And now, for a bit of the lunch-time snark
Dear Mainstream Media,
I suppose it started off as a merely functional consideration – you needed colors for the map, and needed to utilize the traditional “red, white, and blue” motif. And in those heady days following the first Tuesday after the first Monday of November 2000, it’s to be expected that we’d let this misappropriation slide.
But it’s 4 and a half years and two election cycles later. So, on behalf of my fellow leftists, I’m politely asking you, please, please, give us the color red back.
In a conversation with a European colleague the other day, he made reference to the fact that a large chunk of middle America had gone socialist. Shaking my head, I had to clue him in on the fact that no longer is red the color of the revolution.
“Better dead than red?” They used to be talking about us!
“Pinko commies?” That doesn’t even make sense anymore.
“Red Emma?” Now come on. Once you bring Emma Goldman into it, it’s just silly.
All of our anarchist friends laugh at us now. I keep threatening to have the Democrats take black from them, but they just laugh harder, noting that black has never, ever been accepted on the American palette.
So now, here we are in the lull between election cycles. The “red state” money has been made. Would it be too much to ask to choose another color for the right next year? Maybe a nice shade of yellow? Or brown? But not red. Too many of our international brethern are confused. And dammit, haven’t you taken enough from us? Please, we’ll turn our backs, and if the color red is back on our desk when we turn around, we’ll let the whole thing drop, no questions asked.
We hope you find it in your hearts to return to us leftists our beloved color red.
Sincerely,
A whole gaggle of red-blooded redder than red leftists.
cross-posted at jScoop
Reds have a sporting advantage
By Paul Rincon
BBC News science reporter
Red may be an ancient signal of dominance
Wearing red can give competitors in sporting contests the winning edge, British scientists have claimed.
A report in Nature by Durham University academics suggests donning red kit increases the probability of winning physical contests in a range of sports.
The researchers claim the effect could be down to a deep-seated evolutionary response that works subconsciously to put opponents on the back foot.
Arsenal won the FA Cup against Man Utd, who were forced to exchange their usual red kit for something not red.
Weird…
I’ve also heard it get’s the most attention from people. That’s why if you look at boxs of cereal, lots of them are red–to draw in the kid’s attention.
In proto-languages, the first colour to be named is invariably red (following a distinction between dark and light). Blue or green are the next colours to be added to a language.
My wife and I have been having this conversation. Apparently, red is linked to increased testosterone production, which explains the male infatuation with the woman in the red dress (or, in my case, with the red hair).
It also may explain the heightened insurance rates of red cars.
Red also is purported to stimulate the appetite…thus the red checkered tablecloths in eating establishments.
I think it’s appropriate that the Repubs are colored red these days. They are the ones acting like Stalinists: turning the MSM into propaganda, suppressing free speech and assembly, operating gulags, trying to subvert our Constitution via One Party Rule. It is literally true that the GOP has been infiltrated and taken over by Communists. The cloak of their self-proclaimed Christianity does not disguise their totalitarian intent. And, whether the state owns all or whether the state is owned by a few who own all is only a gauze-thin distinction.
Whenever I am reminded of the old “Better Dead than Red” slogan I have to chuckle. The very same types of people who used to say that are now proud to call themselves Red. The irony is so heavy it should sink the ship of state. Our cultural identifiers have been turned inside out and flipped upside down.
And yet, the truth is as plain as the historical associations of red and blue:
Red=radical revolutionary
Blue=loyalist patriot