Patriotism

"We have been the cowards, lobbing cruise missiles from 2,000 miles away. That's cowardly. Staying in the airplane when it hits the building, say what you want about it, it's not cowardly."

 --Bill Maher, after the attacks on 9/11

Was this a patriotic thing to say? What makes one patriotic? What kind of parallels do you see after the attacks of 9/11 and Pearl Harbor? Mr. Maher explains his comments in an interview [|here] with Salon from December 11, 2002. Interestingly, the cover of his book spoofs the WWII posters we studied.

Think about the election of 2008... recall that then candidate Obama did not wear an American flag lapel pin. Many questioned his patriotism. He later was the focus of a Rolling Stone cover/article. What does this magazine cover suggest to you about candidate Obama and the lapel pin? Is it unpatriotic that Obama chose not wear one? Read the Oct. 4 2007 article from Fox News [|here].