Anything, that attracts negative publicity to Las Vegas gets noticed here. Even by tourist destination standards, we are a town that lives by others' image of us. And, so the national attention being paid to the downtown flag controversy is getting as least as much attention as the controversy, itself  The Las Vegas City Council has ordered a Hummer dealership to take down a flag flapping a 100 feet in the air. Neighbors find the flapping sound annoying, and the city only allows for a 40-foot high flag. The owner of the dealership tells the Review-Journal (in an article that grimly mentions twice how Fox News and CNN are covering the issue): "The building's oversized, the sign's oversized. A 40-foot flag would not turn anyone's head to the flag." The flag or the dealership? The owner of the Hummer dealership doesn't necessarily sound 60-feet more patriotic but seems to argue the nature of selling Hummers requires an oversized flag.  Is that a display of patriotism or a marketing necessity?

Nonetheless, according to the Review-Journal, the city has been bombarded by e-mail from those offended by this perceived attack on the differential: 60-feet worth of patriotism. One enraged tourist quoted in the paper announced that he canceled a planned trip to New York New York: "I don't want to stay in a city that will not let a business fly a USA flag." Is it even worth pointing out that New York New York, like the rest of  the Strip, isn't in the city of Las Vegas?

Anyway, I predict that this will end with the Hummer dealership getting its way. Our City Council are best known for whatever the opposite is of the word spine. And, image is everything in Las Vegas for both the city and Paradise Township where sits the Strip.