One seldom hears the phrase “I know I’m wrong, but I think…” Arguments occur because the parties involved truly hold their position to be the sole correct one. Yes, that is a stupidly obvious statement. I cannot help but wonder why, however, so many people argue as if they don’t understand that their opponents aren’t “faking,” “misunderstanding,” or “idiotic.”

Those who oppose U.S. interests in the ME do so not because they think it’s “fun to mess with us”, or because they “hate our freedom.” They have completely different interests, beliefs, needs, ideas, concerns, and culture. They find much of our culture repugnant, and the feeling is often mutual – treatment of women, for instance. One culture’s “liberated woman” is another’s “slab of meat on display for the eyes of all lustful men.”

We have unleashed an entity we do not understand. We have fed and funded select parts of it when it was to our benefit – our pittance for their oil – and then proceeded to support in its midst what it most irrationally hates – Israel. What we perceive as in our interest is often, in their perception, to their egregious detriment. Is it possible we are always right and they are always wrong? How miraculous.

I don’t want to be on the “Blame America First” Squad. I also refuse to be on the “America is Never to Blame” Squad. Just as no outside agency could step in and run our affairs to suit us, so shall it be for our (mis)adventures and (mis)deeds in the ME.

They aren’t pretending to be outraged at our actions, and most especially they are not faking their (many and various, but deeply serious) religious convictions. Islam is a religion which differs in so many ways from our Western understanding of the relationship between religion and self. Our facile comparisons to Catholicism and Protestantism, or even fundamentalism, will fail to help us understand why they will continue to contentedly die in ways that will continue to horrify us. One need only look at the lack of lines outside military recruiters to see that our faith in a glorious afterlife holds not a candle to their conviction. We don’t seem that anxious to start the eternal life we’re so absolutely certain awaits us. (They aren’t more certain than we are, are they? Oh, my!)

It’s okay, though. Those whacky fun guys at BushCo know your death won’t have been in vain, whether it be from direct assault by land, air, and sea, noo-cue-lar fallout, terrorist attack, or fossil fuel related global warming. See that hornets’ nest called Iran? It’s only one letter different than Iraq, and “them are the brown people anyways.” (right, joe?) Just whomp on that next with the same big dumb stick that worked so perfectly on Iraq and see what happens. Exit strategy? My first hope was that the lack of an exit strategy in Iraq was a dimwitted way to tell the world we weren’t leaving. As an alternative, more and more in the ME would soon helpfully usher many of us out through the “pearly gates.”

This is a sad loss for Salon, at a time when the arts are under attack from all sides -- net radio's battle to fight unrealistic royalties, the right wing's constant threats to any kind of government support for such "unnecessary" things... We have forgotten that great societies produce (and share with the world) great artistic achievement. The Egyptians? The Greeks? The Romans? The legacies they left for us are inextricable from the art of their cultures.

Okay, so this may be a tad hyperbolic, and maybe it was just a few of us that will miss this feature. *sigh* I guess a small dose of beauty once in a while as an antidote to the ugliness of most of the rest of the world right now was just not worth a bump of the bottom line.

I guess I'll go back to reading about the most recent way our current government is screwing us and the world, and how ineffective the Dems are in combating it. I'd like to threaten to discontinue my subscription, but realistically, there's an election coming up and I'll need it.

I just wish I could have counted on Audiophile to be here too. One more reason to be sad...

I have a suggestion: Use the money you're paying Paglia to write her unreadable and pointless gobbeldygook (wtf?) to bring Audiofile back when you finally realize that Paglia's not an asset to Salon.