Rex Curry is the nation's leading authority on the Pledge of Allegiance. You're right to post the video. The video is completely accurate. The salute used by the Nazis was NOT derived from the socialist Mussolini. And the gesture was not based on the so-called "ancient Roman salute" because the "ancient Roman salute" is a complete fictional, as stated above.

Jacques-Louis David's painting "The Oath of the Horatii" did not associate the salute with classical Rome, and David never said such a thing, and the painting does not show the gesture, it shows three people reaching for weapons, including the use of the left hand. The Horatii lie is a very modern lie, fabricated circa 2006(?) on wakipedia in order to cover-up the Pledge of Allegiance's putrid past.

The socialist Mussolini did NOT adopt what he thought was the Roman salute.

No one should stand for nor chant the Pledge of Allegiance because it was the origin of the Nazi salute and Nazi behavior (see the discoveries of the historian Dr. Rex Curry). The early pledge began with a military salute that was then extended outward to point at the flag (thus the stiff-arm gesture came from the pledge and from the military salute). The pledge was written in 1892 for kindergartners to be forced to recite under the flag at government schools (socialist schools). The pledge was written by an American socialist who influenced other socialists worldwide, including German socialists, who used the gesture under their flag's notorious symbol (their symbol was used to represent crossed "S" letters for their "socialist" dogma -another of Dr. Curry's discoveries). The pledge continues to be the origin of similar behavior even though the gesture was changed to hide the pledge's putrid past. The pledge is central to the US's police state and its continued growth.

This is what I'm always telling you fools who think you know about how governments work without having the ability or civility to do so effectively enough.

HAH! "Smart Lliberal's political heroes are college professors and wise-as comedians."

That's the bulk of a liberal's awareness of politics and governments....Ya buncha, fucking annoying idiots!!

By the way, did you people know that all the wars that have been waged since the fall of Rome were actually caused by assholes wanting more money and power for themselves?? Today, these people are known as the so-called illuminated Zionist cabals and international banking cartels.

"Wars don't kill people, wars that assholes construct and orchestrate kill people."

I've been here 30 years and in the good ole days, it would snow maybe every year and a half. Lately, it has snowed every year, sometimes twice or three times. What is scary is -- the MOUNTAINS still aren't getting much snow.

It isn't much snow, but I have a very steep driveway that is in the shade of 20 foot tall laurel hedges. If I don't shovel it off, I won't be able to drive out of my garage for a week or so. So the thinnest sheet is shovel worthy at my house.

We're in trouble, this world. I think our species will survive, because we are very adaptable. But it is going to be ugly ugly ugly.

We as a civilization always looked to Nero, fiddling as Rome burned, as the ultimate in self-absorption and mental illness. Now we have a planet full of Neros.

It is bad. And getting worse.

@chingalera
and lets not forget that along with the dog and pony show,those who hold the levers of power pick that carcass of empire clean while the masses enjoy their culture of violence and death.

enjoy your american idol and jersey shore kiddies.
the politicians are making away with your future.
see:rome
see:ottoman
see:russia

People so emotionally attached to the regime (as @st0nedeye seems to be) are often either regime propagandists being handsomely compensated or serfs who feel so vulnerable and afraid (and maybe even inept themselves) that they can't think of how they would survive without the "rulers" to protect them. (Of course, the jokes on them since that protection, safety, and security, is mostly an illusion.)

If they are regime propagandists, then unless you pay them more to take on whatever views you want them to stick to in the hopes of cashing in on the cronyism.

If they are true believers or fanatics (due to fear, insecurity, envy, etc.), then they will try to tear up anyone who tries to give them information, even if that information will ultimately help them out, improve their lot (help, to be sure, that was not solicited by them, and they have a right not to be given).

These are the attitudes that made Edward Bernays and others rather loathe "the people," allowing them to rationalize the various forms of manipulation imposed in the 20th century. This propaganda was ostensibly for "the people's" "safety," but was more accurately for personal profit. It's a fate though that I can't totally disagree is not deserved.

