From the War on Christmas to unpatriotic Googling and no "Green Berets" on your iPod, these guys are increasingly all about surface and symbol. Smoke and mirrors is too deep for these jokers.

Is this little episode funny weird or funny ha ha? I can't decide.

If these guys spent half the time that they do determining who and what is "conservative kosher"...

It's as if they are trying to parody normal reactionaries.

Those would be "international holidays" like Mother's Day, Father's Day, Bastille Day, Chinese New Year, the Dragon Boat Festival, Fourth of July, Thanksgiving, Canada Day, and so forth . . . ?

Ah, right-wing xenophobia, not realizing computer web sites and search engines aren't stopped at the American border. It is any wonder their great-great-grandfathers were appropriately referred to as Know-Nothings?

In all honesty, it does seem weird that there's a "doodle" for National Teachers' Day but not Memorial Day.

As it happens, Google does occasionally mark purely American holidays, but for the most part Megan seems to be correct. They generally stick to birthdays and international stuff.

But celebrating American troops is a international holiday.
1. In South Korea American troops are defending South Koreans from the terrorist state of North Korea.
2. In Germany, American troops are there to prevent the spread of Communism.
3. In Afghanistan and Iraq, American troops are protecting the democratic and freely elected governments.

Nothing could be more international than celebrating the valor of American troops for helping to create the new free and democratic international order.

Ya mean dem UR-O-peans don't celebrate memorial day? What kinda Mer-i-kans are dem UR-O-peans anyhow?!?

From the War on Christmas to unpatriotic Googling and no "Green Berets" on your iPod, these guys are increasingly all about surface and symbol. Smoke and mirrors is too deep for these jokers.

A perfectly constructed, dead-on post, Kenji.

I think Google should honor it, and I'm surprised they didn't.

I guess things like this inevitably happen when you have a draft-dodging elitist President who encourages the American people to behave as though there are no sacrifices to be made in wartime (at least not by people that matter, darlings)--tax cuts for everybody! Go shopping after 9/11!

I could care less which holidays Google does and doesn't celebrate with a "doodle," and I'd usually be the last one to rise to the defense of Jonah Goldberg, but in this case, I think Google's explanation is just dishonest. Take a look at their doodles for 2005. They include Thanksgiving (the American version and date), Independence Day (ditto), MLK Jr. Day, even National Teacher's Day and National Library Week. 2004: Thanksgiving, "VOTE" on November 2, 4th of July. 2003: Thanksgiving, 4th of July, MLK Jr Day. How are these "birthdays and international stuff"?

The whole thing is, of course, supremely silly. Google should've just said: "sometimes we do stuff, sometimes we don't" and let the wingers do their usual froth. That their response is inaccurate is just going to piss them off more.

The conservaturds are getting stupider and stupider. I thought that capitalists could do no wrong. Yet, here they have Google, a great capitalist tool, and they want to make it politically correct?

What stupid bozo these morons be.

Bainbridge gasses about this as well. So outraged was the good professor (who as far as I know never served in uniform himself), that he switched to freedom-loving Yahoo for his browser's home page. Now there's a blow for liberty!

"Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel."

Or in this case, perhaps, of the inane.

While it doesn't make any difference to me what Google decides to do about anything. Ever. At all. I find it interesting that Kevin claims, "As it happens, Google does occasionally mark purely American holidays, but for the most part Megan seems to be correct. They generally stick to birthdays and international stuff."

Reading a statement containing such vaguery motivated me to click on the provided link, and in just a couple of mouse clicks I was able to learn that Google creates Google Doodles for the following -- Mother's Day, Thanksgiving, Halloween, Independence Day, Father's Day, National Teacher Day, Earth Day, National Library Week, World Water Day, SpaceShipOne wins the X Prize, etc. According to this, Google marks pretty much everything but Memorial Day. I'm not saying for sure that Google is anti-Memorial Day or anti-troops, but it is curious that they feel the need to create one for World Water Day but neglect Memorial Day. If nothing else this may be a reflection of how many holidays we have to honor our heritage as a country have become nothing more than an excuse to sleep in on a Monday.

Let the conservatives abandon Google. Most will probably end up at Yahoo, which would better suit them anyway.

But it is depressing how the very same people who take great pride in excoriating the left for being too PC come up with these crusades against people who say "happy holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas", want to boycott Dr. Pepper (the ultimate Red State Refreshment) because they put "One Nation...Indivisible" on their cans and left out "under God". And, of course that oldie, but goodie, lets jail people who burn or otherwise desecrate our flag. These people have no sense of proportion. They need to get a life.

>Just last week they paid tribute to Arthur Conan Doyle's birthday.

Aha, that explains it: I was wondering WTF that doodle was about.

Which means Memorial Day is forever going to take on a secondary meaning for me: it's the first time I ever learned anything from Goldberg.

I find Google's answer disingenous, too. But I like the fact that "conservatives" are ready to cut themselves off from the one damn thing that surely would totally knock the socks off anybody of you time-traveled them in from as recently as 1989. I mean, after all these years I *still* am amazed what I can turn up with Google.

Conservatives (or at least this group of self-proclaimed ones) are way stupid, aren't they?

Why does anyone give even the tiniest shit about this? Google doodles???

Anyone who is legitimately concerned about the selection of holidays/events Google celebrates with a SPECIAL DRAWING ON THEIR INTERNET SEARCH ENGINE needs to take a step back and reassess why they bother getting out of bed in the morning.

Google has a war on Christmas and a war on memorials. War memorials? I can't keep this straight anymore. Or is that a war on BBQ sets?

Jeez, they have to be against SOMETHING, after all. This can't just be fun, silly little doodles, can it?

No doubt Google has noticed that those who say anything about the administration's listening in on phone conversations are guilty of informing the enemy of something the enemy did not know. Thus, perhaps Google is just being patriotic, not mentioning American military personnel to avoid informing the enemy that these personnel exist. If only right wing traitors like Al and American Chickenhawk and Jonah Goldberg would do the same, perhaps the enemy would forget about American capabilities and be lured into complacency, making it easier to wipe them out.

Oh, god, does Jane Galt still exist? I thought by now she might have accidentally killed herself with the 2-by-4 she wanted to take to heads of antiwar protesters.

I agree, the explanation from Google is dishonest. There appear to be plenty of US-centric doodles, why they'd not do Memorial day is a bit odd.

That being said, this is a non-issue. Google can do whatever the hell they want as a business, something you'd think a real conservative could get behind.

And these are the same people who make such an issue of political correctness. What is more nitpicky politically correct than to be straining at gnats over this type of thing? Naturally, it's chickenhawks like Jonah who are making such a BFD about it. Would he like the O's in Google to be tombstones, or what? These people are all about the meaningless gesture, which is the only one they are capable of making.

