Check Please! -OR- Time to MAN up.

Part of an ongoing debate in my other realm over torture. I'd dearly like to see this person's passport. Lacking that glimpse, I can only assume he/she hasn't traveled much beyond the established perimeter.

"Watcher, you are like a spoiled child. You display a faux intellectualism fails to acknowledge why you even have the right to criticize. You (we) have it so good compared to others around the world that things aren’t even good enough for you anymore.

Our freedoms came from the patriotism, sacrifice and bloodshed of our forefathers. Our national prosperity was created by hardworking entrepreneurs who took advantage of their freedom and created personal wealth.

Freedom around the world is a direct result of Americans who have fought and spilled more of its own blood on foreign soil than any other country for the sake of freedom. The world is a dangerous place filled with people who would cut your head off with a dull knife because they disagree with you.

Imagine being a hungry, destitute and politically repressed family, not in south Chicago where the government gives you everything, but in South America where you don’t dare dissent. Imagine seeing the leader of the free world, your only hope for freedom, smiling and yuking it up when he meets the brutal dictator who has caused you so much real misery. How devastating must that be?

Freedom loving people around the world embrace the United States for the prosperity and security it provides them. Those who hate freedom and all it entails hate the U.S. Torture the enemy? So what. Those who hate us, those who spite our freedom, those who are jealous of our standard of living would do anything to destroy us. We must do whatever it takes to stop them.


This rationale begins with what can best be called the "Colonel Jessup dodge". This is what REAL Americans embrace. Not because it's correct, but because it's easy. They were yanked from the pond early in the derby after swallowing the lure. Hook, line and sinker. They now swim to and fro in their little aquarium, but in their limited exposure, think they're still in the wild. FREE to do as they are told. Rising to the surface to feed on the flakes lovingly supplied at regular intervals known as election cycles, then instantly forgetting the experience. Oblivious to the ancillary costs borne by people fed the resultant fecal waste. And told to LIKE it.

Without skipping a beat, the medley of greatest hits continues with Jimmy Cagney's tap danced rendition of Yankee Doodle Boy. With a righteous Ayn Rand solo at the break. USA. USA. USA. USA! Baseball, Hot Dogs, Apple Pie and Chevrolet!
Having forgotten Steroids, Rat Hair filler, Insecticides and P.O.S. Chevettes.
Blocking out slavery, indentured servitude, Range Wars, Company Towns, Union busting, the Eight-Hour Day, Pullman, Dow Chemical, Hooker Chemical, Beatrice Foods, Enron, Madoff... aka the downside of capitalism. Can't you just feel the stir and strum?

The bucolic musical journey is reaching the cliff now, piped piededly, the red-blooded, patriots queue up, sign up and stack up waiting for the next opus of the concert.
"We give them money are they grateful? No, they're spiteful and they're hateful...
They don't respect us, so let's surprise `em. Let's drop the Big One and pulverize `em"

Oh hell yes. Anthem! It doesn't matter that Randy Newman's "Political Science" was written as acerbic farce.
"It's the truth man. It's not wrong if we do it. Our baby Jeebus tells us so".

What possibly can serve as a finale? I'm just old enough that the phrase "Freedom loving people of _________" evokes a visceral tug. Pain follows which, depending on the speaker, can range from discomfort to Incredible Hulk RAGE.

Longing for the good old days when things were simpler? When objectives could be achieved with infected blankets and good old fashioned lies and deceptions. You can't claim to be responsible for "civilization" of the planet until you reject the barbarism used to pave the way as an obsolete tool, rather than one that only you are PURE enough to employ.

Rattling, whether sabers or nuke tipped projectiles, may be an empty threat, but as long as an iota of doubt is cultivated, maintained and projected as plausible, the rest of the world's leaders have to consider it legitimate. Projecting a swagger based on possession of superior firepower belies any contention that you are benign.

When you say one thing and do another, you have lied. When you drag out the brass-knuckles, you surrender all intentions and progress made by those who believed in a better way; a better world.

Turning the reins over to demonstrated knuckle-dragging throwbacks of bygone days was a error that has been corrected. Repairing the considerable damage done by this MISTAKE requires admission of the mistake and acceptance of judgment. That may suck, but trying to throw a flag over it and avoid the reality is justice denied.

When you talk the talk, you gotta park the swagger and walk the walk. Admitting fault isn't fatal when you are still the salvageable beacon of the world. Will a cleansing enema be embarrassing? Absolutely. But staying full of shit, is considerably less than pleasant too.

This spoiled child is ready to take his medicine.