda' like how Jewish or Hindu people feel during Christmas. Basically if your not Irish, St. Patty's day looks like Irish-Kwanzaa from non Irish eyes.

Irish people make up a big percentage of the American Pie, God Bless em, but some times I wonder why there aren't more Irish-American Presidents or Irish-American Vice Presidents?

Anyhow, during these lovely Celtic Irish Day parades and green dyed city rivers, why not make the parades a celebration of all the colours of people like a rainbow. But instead of Santa Claus as the anchor we have a pot of gold guarded by a rainbow coalition of mature jolly women of all ethnics: blonde, East Asian, India, West Asian, Native, and Latin Woman (kudos to Women's History Month) waving Irish and Ivory Coast flags. Finally there would be two co-queen anchors of the parade (sort of like a double Santa) that must be a ginger haired mature woman and full bodied cheerful African-American woman. Since the Irish flag and Ivory coast flag are converses of each other.

Popular Irish Flag flown by the People

In the parade people dress up in the traditional clothing of any of their ancestors and carry the flag of that nation. Here is the catch, the paraded people are matched up by the pairings of my flag symmetry idea?

Also as to include children in the holiday kids get to dress up in the traditional clothing of any of their ancestors. If they are 1/4 Irish, 1/4 Chinese, 1/4 Polish, 1/4 African then one year they can dress up in Irish threads, the next year in Chinese threads, and the following year in any kind of African threads of their choosing. If any of your ancestors fought for the South during the US Civil War, then gosh darnit you get to wear a gray uniform!

Official Irish Flag for the President
Instead of candy we celebrate with international food festivals from around the world! And for people who like to party it up, costume parties!!! You dress up in the any of the heritages costumes from the past and reaffirm your roots to the world. Just imagine all those pretty cute traditional outfits!

Thus there is business boost for the party store companies and a bump in supermarket ethnic foods, and the buying green stuff. Also, I really want to dig my teeth in Irish food some day! Until then I'll just have to enjoy my McShamrock McShake.

It'll be like the 'Opposite-Halloween'. Instead of celebrating death, it's a celebration of our heritages. If you're a fundamentalist in regards to religion, they you can come to school in biblical clothing with a cross or turban? Bottom line is business sales, fun, money, and everyone gets to join in. But the IRISH get to be the anchor in all the parades!!!

As twas' meant to for Irish, for they are indeed the chosen anchor of the old world. For the luck of the good grace of Destiny, the last shadows of the day are given to Erin.... they drift on her gentle beaches as the sun says goodnight to the old world.

Ireland

is the
'Land of the Setting Sun.'

2010 SNL Flag Short Analysis: Part III

by Jacqueline Handy

The red and white flag are universal symbols often used every day speak. A white flag means surrender and red flag means danger-alert. In this case the US Army man with a bandage on his head is apparently surrendering to the insurgents on behalf of the Coalition of the Willing.

The woman on the right is holding a red flag because the man she was eating dinner started to play with his food (see bread flag). It's probably a bad idea to play with your food on a first date, it will send up a red flag for a woman (weirdo or looser!), unless you already know that she enjoys such inane-immature humor.

But did you ever wonder what colour flag the Communists in China use? Or does such an expression ever exist, "Red Flag Alert?" If you raised a red flag in China they would probably feel happy and get a jolt of patriotic pride?









The union of these two flags is that of angles and devils. Jay Lo has a halo made of play-dough while Potsie has the post modern universal symbol of the devil: a Hitler Mustache. Recently it has been used by anti-Obama activists to portray him as the devil, just as George Bush was by anti-Bush activists. The Hitler mustache has become the new Devil's Horns. But in this case it's an off the wall depiction on an innocent and friendly member, Potsie, of the TV show Happy Days is intended to be humorous, not to demonize.









These two flags have been censored, since they portray flags in conjugal positions. Saturday Night Live may get hate mail over this one, since little naughty strap on flag is the flag of either Poland, Monaco, or Indonesia! But I don't think they did this on purpose. But but but, I have heard of rumors that SNL has an anti-Polish, anti-Monaco, and anti-Indonesian bias in their humor. And just to play it safe I think they should apologize for what they did accident or not so they wont feel bad on the inside. No red blooded hard core tea bagging pole waxing fundamentalist missionary style Republican would stand for having the US flag in such a low brow position.












When the idea for Light Flag came up it needed a balance, and it was the Clap on Flag. The Clap on Flag is based on a device that usually turns lights on and off with the sound of a clap. Our family got a clap on one year for Christmas and it worked for the first three days and would often turn on and off inadvertently. It broke a few days later.









This next pair is a physical science teacher's dream come true. These flags are reflective of kinetic and potential energy, you all remember right? The Snag Flag represents a flag in motion which is kinetic energy, while the man resting on the Nap Flag is a flag at rest reflective of potential energy.









CLICK HERE FOR PART IV

2010 SNL Flag Short Analysis: Part II

by Jacqueline Handy,

Puns never go old, at any age, so long as you don't over do it.

These flags are pair up and play off of each other because the national flags of Wales, Chile, and Turkey are contrasted with a with a whale holding a bowl of turkey meat chili.









