The Real Dirty Little Secret

At the moment I'm having to take my political examinations very slowly. Even reading writers I admire is beginning to make me a little itchy. You can follow my links by going through James Wolcott's blog, or you can go directly to this vlog from Pamela Geller. While I still think James Wolcott is a superb writer, his emotional style is beginning to chafe as much as the Geller piece. The absolute moral certainty and crushing disdain for opposition from both pieces is what identifies them as being cut from the same bolt of cloth for me. Woolcot, at least is intelligent and beautifully, ornately articulate. I've visited the Geller blog a couple times and I really struggle to understand the personal motives for trying to position oneself simultaneously as a political analyst and a bimbo party girl. To be over thirty and that drunk at 11:30? One can only imagine the next morning. Has no one learned anything from Ann Coulter?

I'm also a Bill Mahr fan. I record Reel Time and watch it every week. For the most part he tries to understand the opposing view and sometimes he's funny as hell. However, his mission seems to be to to boil any issue down to identifying the ultimate person of responsibility. Who is responsible for the war in Iraq? Who is responsible for global warming? Who is responsible for the death of Anna Nicole Smith? The answers, according to Bill Mahr are: George Bush, big oil companies, the media.

I have a better answer.

You are responsible. Yes, you! The person enjoying the brilliance of Ham Salad at this very moment. YOU.

Understand: I'm not taking myself off the hook either.

I didn't believe in the war on Iraq, but I only wrote one letter of protest and sent it to Barbara Boxer. (Barbara Boxer ROCKS!) I don't have a "Support the Troops" sticker on anything. I'm not even sure I buy the sentiment of supporting the troops of an all-volunteer militia who are fighting an unjust war. (The caveat is that I recognize that the military is mainly comprised of people who have very, very few economic options and whose final years of education is a product of the No Child Left Behind policies. I believe people "support the troops" so they don't feel so bad for not having done enough to prevent the troops being sent on a pointless suicide mission.) I have never attended an anti-war rally. Iraq is not even a major topic on my blog. I could and should do more. So can you. If nothing else, read about it. I promise, a week of casual reading about the war will motivate you to do something.

I drink Diet Coke from plastic bottles. A lot of Diet Coke. And I just throw the bottles away. Sometimes I don't even crush them and so they take up even more room in the plastic garbage bag. I don't recycle. In my defense I do not own a car of any kind and suffer through the Chicago public transit nightmare -- even though I now could afford a car and the necessary parking space that would accompany it. I sort of think that leaving a few thousand plastic bottles in various landfills for all eternity is a fair trade off, but I avoid watching Al Gore talk about global warming because I still feel a little guilty.

I've blogged about Anna Nicole Smith, and although I haven't been panting at the Nancy Grace analysis of her death, I will be interested in reading about the autopsy report and the DNA testing of her baby. It's a sickness I cannot seem to control.

You allowed George Bush frighten you into silence by not questioning his justification for the war. You, personally, did not do enough to object. You could and should live a greener life. And finally, we wouldn't know nearly as much about Anna Nicole if you weren't watching it on television, accepting candy-ass coverage as a substitute for hard news.

We are part of the richest, most powerful nation in the history of the world. Even in our decline we are still the supreme power on the planet. With that position of privilege comes a deep, deep moral responsibility to put down the Game Boy and Miller Lite and devote a couple of hours a week to one -- just one -- global issue of your choosing. If you truly know something about it, you will do something about it.

Our troops have ponied up their lives and limbs so that I can blather in cyber space and you can read it. That beautiful sense of honor is being grossly abused in this war.

Now, what are you going to do?