Bush said yesterday that he was in awe of the men and women who died for the cause of freedom. Well, we are frequently in awe of things we don't know anything about, and what would the pissant prince of petulance know less about than service for this country, which he so diligently avoided? Those of us who did serve tend less to romanticize the whole thing than do those who bravely cheer from the sidelines.

POed Lib
The conservaturds are getting stupider and stupider. I thought that capitalists could do no wrong. Yet, here they have Google, a great capitalist tool, and they want to make it politically correct?

doesn't matter
But I like the fact that "conservatives" are ready to cut themselves off from the one damn thing that surely would totally knock the socks off anybody of you time-traveled them in from as recently as 1989. I mean, after all these years I *still* am amazed what I can turn up with Google.

Conservatives (or at least this group of self-proclaimed ones) are way stupid, aren't they?

I'm surprised that folks here aren't google haters. They're part of the tech companies selling technologies to China that allow Chinese government to filter and restrict the people's access to outside knowledge, which sounds awfully non-liberal to me.

But whatever the conservatives are for, you're against. So I guess it makes sense after all.

The most obvious explanation for the omission of Memorial Day is that some events can be appropriately recognized with a perky little line drawing, and the day we remember those who lost their lives in battle is not one of those events.

"Nothing could be more international than celebrating the valor of American troops for helping to create the new free and democratic international order."

Nothing? Really, nothing? Of everything affecting the entire planet in its whole history, the valor of American troops should transcend everything else for everybody. Guess we can just forget about those polar ice caps melting, and the Age of Enlightenment, Beethoven, and the birth of Jesus -- because, well, Al knows what's truly international. What's next for us to celebrate, his parents' wedding anniversary?

Why does anyone give even the tiniest shit about this? Google doodles???

Anyone who is legitimately concerned about the selection of holidays/events Google celebrates with a SPECIAL DRAWING ON THEIR INTERNET SEARCH ENGINE needs to take a step back and reassess why they bother getting out of bed in the morning. Posted by: eckersley on May 30, 2006 at 12:50 PM | PERMALINK

Spot on, eckersely.

But whatever the conservatives are for, you're against. So I guess it makes sense after all.

The bozo sect clicks in.

I am for intelligence, sense, wit and clarity. Conservaturds like yourself oppose all of that. Thus, since I am for these things, it appears that I oppose all things conservaturd. But that's just because of my attraction to matters intelligence.

Bush said yesterday that he was in awe of the men and women who died for the cause of freedom.

You sure he said that? Because for Bush a more appropriate remark might be, "I'm in awe of the men and women who actually showed up at their duty station, on time.... and sober!"

Chris
That being said, this is a non-issue. Google can do whatever the hell they want as a business, something you'd think a real conservative could get behind.

I think that's what is going on. The posts I saw suggested other search engines to use, such as ask.com and dogpile.com. The market speaks.

I thought the whole thing was chicken-s$%^, but I don;t like the idea of our companies selling China technology to help keep their people mushroomed, so I'm willing to sit back and watch them take their lumps.

so what would an appropriate memorial day doodle look like, given the solemn intent of the holiday. something light-hearted like a flag-draped coffin?

It must be very sad to have such an atrophied sense of patriotism that you need a search engine doodle to reinforce it.

Hey, my Mcdonald's wrapper celebrates olympic athletes, but it can't celebrate soldiers?

Hey, my florist makes a big deal about Mother's Day, but no Memorial Day?

Hey, my church wants to commemorate dead saints, but not dead american soldiers?

Hy my toilet paper has "spring flower" patterns, but no rows of crosses at Arlington?

Outrages, all of them.

POed Lib
I am for intelligence, sense, wit and clarity. Conservaturds like yourself oppose all of that. Thus, since I am for these things, it appears that I oppose all things conservaturd. But that's just because of my attraction to matters intelligence.

It just appears that you are for defending google in spite of their willingness to sell out the Chinese people for a buck, because the conservatives temporarily have a bone to pick with google. Yes, that's just the way it appears.

Red State Mike> They're part of the tech companies selling technologies to China that allow Chinese government to filter and restrict the people's access to outside knowledge, which sounds awfully non-liberal...

That isn't the creepiest thing about google by a longshot."

And re the Memorial day cutesy images, it might be that they're happy to export patriotic holidays that are promote goodwill, and just skip the ones that might rub the rest of the globe the wrong way. I'd note that July 4th and Independence Day are there.

Duh. July 4th IS independence day down there. Preview, always preview.

It just appears that you are for defending google in spite of their willingness to sell out the Chinese people for a buck, because the conservatives temporarily have a bone to pick with google. Yes, that's just the way it appears.

You may wanna discuss this with your fearful chicken-shit leader, King George the Feckless. It is he who is for increasing the H1-B visas by 2x to 4x per year. It is he who has never seen a job that he didn't want to outsource.

Why do conservaturds like yourself hate working Americans so much? Why is it official Conservaturdpublican policy to send all the jobs to China, India and Pakistan?

Hilarious.

POed Lib says:

"I am for intelligence, sense, wit and clarity. Conservaturds like yourself oppose all of that. Thus, since I am for these things, it appears that I oppose all things conservaturd. But that's just because of my attraction to matters intelligence."

This is the problem. You want people to take you and your opinions seriously? Tell you what -- quit calling people names. Make your point. Show your intelligence. Do you have any real argument or are you here to find someone who disagrees with you and smear him with names?

The relevant bit:

"My visit to Google? Despite the whimsical furniture and other toys, I felt I was entering a 14th-century cathedral — not in the 14th century but in the 12th century, while it was being built. Everyone was busy carving one stone here and another stone there, with some invisible architect getting everything to fit. The mood was playful, yet there was a palpable reverence in the air. "We are not scanning all those books to be read by people," explained one of my hosts after my talk. "We are scanning them to be read by an AI."

...Google is Turing's cathedral, awaiting its soul. We hope. In the words of an unusually perceptive friend: "When I was there, just before the IPO, I thought the coziness to be almost overwhelming. Happy Golden Retrievers running in slow motion through water sprinklers on the lawn. People waving and smiling, toys everywhere. I immediately suspected that unimaginable evil was happening somewhere in the dark corners. If the devil would come to earth, what place would be better to hide?"

For 30 years I have been wondering, what indication of its existence might we expect from a true AI? Certainly not any explicit revelation, which might spark a movement to pull the plug. Anomalous accumulation or creation of wealth might be a sign, or an unquenchable thirst for raw information, storage space, and processing cycles, or a concerted attempt to secure an uninterrupted, autonomous power supply. But the real sign, I suspect, would be a circle of cheerful, contented, intellectually and physically well-nourished people surrounding the AI."

