{"id":9501,"date":"2006-06-24T10:31:42","date_gmt":"2006-06-24T17:31:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/2006\/06\/24\/look-to-the-left-look-to-the-right.html"},"modified":"2006-06-24T10:31:42","modified_gmt":"2006-06-24T17:31:42","slug":"look_to_the_lef","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/06\/24\/look_to_the_lef.html","title":{"rendered":"Look to the left, look to the right …"},"content":{"rendered":"

Snopes tackles the urban myth that the presidential seal’s eagle changes it’s facing during time of war<\/a> — to look to its left (audience right) at the arrows it clutches, vs. toward its right (audience left) at the olive branches. Most recently, it showed up in Dan Brown’s 2002 novel, Deception Point<\/em>, and was also raised on The West Wing<\/em>.<\/p>\n

It turns out that in 1916, Woodrow Wilson changed the Presidential Seal (Flag) to be different from the Great Seal of the United States, the eagle of which has always faced the olive branches. In 1945, shortly after the war, Truman ordered that the Presidential seal be changed back, acknowledging the symbolism of the olive branches as a hope and drive for peace. Aside from those changes, though, there’s been no automatic pivoting head as a weatervane of hostilities (though that would actually be kind of cool).<\/p>\n

And now you know.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Snopes tackles the urban myth that the presidential seal’s eagle changes it’s facing during time of war — to look to its left (audience right) at the arrows it clutches,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9501","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics-law"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":160991,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2026\/03\/13\/brother-can-you-spare-the-dime.html","url_meta":{"origin":9501,"position":0},"title":"Brother, Can You Spare the Dime?","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 13-Mar-26 4:19pm","format":false,"excerpt":"So much for the idea of extending an olive branch.","rel":"","context":"In "Homeland Security"","block_context":{"text":"Homeland Security","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law\/homeland-security"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/dime-2026-650x650.webp?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/dime-2026-650x650.webp?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/dime-2026-650x650.webp?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1694,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2001\/11\/23\/more_reasons_wh.html","url_meta":{"origin":9501,"position":1},"title":"More reasons why I love what Margie cooks for me","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 23-Nov-01 11:32am","format":false,"excerpt":"The History Channel talks about some of the items on the menu at the first Thanksgiving ... \"Could you pass over some of that Seal with Tangy Liverwort Crust?\"\"Sure, but...","rel":"","context":"In "Potpourri"","block_context":{"text":"Potpourri","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/potpourri"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":28243,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/06\/12\/checks-and-balances.html","url_meta":{"origin":9501,"position":2},"title":"Checks and balances","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 12-Jun-12 11:25am","format":false,"excerpt":"The term \"checks and balances\" doesn't necessarily mean conflict or opposition between the branches of government. The sad thing is that the Courts and Congress have simply declined to check the Executive's ever-increasing exercise of power in the name of \"national security.\" \u00a0The danger, of course, is that by the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12364,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2008\/05\/19\/the_graphic_presidency.html","url_meta":{"origin":9501,"position":3},"title":"The Graphic Presidency","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 19-May-08 6:08pm","format":false,"excerpt":"A survey of presidential campaign logos (mostly bumper stickers) since 1960. Most popular symbols are : flag, star, eagle and the number of the year of the elections. Though...","rel":"","context":"In "Media & Culture"","block_context":{"text":"Media & Culture","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/images\/pres-stickers.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":40259,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/01\/01\/httpwww-latimes-comlocallanowla-me-ln-la-county-supervisors-cross-county-s.html","url_meta":{"origin":9501,"position":4},"title":"County Seals and Crosses to Bear","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 1-Jan-14 12:03pm","format":false,"excerpt":"http:\/\/www.latimes.com\/local\/lanow\/la-me-ln-la-county-supervisors-cross-county-seal-20131231,0,1242704.story#axzz2pArh1A4VI was, mercifully, out of LA County when this kerfuffle last went on, but ... interesting.The seal shown in the story below was the \u00a0+previous_ seal, which included a free-floating cross (along with two stars) floating over the Hollywood Bowl. \u00a0The new seal is here:\u00a0http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/File:Seal_of_Los_Angeles_County,_California.png -- that cross is gone,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Church & State"","block_context":{"text":"Church & State","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law\/church-state"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3521,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2002\/11\/04\/spoiled.html","url_meta":{"origin":9501,"position":5},"title":"Spoiled","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 4-Nov-02 8:10am","format":false,"excerpt":"Maybe it was growing up with Decision '80 style network coverage of presidential elections. It gave Americans such as myself a sense, a tradition, an expectation of clean, crisp, clear-cut,...","rel":"","context":"In "Politics & Law"","block_context":{"text":"Politics & Law","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9501","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9501"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9501\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}