{"id":60336,"date":"2016-09-19T11:30:40","date_gmt":"2016-09-19T16:30:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=60336"},"modified":"2016-10-17T21:25:35","modified_gmt":"2016-10-18T02:25:35","slug":"last-gleaming","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=60336","title":{"rendered":"Last Gleaming"},"content":{"rendered":"

SCENE: \u00a0Mitch BERG is shopping for chainsaw chains at MENARDS. \u00a0He sees Garth MULLER, a professional golf pro and Vice Chair for Ideological Purity at the Minnesota 5th CD Libertarian Party. \u00a0He is dressed head to toe in Minnesota Vikings wear. \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

MULLER: \u00a0Hey, Merg! \u00a0People who pledge allegiance to Skycloth before football games are no better than Nazis who sieg-heiled<\/em> along with Hitler.<\/p>\n

BERG: \u00a0“Pledge allegiance to Skycloth? \u00a0What are you talking about?”<\/p>\n

MULLER: \u00a0The American flag, and the miltaristic ritual of standing for the national anthem before NFL games.<\/p>\n

BERG: \u00a0Before what?<\/p>\n

MULLER: \u00a0NFL games.<\/p>\n

BERG: \u00a0That’s what I thought you said. \u00a0I don’t stand to pledge allegiance to the government. \u00a0I do it out of respect for what this nation is supposed to be about. \u00a0And other than some community opprobium, there’s really no consequence for not standing for the anthem.<\/p>\n

MULLER: \u00a0But all the fuss about Kapernick and the other people taking a knee…<\/p>\n

BERG: \u00a0I don’t really care. \u00a0Let ’em. \u00a0It costs nobody anything.<\/p>\n

But – that team you support?<\/p>\n

MULLER: \u00a0Go Vikes!<\/p>\n

BERG: \u00a0Yeah – if I decide not to pay my part of the taxes for “The People’s Stadium”, and carry the protest on long enough, men with guns will beat down my door and take the money. \u00a0To pay for your recreation, sixteen Sundays a year.<\/p>\n

So – “Skycloth”, consequence-free observance of an ideal.<\/p>\n

Your NFL game? \u00a0My money being taken from me by force. \u00a0Which is either theft or slavery.<\/p>\n

MULLER: \u00a0But…<\/p>\n

BERG: \u00a0I know. \u00a0Principle.<\/p>\n

And SCENE.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SCENE: \u00a0Mitch BERG is shopping for chainsaw chains at MENARDS. \u00a0He sees Garth MULLER, a professional golf pro and Vice Chair for Ideological Purity at the Minnesota 5th CD Libertarian Party. \u00a0He is dressed head to toe in Minnesota Vikings wear. \u00a0 MULLER: \u00a0Hey, Merg! \u00a0People who pledge allegiance to Skycloth before football games are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[236],"class_list":["post-60336","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-liberty","tag-dramatization"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60336","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=60336"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60336\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":60337,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60336\/revisions\/60337"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=60336"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=60336"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=60336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}