[quote=“JDSmith”]There is such a thing as loyalty and patriotism in this world. I am not a nationalist by any means. My country has fucked up a lot of things, but OVERALL, it has done a damn good job. I come from a beautiful part ofthe US bob, and the roads are plowed in the winter and the grass in the parks is cut in the summer; there are sports programs for kids in every school district in the summer, the schools have music and arts programs; the fire departments come quickly and the police are for the most part reliable and professional. I love NY.
In the larger view, no country is dropping bombs on my country. There is no irreversable damage being done by any president in his 8 possible years in the big House. I like voting and I do feel my vote counts. The media blows, but it’s better than most other countries. The checks and balances in my country work, in some cases it takes a lot of time, but for the most part, justice IMHO is done on the micro scale and the macro. There are 10 stupid things that happen for every wonderful thing in the USA, but that’s ok with me. We are not perfect. And that’s ok, because it means there’s always hope of doing better. I DO think the USA is worth defending; and I do think that military service is a great way to thank the government for all it does for its citizens.
I love the USA too bob, and that may sicken you, but I honestly don’t care. [/quote]
It may surprise you, JD, to know that many of us who some on your end of the spectrum like to characterize as traitors, self-haters and whatnot feel pretty much the same. Among other things, one thing I’M really proud of as an American, is to come from a country whose education system actually encourages its citizens to be self-critical regarding their country’s history and policies, as self-criticism is the only possible starting point for improvement. That may not be what you mean by patriotism, but I think it’s what the agitators in the May 4th Movement and the Tiananmen Square movement over there across the straight meant by it, despite their having been called “traitors” by some who felt that the only way to show patriotism is to support whatever the government says or does. In his plays, Aristophanes held his government and its policies up to the most instense ridicule during the height of the Pelopanesian War - and yet, Edith Hamilton tells us, “The Athenians flocked to the theater.”
I do love a lot of those things you said about America, which is more reason than any to HATE seeing our national justice run rough-shod over in the way that it has as described by Senator Leahy in the the Department of Justice Oversite [url=Sen. Leahy takes on Bush's "Justice" Dept. over wrongdoings
Incidentally, JD, you and Gao Bo Han look kind of similar. Are you related in any way?
I don’t think Osama B. could give two kernels of poo for the Palestinian cause. It’s our military pressence in the region and support of the tyrannical governments there (as if he’d be any different) that’s got him all tied up in knots!
Gee, you ought to ask, let’s see… Delay, Rove, Libby, Cheney, Abramov, Cunningham, Bush, etc. that question. They’ve all been doing a lot of justifying lately. I wish you ‘moral absolutists’ or whatever the heck you call yourselves would start taking those strict standards you supposedly uphold and start applying them to your own side.