Thank you Mike Farrel for this courageous piece of sad truths, motivated for sure by a a genuine and jealous patriotism for a homeland you want it to do better. This is what I call true patriotism.

And thank you further for educating me on the presence of such work as “The Ugly American” which further was made into a movie. I will get the book and watch the movie based on it if I can get my hands on both.

I confess that I was shocked to learn that such a book could have been written fifty years ago, when I was just ten years old living far away from America and having a very positive and romanticized image of her. I am sure if I was around and had read the book at that time, I would have been very angry with the authors, though they proved to be individuals who were ahead of their times.

But after what I have lived through and witnessed in my adopted homeland of America, especially during the last eight years of the right-wing ugliness, chauvinism, stupidity and plain evil that led to the disastrous situation many Americans are witnessing and sadly feeling today, I am encouraged to go ahead with the idea of a book to be titled “The One Thousand and One American Nightmares.” The title would be a parody of “The One Thousand and One Arabian Nights,” yet its episodes would not be entertaining fiction, but rather sad hard facts presented as wake-up calls to jealous and concerned patriotic Americans to motivate them to dare looking themselves in the mirror of truth and abhor what they see as contrary to their ideals, so they might move on to chart a new efficacious path of salvation before it’s too late!

i used to watch you on t.v. when i was a teenager.
i really loved what you wrote.
as we aussies say
your a champion mate!

Shenonymous, my conscience is clear.

One can stand noble, or think they are standing noble.

I’m not the State, Shenonymous, and it’s incorrect to claim that I or any of the American people outside of the three governmental branches or the bureaucracy are the State. Villainous things may be done “in my name”, but such a claim is a lie.

My way of rebelling is to stand firmly by my principles; for instance, I refuse to vote for either of the two major parties in presidential elections, for both are part of the problem and not part of the solution. I also refuse to support any more US interventions overseas, against imagined enemies claimed as such by the State; as Liebknecht said, “The enemy is at home.” And I do my bit for freedom by spreading discontent online, remembering something Mencken said nearly a hundred years ago: “The most dangerous man, to any government, is the man who is able to think things out for himself, without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos. Almost inevitably he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane and intolerable, and so, if he is romantic, he tries to change it. And even if he is not romantic personally he is very apt to spread discontent among those who are.”

Regarding the firearms, no thank you.  I am reminded of Pogo, Paul_GA:  We have met the enemy….. and they is us. 

My remark about who would be passing out all those guns was said tongue in cheek.  If you distrust the State, then you distrust yourself since you are the State.  Yes, the government is the biggest mass murderers and I will not forget Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the Middle East wherever America has killed or been responsible for the killing of millions of people.  The government, though, is a measure of its people.  For instance, what did you do to keep the government from killing all those people?

Shenonymous, I never said anyone—especially on a government level—will be passing out free firearms. Anyone who doesn’t already have one should get one and learn how to use it properly, all on his/her own. I love that quote (“trust in God but keep your powder dry”) because I distrust the State, regardless of which party is in control. States are the biggest mass murderers, not private individuals—never forget that, friend. We see the evidence every day overseas, in places like Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan and now Syria.

Inherit The Wind, October 29 at 9:26 am #
“You really do hate America!”
No, I just hate assholes like you who are poisoning

Mr.x Do you seriously read the content of truthdig? Are you in for a serious conversation?

When Democrats like Reed and Pelosi are replace by courageous Democrats America will change.

It might just be the case Big B that there is shit and there is a fan but there isn’t any electricity.

As we breathe, the Republican Party is preparing Sarah Palin as their 2012 pin up chick.  Uh, who was that woman?  Wasn’t it Hillary Clinton? She should be making herself very visible starting right now and standing by Obama would be one way to to position herself to be the female opposition to Palin, at least that is what I think.  But I also think that will be in 2016, not 2012.

cokids, get a grip and try not to obsess.  A cool mind sees how to react in a more effective way.

Really Paul_GA?  Who will be passing out all those guns?  Wake me when the war is over.  Ho hum.

Crimes of the State Blog - Barry Goldwater tried that “treason” reason and it didn’t work.  The Johnson Daisy/atomic bomb ad did.  Jingoism comes in many flavors, even liberal flavor.  This melodramatic mind needs to get a grip too.

Open Letter to a Demoralized Peace Movement

“You really do hate America!”

No, I just hate assholes like you who are poisoning it!

America is a very ambiguous term, deliberately so.  It includes both the American power structure and the American population.  In order to promote policies for the American people, it is necessary to mobilize the American people against the American power structure.

Which is murderous.  And includes both Gop and Dem leaders.  The American power structure, and the power system it controls, is the major enemy of people all over the world.  Who have developed a justified hatred of American power.  As the American people must to defend themselves in the coming period.

Mike, you put your finger on a little considered cause of the stupidity of american people, TV. Having been in our homes now for 50+ years with the mindless blather that is commonly accepted as entertainment, we have become unable to think, reason, comprehend the wide assortment of information needed to even know what is in our own best interest. I have watched in shock as time and again really bad candidates have been voted, or anointed 2000, into high office, people voting against their best interest. It’s amazing to see it happen and then when things go badly no one can understand how it has happened. Come the next election and it’s ‘ground hog day’ all over again.

As Cromwell might say: “Trust in God, but keep your powder dry.” We may yet have a genuine civil war in this country, whether we want one or not ...

(Remember, a “civil war” is a war in which two or more factions within a country contend for control of the whole; thus, to refer to the War of 1861-‘65 as a “civil war” is a misnomer, as the South wanted out of the Union, not to control the whole, as the North did. We Americans haven’t had a genuine civil war in the English or Chinese sense—yet.)

Hello Mike… see… NEW WAYS 2 OPERATE PLANET EARTH at… RogerART.com and YOU TUBE here…

http://www.youtube.com/user/RogerDrowne

Hello Mike… see… NEW WAYS 2 OPERATE PLANET EARTH at… RogerART.com and YOU TUBE here…

A fine article! Mike is echoing what I have been saying for weeks now, that an Obama victory may just exaserbate the differences between the warring social and political factions right here in the US. To be more concise, a black president could really cause the shit to hit the fan!

But it could be worse. Imagine what will happen if there are election day “hijinks” that turn this thing for McCain.