T-Shirt Scandal

Several states are banning the use of T-shirts to protest the War in Iraq:

news.yahoo.com...

PHOENIX - Incensed by the sale of anti-war T-shirts and other paraphernalia emblazoned with the names and pictures of America's military dead, some states are outlawing the commercial use of the fallen without the permission of their families.

Despite serious questions of constitutionality, Oklahoma and Louisiana enacted such laws last year, and the governors of Texas and Florida have legislation waiting on their desks. Arizona lawmakers are on the verge of approving a similar measure.

"You should have some rights to your own name and your own legacy, particularly if you're a deceased veteran," said state Sen. Jim Waring, a Republican who sponsored the Arizona bill. "Celebrities have that. Why shouldn't our soldiers have that?"

I don't particularly agree. I don't think these kids, aka future draftees, pulled the photos from the family album. Most likely a media source: where they don't mind plastering photos daily to drum roll in a "now listen to this..." sequence.

It's stupid. I'm going to fire up my ink jet t-shirt kit:

"Congress. Listen. I'll say what I want." Back

You actually do need the family's permission before you use the deceased's image. And seriously, what kind of jerk would make that type of shirt. Would you like to die for something and have the image of that used to oppose it? Say you opposed the government in a rebellion (I really don't see that happening) and got killed. Would you like someone using a picture of you dead saying that rebelling is pointless?

Well, geesh dude, where's everyones' little "So Damn Insane" Hussein shirt, to busy watching the video of his hanging, I guess.

Yeah, I'll back that up. You should only promote causalities of war, if is funny, unto you.

The states aren't banning the t-shirts. They're banning the use of images without permission from the family, which is as it should be.

As for the images being used on the news, the stations have to get a release form signed by the family members before they can use the images.

Yeah, right. We get a lot of flak about our news coverage when a boy falls that was local. And, the media seems to thoroughly enjoy watching the family explain in meekedness that there son/daughter was a good person, and that they "feel" they would have liked him return.