Myself, I don't believe Google is currently an AI, or even close to one, or will be in the near future. But a number of people at the core of the project are clearly intending it to be the catalyst for the first AI. It's a primary goal of the corporation.

How, exactly, would a Google Doodle have conveyed the gravitas that one would expect for Memorial Day? A gravestone in place of one of the 'o's?

The UK got a 'poppy' logo for November 11th last year, but that's because it's a symbol that's easy to integrate. There ain't no poppy for Memorial Day. Sorry about that. Your loss.

This is un-freakin-believable. Really, now, what is wrong with those people?

Red State Mike: I thought the whole thing was chicken-s$%^, but I don;t like the idea of our companies selling China technology to help keep their people mushroomed, so I'm willing to sit back and watch them take their lumps.

I'm not too crazy about that either, but Google is far from the only "US" corporation helping to build the Great Firewall of China.

While we're at it, how about all those companies happily moving US technology to the PRC. Not "dual use", yeah, that's a fucking joke.

Oh, and the US gov't propping up W's tax cuts by selling lots of T-bills to them. Screw bombs and missiles, it's easier just to give a sell order.

Mother's and Father's Day are international holidays, Jane Galt. And it appears that important countries get their annual celebration: America gets the 4th of July, France gets Bastille Day, Canada gets Canada Day, China gets Chinese New Year.

Every country has a holiday in honor of the military. Do we have to put all those in there too now? Or only America's?

Alex
I'm not too crazy about that either, but Google is far from the only "US" corporation helping to build the Great Firewall of China.

Amen. And that's how they excuse it. "But so-and-so's already doing it." Lame.

Google not putting up a Memorial Day banner: weird, but not anything I'd get in a tizzy over. If you need Google to reinforce your patriotism, you've got problems.

Google selling out to get Chinese market: bad, but behavior I would expect from any for-profit company, whether it pretends to be a good guy or not.

RedStateMike: you seem to think that everyone is situated in one of two camps, each camp doing a lockstep dance that's the mirror opposite of the other. Not everyone is caught up in this mode of tribal oppositionism, or let's say we can at least escape it at times.

Well, they did manage to do a pretty good doodle for MLK day, which might not exactly have the solemnity of Memorial Day but isn't exactly mirthful, so if they'd really wanted to, they probably could have come up with something tasteful for Memorial Day.

That aside, I feel that someone has to invoke....

Bart: I just think our veterans deserve a little recognition.
Lisa: That's what Veteran's Day is for, Bart.
Bart: But is that really enough to honor our brave soldiers?
Lisa: Eh, heh, heh...they also have Memorial Day.
Bart: Oh, Lisa, maybe you're right, maybe you're wrong! The important thing is, veterans deserve a day to honor them!
Lisa: [through clenched teeth] They have two!
Bart: Well maybe they should have three. I'm Bart Simpson.

Librul
RedStateMike: you seem to think that everyone is situated in one of two camps, each camp doing a lockstep dance that's the mirror opposite of the other. Not everyone is caught up in this mode of tribal oppositionism, or let's say we can at least escape it at times.

It's the easiest accusation to make because it usually rings true. It's also one where I'm glad to be proven wrong. The immediate counter-accusation is usually "All of you conservatives..." which is just as true. Or false.

POed Lib sez
I am for intelligence, sense, wit and clarity. Conservaturds..."

Heh. Recess over yet?

Sticks and stones may break my bones, but you're a f$%^-ing moron.

Let's take notice during the next celebration of Rev. King's birthday whether the National Review honors that by changing its logo.

You know what would be impressive? If every conservative in America decided to honor Memorial day by personally going over to Iraq and fighting the terrorists (or insurgents, or dead-ender, or jihadists, or Saddamites, or whatever it is we're calling whoever it is we're fighting today). Starting with the president (leadership comes from the top, after all).

I'm sure Google would come up with a drawing honoring such a momentous occassion. We could call it National Anti-Hypocrisy Day: The First Time in History Conservatives Followed Through on the Rhetoric.

Whoever thinks that political correctness is only an attribute of the left should be paying attention to these manufactured controveries. Pity the city manager who bans fireworks on the 4th of July.

Conservative bloggers may now go about their business.

Manufacturing outrage about false threats to patriotism, Christianity, etc. is the business of Conservative bloggers.

Don't several of the Veterans' groups get annoyed by Memorial Days being celebrated on a Monday when they're not always supposed to? I guess they think it "cheapens" Memorial day by making it into "just another long weekend" for many Americans.

So how many others would be angered by a Google doodle if they made one? Damned if the do, damned if they don't?

You know what would be impressive? If every conservative in America decided to honor Memorial day by personally going over to Iraq and fighting the terrorists (or insurgents, or dead-ender, or jihadists, or Saddamites, or whatever it is we're calling whoever it is we're fighting today). Starting with the president (leadership comes from the top, after all).

Hell, by now right-wingers have set such a low bar that I'd be impressed if any of them expressed the faintest reservations about cutting taxes during "wartime".

Not that switching to Yahoo from Google really isn't a helluva sacrifice. Why, it's practically the cyberspace version of Antietam....

"Every country has a holiday in honor of the military. Do we have to put all those in there too now? Or only America's?"

Neil,

I think you've touched on the exact issue. Its an American corporation, if they're marking holiday, why not one of the most important US holidays (important in that its one of the few holidays that everybody gets off work-- cf. Veterans Day or Presidents Day)?

American corporations have the constitutional rights as US citizens, and yet too many see themselves as loyal to whatever land brings them the highest profit (to paraphrase Jefferson). That usually only happens to be the United States when they need a new trade treaty to protect IP rights.

Don't really think patriotism is solely a conservative issue, a few years ago, Ralph Nader wrote Fortune 500 companies and asked why (as labor unions meetings do) company shareholders meetings didn't open with the Pledge of Allegiance. With only a few exceptions, the companies demurred with, "we're an international company".

Sticks and stones may break my bones, but you're a f$%^-ing moron.

Good answer. Any more ideas about why the conservaturds now have the official policy of moving jobs to China and India?

Why does a political party have an official policy of off-shoring jobs? Why is that good for America?

Why don't the conservaturds have any policies about us selling our defense industries to foreign entities?

A number of persons have commented on "conservaturd".

Look, folks, I'm not politically correct. I thought that this was the conservaturd manifesto: Don't be politically correct.

So, I'm not politically correct.

So since they're an American business they should be forced to celebrate American holidays in a way that you find appropriate, beowulf? My first reaction is, who are you to get to decide this?

My second reaction is, if America forced showy displays of patriotism, it wouldn't be America.

