The pledge of allegiance.

So today, I was rereading one of my favorite books, Catch-22, and I came across what has always been one of my favorite parts in the book. In this part, Captain Black wants to make it look like he's the more loyal than some of the other people in his squadron so he begins to make all the soldiers sign loyalty oaths. Eventually, the loyalty oaths get out of hand when he begins to make them do things like sign 3 loyalty oaths, say the pledge of allegiance twice, and sing the star spangled banner to prove they're loyal to America and not communists before they get to eat in the mess hall. I'm not sure if that's the exact number of times they had to do all that, but you get the idea. This is one of my favorite parts in the book because Captain Black made a point that is kind of funny/relevant to today's society when he said to a group in his squadron, "The important thing is to keep them pledging. It doesn't matter whether they mean it or not. That's why they make little kids pledge allegiance even before they know what "pledge" and "allegiance" mean. " It really makes sense though. I mean, in first grade me and my fellow classmates all stood up to pledge our allegiance every day. I certainly didn't fully grasp the idea of pledging allegiance when I was six and I would guess that not many other people did either, so why does society still have kids do it? I think it takes away from the meaning of pledging allegiance to something if the people that are pledging don't understand the gravity of it all and are just following along and pledging with the rest of their classmates. Why do we pledge anyway? It's not like pledging at a young age would really stop anyone from being a traitor against their country later in life or anything like that. Maybe we do it because we like tradition.  The fact that kids are socialized to pledge like this seems a little totalitarian in nature too, even though it's not like it's really taken that seriously anyway. To be honest, I do like the star spangled banner before pro sports games and stuff like that. I like the song, and I also like having it before games because I view it as more of an ode to the revolutionary war than a verbal loyalty oath, which is what the pledge is.

Also, if anyone was wondering how I got the url....

I have a horrible habit of weaving when I drive. It's not that I'm not paying attention or I drive drunk or anything, I just have a hard time holding the wheel straight sometimes. I've slammed into curbs numerous times recently. I hit a huge pothole on the way home from work, but that really couldn't have been avoided. I had a tire pop on the side of the freeway once and had to change the tire. I feel bad for my car. He puts up with so much from me. I'm getting better about the curbs though.

Spam/Forwarded crap

Just to be clear, this blog is not going to turn into something where I rant about all minor, yet irritating things that go on in my life. But since I lost nearly every amount of inspiration that would be necessary to write (type?) about something good, I've chosen this first post to be about how fucking annoying forwarded texts are. And I don't mean the forwarded texts that my friends send me from people they're fighting with and asking me how to reply back. No. I'm talking about the annoying "you're my best friend and I love you forever send this to 15 people and hopefully you send it back to me" types of texts. What's even worse is the ones where the forward actually sorta threatens you with something, usually bad luck. I believe in karma and whatnot, but I certainly hope that no one believes that your life will be ruined by not passing on that shit to your friends. I mean, the email version was annoying enough, but now my phone is invaded too? Not to mention, it's sort of a letdown when I open the text someone sent me to find out that it's not anything worth really looking at. When I take the time in class to be distracted by my phone, it better be for something good. I understand that the forwards are usually very sweet and tell me how great I am, but if my friends think I'm a good person, they can just text me in their own words. And anyways, the fact that the people who send me those cute, sweet, adorable text messages are people that I rarely talk to anymore kinda takes away from the sentimental value from them.

**** I really like pro liberal political humor so to anyone that sends me that, that's completely fine. This isn't a tirade against all forwards. Just the stupid ones.