So, I bought these stamps recently, not because I’m patriotic, but because it’s all they had at the grocery store.

It’s an interesting bit of propaganda, with Forever having double meaning the way it’s employed:

1. Since 2006, Forever Stamps have been sold because, previously, whenever the postage rate went up one or two cents, customers holding the “old” stamps would have to buy one-cent or two-cent stamps, to be used in addition to the “old” stamps, in order to mail a simple envelope. Forever Stamps, then, would always cover the full amount for regular, first class mail, even if the rate for first class is raised before the “old” stamps are used.
2. Freedom, Liberty, Equality and Justice…Forever! We’re number one! We’re number one!

And while I could pick apart the use here of Freedom, Liberty, and Justice, providing links to examples of how all of them have eroded over the years, the stamp titled Equality, in particular, jumped out at me, because equality and the American flag are especially oxymoronic these days.

Then, this funny thing happened.

I wasn’t happy with the quality of the photo I’d taken of these stamps, I wanted to blog about it, so I went to the United States Postal Service website looking for a higher quality image, and I found this:

Now, of course it’s forgery protection, but it really packs an amazing, albeit unintended, punch, doesn’t it?