Mike, a lot of liberals *don't* agree with Google's stance on business in China. I can hold that stance and still believe that getting one's boxers in a knot over the absence of a "Google Doodle" for Memorial Day is pretty silly.

Look at it this way: suppose there had been a Google Doodle for, I don't know, Barry Goldwater's birthday. You and I both know there would be a contingent of the liberal blog squad up in arms over that. Would you be supporting them in calling for Eric Schmidt's head on a platter, or would you be saying it's a tempest in a teapot? Personally, I'd be on the teapot side.

I just want to know if Mike boycotts Walmart as a company that does business with the PRC.

"I'm surprised that folks here aren't google haters. They're part of the tech companies selling technologies to China that allow Chinese government to filter and restrict the people's access to outside knowledge, which sounds awfully non-liberal to me."

--Red State Mike

I agree with Mike on this one. I'm not sure why more Democrats aren't pushing on Microsoft, Google, etc. to stop their dealings with the chineese government when it requires them to act as censors. I would hope that after 2008, legislation would be crafted prohibiting this type of conduct.

"But celebrating American troops is a international holiday.
1. In South Korea American troops are defending South Koreans from the terrorist state of North Korea.
2. In Germany, American troops are there to prevent the spread of Communism.
3. In Afghanistan and Iraq, American troops are protecting the democratic and freely elected governments.

Nothing could be more international than celebrating the valor of American troops for helping to create the new free and democratic international order."
--Al

This is just typical right-wing fluff. Do we really keep American troops in germany to stop the spread of communism anymore? Who would be spreading communism to Germany and eastern Europe now? The new "free and democratic international order" has inspired a reactionary wave of socialist governments in Latin America, and created a terrorist training and breeding ground in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Our troops valor is unquestioned - it's our leaderships' valor which is in question.

The ding bat righties don't understand that it is a day to honor our Dead soldiers,They could care less about them. There so Bush!!

neil
I just want to know if Mike boycotts Walmart as a company that does business with the PRC.

No, but I genuinely go out of my way not to buy products made in China. Impossible to do completely, since even if you avoid products assembled there, their components are pervasive in other stuff.

I'm still pissed about the whole EP-3 episode (Navy plane brought down by PRC fighter).

Watts
Look at it this way: suppose there had been a Google Doodle for, I don't know, Barry Goldwater's birthday. You and I both know there would be a contingent of the liberal blog squad up in arms over that. Would you be supporting them in calling for Eric Schmidt's head on a platter, or would you be saying it's a tempest in a teapot? Personally, I'd be on the teapot side.

As I said above, I'd be on the "it's chickens$%@" side.

The entire blogosphere suffers from ADD. As does our entire 24/7 newscast media. GOT to keep red meat on the table. I take their amplitude with a grain of salt.

I seem to remember National Review redoing its banner for holidays such as Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas etc....

Why didn't they have a special banner for Memorial Day?!

POed, great word of the day for me, "conservaturd." It works.

My 2 cents: A conservaturd talking up Memorial Day is definitely selling you something, probably something really bad.

I'm still pissed about the whole EP-3 episode (Navy plane brought down by PRC fighter).

Don't worry. I'm sure we can turn China into the next demonic enemy. Because we really need an enemy, right? And they are spending nearly a fifth as much on their military as we do on ours! If that doesn't give our heroic righties bladder problems, what will?

Here's something else I don't understand about the Google pile-on. It's not as if the PRC called them up and said "We want to repress our citizens, care to help?" and they signed a contract together.

No, Google had a choice between two things: Do business in China, or don't do business in China. I won't pretend that they made their decision based on anything but money, but I still don't see how the former choice hurts the people of China. They're not being denied access to anything they had access to before; to the contrary, they now have access to Google, and even if it's not the uncensored one, I can't see how this could be a net negative for the public. (Especially since Google.cn tells you when your search results have been filtered).

I suppose that what they want Google to do is say, no, we won't sell you our product unless you comply with our beliefs. This would seem to be of a piece with the refusal to use Google because of its lack of patriotic logos; although I think it's fairly incoherent to demand that Google serve as a U.S. propaganda organ while rebuffing China for not being enough like the U.S., especially for a bunch of people who supposedly don't believe in state control of corporations.

Boycotting Wal-Mart is just the start. Nearly all home mortgages are now held by China.

There is no avoiding China. They manufacture our goods (including, of all things, a friggin' shot put! Yeah! How in the world it can be economical to ship iron ore to China, manufacture a shot put and ship the shot back to the US is beyond me).

But I digress. We can't avoid China. They manufacture our goods and hold our loans.

In a Swift-ian sense, conservatives switching to Yahoo is very apt.

neil,

You've struck the nail right on the head. All companies, including google, have loyalty to only one thing - making money.

They have NO loyalty to a country or to any high goal such as Human Rights, and still we US citizens furiously grant them our loyalty and the use of our country.

Tn the global economy corporations are king and the rest of us have zero power. When we had a democracy we at least had the illusion of being able to select our leaders. Not anymore.

cmdicely: Manufacturing outrage about false threats to patriotism, Christianity, etc. is the business of Conservative bloggers.

its called bunkered aggreivement

limbaugh, o'reilly and hannity have gotten rich off it...

LOL @ Wombat

They have NO loyalty to a country or to any high goal such as Human Rights, and still we US citizens

By law, they have no loyalty.

The corporation either A.) does whatever it can to maximize the value of the shares its stockholders own, or B.) getS sued for failing to do its duty.

Redstate Mike is such a Bush!!

We have bigger issues to worry about with Google, like its censorship of advertisers.

The most obvious explanation for the omission of Memorial Day is that some events can be appropriately recognized with a perky little line drawing, and the day we remember those who lost their lives in battle is not one of those events.

Exactly correct.

I, as a Dem, Went to the Cemetery to Honor our dead men and women who fought for our freedoms.Righties only went to google to try and honor them and where let down because there was no Google Doodle for them to salute.You righties are so Bush!!!

But isn't Money the root of all Evil? What would that say about the repiglicans.Evil Bastards.They are so Bush!!

Google just needs to put in a script that delivers custom Doodles for different countries by querying the IP address of the browser. That way, they can feel free to celebrate Memorial Day in the United States and Embassy-Takeover Day in Iran!

Yeay, Google is left-wing! I applaud Goldberg's decision to switch, and any other conservative that follows suit. The farther they retreat from the wide world, the bette. Maybe they can make a Fox-News search engine, that only turns up conservative talking points and pictures of dead fetuses. The only thing better would be if these guys swore off Microsoft, or using our socialist public highways. I encourage their desires to ghettoize themselves.

