Loving One’s Country

Brian Tamanaha vents:

I feel fortunate to have been born in the United States, but I don’t love my country. It has no love for any of us. A cold, manipulative, object of affection, the state fans patriotism, then asks those who love it deeply to prove their love by dying or sacrificing their limbs for it.

It will not happen in my lifetime, but I look forward to the day when states are no more.

Oy. Roger Alford replies here, and gets this riposte.

A Good Question

"No one has so far explained why it’s fine for Mr. Bloomberg to advance his own political career using his personal fortune, but it would be "dirty" for him to bankroll someone else who shared his agenda. As long as voters knew where the money came from, they’d be free to decide whether it tainted the candidate or not. Such donations could be posted instantly on the Internet," – the Wall Street Journal.

The Great Polarizer

Larry Sabato gets it right:

Let’s suppose Mrs. Clinton wins in November 2008. Democrats would have to live with the consequences. There is simply no question that Senator Clinton would be the third deeply polarizing President in a row, following her husband’s divisive and partially wasted tenure and George W. Bush’s deeply disappointing turn at bat. We bet that she would have a short honeymoon and would be unable to convince her millions of critics and detractors that she had changed – or was different than they long ago concluded she was. At a time when the nation could use a unifier and a healer – to the extent that any President can perform those roles – partisan warfare would be at fever pitch from Day One.

Sicko

Mooreevanagostinigetty

A reader writes:

Not sure if you can swing some sort of a journalist’s early pass or something else similar that would allow you to see an early screening of Michael Moore’s new documentary, "Sicko," but – and please know how deeply it pains me to admit this – it was absolutely briliant. Twice, I was moved to tears.

I absolutely hated him after "Farenheit 9/11," and honestly, never really even regarded him previously – neither negatively nor positively. I simply never even thought of him. I believe that he has found his voice, somehow, where as before he was just so caught up in – what’s the word? – a sort of rabid, insane fixation on conspiracy theories (see his latest announcement about the gov’t. still not releasing all it knows about 9/11.

All of that aside – he has managed something that speaks to all Americans, regardless of political bent. I won’t ruin it for you and reveal too much about it – but lets say that of the four countries to which he travels and then compares to the US, I could have done without the fourth one – simply because of the propaganda aspects of it. But the punch in the gut it delivers makes it almost worth it.

I’m blown away that last month, FOX news allowed their folks to speak positively of it. So, I’m encouraged that in their so doing, it might just nudge people who have sworn never to give Moore a cent of their money after "Farenheit…" to take a look-see at his latest offering. Again – I can not believe I am endorsing this. Maybe it’s because of the major-league smack-down he delivers to Hillary about 1/3 of the way into the movie. And watching it Saturday night at an advance screening here in the very left-leaning Santa Monica, CA audience – it made my month to hear this audience initially cheer her when the segment on her began and then sit in abject, silent horror letting only the occasional, hushed, "OH NO" release.  Priceless.  And so satisfying.

Any expose of Clinton is fine by me. But I grew up with socialized medicine, and I know what a disaster it is. It’s coming, of course. You can feel it. Bush paved the way. The golden era of American medicine and research will soon cede to more and more state control. It will exchange a great deal of its excellence for more access for more people. That’s the bargain most democracies make. 

(Photo: Evan Agostini/Getty.)

Face of the Day

Rainfarooqnaeemafpgetty

A Pakistani man looks for shelter during a heavy rain shower in Islamabad, 25 June 2007. Trucks carrying aid rolled into Karachi on 25 June after the death toll from violent storms and flooding along Pakistan’s Arabian Sea coast rose to at least 235 people, officials said. Authorities have launched a major relief operation in affected areas of the sprawling port city of 12 million people following devastating rain and strong winds, Karachi mayor Mustafa Kamal said. By Farooq Naeem/AFP/Getty.