January 14, 2011

For civility's sake, let's change "Don't Tread on Me" to "Please, Don't Tread on Me."



Or, "Please, when you tread on me, walk gently, but don't worry I won't bite. I'm quite a gentle fellow really. I just have some modest reforms I would like to propose."

Oh, but the snake still looks so awfully angry, with his mouth open, his tongue out, and his tail curved slightly up. Please, help redraw the flag with a friendlier snake — a good citizen snake — and a kindlier message.

"Tread on me, I'll be your friend, we all need somebody to tread on."

68 comments:

rhhardin said...

Don't trend on me

chickelit said...

Changing it to No pases sobre mí might gain a wider audience.

@rhhardin: that was very anti-twitterian of you :)

Big Mike said...

Maybe if we changed the background color to a pastel pink?

chickelit said...

Don't Thread on Meade

Clyde said...

My happy green snake logo may look friendly, but Mocs have a venomous bite!

Don't tread on me, indeed!

wv: notink. Sgt. Schultz was unavailable for comment.

Once written, twice... said...

It is nice to see Ann that you have gotten so much milage and laughs out of Tucsan.

Never let a strawhorse go to waste is Ann's motto.

AllenS said...

New Wisconsin moto:

Smell my Dairy Air.

X said...

Come and take it, friend.

TMink said...

A cute and funny post. Americans are supposed to be dangerous to politicians. Just not deadly.

Trey

rhhardin said...

When threatened, the harmless hog-nosed snake puffs itself up to look like a deadly puff adder.

Then it wonders why people kill it.

- Will Cuppy writes somewhere.

KCFleming said...

I only regret that I have but one bland noninvective to lose for my country.

Scott M said...

Jay plays the roll of Officer Barbrady to a T here. "Move along, people. Nothing to see here". The problem is that, like Barbrady, if we continue on that tack we end up chained to the wall in a basement.

AllenS said...

Oops, sorry --

Please, Smell my Dairy Air

Clyde said...

Also, we prefer the term "Serpent-Americans."

Lincolntf said...

What about the American flag? One traditional explanation for the stripes is that the red ones signify the dead and wounded of the Revolution, while the white ones signify the bandages used to bind their wounds.
Isn't that too graphic for the poor widdle kiddies (or their dipshit Lib parents)?

As my whimsy leads me.. said...

If that isn't a call-out to Chip Ahoy, I don't know what is.

Phil 314 said...

from the previous thread:
Snake oil was purported to cure every ill, from apoplexy and apostasy to vertigo and virginity.

Careful Professor that's a sign of "flight of ideas". Put that in combination with uncivil talk and we're going to have to.....

Well, you know.

But then again when words have no meaning...

TWM said...

"It is nice to see Ann that you have gotten so much milage and laughs out of Tucsan.

Never let a strawhorse go to waste is Ann's motto."

It's obvious - to me anyway - that she is mocking the leftist theory/wish that this attack was caused by angry right-wing rhetoric. Since we know it was not (and even Barry says so), it seems a great thing to mock.

The best way to fight the left is to mock them.

So I say, mock away.

Phil 314 said...

Sorry for a bit of "flight of ideas" myself but I suddenly realized how we've experienced several words losing their meaning:

-racist

-socialist

is civility next?

lemondog said...

I'm a Retread OR
Okay, but be careful where you tread

Scott M said...

Isn't that too graphic for the poor widdle kiddies (or their dipshit Lib parents)?

You're asking this question about people who think it's a bad idea to keep score in little league baseball games? Real-life, ie 6-year-olds that keep score regardless of the idiocy of their parents, doesn't seem to make a dent in their worldview.

kent said...

I say we go full-bore irony, and plaster "HOPE AND CHANGE!" underneath the sucker.

Anonymous said...

Yes, You Can tread on me.

Meade said...

Don't Jay Retread Me, Bro

MayBee said...

"Please, Walk Next to Me"

Meade said...

Phil 3:14 said...
...we've experienced several words losing their meaning:

-racist

-socialist

is civility next?


syphilist

Phil 314 said...

Never let a strawhorse go to waste

Strawhorse?

inconceivable!!

lemondog said...

I'm a pussycat

How 'bout an image change ?

Scott M said...

Strawhorse?

inconceivable!!


...you keep using that word...

CJinPA said...

WHAT IF…

It IS more likely that, in this era, political violence will come from the Right? Or, that violence-tinged rhetoric will come from the Right?

1. The Right (I count myself) is against ever-growing government.

2. Government is ever-growing. Even under “conservatives.” It’s what politicians do.

3. The Right is pretty passionate about gun rights.

So, frustration against what seems inevitable + weapons. Is it not logical to assume political violence – in this era, not in the past – will come from the Right?

I ask because I worry that we are putting all of our eggs in one basket: That in THIS case it turned out not to be so. I suspect it is still more likely to be the case, maybe next time. Then what? Because while I am civil and HATE references to political violence, I am not prepared to change any of my positions. Even if something happens.

I'm Full of Soup said...

Chip Ahoy:

Can you add one of Althouse's new scarves to make the snake look harmless.

Larry J said...

"Bite me" is a statement of defiance.

"Please, bite me" is a request, perhaps for something kinky.

Those those who see everything that happens in the world through a political prism and use every bad thing that happens as a bludgeon against their opponents:

"Bite me."

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

I think the road STOP signs are too aggressive ;)

MayBee said...

"Tolerate Me"

Unknown said...

How about "I'm OK, You're OK"?

kent said...

