quote:
The alternative is that if you are going to interfere, interfere properly and responsibly. Lets use a wrestling analogy. Get in there and separate the parties, like a ref in the ring. don't stand by and claim to be the ref, but keep handing one wrestler a baseball bat.
I'm a little embarassed that I never thought of this analogy myself. :)

I understand your confusion over my apparent dichotomy, Rob. All I can say is that I consider myself a patriot, and not a casual one, either. I'm very into the Founding Fathers (especially Jefferson), and very much a believer in the principles of democracy and freedom.

But one of the Fathers -- I think it was Franklin -- once said something along the lines of, "The ones you have to watch out for are the ones who raise their flags the highest." At the moment -- ever since the fifties, really -- our culture has equated patriotism with conservatism.

But our country was not created by conservatives. Our country was created by lunatics, warlords, black magicians, radicals and madmen. They risked and often gave their lives for the very principles that guys like the Shrub are now trying to undermine.

Kites in lightning storms. That's America, man. Politicians whose first answer to every problem is to consolidate more personal power? That's a dictatorship waiting to happen. And it will happen, and it is happening.