The Daily Agenda for Thursday, June 14

Jim Burroway

June 14th, 2012

Individualism in the original thirteen-star flag

It’s Flag Day, a day established in 1916 to commemorate the Second Continental Congress’s adoption of the Stars and Stripes on June 14, 1777. The original specification for the flag was simple: “Resolved, that the flag of the United States be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new Constellation.” That was it. Consequently, there were as many early American flag designs as there were designers.

An eighteen star, eighteen stripe flag, commemorating Louisiana's entry into the union.

In 1795, the number of stars and stripes rose to fifteen in honor of Vermont and Kentucky’s entry into the union. As more states entered, flag makers added stars and stripes accordingly, although some flag makers decided having too many stripes made their flags look a little too busy. They took the initiative of going back to thirteen stripes for the original thirteen states. In 1818 when there were twenty states in the union, Congress decided to curb the potential stripe explosion and adopted the thirteen stripe flag with twenty stars, while specifying that new stars would be added as needed each July 4. But the arrangement of stars remained unregulated, and flag makers continued to demonstrate a great deal of creativity throughout the nineteenth century. When the forty-eight star flag came into being in 1912 with statehood for Arizona and New Mexico, Congress finally got around to declaring a uniform design for the stars and stripes.

Fifty star flag measurement specification

Today, the flag’s design is tightly specified (PDF: 1.16MB/34 pages) with careful measurements and colors defined according to the the CAUS Standard Color Reference of America. But very few commercially-made flags adhere to that standard: the measurements and aspect ratios are almost always wrong and the colors are typically off. Those that do are called Government Specification or G-Spec flags. The rest of us make do with whatever the flag makes decides it will be. In some ways, things never really change much after all.

TODAY’S AGENDA (Ours):
Pride Celebrations This Weekend: Baltimore, MD; Bisbee, AZ; Boise, ID; Bozeman, MT; Calderdale, UK; Columbus, OH; Denver, CO; Edmunton, AB; Erie, PA; Flagstaff, AZ; Gloucester, UK; Grand Rapids,MI; Iowa City, IA; Lancaster, PA; Lansing, MI; Las Cruces, NM; Louisville, KY; Memphis, TN (Black Pride); Nashville, TN; Oldenberg, Germany; Outer Banks, NC; Oxford, UK; Portland, ME; Portland, OR; Providence, RI; Redditch, UK; Saskatoon, SK; Syracuse, NY; Thunder Bay, ON; Turin, Italy; Vienna, Austria; Zagreb, Croatia and Zurich, Switzerland.

AIDS Walk This Weekend: Oakland, CA.

Other Events This Weekend: Stadfest, Berlin, Germany; Folsom Street East, New York, NY; Frameline LGBT Film Festival, San Francisco, CA; and Tel Aviv LGBT International Film Festival, Tel Aviv, Israel.

TODAY’S AGENDA (Theirs):
Faith and Freedom Conference: Washington, D.C. Ralph Reed’s Faith and Freedom Coalition will kick off their annual Conference and Strategy Briefing today at the Renaissance Hotel in Washington, D.C. Today begins with a luncheon with Sens. Rob Portman (R-OH) and Marco Rubio (R-FL). Other confirmed speakers for the three day conference include: Grover Norquist, Rick Santorum, Herman Cain, Newt Gingrich, Glenn Beck, D’Souza, James O’Keefe, Concerned Women for America’s Penny Nance, Family “Research” Council’s Tony Perkins and Ken Blackwell, National Review Online’s Jonah Goldberg, Southern Baptist Convention’s Richard Land, Tea Party Patriots’ Jenny Beth Martin, and Former U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

Other elected officials speaking at the conference include GOP Presidential candidate Gov. Mitt Romney, Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY),  Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC), Sen. Mike Lee (UT), Rep. Tom Price (R-GA), Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX), Rep. Randy Forbes (R-VA), Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi (R), Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell (R), Wisconsin Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch (R), and former Virginia Gov. Allen George (R).

