Mmmmh! What would happen if the ten commandments were on tv?

Y'know, I was going to suggest that they sell the TV's in each classroom if they need to pay for flags that badly. But on second thought, a television is more likely to be consistently used as an educational tool in a classroom than an American flag.

Do those farkwads at the 9th circuit court know what they are up to?

They can afford TV's but not flags? hrm.

For those who wonder how they can afford TVs:
About a decade ago now, when I was just a wee lad, my high school had TVs installed for free. The catch was that everyone in the school had to watch something called Channel One News, which was 1/3 news, 1/8 fluff, and 13/24 commercials. Yay, forced advertising during school hours!

\hungry, wants a snickers.

Meh. Heard about this on NPR yesterday. Fark needs to catch up.

Attention American Legion/VFW of greater Minnesota! Fix this problem.

I prefer to pledge my allegiance to Sony WEGA.

Funsucker Yep you guessed it. The school is under a contract... if they don't force the students to watch it for like the 12 minutes a day (I think) most of the days of the school year (there's a number) and they find out, they come take their TV's back.

Maybe somebody can spring for X-Box or Playstation too.

I
Pledge alliegance
To the TV of the United States of Entertainment
and to the TV tray, on which it stands.
One to one and a half ratio.
Under FAA
With reality TV and product placement for all.

Didn't courts rule the pledge unconstitutional?

A new state law requires school children to say the pledge at least once a week, and the school simply doesn't have enough flags for that.

WTF? Doesn't that defy West Virginia State Board of Education vs. Barnette (the court case that determined that the First Amendment allows people to opt out of the pledge)? Perhaps the article was badly worded, or else an atheist or Jehova's Witness is going to be suing the Minnesota Board of Ed very very soon. Could somebody clarify for me if the article has it right?

"48, 49, 50. Flag's up to date."

funsucker Is right on. In fact, Lisa Ling and Gotham Chopra both got their starts on Channel One. Where Gotham Chopra is now, I haven't a clue, but he's the son of that Deepak Chopra dude. When I was teaching, Channel One showed the same commercials at the same time for months. I still can hear Allen Iverson saying "That's when I hitcha with my crossover- blow right by you" in his Reebok ad. Don't remember a single piece of news that was reported, though, so Channel One did it's job well.

Nice work with the fractions, btw funsucker

Huh. I went to this high school. Good school, actually. Had the first IB program in the state. Not sure how it's doing nowadays, but it was considered a privilege to go to this school in the early 90's.

We can't afford flags because teachers make up less than 50% of the staff. 2 principals, 4 asst. principals, 42 counselors...

/MN taxpayer

what if the electricity goes out during the pledge? that'd be kinda funny...no flag for you

I'm on my school's senate...we didn't have a flag for a while...we ended up pledging allegiance to our own banner....very, very strange.

have a bake sale or something, people! buy a flag!

You know when I was a kid (not *that* long ago) we said the pledge every morning. We even had real flags in all of our classrooms. The school district made it well known that if you didn't want to say the pledge you were more than welcome to stand or sit quietly for those 30 seconds.

And I agree with the other comments, wtf is this school doing with a TV in every classroom but no flag. Do they have pictures of the Presidents up on the wall anymore. Maybe I should go visit my elementary school to see how far we have declined.

"You will obey me while I lead you
And eat the garbage that I feed you
Until the day that we don't need you
don't call for help noone will heed you
Your mind is totally controlled
it has been stuffed into my mold
and you will do as you are told
until the rights to you are sold"

I am the slime from your video

How do they get the TV up the flagpole? The flag bearer must have strong arms...

DeathZero- It was a poorly worded article...It is not compulsory- students do have the right to opt out.
School District here did a job ramming it through though...they opened the issue and then immediately motioned to adjorn for the night....

The law states you can opt out of doing the pledge if you want to. This was all over the news here when they passed the law.

Wouldn't it be easier to buy ONE flag and then have everyone assemble and pledge allegiance then?

/logic?

Oh no, how will our children ever grow up to be responsible citizens if they don't have a flag hanging in their classroom?

So whole schools are being built without flags. This explains why so many America-hating neolib kiddies today don't seem to know what country they belong to.

LawTalkingGuy
Don't forget Anderson Cooper of Mole and Late Night ABC News fame. I still blame Yugoslavia for his premature graying.

Odd custom. Has anybody ever bothered to see whether daily drilling of the pledge made any significant difference whatsoever?

It will prepare them for later in life when they find themselves praying to the porcelain god.

hmm cut the flag costs alltogether... stop pledging alligience.

the law must be pretty new. I graduated from a minnesota high school in the spring of 2002 and i hadn't said the pledge in school since Kindergarten.

do they still say "under God" in the PoA? They did when I lived in Ohio in 1973....

(only just stopped wondering where "Whichistan" is a couple of years ago...near Pakistan?)

All right kids, we have run out of flags and the televisions have been stolen. We have nothing left to pledge but this pair of novelty underwear wich I will hang on this pole.

DeathZero Doesn't that defy West Virginia State Board of Education vs. Barnette (the court case that determined that the First Amendment allows people to opt out of the pledge)?

Same thing happened in my home state. The state wanted a day once a week set aside to recite the pledge. People didn't like the requirement idea, of course. But when it was noted that schools were only required to set aside time for the pledge, instead of requiring students to say the pledge...virtually everyone stopped complaining.

Then there were those extreme, anti-jingoistic few...but as always, they were promptly ignored and mocked. =)

SecretAgentWoman:

I'm a Brit and went to high school for a while in the US. I stood during the pledge but didn't recite it, of course. Never had any problems except for people asking me where in Australia I was from. Bloody yanks. Can't tell the difference between accents...

test

2 pledges and the minute of silence DAILY

Two national pledges? Or a state and national pledge? If it were 2 national pledges...I dunno, that's even too much for me.

Patriotism....with no waxy buildup.

I agree with Nabb1: Having it on TV will probably give it more realism and legitimacy than a real flag in the room. "I saw it on TV: It MUST be real!"

I've been to meetings (I'm a Jaycee) where we get up to say the pledge, then realize that no one has secured an actual flag. I've taken to carrying a small one in my briefcase for just such an occasion. Before, we had to find someone with a pin.

Once we pledged allegiance to an earring.