Letters to the Editor
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fred-dick
our hegemony has been bought with endless war. How many years since WWII have been free of US involvement, directly or indirectly, in war? Korea, Vietnam, installing the Shah, backing the Mujahadeen in Afghanistan, arming and supporting Saddamn Insane against an Iran we ourselves created, Gulf War One, Bush War II.... endless bloodshed, machinations by the military industrial complex that would make the Medicis blush, war for oil, war for profit, war to test our new war toys, war for patriotism. war. It's the American way. You post is inane in the extreme.
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@tom payne
Inane or not, my post sure got your blood boiling. Unfortunately, none of it reached your brain.
Guys like you now have that glorious option available, since you hate this country so much: Sign Up with Al-Qaeda.
[And if you had the patience (and intelligence, which you obviously don't) you would perhaps have noticed that I in no way assert the USA is anything approaching perfection, currently or in the past.
Also, if you fucking use that fred-dick thing again, I'll never give you the honor of a reply---in fact, I don't really know why I am reply this time...it's like debating a Doberman Pincher.
Good luck, your poor thing.
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fredrick, oh holy one
As a Vietnam era veteran of four years service, may I humbly request that you take your Al Quaida invitation and shove it up your flabby ass. Did you not claim Murkan hegemonic dominance, or whatever inflated horseshit junior college crap you posted, was accomplished peaceably? Was that satire? Scattering your pearls of worldly wisdom before us porkers? PIss up a rope. I could give a steaming pile of bushit whether you respond or not. You're the sort that keeps a thesaurus next to his/her/its keyboard to impress the rabble. I have a grandson who just turned six who has a better vocabulary than you do, and in three languages. Back to that rope, Fredrick, sir. love heywood.
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@TP
Since you didn't use that fred-dick thing, you deserve a reply.
Congratulations that you have relatives with better vocabularies than do you, but so do most German Shepherds.
No thesaurus used when I write---I'm just much smarter than you.
[You started this personal attack thing, but you picked the wrong guy to do it to. This is just fun to me, especially since you're so obviously ill-equipped to engage in a word-battle with me or any middle school graduate, for that matter.]
Let's stop wasting Salon space, please.
PS-Thanks for you Nam service and, honestly, good luck.
LAST REPLY TO YOU
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Kamiya's view from Mars
Only the well fed complain about food.
If the average poster showed as much distain and complaint for their employer as they do their country, most would be unemployable.
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Fred
You're a legend in your own hollow mind.
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OhioPlayer on country
Actually, it has evolved into different forms.
Rock, metal, jazz, modern folk all owe a lot to country.
The thing is, whenever country has evolved it has stopped being "country" and become something else. That you don't get sub-genres to country is because whenever a sub-genre has appeared, it has ended up being called something other than country.
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Except
If the average poster showed as much distain and complaint for their employer as they do their country, most would be unemployable.
The country is supposed to be working for the citizens, not the citizens for the country.
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Independent_thinker
Adressing your statement on the Pope:
That is a triumph of secularism, not Christianity. Secularism gives people the right to ignore their religious leaders.
For that matter, so is the whole "We don't burn witches at the stake" concept.
The Western world is not particularly religious, mainly because back when it was we had the inquisition, witch hunts, book burnings and genocides.
Overly Christian areas sometimes still have the inquisition, witch huns, book burnings and genocides (Look at the DRC as an example.)
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Terence on human interest (for weeping for brunnhilde)
The actual quote is
Homo sum: humani nil a me alienum puto.
(I'm a human being; I consider nothing human foreign to me. Terence, 2nd century BC. Heautontimorumenos, act 1, sc. 1, line 77.)
In the original context, it's the speaker's justification for being concerned and curious about the difficulties of his neighbor.
Thank you for replying so constantly and so humanly to so many other letter writers.
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Frederick
Your economic policy has failed, costing America in homes and jobs.
Your foreign policy has failed, costing America in lives and trade.
Your president has failed, costing America in prestige and standing.
Your congress has failed, costing in America its reserves and infrastructure.
Your supreme court has failed, your senate has failed, your religion has failed where have you succeeded?
It is time to start listening to those who were right in the first place. It is time to cut the "patriotic" crap.
That is what scares cowards about Obama's preacher. That America is not perfect, that its behaviour is not always above board and that there is real injustice in America's actions implies the need to fix those imperfections.
It is much easier to wave a flag and say "America uber alles" than to actually knuckle down and do the work needed to run the damn place.
That is what Obama offers by not being a "patriot". By not wearing the flag pin, by marrying a not-particularly proud American, Obama offers America a president who won't waste its fucking time with flags and reminders of just which country you come from.
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Oh, and another thing
If the average poster showed as much distain and complaint for their employer as they do their country, most would be unemployable.
If the average poster's employer ran their business as badly as America's current government runs a country - the average posters would be out a job and a pension fund.
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Stupid Patriotism?
The only thing I would quibble about in this article is the statement that "stupid patriotism is the problem." Remove the extraneous word "stupid" and you're right on target. All patriotism is stupid and problematic, not just the obviously stupid variety. Along with religion, patriotism has caused more misery for humanity than everything else put together. Love of country is just another form of elevating things above people. If I say "gosh I love my new TV - I mean I really LOVE MY NEW TV!" - you'd rightly conclude there's something very wrong with my thinking. But if I say "gosh I love my country - I mean I really LOVE MY COUNTRY" - you'd conclude I'm simply a bit overzealous in expressing my patriotism. But it's every bit as shallow and selfish to really love my country as it is to really love my new TV. It's putting things above people. And it's always wrong, period.