Bravo Klavan on the culture! I have never understood the burning desire of people to share their political philosophies with some driver behind them who might find their politics distasteful in the exteme, and has a gas pedal with which to express his disagreement. As to your comments about the bumper sticker regarding war, here is a dissenting viewpoint:
Do you remeber what you were doing at 0846 hours (NY time) on 11 September 2001?
One of them “war-never-solved-anyhthing” geniuses had this on his car: “9/11 Was An Inside Job.” My kid was deployed in Afghanistan at the time.
I never see (Nassau/Queens, NY) any Obama stickers, any more.
“Obama Never Solved Anything!”
I was in my office T.Shaw when the first reports came in on 9-11. I didn’t get much work done that day. I have never been more filled with rage in any 24 hour period before or since.
I was at a customer’s, back in the warehouse, when one of the employees said “a plane just hit one of the Twin Towers!” I thought he meant a commuter plane or one of those Piper Cubs. I popped into their conference room where they always had Headline News playing, and couldn’t believe my eyes. I was watching when the second plane struck.
I didn’t get anymore work done that day either.
Life in America was forever changed.
T. Shaw-
I was in Navy bootcamp.
Thus, we have military bumper stickers all over the back end of our minivan… and a “BEEF” one because it is for dinner!
My first car has a “get in, set down, shut up and hold on” and a W sticker (but also had dragon decals all over), and our next minivan (when we finally save up for one) will have the military stickers, the beef one, and a “some days, the dragon wins” sticker.
It’s hard to find anything worth saying that will fit on a bumper sticker…. that said, I’m still impressed at the pickup I saw once where the entire thing was a rolling memorial and celebration of the USMC.
How about this one from RealCatholicTV:
“Barak Obama: Soft on terrorists, Hard on Fetuses”
I don’t like stickers, I also don’t like war. The former damages my car and cars, even used ones (especially after cash-for-clunkers) are too expensive. The latter is disliked by any civilized person, but it is and shall remain often necessary. When it is, it should be executed with extreme prejudice so that it ends quickly.
I do like magnets. I place our country’s flag and the Gadsden flag on my car and it is always a good idea to place a pro-life one too. I doubt it will change anyone’s mind, but I take pleasure in the frustrated look of those crunchy granola wheat grass drinking types with that stupid purple ‘coexist’ sticker made up of syncretist and indifferent religious symbols, when they see my pro-life sign.
Of course, I also often display an “END THE FED” magnet too.
Happy 150th emancipation day Virginia!
I have only one bumper sticker and it has been on the car since early 1998. Once in California someone flipped me off when passing on a mountain road. My wife said it was probably the bumper sticker. It cost me a dollar. I bought it from the GOP. It is red with white lettering that says IT’S A CHILD, NOT A CHOICE.
T. Shaw: I was at a meeting with Family Medicine physicians and one came in toward the end of the meeting and said “Just to let you know, there are reports that 2 planes hit the WTC. One might be an accident, but I don’t know about 2.” I was still thinking along the lines of small commuter planes – until I walked back to my office and caught sight of the TV in the doctor’s lounge. I remember watching the second tower fall and wondering how many thousands of people had just died. Then I went back to my desk, in a daze, and a physician who was angry about something utterly trivial called and chewed me out for a while and I sat there and said, uh huh, uh huh, and then I finally broke in and said “Doctor, do you know what just happened in NY?” He hadn’t heard.
BTW, one bumper sticker I always found irritating was one I spotted quite a bit on the East Coast: “Einstein was a vegetarian.” It was the smug assumption of not only moral, but intellectual superiority that so annoyed me. “I am also a vegetarian, therefore I am like Einstein.” I was sorely tempted to write my own P.S. with magic marker: “Guess what? So was Hitler.”
In my neighborhood, emblazoning my rear bumper with a sticker proclaiming a cause near to my heart would almost certainly result in my car getting keyed.
Donna the habit of saying that a famous figure also had some belief that had nothing to do with why they were famous has always struck me as very odd. That Einstein was a vegetarian has no more to do with his theories in physics than the fact that he was a philanderer.
In regard to vegetarians, I have always like Sarah Palin’s quip. “There is room for all God’s creatures—right next to the gravy and mashed potatoes!”