Still, despite the crazy analysis, I commend @st0nedeye for bringing up the interesting topic of the situation in Europe after the "fall" of Rome (which happened gradually and parallels that of most empires, including this current one). It's worth considering that the collapse of the Soviet Union also, a collapse that even to this day many in Russia bemoan -- just like st0nedeye bemoans the collapse of Rome. Life under the Roman bureaucracy and plutocracy was not as glamorous as many people would have you believe (maybe if you were a one of the beneficiary plutocrats).

You seem to be relying on quite a few assumptions yourself, and this doesn't really deserve a reply (and you probably don't want one anyway), but nonethless -- I've a few minutes to kill:

None of what you say explains how you justify the stupid assumption that we need a monopoly of law enforcement in order to enforce the law.

Another assumption is in thinking that people are "evil" but somehow the politicians and the bureaucrats are somehow "good" and are what maintain law and order. (Maybe you think of yourself as evil. But in any case that is irrelevant.)

The "60's hippies" comment sounds like a Faux Noise pundit!

"What EXACTLY prevents me from taking everything someone has, by force? Private security? If you can afford it? If you can't?"

Go ahead, try it. And I can afford it. If you can't, then you should maybe look into that and your own finances instead of ranting about libertarians. Seems like a better strategy.

Do you actually think police services now currently "free?" Even if you happen to be a nonproductive tax consumer, you are still paying for it in other ways.

Competing private security or insurance would be cheaper and more efficient than the police force, since it would not be the monopoly we have now. And there are also those willing and able to defend themselves on top of that.

"All of Europe was effectively ungoverned when Rome fell."

Learn your history; there was never a time where all of Europe was "effectively ungoverned" when Rome fell.

"3. The appropriate information will be available to make rational decisions."

Obviously you're making the erroneous assumption that individuals don't have the info needed to make their own decisions and yet government/central planners somehow do. This is, in fact, the opposite of what Hayek demonstrated (not to mention what common sense indicates). (Maybe you feel incompetent, but that's another issue.)

Bemoaning the end of the Roman empire is like bemoaning the end of the Nazi regime; with its constant wars, the destruction of the 2nd Jewish Temple (an earlier holocaust), its intolerances, etc. Any problems with the "dark ages" (a label that historians are increasingly abandoning as it is glaringly inaccurate) reveal what happens when a poorly run state collapses due to war and bad economics. A lesson on where we are heading, whatever you might think. Good luck to you.

Edit: "You really act as though government is the root of all evil."
Which of my actions do you mean? Posting my thoughts? Are you the thought police?

Sweet Jesus, you and your ilk are out of your fucking minds. You really act as though government is the root of all evil. As though if the mean ole' government will just get out of the way the world will be a happy fun-time place.

FUCK THAT.

I can easily say that without government regulations our industrial complexes would have poisoned us all to death years ago. Take a polluted shithole like Beijing, multiply that by every city in the world, multiply that by how much worse it would be without someone to say "you can't do that"

All your nonsensical libertarian blathering relies on many assumptions:

1. People are rational
2. People aren't evil.
3. The appropriate information will be available to make rational decisions.
4. People that are on the short end of the economic stick won't kill you for food, steal your women for fun, and riot because they can.
5. Industries will compete with one another.
6. Etc.

I really have one question though. In your utopian fantasy. What EXACTLY prevents me from taking everything someone has, by force? Private security? If you can afford it? If you can't?

You know, there was a period of institutional anarchy following the collapse of the Roman Government. All of Europe was effectively ungoverned when Rome fell. You know what that time was called? The fucking DARK AGES.

