I too struggle with pessimism when I consider the history and proclivities of our species. For example, as Salon just noted, Giordano Bruno was tortured and killed by the Catholic Church and less than a century ago, the Catholic Church canonized his accuser. So, one of the Catholic saints is a torturer. And here in America, we now torture. Our president is a torturer, and, by proxy, so are Bush voters. I often call the Republican Party the Torture/Jesus party, since they oversee torture and allegedly believe in Jesus, who was tortured. If it weren't so horrific, it would be funny.

However, if you were to meet me, you would find me to be sunny, soft, and loving. I have been told that I seem fierce on the Internet, but less so in person. So, my pessimism doesn't rule the meat me.

I do believe that words aren't enough. If you just talk and walk by someone suffering or even struggling, you're just jibber-jabbering. You don't have to sit with the homeless. There are so many people needing assistance. If you don't know them, it's because you don't want to know them.

I really felt compassion for kufir77 today. When I'm not on-line, I don't have to live with his anger. He never escapes it. His thoughts about lonewolfy's crotch and snuff films and giving condoms to three-year olds must be his constant companions. Who thinks such things? Well, kufir77 does, but who would want to think such things? If only he didn't vote. That's the trouble. He votes and his disorders become our disorders, as we're left with a president who shits on the Constitution, who believes that all citizens are equal, but some are more equal than others, and that war is peace. I tried to joust with kufir77 a few times, but then he rebuts with toddlers and condoms and it's just creepy and I end up pitying him.

I thought about your apt and earlier observation about the state of American television. I just Googled the average number of acts of violence witnessed by American children in their first 18 years: it's 200,000. That's pornographic. I'll take pole-dancing deer anyday and everyday over simulated acts of violence.

I like your hypothesis.

...the notion of white supermacy is silly.

The city's below sea level.

As a people, we cluster on coasts. Better to leave the coasts to the sea and to beachcombers.

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0112-15.htm

When Sartre visited the TVA in the thirties, he noted that everything the Americans build is ephemeral.

We could, of course, build like the Dutch, but the Dutch don't have much choice, given how little land they own. We do have a choice. Should we borrow more money from the Chinese to build state of the art levees? Should we raise taxes?* New Orleans is otherwordly, but it sits on a swamp, which is why they don't bury their dead, for the bodies popped up over yonder when they did.

I think people like kufir77 are oblivious. Likely, he was exaggerating to hurt us (in the name of Jesus). Still, one must conjure the images that he employs. One must imagine three-year olds with condoms. One must imagine lonewolfy masturbating. Until I imagined kufir77 imagining, I never contemplated his crotch and as soon as I did, in a tit for tat, I skittered from the thought, whereas he embraced lonewolfy's crotch, albeit verbally. I think he projects his sexual sickness upon liberals and I think he's oblivious to how it's his mind that's the home to creepy-crawlies.

I agree with kitchengirl more than you realize. As you likely know, the United States spends more money on weapons than the next 12 countries combined:

http://www.nationmaster.com/country/us-united-states/mil-military

The Soviet Union was broken by profligate war spending. We too will be broken as we go broke. In theory, spending billions on world-class levees is a good thing, but it runs absolutely contrary to the American way, which is to build and abandon. What Sartre said isn't still true: it's truer than ever. There are abandoned strip malls and empty storefronts everywhere. It isn't the American way to preserve and protect.

So, IF we stop funding the War Department (I refuse to call it the Defense Department.) and IF we pay off the trillions in Bush debt and IF we acquire a taste for something other than big, shiny baubles, then we can build big, shiny levees.

Sure, New Orleans once again revealed America's deep racism and disdain for its poor. However, it has been predicted for decades that New Orleans would be swept away, just as it's been predicted that California will crumble in a big way, as it will one day.

Americans will soon be forced to choose, by dint of the national debt and our debtors, what matters most to them: our shiny weapons or our economy. Bin Laden won. In taking down the towers, he's taken out our fiscal health. It wasn't the loss of the towers that led to the loss of fiscal health, but rather our reaction to the loss of the towers: the unchecked borrowing. The national coffers are long past empty. If we want to secure New Orleans, something must go. Like you, I wish that the War Department were reduced, thus freeing funds to secure our cities.

Fine. I'll add to her pragmatic pamphlet:

The mouth is for eating, not kissing.

Breasts are for milkmaking, not lovemaking.

And, most of all, the pee-nis is for peeing, not sucking!

It's get it in and get it out, girls, and remember, think happy thoughts!

And please ignore the wingnuts in this thread who are still sniffing around Bill Clinton's crotch.

But don't anyone tell him!

That's high praise, considering the source: She Who Must Be Adored

You surprised me sometimes and I love surprises.