My goodness. We've got a mess in Iraq and Afghanistan -- more or less their fault -- and they're upset about a doodle. The mind recoils...

or using our socialist public highways.

Ah, what a wonderful world that would be...

The only thing better would be if these guys swore off Microsoft, or using our socialist public highways. I encourage their desires to ghettoize themselves.

There are large swathes of sub-Saharan Africa and Central Eurasia where there are no oppressive government regulations, because there's essentially no government. Folks in those regions are free to enjoy their 2nd Amendment rights with gusto. Yet our local libertarian-ish ubermenschen refuse to relocate to these areas, which ought to be the kind of paradises that Ayn Rand loved. It's a real puzzle, why they don't leap at the many opportunities that our modern world offers to Live The Dream....

Yeay, Google is left-wing

well, Gore is a "part time advisor" (whatever that means) to Google.

but, yeah, here's to hoping the wingnuts run off to a more politically-correct search engine.

Anyone who has read "What's The Matter With Kansas?" already knows the score here: the Backlash always has to have something to complain about, so that its rank-and-file can be kept in an Orwellian state of perpetual rage.

However, it is kind of weird of Google to have stuff for July 4 and Thanksgiving, but not Memorial Day. What should the symbol for Memorial Day be? I nominate something that humiliates Bush for the rest of his life re: the "bring 'em on" comment.

What mmy said. Reactionary conservatives like to tend their anger over a low flame, keeping it warm at every imagined slight in case it needs to be fanned into a real mouth-frothing faux-outrage conflagration.

They're like sharks: they have to keep moving, or they'll die. :)

RSM, I'm with you on Google, but that doesn't mean these other jokers don't deserve lumps of their own for shoveling the chicken shit.

OTOH, I've heard, though I haven't verified, that the Chinese Google is the only American search engine that warns the user that the contents of a page were censored.

They might be the most subversive of the sellouts.

Alek
They're like sharks: they have to keep moving, or they'll die. :)

Now that's a funny analogy. Nice timing for this thread, with CNN bringing the full power of their awesomeness to bear on reminding us that some really hot blonde is still missing in Aruba.

"No, but I genuinely go out of my way not to buy products made in China. Impossible to do completely, since even if you avoid products assembled there, their components are pervasive in other stuff."

This is more even more true than I think most people ever realize -- my wife works in production sourcing and there's simply no avoiding, at the very least, the use of chinese components. It's not just a matter of a cheaper chinese alternative existing; it's that those alternatives have driven many other options from the market altogether. It's not like you can pay a 10% premium to get crappy little trinkets from New Jersey instead.

The obvious solution is for Google to celebrate Memorial Day as "Chickenhawk Day" with a doodle of Golgberg's yellow ass.

Perhaps Google can atone for their sins next year by celebrating "Mission Accomplished Day" (May 2) as well as Memorial Day.

And btw, when wingnuts begin to treat Labor Day as a day of remembrance for the fallen heroes of the labor movement who brought us the freedoms which we today take for granted, I'll treat their grousings about Memorial Day as something more than random Turret-inspired outbursts.

Disputo
The obvious solution is for Google to celebrate Memorial Day as "Chickenhawk Day" with a doodle of Golgberg's yellow ass.

Say whatever you want about chickenhawks, etc., but the majority of soldiers fighting lean conservative. And they appreciate the backing of folks like Goldberg. I would say the majority of liberals discourage their children from joining the military (true?). And they did so when Clinton was in office too, not just now. Not a good thing for the country.

Warning!! RedstateMike, Strawman alert.What a Bush!!!

Red State Mike reveals that he too is a chickenhawk:

the majority of soldiers fighting lean conservative. And they appreciate the backing of folks like Goldberg.

LMAO. If you actually knew any soldiers or marines, much less those serving in Iraq and Afganistan, you would know they the vast majority don't give a shit one way or another about Goldberg.

However, I'm sure the troops appreciate your backing from the safety of your mother's basement....

Now that is a funny analogy.Considering Fox news has done this story to death.What a Bush!!

POed Lib: King George the Feckless. It is he who is for increasing the H1-B visas by 2x to 4x per year.

Actually that's Congress. Not that W would do anything to fight it, anymore than Billy Clinton did.

Oh, there's lots of stealth "fuck middle class Americans" stuff in the Senate versions of the immigration bill. Not just programmer's and engineers either, they also have provisions for nurses.

And where again are our vaunted Democrats on this issue? Collecting bribes (oops, I mean campaign contributions) for this, just like the Republicans.

Alex, the US currently does not have enough nurses.

Take your pick:
1) increase health care costs (raise nurse salaries)
2) continue with substandard nursing care
3) allow for immigration of nurses

Silly wingnuts must feel soldout,Bush and Fox news has said for three years how well things are going in Iraq.Now Fox news and Bush are saying a lot of mistakes are being made and things should have been done diffrently.Well that is what we on the left have been saying for three years.Welcome home wingnuts.What a bunch of Bushies!!

Disputo
LMAO. If you actually knew any soldiers or marines, much less those serving in Iraq and Afganistan...

Heh. I know lots and lots that have served, are serving, or are headed over there. I'm in the military, nut-wad.

Of course I am in the Armed Services! Basement Division, Cheese Poof Brigade, and I have a Purple Heart for my wrist from pounding the keys all day!

See, I am a real tough person!

That's right, I helped murder people in order to reinstate a monarchy. And I did it far from the real action; I dropped bombs on them like a real man, not like those cowards that kill themselves with their bombs.

I bet that Jonah Lucianne Goldberg uses these trivial issues to misdirect the energies of the liberal blogosphere. First the Gore did not go to France lie, and now Google is not patriotic enough.

Perhaps we should all ignore this idiot.

I would say the majority of liberals discourage their children from joining the military (true?). And they did so when Clinton was in office too, not just now. Not a good thing for the country.

There's an element of truth in this, but don't overlook those of us on the left who view the abolition of conscription as one of the more misguided and cynical "reforms" to emerge from Vietnam.

slgover
There's an element of truth in this, but don't overlook those of us on the left who view the abolition of conscription as one of the more misguided and cynical "reforms" to emerge from Vietnam.

You'd have a really hard time finding someone in the military who would be in favor of a draft. The down side obviously is that the military is now not a cross section of the US of A, which is unfortunate. You shouldn't have to force liberals to serve.

For politicians in general, military service gets short shrift, marginally shorter on the dem side. I'm glad Iraq veterans are getting in the game politics-wise, whether they are dems or repubs. The dem machine should have never cut the Marine out of the pattern in Ohio, preferring a better chance at winning over taking someone with a more useful experience to govern with.

Disputo: Alex, the US currently does not have enough nurses.

