I really didn't want to have to deal with this. I really didn't want to acknowledge the fact that it's still going on. But the blog world is bubbling it up to the surface again, and I've got to address it. So let me start out by saying equivocally and rationally: Kiss my liberal Democrat-registered free-thinking ass.

Here's the breakdown:

1. I really don't like being called un-American because I openly criticize our country and especially our dumbass president. Let me tell you how much I appreciate and treasure the fact that I am able to do so without fear of suddenly "disappearing" and never being heard from again because my government's "security forces" stormed my bedroom in the middle of the night. I love being an American. It's part of who I am. In fact, if anyone asks me what I am, I tell them first and foremost without hesitation that I'm an American. I have no shame about it. So why do I criticize our country and our dumbass president? For several reasons, one of which being because I can. I have to stand up and shout until I'm blue in the face for those who can't, and I have to exercise my right to free speech because if I don't speak up for myself and make my views and needs heard, who will? Who will address them if they're not raised?

Another reason is that if I feel there's something wrong, it's my responsibility to raise my hand and say, "Hey, uh... what's up here?" If you're in a relationship and you think things aren't going the way that you'd like and you've got issues, are you just going to stick it out and think that if you just sit in the corner quietly with your hands folded neatly in your lap, your significant other is just going to intuitively know what's bothering you and fix it? No, and if you thought the answer to that question was yes, you've got bigger problems than me being vocal about my issues with this country and its administration and policies. I'm in a relationship with this country. Things my president and my Congress do affect me. So if I've got a problem, I can't just sit in the corner with my hands folded neatly in my lap because chances are if I do that, things will continue to stray farther and farther from where I think they ought to go. Because if I don't say anything, those things that irk me really aren't going to change.

So by me not blindly following our administration and our dumbass president, I'm doing myself a favor. I'm doing you and your families and friends a favor too, because that way we don't slowly slide towards a dictatorship where we've all grown so accustomed to following blindly that it eventually becomes a way of life where the government is not questioned. Remember the '60s? Or, for that matter for those of us who weren't alive or old enough during that era, remember the '80s? Remember how communists were evil and the Evil Soviet Empire didn't allow its citizens freedom of speech or freedom of expression and how we reveled in our own? Remember when we were so scared of becoming a government-controlled state that we went all over the world to aid the democratic forces in places like Vietnam and Grenada and Haiti so that the military dictatorships and the communists wouldn't take control, and they could all be shiny happy little democratic societies like America where the people could do what they want and say what they want and express themselves however they want? But now y'all are telling me I need to shut up and sit down and blindly obey the government because if I don't, I'm being anti-Establishment. Mmmkay... so, can you guys make up your damned minds already? Either I be a member of a nice shiny happy democracy and I speak my mind and I have the right to disagree without fear of reprisal or threat, or we become a nation where we all follow the Will of Our Leader. Hey, haven't we been calling those nations like Iraq where the Will of the Leader is unquestionably obeyed under fear of death, reprisal or threat Evil? So, under that reasoning, you telling me that I should not question our leader puts you in that category of wanting the unquestioning following of the Leader, so you support Evil Terrorist Nations like Iraq. If you want to go blindly obey a leader like that, I suggest you move there.

2. I'm really shocked about this whole anti-Muslim sentiment that flared up post-9/11 and seems to be rearing its ugly head again. Honestly, it really disgusts me. Almost every ethnic group and religion has its faux pas, yet we're not stereotyping all those who belong to those groups by the few and far between examples like we are doing to the Muslims. A group of 20 Muslim hijackers did something horrifying, so we're going after all the Muslims. A group of probably around 20 white Catholic American men have molested hundreds if not thousands of children around the country, but I don't see people clamoring for the witch-hunt against white Catholic American males. None. Not anywhere near the extent that we've been railing against the Muslims. You people have no compunction about sending your children off to church and CCD where they are in the hands of potential molesters, but see a Muslim man and you're beating him up and torching his mosque and saying racial slurs to him. Plus, what about all the other white Catholic American males running around this country? How come we're not locking them up and profiling them for the possibility that they might molest your children? Because, quite frankly, the chances your child will be molested are a hell of a lot better than their chances of getting killed or hurt in a terrorist attack.

Two words for you: Timothy Fucking McVeigh. Here's two more words for you: Ted Fucking Kaczynski. Remember them? White Catholic boys who committed terrorist acts in our country? Who were hunted down as the Most Dangerous Men Around? Who killed children and parents and blew up buildings? They weren't Muslim and they weren't from the Middle East. So how come there wasn't a witch-hunt to go after people of like backgrounds after they were caught? How come white American males weren't harassed and threatened like we're doing to the Muslims? Oh, we've got our excuses -- we're not all like them, you know. They're the aberration. Well, I've got news for you, Professor -- not all Muslims are like the radical extremists who crashed those planes into the World Trade Center. That's why they're called radical extremists, genius. They're the aberration. Yet we suddenly have these propagandist images of all Muslims planted in our heads as bomb-wearing lunatics with no respect for human life, and we're letting ourselves get carried away with it. I didn't see any media images of white American males as fertilizer-bombmakers being planted in our heads after Tim McVeigh blew up the Murrah Building in Oklahoma City. Guess what? I can wander down to Home Depot and buy some fertilizer and then rent a van from Avis, so I'm a pretty dangerous man myself. Why isn't anyone afraid of me and people like me the way they're afraid of Muslims? Why aren't people asking flight attendants to have me removed from airplanes because I'm a white American male like Timothy McVeigh? How come I'm not being racially profiled? How come you're not being racially profiled or pulled off of planes or being detained by the FBI? How come no one's pulling you off the streets and beating you up?

3. Terrorists destroyed two of our most prominent buildings, murdered several thousand of our citizens. That, I will firmly say, is unacceptable. So for those of you who have been building up this entire defense of how I support terrorism, let me dispel that from your minds right now. I do not condone terrorism, and I am mad as hell about what happened last September 11th. But think about all the times our country has run off to do the same thing. How many countries have we bombed in the name of democracy? How many people have we killed, how many wars or skirmishes or military actions have we waged in the name of All That Is Good, and yet we have no problems about it because we were defending our way of life and trying to "liberate" others so they could experience McDonald's and Levi's like us. Well, those terrorists attacked us in the way that we attacked others. And in their countries, they're seen as people who went off to fight the good fight for their way of life. I'm not saying it's right, but I'm saying that I see their point of view.

We do an awful lot of imposing on other countries, and I really don't think we realize it. We are the Big Enforcer of the World, we are the Babysitter, we are the Parent Who Says Eat Your Democracy Because It's Good For You and You Can't Leave Until You Clean Your Plate. It's no wonder countries in the Middle East consider us the Great Satan. What gives us the right to go running all over the world and remaking it in our image? Maybe they're happy with the way things are and they don't want our fast food and our blue jeans.


So, let me sum up here. Hate the terrorist, but hate the terrorist specifically. Don't generalize. Speak up and don't follow blindly. Don't tell me I shouldn't disagree and that I should follow blindly. Being an American does not mean being ignorant or closed-minded, and especially don't tell me I'm being un-American because I'm not being ignorant or closed-minded. Since when did being a liberal suddenly become a bad thing? And finally, I can't believe that we as a nation have become such blind ignorant closed-minded dumbasses that I actually had cause to get angry over this kind of thing.