Apparently some SNL cast or staff love these two musicians. The linking point it that they are both cool dudes and have guitars. Jag Flag represents the young artist while Skagg Flag represents the established musical artist.








Here are two stars from the youngest 'Generation Y' to the oldest 'Generation V.' It's a balance of youth with maturity, and all so patriotic stars and stripes in the back ground. Both of these women have a tendency to seem like innocent, out to lunch, fun loving sweetie pies.









These flags are black and white word flags. They only did it twice otherwise it would have broken the harmony. The SNL staff was getting lazy, and only allowed themselves to do it twice.

CHECK FLAG

OUCH FLAG

CLICK HERE FOR PART III

Chesapeake Bay meeting March 2010

This Confederate flag (Original Design 1861-1983) was taken from a the uniform of a Confederate solider. The uniform was made before the shelling of Ft. Sumter and when there were only 7 states in the Confederacy.

Ideas for the 2011 International Congress of Vexillology were discussed, in case you didn't know the first week of August in 2011 will be when Vexillologists around the world gather in Washington D.C. to discuss flags.

Many of the details are still in the works. If we get lucky perhaps a helpful person in US Congress can get us a room in one of the official rooms for rent?

After lunch we visited the 'Library' and were amazed to see such of focused concentration of flags and flag books. We were privy to see a flag book that was written in 1788, the year America was officially created under the constitution.

'Yes!,' Tom Carrier explains to the delightful confusion of customers who enter his store 'yes indeed this is the flag of the wonderful city of Cuzco, Peru!'

I thought this was strange: A post card showing Lincoln as a comet from the heavens, apparently made before the end of the Civil War.

2010 SNL Flag Short Analysis: Part I

by Jacqueline Handy


On February 27th, 2010 Saturday Night Live made a digital short based on flags. It was a cute song and amusing video. Amazingly the flags shown in the video also express the 'flag symmetry' property that Mr. Maddish has been harking about. Let's take a look! The need for a balanced harmony is evident even in professionally humorous presentations.

The Pasta Flag is balanced with the Turkey Bowl of Food Flag

These next pair are flags of two famous football stars: Brett Favre of the Green Bay Packers era (now plays in Minner-soda) & Brian 'Boz' Bosworth of the Seattle Sea Hawks back in the 1980s. Boz later became an actor and starred in a Saturday Night Live Alumni movie the Longest Yard (2005) that starred Adam Sandler. It's a good bet the Boz and SNL crew party it up. Also both Boz and Favre are arch type southern boys.










The next two flags are not so symmetrical, rather the flags are aligned by way they are displayed as elegant jewelry. The flag of Ireland reflects a large swath of Americans with Irish American heritage, and the flag of South Carolina is very popular for several historical reasons, due to its connection to the Confederacy, State's Rights, and representation of individual freedom. In any case it's SNL's way of tipping the hat to Irish Folk and cool South Carolina.

They key symmetrical element is that the flags are on bracelets on the limbs, namely the wrist and leg.









These flags are aligned again by the way they are presented in humorous fashion on the human body. Note the flag on the saggy baggy legs does not represent a nation, if it did Saturday Day Night Live would have gotten about 10 tons of hate mail. But the flag on the saggy arm probably made the executive board think twice. Probably the only reason why SNL went with the Sag Flag is because it looks like it is waving in the breeze.









Here the Adam Sandler II is holding a piece of food as a flag, while the a piece of food is holding a flag, denoting its preparation level: Medium Rare.










The final pair today, are the finger flags that look like little golf flags. The flag being held by the black man is supposed to be the inflammatory middle finger, while the index finger of the white woman is in response to receiving the 'byrd.' Interesting anthropological note is, if the races were reversed it would not have been culturally kosher as of 2010. Imagine of a white man were giving a middle finger flag to black woman, kidding or not.

Just ask Mr. Imus, Donald.

CLICK HERE FOR PART II

Olympic Flag and a Proposal for Medal Expansion: Copper & Tin for 4th & 5th

98 years ago this flag was designed by a French Man - Barron Pierre de Coubertin. Soon the 2012 Olympics of London will be celebrating the 100th anniversary of this flag since 1912.

The original spirit of the new games was to come together in healthy competition and community, not necessarily for a medal count. So here is a suggestion, since there are five rings why not five medals?

Fourth and fifth place certainly deserve something for their fortitude and so close effort! They don't even have to stand on the podium or get their flags raised. But maybe they can stand on the flanking left and right sides? Also if it's a team sport then only one member of the team can stand by the podium. When the Olympics started in 1896 there weren't as many nations as their are today. In fact their were only 14 nations and 100 years after that in 1996 there were 197 participating nations. The last Olympics in Beijing cracked 200 participating nations.

5 Olympic Rings match with 5 Olympic Medals

So what would the metals be made up of? It really does not matter but it would make sense to have them made up of the constituent elements of bronze. Thus fourth place gets copper while fifth place gets tin!

So that would make 6th place the unlucky duck who just missed out..... but not completely!