Oh my, another dire shortage. Must be like our shortage of teachers, programmers, engineers, scientists and construction workers.

Obviously Americans just don't have the commitment to delayed sacrifice or the educational background to go to nursing school. Or maybe this need for nurses just arose suddenly and unexpectedly. That's right, all of a sudden, right here in the US of A, people started getting sick. Not like anyone was getting sick 10 years ago, when nurses were getting laid off left and right.

BTW, it's just been discovered that there's a dire shortage of people in your line of work. It's crippling the economy and threatening to raise costs! Rather than let some silly old market principle reduce the shortage by attracting people with higher pay, it's been decided to create a special visa catgeory to address this critical need (and the congress critters thank your employer for their generous contributions).

You'd have a really hard time finding someone in the military who would be in favor of a draft. The down side obviously is that the military is now not a cross section of the US of A, which is unfortunate. You shouldn't have to force liberals to serve.

I know the generals don't want it. But I'm less concerned with the DoD's sense of tactical efficiency than I am with the atrophying concept of citizenship. Anyway, I'd like to see a return to universal national service, with military service open to whatever (probably small) fraction of participants opt for that route.

Alex, if you'd put your sarcasm away for one second, you might notice that increasing the salary of nurses was one of the options I put to you (and which is, btw, my preferred solution).

In your original post you seemed surprised about the provision for nurses, and I simply pointed out that you should not be. The nurse shortage has been long in coming.

sglover
Anyway, I'd like to see a return to universal national service, with military service open to whatever (probably small) fraction of participants opt for that route.

Ditto

Disputo,

Whenever you hear businesses whine about a "lack of workers" always add the unspoken "at current wages."

Sadly most people want everyone else to sacrifice but don't want to do it themselves.

I'd bet nursing wages are a fraction of health care costs.

Let's review a partial history of the American Military over the last four decades, shall we? If I miss your favorite conflict, no slight intended.

Iraq: no national security interests, no threat to its neighbors, no ongoing genocide, in short, no reason to invade.

Afghanistan: toppled government we didn’t like because they wouldn’t help with our police work. Much like the Russians, we are still there and still fighting even after “victory.”

Kosovo: ongoing civil war and genocide. Invading actually helped bring peace (no American ground troops used).

Bosnia: ongoing civil war.

Somalia: ongoing civil war. Retreat after a single helicopter was brought down.

Iraq: border dispute with neighbor. Invasion destroys the country; ongoing terror bombings ensures continued destabilization and support for dictator.

Panama: WTF? No military reason, the military is used to perform police work. Essentially an unprovoked invasion to remove a sitting head of state.

Grenada: Another WTF moment. Reagan needs to distract from his current troubles and starts a short victorious war.

Vietnam: the indigenous peoples are trying to remove their foreign (French) overlords. US comes in on the side of the oppressors. Ultimately slaughters 1,000,000 human beings and leaves.

So, what do we see here? In a few cases the military has served as the world's policemen, but in no case has the military been used to defend our nation. Not once in four decades. The closest was Afghanistan, but revenge overthrow hardly counts as defense.

Liberals don’t join the military, in part, because the military is perfectly willing to go and kill people whether there is any valid justification or not.

To be honest, a lot of liberals aren’t happy with the kind of excessive structure that is at the heart of a military and wouldn’t join even if there weren’t a tendency towards blind acceptance of mass murder for the entertainment of Republicans.

My big problem with Google: Can't search case-sensitive, won't take true character strings (e.g., can't find "4/3" per se since confused with 4.3 etc.), can't find italics, etc. Let me know if there's a way to do it.

But as to the initial issue: OK, we hear that they have a policy of doing only international holidays and birthdays, but that doesn't mean it's a good policy - that's the point, not what the policy is. It isn't too much to ask for an American company to show Memorial Day, which in addition other nations can sympathize with. (Do they skip July 4th also? Thanksgiving? - I wonder.)

PS-OT: Hannity et al are ranting about unfair coverage of Haditha - better get ducks in a row to avoid them taking advantage of that.

Disputo: Alex, if you'd put your sarcasm away for one second, you might notice that increasing the salary of nurses was one of the options I put to you (and which is, btw, my preferred solution).

Ok, sorry for the excessive sarcasm. It's just that this whole "shortage" thing for various professions has been a sore point for a long time, and I tend to overreact.

My basic point about these "shortages" stands though, and perhaps you agree. Yes, we need more nurses, and we'd have them if so many hadn't gotten laid off 10 years ago. For some of the other jobs I mentioned, the "shortages" exist only in propaganda that is repeated so often that it's become the accepted wisdom.

It's funny how price increases in goods and services are always part of the Natural Order of the Free Market, but wage or salary increases are a Threat to our National Competitiveness, and must be addressed by the actions of the Conservative Nanny State.

WTF??
Scraping the Barrel, again?

GOLDERG???
Cmon man.
Thats like taking candy from a baby, the mans arguments are silly at worst.

Deranged at the very best.

And Mindless above all.

I see Al has been smoking the Zionist Wacko weed again. The New World Order Al? The Theocratic Wacko Zionist Communists? Is not that what you really mean?

Or do you mean Democracy thru War and Death?
AL thinks TROOPS are for NATION BUILIDNG.

You are so out of it AL. Do us a Favor and go have a heart attack you stupid old GOP LIAR.

Say whatever you want about chickenhawks, etc., but the majority of soldiers fighting lean conservative. And they appreciate the backing of folks like Goldberg. I would say the majority of liberals discourage their children from joining the military (true?). And they did so when Clinton was in office too, not just now. Not a good thing for the country.

Your an IDIOT red head boy blunder. I will bet you that many more or my family has served than yours.

Care to make that Wager Read State Mike?
Of course you won't because your talking out of your Ass. Only Conservatives join the Forces, Only Conservatives are moral, only conservatives join the GOP, Only conservatives are right.

Too bad its all a load of Crap that you bought into. Read this Mike, your "Moral" Conservative war mongers, who never fight, Friends at work;

Serial killer/rapist Ted Bundy campaigned for the Republican Party

Republican racist pedophile and United States Senator Strom Thurmond had sex with a 15-year old black girl which produced a child.

Republican activist Lawrence E. King, Jr. organized child sex parties at the White House during the 1980s.

Republican lobbyist Craig J. Spence organized child sex parties at the White House during the 1980s.

Republican Mayor Philip Giordano is serving a 37-year sentence in federal prison for sexually abusing 8- and 10-year old girls.

Republican Congressman Donald "Buz" Lukens was found guilty of having sex with a minor and sentenced to one month in jail.

Republican fundraiser Richard A. Delgaudio was found guilty of child porn charges.

