More ranting.

So some folks have been telling me about the fact that I haven't updated lately. All I can say in my defense is that I've actually been busy at work lately, and after spending 8+ hours in front of a computer, I usually don't feel much like sitting in front of my home computer very much when I get home. As you can see, my blog entries tend to be a little long-winded, taking up to a couple hours to finish. That can be a little daunting. Anyway, onto the subject of today's rant.

Right-wingers piss me off. There's really no other way for me to put it. Because I like to make myself angry, I often find myself reading right-wing trash on the internet. As ashamed as I am to admit it, I read Rush Limbaugh's website. I suppose, in a way, I feel as though I need to know just what the other side thinks. While reading once, I came upon this article about supposedly anti-American movies coming out in the near future. Of course, in reading this article, you understand that the author, like the rest of us, has not seen any of the films in question (especially seeing as how I don't think any of them had even been completed by the time the article was published) or read their screenplays or the source material upon which they're based. Were that so, would he still have picked on V For Vendetta? After all, it's far more an anti-fictitious-futuristic-fascist-England story than an anti-America story. He describes Natalie Portman's character as a "skinhead" and the prison camp in which the main character was formerly held as "Guantanamo-style." Had he done the slightest bit of research, he would have realized that both of those elements are direct references to Nazi concentration camps. Evey (Natalie Portman) does not shave her head by choice, rather it is shaved by force when she is imprisoned. We never find out entirely why V is imprisoned in the concentration camp, but it is obvious that there is a perceived difference between him and those in power. So if the author is going to say that depicting either one of these things as being bad is wrong, it's no wonder people often compare Republicans to Nazis.

And how about his opinion on Jarhead? He attacks it for "[dealing] with the 'dehumanization' of Marine trainees prior to and during the 1991 Gulf War." Dear God! Someone is suggesting that war can possibly have negative effects on people? They must be silenced at once! Similar to this is his reaction to the premise of Spielberg's upcoming Munich, which "focuses on the crisis of conscience undergone by Israeli commandos tasked with killing PLO terrorists - rather than on the barbarity of the terrorists themselves." You know, because people sent to do state-sanctioned murder never question the morality of it, even when it seems justified. And let's not forget that most normal people would find killing to be a rather distasteful action. As much as I'm sure most people would like to think that, as long as it's bad people they're killing, they'd feel more or less okay about it, I would question the sanity of anyone who actually didn't go through some kind of post-traumatic stress after taking another life.

This whole entry started because I found myself on Amazon.com reading reviews of Al Franken's new book The Truth (with jokes). For some odd reason, I always find myself more drawn to the negative reviews than the positive ones, and as you can imagine, all the negative reviews are by angry Republicans. (Funny. Limbaugh always claims that Liberals are the ones who are always angry and unhappy. I mean, we certainly have a right to be, but I think the Conservatives have more than demonstrated that we're not the only ones.) One quote in particular from a review caught my attention and, in turn, made me angry. "Above all, those on the left hate America and hate everything about what this nation stands for." This seems to be the mantra of the right-wing. Anytime anyone criticizes or questions the actions or beliefs of those in power, they are immediately attacked as being anti-American. "If you're not with us, you're against us," they say, as though the world can be painted entirely in shades of black and white. It is precisely this infantile way of thinking that is ripping this country—and this world—apart.

We have to stop them from questioning our love for our country. The best way I can think to do so is to make sure that we regain a system of checks and balances when the next election rolls around. They control the executive and legislative branches right now, and it seems like they may soon gain control of the judicial branch as well. I find this to be concrete proof of their disdain for the principles this country was founded upon. In fact, perhaps we should be turning their accusations around on them.

And I wish someone could make contact with the spirits of the Founding Fathers so they can tell Rush Limbaugh that he doesn't speak for them as he has deluded himself into thinking.