Another idea that would take focus away from national obsession for trophies, is to give out awards to the best 24 competitors. Since the Games are based on Greek culture why not give out ring trophies to the top 24 competitors? Just wait till you hear how we would do this!

24 Olympic Achievement Rings based on the Greek Alphabet from Alpha to Omega, for the top 24 places.

First it will promote Greek Culture, and thus the world will become familiar with Greek letters. Second, we all enjoy the games because of the Greeks, it's the right thing to do to honor the Greeks. Finally all those athletes who sacrificed so much certainly deserve something.


Thus 1st place gets the Alpha ring, the 2nd place gets the Beta ring, 3rd gets a Gamma ring, 4th gets a Delta ring, and 5th gets an Epsilon ring in addition to their medals the receive already.

6th place to 24th would not get a medal but only rings of their respective position. 6th gets a ring with Eta on it while 24th position gets a ring with Omega on it. The person or team in 25th position gets nothing only a certificate of appreciation and memories to last a life time.

Doing this is in the spirit of the games for community and healthy competition, and in respect to the Greeks who started these games. If this is done, people all over the world will eventually know the Greek Alphabet through osmosis (my favorite Greek word).

If they ever expand the medal reward system, why not also crown 1st place with a wreath of olives too? Apparently in the original Greek Games only the winner received this olive branch token. Medals for 1st let alone 2nd and 3rd were modern contrivances.


Besides, wearing an Olympic medal in public after the games are over is a wee bit ostentatious, no? But the athletes who placed in the top 24 positions can still strut their stuff and inspire others with "Official Place Position Olympic Rings."

The rings of fist five places should match their medal position. Thus 1st place gets a golden ring, 2nd a silver ring, 3rd a bronze ring, 4th a copper ring, and 5th a tin ring. Places 6th and below get a regular ring made out of a less expensive metal than tin or some alloy of it.

If you place in 25th place or lower - no ring, no medal, just a certificate of participation - maybe an official participant pin with the flag of the host nation crossed with the Olympic flag and a basic inscription - "Olympic Participant, New Zealand 2052."

These men and women worked hard and sacrificed time, money, and certain aspects of their youth. They deserve something. If any of these ideas are adopted then former Olympic athletes can easily show others a humble memento and inspire.

They can keep the fire of the Olympics shining wherever they go.

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Added March 12, 2012

Did you know that expanding the medal reward system has already happened for the modern Olympics? The first two Olympics at Athens & Paris only gave out official medals for first and second. And they did not give out any gold. Instead first place received a silver medal and second place got a bronze medal. If you placed third – you got nada.

It wasn’t until the first American Olympics in St. Louis that gold medals were handed out. So if you think we shouldn’t add medals for fourth or fifth just because it breaks with tradition – tradition has already been broken.

Furthermore, when you do the math on the ratio of prizes to participating nations the shift in numbers is staggering. During the first modern Olympics there were 14 participating nations competing for 2 medals (first and second). This leads to a 1 out of 7 chance of randomly winning a medal. Basically, if things were led to chance a nation had a 14% chance of winning a medal.* When they started handing out gold medals for first place at the St. Louis Olympics the ratio actually increased to about 1 to 4, because there were 3 medals to win for 12 participating nations (25% chance). Fast forward to the Beijing-2008 Olympics with 204 participating nations – the ratio of winning a medal is 1 to 68. In terms of a percentages that’s a 1.4% chance of winning a medal.

Let’s say they expand to five medals for the top five places, the ratio changes to about 1 to 41, raising the chances of winning a medal a measly 2.4%. So if you are worried that giving fourth and fifth a medal will devalue 1^st, 2^nd or 3^rd - is one percent a big fuss?

Now when you calculate the 24 ring-alphabet awards with 2008-Beijing Olympic numbers the pure chance ratio of winning ring is 1 to 8.5 – which is only 12%. Note 12% is a lot closer to the original ratio or percentage of the first modern Olympics at Athens.

So why not!? Think of all that hard work and sacrifice those athletes put into their training – the heartache, time, tears, sweat, and blood. Certainly they deserve a better shot at winning a medal or at least snatching a humble token of their dedication and fortitude. The time has come to expand the Olympic medal reward system. 

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added January 3, 2016

An expanded idea for the Olympic rings is that all participants get a ring.  If they place 24 or higher they get a Greek letter carved in it, if they place 5th or higher they get a medal.  Athletes who place 25th or below get a ring with logo of the host nations choosing, perhaps the year, place, and logo.  Thus all athletes get a ring, some will get the generic participant ring, some will get a Greek lettered ring, while a few will get a coveted gold, silver, bronze, copper, and tin ring.  

Finally since the Olympic flag has five rings - five medals make a harmonious whole for the five 'official' continents.  This idea is in harmony with the official Olympic Creed:

"THE MOST IMPORTANT THING IN THE OLYMPICS IS NOT TO WIN BUT TO TAKE PART, JUST AS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING IN LIFE IS NOT THE TRIUMPH BUT THE STRUGGLE.  THE ESSENTIAL THING IS NOT TO HAVE CONQUEORED BUT TO HAVE FOUGHT WELL"  -PIERRE DE COUBERTIN