Republican activist Mark A. Grethen convicted on six counts of sex crimes involving children.

Republican activist Randal David Ankeney pleaded guilty to attempted sexual assault on a child.

Republican Congressman Dan Crane had sex with a minor working as a congressional page.

Republican activist and Christian Coalition leader Beverly Russell admitted to an incestuous relationship with his step daughter.

Republican congressman and anti-gay activist Robert Bauman was charged with having sex with a 16-year-old boy he picked up at a gay bar.

Republican activist Marty Glickman (a.k.a. "Republican Marty"), was taken into custody by Florida police on four counts of unlawful sexual activity with a juvenile and one count of delivering the drug LSD.

Republican legislative aide Howard L. Brooks, an advisor to a California assemblyman, was charged with molesting a 12-year old boy and possession of child pornography.

Republican Senate candidate John Hathaway was accused of having sex with his 12-year old baby sitter and withdrew his candidacy after the allegations were reported in the media.

Republican preacher Stephen White was arrested after allegedly offering $20 to a 14-year-old boy for permission to perform oral sex on him.

Republican talk show host Jon Matthews of Houston was indicted for indecency with a child, including exposing his genitals to a girl under the age of 17.

Republican anti-gay activist Earl "Butch" Kimmerling confessed to molesting an 8-year old girl after he attempted to stop a gay couple from adopting her.

Republican Party leader Paul Ingram of Thurston County, Washington, pleaded guilty to six counts of raping his daughters and served 14 years in federal prison.

Republican St. Louis Election Board official Kevin Coan was arrested and charged with trying to buy sex from a 14-year-old girl whom he met on the Internet.

Republican politician Andrew Buhr, former committeeman for Hadley Township Missouri, was charged with two counts of first degree sodomy with a 13-year old boy.

Republican politician Keith Westmoreland, a Tennessee state representative, was arrested on seven felony counts of lewd and lascivious exhibition to minors under 16 (i.e. exposing himself to children).

Republican anti-abortion activist John Allen Burt was charged with sexual misconduct involving a 15 year old girl.

Republican legislator, Richard Gardner, a Nevada state representative, admitted to molesting his two daughters.

Republican activist Parker J. Bena pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography on his home computer and was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison and fined $18,000.

Republican parole board officer and former Colorado state representative, Larry Jack Schwarz, was fired after child pornography was found in his possession.

Republican strategist and Citadel Military College graduate Robin Vanderwall was convicted in Virginia on five counts of soliciting sex from boys and girls over the internet.

fristfecker

Your an IDIOT red head boy blunder. I will bet you that many more or my family has served than yours.

Care to make that Wager Read State Mike?

Yep. Where have you served? What service? When?

fristfecker: Thanks for the list of Republigoons, where did you find it? PS - use some way to show quote other than double line space or it'll cause confusion some day.

From the War on Christmas to unpatriotic Googling and no "Green Berets" on your iPod, these guys are increasingly all about surface and symbol. Smoke and mirrors is too deep for these jokers.

On another thread Jay is quacking about how liberals talk-the-talk but can't seem to walk-the-walk.

Let's see now... Talk vs. Walk, match the following:

-Patriotic Googling

-Paying tax to support our gov't and pay the cost of protecting and practising our way of life

Gee, that's a tricky one.

One curious thing I noticed, someone above made reference to a poppy logo used for November 11 last year and provided a link to a blog mentioning it and showing a picture.

But on the Google Doodle page for 2005 they don't show that November 11 doodle at all. What gives? Have they left other doodles out too? Have they done Memorial Day in the past, but forgotten it this year?

I also noticed that after many years of observing Chinese New Year, this year, 2006, the tribute was to the lunar new year. Becoming more politically correct? And each December they do a generic Season's Greetings logo, so I guess, now that attention is being focused on them, they will be the next casualty in the War on Christmas. Oh the horror of it all!!!!!

Clearly, it is obvious that Google hates the troops. The very idea of not celebrating Memorial Day with a doodle!

I am glad we have conservative bloggers who are on top of issues like these. That leaves the bigger stories for us liberals to completely own.

Hey just to be fair these repiglicans you mention are also Catholics so as not to give all the repiglicans a bad name.

RedstateMike is such a Bush!!

I'm surprised that folks here aren't google haters. They're part of the tech companies selling technologies to China that allow Chinese government to filter and restrict the people's access to outside knowledge, which sounds awfully non-liberal to me. -Red State Mike

This is inaccurate. They operate a Chinese based version of Google, google.cn. This website is hosted on Chinese soil, and filters results based on the rules/laws made by the Chinese government. It does not alter the results on google.com even when they are served to Chinese IP addresses. However, the reliability and speed of packets from google.com to the internal Chinese internet is poor compared to that of google.cn. (Does this remind you of the Net Neutrality debate?)

Google is not the only search engine that does this. They are simply the last search engine to have done it, Yahoo and MSN have done it for quite a bit longer. Furthermore, whenever Google has to filter results on google.cn, they include a message that says "these results have been filtered" (well, something equivalent in Chinese).

Draw whatever conclusion you like about that. It ain't perfect, that's for sure. But Google has most certainly not "sold technology to the Chinese government".

Furthermore, at the most recent stockholders meeting, Sergey Brin said that he had talked to several of the Chinese citizens and emigres about whether Google should launch google.cn, and they seemed pretty happy with the product, and the decision to go forward with it. Sergey, bear in mind, was born in the Soviet Union, so I think he has a unique perspective on this, as well.

By the way, I feel I can speak quite authoritatively on this subject, as a former Google engineer, and current stockholder.

On the issue of Google Doodles, and what rhyme and reason there is to them, I think the answer is that Google is unlike any other corporation you have ever interacted with.

They don't have a policy for the Google Doodle. It's just some guy or guys doing it. They do whatever seems cool or fun to them. There's no management directive. There's conciousness of Googles globalness. Google is the least hierarchical and the least "managed" company of its size and impact that has probably ever existed. By an order of magnitude.

In the midst of hard times, there's always someone willing to question if someone else is being patriotic enough.

FWIW, John Wayne Gacy was a Democrat party activist.

Alek Hidell: Reactionary conservatives like to tend their anger over a low flame, keeping it warm at every imagined slight in case it needs to be fanned into a real mouth-frothing faux-outrage conflagration.

They're like sharks: they have to keep moving, or they'll die. :)

Brilliant.