@artician
im gonna have to disagree with you.

the comparisons this film makes with rome are a tool to illuminate the structure of empire itself.
at romes true beginning to romes ultimate fading were longer than 250 years.
you are correct.
you are also correct of the existence of a 2000 year long empire.
which of course was the egyptian empire.

what you DID not post was that the waning years of the rome empire was concentrated in constantinople and was called the byzantine empire.you further weaken your argument by not pointing out that the egyptian empire was not one long single stretch of domination but rather a series of rises and falls of that empire.

now,by your own argument you have failed your own propaganda test.

this film makes an argument.
you can agree/disagree with its conclusions.
but to dismantle the delivery of that argument based on circular logic drowns out the argument itself.

this is a criticism of our current system.
a valid criticism in my opinion and i didnt find it delving into boogah boogah land.
it was rational,reasonable and possibly a bit too heavy on the power point presentation.

but considering i had read most of the books by the authors being interviewed (the "sources" you claim were lacking),i found it a fantastic movie for people who may not be aware of whats going on.

not everybody has the time or patience to consume information the way you or i do.
and i rather liked how this film lays out our current situation.

i guess you didnt.
fair enough.

Not so, slavery in the U.S. was historically unique in it's brutality and scope and the descendants of slaves live in another form of subjugation under the guise of rights under the law and equality. The system in place now insures that black people in the U.S. will be treated to inordinate scrutiny as citizens and extraordinary rendition in the form of profiling, imprisonment both physically or economically, and an unsurpassed recidivism in the Petri dish of criminals which is, the U.S. Prison Corporation, ltd., which only serves to justify more prisons to warehouse undesirables.

Except for perhaps Chinese dynasties during the construction of the wall other examples of slavery in history, even biblical slavery...Rome, Greece, these societies did not treat their slaves to the hopelessness we in America treated the Africans to.

If you consider slavery 'wrong' you might want to look at how well maintained your own existence has become-Slavery has simply become your indentured duty to invisible masters as you pay-to-play the game of life.
The slave masters of today do not carry whips or pistols but he still works you for long, unending hours and enjoys the fruits of your labor at day's end.

Uhhh, now this phenom you imagine (enhance life for fellow man, yadda-yadda) has de-evolved into what we see worldwide: An unending fabrication of laws which restrict or inhibit the will of your fellow man in order to enable and strengthen the the will of a small percentage of human beings who use humanity to their own ends.

Comparing slavery in America to slavery of the bible is fucking ignorant. Never has there been slavery as cruel and inhumane and fueled by denial and lies than here. To compare U.S. slavery to that of the slaves in ancient Greece or Rome, both cultures whose slaves were an integral class in these cultures, is an historical faux pas of ludicrous proportions.

@kevingrr
you are engaging in a false polemic defense.
and it is unnecessary.

i did not call you out specifically so there is no need to defend your actions nor those who you know personally.

and just because i point out one truth does not negate the other.
example:

"the soldier who oversaw the gas chambers during world war 2 was a fantastic father and husband"

1.the soldier was a fantastic father and husband=true
2.he oversaw and fascillitated the deaths of thousands of jews=true

as for my "america is circling the drain" assertion,let me rephrase to make it a more succinct statement:
"the american empire is circling the drain"
see:rome (and pretty much every empire known to human history)

Makes me want to watch Rome again...

Doesn't seem to be an inordinate amount of obese folks in the Bulgarian herd, eh? Lesse...Fit, healthy, have their own language, a culture intact after how many centuries? Peeps have been in that region since way before Al the great and Rome fucked-em over, quite the rich, intact history.

Compare to my country with fast-food sense of culture, a language hi-jacked by hip-hop, mumblers, and newsspeak (can't decide which irks me most), and a history of ass-raping sans lube....3 of the many reasons the U.S. might make it to 250 years-old...Sooooo, 13 years left.

Empires don't die, they mutate like blobs in B-Movies.

Go to Ostia Antica, the ancient (i.e. gladiator-era) port of Rome. It lay buried in accumulated silt for centuries but has relatively recently been excavated and is a beautiful and wonderful site to visit. If you go you'll see stone-paved streets that have never had a car drive on them, only gladiator-era horse-drawn wagons, and they have parallel ruts for the wheels of those wagons and aren't worn in the middle.

If Rome had invented crack cocaine there would have been at least 69 senators and half the gang at the Imperial Fora in the room!