TODAY’S BIRTHDAY:
Boy George: 1961. George O’Dowd’s first stage name was Lieutenant Lush when he performed with Bow Wow Wow. That tenure was short lived: he was booed off the stage. He then joined up with drummer (and regular boyfriend) Jon Moss (previously of The Damned and Adam and the Ants), bassist Mikey Craig and guitarist/keyboardist Roy Hay. They called their group In Praise of Lemmings and then Sex Gang Children. When they finally realized that they had a androgynous Irish singer, a black bassist, a Jewish drummer and an English keyboardist, they decided to call themselves Culture Club, with Boy George as the frontman. Their debut album Kissing to be Clever was released in 1982, and their single “Do You Really Want To Hurt Me?” became an international hit. “Time (Clock of Heart)” and “I’ll Tumble 4 Ya,” gave them the distinction of being the first group since the Beatles to have three Top 10 hits in the U.S. from a debut album. Their next album Colour By Numbers, did almost as well, with “Church of the Poison Mind” and “Miss Me Blind” hitting the Top Ten in the U.S. and “Karma Chameleon” holding the #1 spot for three weeks (and for six weeks in the U.K.).

By the late 1980s, Boy George left Culture Club behind when his relationship with Moss soured and he began descending into a nasty heroin addiction. After rehab, he had a few modest hits as a solo artist, including the title song from the movie The Crying Game in 1992. He wrote the musical score for the London musical Taboo, which was based on his life. It earned him a Tony Award for Best Musical Score. But his troubles continued to follow him. In 2005, he was arrested in New York for cocaine possession and filing a false burglary report. The drug charge was dropped and he pleaded guilty to the false report. He was sentenced to five days of community service, fined $1,000 and ordered into drug rehab. In 2008, he was arrested and charged with assault and false imprisonment. He was convicted and sentenced to fifteen months imprisonment. He was released after four months and was placed under home detention. His latest album, Ordinary Alien, was released in 2010 after a more than ten year hiatus.

If you know of something that belongs on the agenda, please send it here. Don’t forget to include the basics: who, what, when, where, and URL (if available).

And feel free to consider this your open thread for the day. What’s happening in your world?

mikeksf

June 14th, 2012

Just reading that list of powerful Republican hate mongers at the Ralph Reed conference makes my skin crawl.

Charles

June 14th, 2012

Since it flag day I guess Jasper Johns, who is gay, is celebrating. He has made more money from painting the American Flag than any other artist. To follow is a link to his wikipedia site that show some of his flags.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jasper_Johns

Charles

June 14th, 2012

To Box Turtle editors, you ought to use one of Jasper Johns’ flag paintings in addition to ones you have.

Jim Burroway

June 14th, 2012

Charles,

Good suggestion.

Those are actual photographs of original 13 star flags, not paintings.

As I was putting it together, I was thinking to myself “What will I do for next year?” A brief “Flag in Art” discussion (including, of course, Jasper Johns) will be a good idea.

Timothy Kincaid

June 14th, 2012

Much to my annoyance, I don’t seem to be able to readily find a Leyendecker painting in which the stars and stripes are the dominant feature. I did, however, find this. For some reason I’m feeling very patriotic.

Charles

June 14th, 2012

I am somewhat partial to the 48 star flag, the one that I was born under. One small fact, because the United States flag changes every time a state is admitted to the Union, the United States holds the record of the country that has had more differently designed flags than any other country in its history.

chiMaxx

June 14th, 2012

Interesting to me how many elements were similar in the 13-star flags. They all had 7 red and 6 white stripes (with the red therefore on the outside). in all but two the blue field was 7 stripes high.

It’s fascinating how flexible this design is–how many ways it can be varied and still be recognized as the “same thing.”

Leave A Comment

All comments reflect the opinions of commenters only. They are not necessarily those of anyone associated with Box Turtle Bulletin. Comments are subject to our Comments Policy.

(Required)
(Required, never shared)

PLEASE NOTE: All comments are subject to our Comments Policy.

