Patriotic?

I was at the hardware the other day and noticed that another bank had cropped up on the corner. The sign read “Patriot bank.” As one who has learned to be as suspicious of flag-wavers as I am of some who make a show of praying in public, I wondered what made this bank “patriotic?”

I miss the good old days, when it was in poor taste, and illegal even, to use the US flag for commercial purposes. Foley’s in Houston once paid a fine for using a flag image in their full page Fourth of July Sale ad. Imagine what that D.A. would do with the likes of Mattress Mack.

Today I see why this bank is so patriotic. The Treasury Department announced Friday that Houston-based Patriot Bancshares will receive $26 million of TARP bailout money. CEO William D. Ellis told the AP that they didn’t need the capital but had applied.

Patriotic.