WASHINGTON -- This will, for obvious reasons, be the biggest Fourth of July ever. People who tally such things predict record numbers of flag displays, cookouts and youthful fingers blown off by cherry bombs. Expressions of gung-ho patriotic sentimentality are selling briskly, from Royal Doulton firefighter figurines to Lynne Cheney's "America: A Patriotic Primer" (No. 11 on the bestsellers' list). Antenna flags, grown tattered since September, will likely be replaced, and most cities are expecting larger than usual attendance at their Independence Day parades.

Even artists, those left-leaning, anti-authoritarian, alternative-lifestyle rebels of the '90s, are in on the act. Todd Scott marked Flag Day (June 14 for you traitors who missed it) by unveiling his 17-by-32-meter, duct-tape American flag in Manhattan's Union Square. "Duct tape is an incredibly versatile and fun product," Scott says in his press release. "You are only limited by your imagination, and the U.S. flag is just one of many amazing things you can create with it."

This is, of course, the problem. Not duct tape, but the spine-shudderingly tasteless style of American patriotism in both its unofficial and official forms. The tackification of America culminated (one hopes) with the simultaneous issuance of 9-11 commemorative coins and the announcement of the new Department of Homeland Security.