 

Latest Posts

The Things You Learn from the Internet

"The Intel On This Wasn't 100 Percent"

From Fake News To Real Bullets: This Is The New Normal

NC Gov McCrory Throws In The Towel

Colorado Store Manager Verbally Attacks "Faggot That Voted For Hillary" In Front of 4-Year-Old Son

Associated Press Updates "Alt-Right" Usage Guide

A Challenge for Blue Bubble Democrats

Baptist Churches in Dallas, Austin Expelled Over LGBT-Affirming Stance

Featured Reports

What Are Little Boys Made Of?

In this original BTB Investigation, we unveil the tragic story of Kirk Murphy, a four-year-old boy who was treated for “cross-gender disturbance” in 1970 by a young grad student by the name of George Rekers. This story is a stark reminder that there are severe and damaging consequences when therapists try to ensure that boys will be boys.

Slouching Towards Kampala: Uganda’s Deadly Embrace of Hate

When we first reported on three American anti-gay activists traveling to Kampala for a three-day conference, we had no idea that it would be the first report of a long string of events leading to a proposal to institute the death penalty for LGBT people. But that is exactly what happened. In this report, we review our collection of more than 500 posts to tell the story of one nation’s embrace of hatred toward gay people. This report will be updated continuously as events continue to unfold. Check here for the latest updates.

Paul Cameron’s World

In 2005, the Southern Poverty Law Center wrote that “[Paul] Cameron’s ‘science’ echoes Nazi Germany.” What the SPLC didn”t know was Cameron doesn’t just “echo” Nazi Germany. He quoted extensively from one of the Final Solution’s architects. This puts his fascination with quarantines, mandatory tattoos, and extermination being a “plausible idea” in a whole new and deeply disturbing light.

From the Inside: Focus on the Family’s “Love Won Out”

On February 10, I attended an all-day “Love Won Out” ex-gay conference in Phoenix, put on by Focus on the Family and Exodus International. In this series of reports, I talk about what I learned there: the people who go to these conferences, the things that they hear, and what this all means for them, their families and for the rest of us.

Prologue: Why I Went To “Love Won Out”
Part 1: What’s Love Got To Do With It?
Part 2: Parents Struggle With “No Exceptions”
Part 3: A Whole New Dialect
Part 4: It Depends On How The Meaning of the Word "Change" Changes
Part 5: A Candid Explanation For "Change"

The Heterosexual Agenda: Exposing The Myths

At last, the truth can now be told.

Using the same research methods employed by most anti-gay political pressure groups, we examine the statistics and the case studies that dispel many of the myths about heterosexuality. Download your copy today!

And don‘t miss our companion report, How To Write An Anti-Gay Tract In Fifteen Easy Steps.

Testing The Premise: Are Gays A Threat To Our Children?

Anti-gay activists often charge that gay men and women pose a threat to children. In this report, we explore the supposed connection between homosexuality and child sexual abuse, the conclusions reached by the most knowledgeable professionals in the field, and how anti-gay activists continue to ignore their findings. This has tremendous consequences, not just for gay men and women, but more importantly for the safety of all our children.

Straight From The Source: What the “Dutch Study” Really Says About Gay Couples

Anti-gay activists often cite the “Dutch Study” to claim that gay unions last only about 1½ years and that the these men have an average of eight additional partners per year outside of their steady relationship. In this report, we will take you step by step into the study to see whether the claims are true.

The FRC’s Briefs Are Showing

Tony Perkins’ Family Research Council submitted an Amicus Brief to the Maryland Court of Appeals as that court prepared to consider the issue of gay marriage. We examine just one small section of that brief to reveal the junk science and fraudulent claims of the Family “Research” Council.

Daniel Fetty Doesn’t Count

Daniel FettyThe FBI’s annual Hate Crime Statistics aren’t as complete as they ought to be, and their report for 2004 was no exception. In fact, their most recent report has quite a few glaring holes. Holes big enough for Daniel Fetty to fall through.