From the Depths: You can take your "Patriotism" and shove it!

[Mangrove]

http://www.amazon.com/Limits-Power-End-American-Exceptionalism/dp/0805088156/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1220644484&sr=8-1


I didn't realize that the book was written by a republican. Still, I wouldn't mind reading the whole thing to see where it's going. The introduction was pretty good.

[hooplala]

Giuliani's mockery was shameful...  Colbert tore a slice out of him over it.

Colbert's "facade" is starting to crumble lately, actually.

[LMNO]

Colbert's "facade" is starting to crumble lately, actually.

Harsh satire can be spiritually draining, sometimes.

[hooplala]

True. 

[Jenne]

Colbert will rally.  I have faith in his...rapport.

ugh.  bad bad BAD pun.

Anyway, I hear you RWHN--AGAIN.  This time around, the Olympics didn't just BORE me, they SHAMED me.  Never has such a--to borrow from Star Wars--a more wretched hive of chauvinism and them vs. us have I seen in the recent past (except for the RNC masturbation fest this past week).

The concept that America is sooooo unique, sooooo over the top A-#1 top choice is wearing thin.  Painfully so.  So the desperate masses rally weakly to the battle cry of "USA! USA! USA!"...meanwhile, we see starvation, ignorance and death of the body politic.

Congrats, Republitards--this is your legacy.  THIS is what you have wrought--a severe dumbing-down of America by several latches.  To the point that in order to see this as a point of return, you have to wear the rosiest of glasses, be slightly tipsy, and very myopic.

But I think, in my own very adversarial, advocational way, this is just a battle cry of a different tenor and in a different language altogether.  That those of us in the trenches know we belong not as a defeatist community but rather an educational one.  At least, I try to be, anyway.

[Tempest Virago]

Giuliani is utterly shameless and despicable.

When I was younger, I self-identified as a patriot. I liked this quote by Mark Twain: "Loyalty to the country always. Loyalty to the government when it deserves it."

I don't identify as a patriot anymore, but that's mainly because I think it's not a good idea to overidentify with a particular country. Nationalism is a scary thing.