"... If That's Okay With You, I Mean!"

virgil xenophon said...

The right has very good reason to fear government. Has everyone already forgotten the lessons of Katrina--where law-abiding citizens (the "low-hanging fruit") defending their property from marauding thugs had their guns confiscated at gun-point by the Nat. Guard/police while the thugs were allowed unfettered (because they might actually shoot back) to run rampant.

Does not ANYONE remember that live real-time vid feed of the Calif Nat. Guard entering the home of an elderly woman defending her home and forcibly wrestling her to the ground--IN HER OWN HOME--and seizing her handgun? I sat watching it as it happened in ABSOLUTE AMAZEMENT at my Mother-in-laws home in Opelousas where we had decamped, not believing my eyes.

And it took the gun-owners whose firearms were confiscated going to federal court to declare the gun seizures illegal and order them returned to their lawful owners--only to find that, insult to injury, 2/3rds of the legal weapons seized by the city had been "lost" by the authorities in the interim.

No, nothing to worry about, nothing but "groundless" fears...

Right..

Unknown said...

Well, if you're going to change the flag, you'll have to lose the snake altogether.

That's a phallic image; it connotes violence to women everywhere.

It wasn't the snake's oil that cured(?) virginity.

PS Syphilist?

Original Mike said...

"Snakes. Why did it have to be snakes?"

lemondog said...

A different more classy sort of coil, with a modern motto.

Please Don't Dump On Me

kent said...

"Together We Thrive!"

Scott M said...

"Snakes. Why did it have to be snakes?"

"Why does the floor...move?"

TWM said...

“I'm tired of this motherfuckin' snake on this motherfuckin' flag!”

You knew it was coming, right?

garage mahal said...

Don't Tread on Me Bob!

Just some independent, non-partisan, fiscally concerned Don't Tread on Me type citizens worried about SPENDING levels. And playing this clip means you want to CENSOR someone!

Hoosier Daddy said...

"Why does the floor...move?"

"Asps. Very dangerous. You go first."

traditionalguy said...

Random thoughts: We could change the motto to read "Don't Grammar Control Me". And I thought it was the Scientologists who first put rattle snakes into enemy's mailboxes, anyway. And the ElRushbo flag should be of a Horned Frog croaking "Don't Regulate Me". U. of Wisconsin recently learned the power of a tread upon Horned Frog.

lemondog said...

PS Syphilist?

One who attempts to roll back government

TWM said...

Oop, I forgot to attribute the quote.

"I'm tired of this motherfuckin' snake on this motherfuckin' flag!”

General Charles Cornwallis

Original Mike said...

"Asps. Very dangerous. You go first."

No, that's just my pet snake Reggie. Show a little backbone, will ya?

Chip Ahoy said...

Stop it, you're killing me. Come to think of it, that wouldn't be a bad Gadsden.

4 alternate Gadsdens. The last one is a Palin as purported.

TWM said...

"PS Syphilist?

One who attempts to roll back government."

Whew, that's good to know, cause here's another defintion floating around.

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=syphilist

Unknown said...

"Octavian, you can kiss mine".

- Cleopatra

Meade said...

@Chip,
Love the multi wordplays of "Mind The Ophedia."

AllenS said...

A call to arms from Wisconsin --

Eat Cheese or Die, Mother Fuckers!

Sprezzatura said...

Being completely earnest: That snake makes me think of Genesis 3.

virgil xenophon said...

Anybody remember the BC cartoon circa 70-71?: "The sun comes up, the sun goes down, but snakes just stay snakes."

Scott M said...

Anybody remember the BC cartoon circa 70-71?:

I clearly remember "CLAMS GOTS LEGS!"

Freeman Hunt said...

How about "Let's All Take Dancing Lessons"?

Then no one would tread on anyone's feet.

TMink said...

The Gadsen flag reminds me of a particularly intense scene in The Harder They Come.

In it, Jimmy Cliff's character is in a fight with someone whom he thinks stole from him. He slashes the guy in the face with a knife, saying "Don't. Fuck. With. Me." and punctuating each sentence with another slash to the face.

Intense!

Here is a link, but as I said, it is intense and violent.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCojDzo8Qo0

Now standard disclaimers apply, and I do not advocate political violence, but our Founders did.

Trey

ricpic said...

Mouse, Please.

Eric said...

Superimpose the Gadsden snake on the Rainbow Flag, and change the slogan to "DON'T TREAD ON MY RAINBOW."

kent said...

"They Bring A Knife... We Bring A Snake!"

Phil 314 said...

The Right is pretty passionate about gun rights.

Don't you think this is, partly, the source of the anxiety/animus? Guns scare some people. Angry, armed individuals REALLY scare some people.

PS I'm not a "gun guy" so I don't feel the "passion" about gun rights.

PPS Please don't shoot the messenger (pun intended)

kent said...

Guns scare some people.

So, evidently, does the Second Amendment.

Toad Trend said...

Dear Sir/Madam,

For civility's sake, lets leave the flag the way it is.

Thank you.

Regards,

Don't Tread

PS - don't ever bring a knife to a fight.

TMink said...

Guns do scare people. The media and the left have so demonized them that they are regarded as demons rather than tools by those who have not thought the matter through.

Trey

The Crack Emcee said...

That's supposed to read:

"Tread on me, I'll be your boyfriend, we all need somebody to tread on."

A Feminist should know that by now.

kjbe said...

The best way to fight the left is to mock them.

So I say, mock away.


And be mocked back, I suppose. I'm not seeing the point of either.