Jonah Goldberg? Hmm, let me see. What experienc does Jonah and sooo many of his fellow conservatives lack. Oh! Military service. It is so reassuring to know that in our "Alice In Wonderland" era, counterintution still reigns. True patriots write paens to servicemembers, advocate their participation in military adventures based on the flimsiest--or hubristic--pretext, while assidously avoiding military service. Okay, not in the case of Goldberg. But Vietnam era cons --appropriate, no?--such as Bill Kristol, Wolfowitz, Feith, Cheney, Libbty, et al. But weren't these younger conservatives inspired by Reagan? Didn' they want to stop the "Evil Empire." Guess not.

The other coincidence here is that the hated French have a word for draft doders and their ilk: embusque.

Today's rightwing tempest in a teapot, more sizzle than steak, much ado about nothing.....I guess when you don't have an agenda or policies that are worth a damn this is the kind of stuff you try and divert people's attention with.

C'mon, Kevin, don't you recognize a war on Memorial Day when you see one?

Putting aside the substance, its almost like a Coke/Pepsi thing. A great example is James Lileks. In most of his work, he comes off as the ultimate reasonable chap, albeit a chap with some fairly geeky interests.

But there is a part of him that has gone through the following analysis: (i) he comes from what let's call an actual conservative upbringing, conservative, not in the "spin" sense, but in the sense of keeping things pretty much the same year to year, (ii) along comes some "liberal" who not only attacks, the status quo, but does it in a way which casts aspersions on the motivations of those living the status quo, and (iii) he just can't take it.

Put aside the actual issue, which in this case is whether anyone, including the millions of Google users, ever bother to look at Google's type, the issue for him is some percieved slight initiated by someone with a chip on his or her liberal shoulder the size of an asteroid.

Its not a question of rationality, its almost a question of taste, or of perceived manners.

Red State Mike said:

I'm in the military, nut-wad.

Sorry, but that framed certificate hanging on your mother's basement wall proclaiming you are a member in good standing of Star Fleet does not count.

Nor does your membership in a civil war reenactment cult.

But weren't these younger conservatives inspired by Reagan?

Since Reagan spent WWII (a good war if there ever was one) making movies instead of serving his country, and then later lied about it, I'd say that the young chickenhawks were indeed inspired by him.

The backwash WANTS to be offended. bunch of pecksniffs.

kenji, al's parents don't know each other. they were never formally introduced.

FWIW, John Wayne Gacy was a Democrat party activist.

FWIW, Ted Bundy was a Republican party activist.

I am with the conservatives on this. Google is an American company, and if they can mark Martin Luther King's birthday, Independence Day, Mother's Day, Father's day then they should mark Memorial Day. It is a major holiday in the United States, and would cause no rukus for Google to do it.

It's not a big deal for me, but it still should be done.

I looked through all the previous years doodles, and I noticed around 2004, they stopped making one for Canada Day and Bastille Day. But then I went to www.google.ca and they showed Canada Day (and Remembrance Day) for last year. Go to www.google.fr and they have Bastille Day for 2005. They now appear to be targeting their doodles for the country specific sites. I think one issue that someone brought up, is that compared to Remembrance Day, there isn't some concise symbolism for Memorial Day. The poppy has such a strong connection to Remembrance Day, it's easy to come up with a doodle. They've done several variations on it for google.ca and google.co.uk.

So here's my Memorial Day tribute. A poem from Iraq War vet Brian Turner, from his book Here, Bullet. This poem has been published openly in reviews.

AB Negative (The Surgeon's Poem)

Thalia Fields is under a grey ceiling of clouds,
just under the turbulence, with anesthetics
dripping from an I.V. into her arm,
and the flight surgeon says The shrapnel
cauterized as it traveled through her
here, breaking this rib as it entered,
burning a hole through the left lung
to finish in her back, and all of this
she doesn’t hear, except perhaps as music—
that faraway music of people’s voices
when they speak gently and with care,
a comfort to her on a stretcher
in a flying hospital en route to Landstuhl,
just under the rain at midnight, and Thalia
drifts in and out of consciousness
as a nurse dabs her lips with a moist towel,
her palm on Thalia’s forehead, her vitals
slipping some, as burned flesh gives way
to the heat of the blood, the tunnels within
opening to fill her, just enough blood
to cough up and drown in, and Thalia,
she sees the shadows of people working
to save her, but she cannot feel their hands,
and she cannot hear them any longer,
and when she closes her eyes
the most beautiful colors rise in darkness,
tangerine washing into Russian blue,
with the droning engine humming on
in a dragonfly’s wings, the island palms
painting the sky an impossible hue
with their thick brushes dripping in green…
But this is all an act of the imagination,
a means of dealing with the obscenity
of war, what loss there is, the inconsolable
grief, the fact that Thalia Fields is gone,
long gone, about as far from Mississippi
as she can get, 10,000 feet above Iraq
with a blanket draped over her body
and an exhausted surgeon in tears,
his bloodied hands on her chest, his head
sunk down, the nurse guiding him
to a nearby seat and holding him as he cries,
though no one hears it, because nothing can be heard
where pilots fly in black-out, the plane
like a shadow guiding the rain, here
in the droning engines of midnight.

I don't think the danger is that Google will develop Artificial Intelligence. Has everyone seen the flash movie "EPIC2015" ?

http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/epic

I agree with the makers that it's more likely that the powers of Google will be used to take consumerism to the nth power, and to isolate everyone in a bubble of ignorance as impermeable as Bush's.

To be thin-skinned, always on the look-out for slights, is to be very, very unsure of oneself.

That is the conservative mind-set.

I am with the conservatives on this. Google is an American company, and if they can mark Martin Luther King's birthday, Independence Day, Mother's Day, Father's day then they should mark Memorial Day. It is a major holiday in the United States, and would cause no rukus for Google to do it.

It's not a big deal for me, but it still should be done.

Yeah, well, if you want a search engine that fits all your desires for substance-free symbolic demonstrations of superficial patriotism, you are free to build your own.

Conservatives and their wacky ideas that private companies should be proselytizers of the civic religion.

Now that's a funny analogy. Nice timing for this thread, with CNN bringing the full power of their awesomeness to bear on reminding us that some really hot blonde is still missing in Aruba.

Oh, come on. She's not that hot.

A Google Tally

There are ten federal holidays. Google has had doodles for every Thanksgiving, Christmas ("Winter Seasons" or "Holidays"), New Year, and July 4 for the last seven years.

Only ONCE has another official US holiday been recognized: MLK, this year. Note that MLK is also the only one that is an actual birthday; Columbus was actually born August 26, but the holiday is in October. Also nothing for Memorial Day, or Veterans, or Presidents Day.

There has never been a Doodle for Labor Day - is Google pro-capitalist stooges?

This is stupid.

Jonah Goldberg's NRO (National Review Online) often changes its own logo to mark major U.S. holidays.

However, they did not for Memorial Day either.

It makes Jonah's complaint seem hypocritical.