I just wandered over here via Too Sense. Nice article.

It’s everywhere, and it makes me proud to point out that one of our more beloved presidents (probably because he’s on Mt. Rushmore than anything else) smacked down those ideas. I’ve quoted Teddy Roosevelt many times in the past seven years to mindless flag-wavers, and have been rewarded with stunned silence. Quoting Thomas Paine and the founding fathers would work, too… if people recognized their names, anymore.

This pointless “Raincoat Patriotism” allows people to bundle up in the flag (pins, bumper stickers, ribbon-magnets, bloviating etc.), so that we can no longer see the people wearing it. Many of the most vociferous Raincoat Patriots frequently turn out to be corrupt hypocrites, and racists — even treasonous, in Roosevelt’s words. Just ’cause they’re cloaked in a red, white and blue trench coat doesn’t mean they’re patriotic underneath. More likely, they’re just covering up the fact that the Emperor Has No Clothes.

And I’m sick and tired of being flashed by these degenerates in their long overcoats and suspicious lack of pants.

You obviously don’t get it! Hasn’t anybody explained the rules to you? The rules are simple:

-Suggesting that America’s un-critical, knee-jerk foreign policy in the Middle East for the last 50 years (you know, “Israel good, brown people living near Israel bad”) might have been part of what created 9/11 is anti-American thinking, and any attack on the concept of “America” immediately brands you as full of hate and anyone you’ve ever had any contact with must immediately be disqualified from any position of prominence in American society – for the good of the concept.

HOWEVER,

-Suggesting that 9/11 was somehow God’s punishment for America’s tolerance of homosexuality, feminism, and secularism (you know, attacking actual AMERICANS, and not just the concept of “America”) is perfectly OK. People who do that aren’t “agents of division”, but good Christians looking out for the best interests of the conceptual “America”.

Those are just the rules, dude. And they will stay the rules forever…or at least until the next time conservatives need to change them to fit whatever agenda they’re pushing.

Actually, if you’ve been through a supermarket check-out line this week, you know they have. Don’t you know that Obama is in denial about having had gay sex with an ugly white guy? Don’t you know he and Michelle have screaming fights about other women? The National Enquirer says so, so it must be true. After all, they’re the ones who told us about John Edwards’ love child with his campaign staffer – just when Edwards was gaining traction against Hillary Clinton. Sadly, the masses do not know that The National Enquirer is owned by Roger Altman – a prominent New York investment banker and one of Hillary Clinton’s key backers, as well as an official in the Bill Clinton administration. He’s also considered a candidate for Treasury Secretary if Hillary Clinton is elected.

I’m a big Stephen Colbert fan and last night he had an exceptional piece on “The Word” about Obama and his pastor. Go to his site and click on “Word – the Gospel of John” to see it. The website describes it like this: “Stephen thinks Obama could learn something from McCain who is now friends with angry pastors.”

Great piece, Hart.

I’ve been trying to explain to someone that Reverend Wright wasn’t ranting against “white America” in his sermon, he was ranting against “white racist America” and he just couldn’t understand the difference. I now realize that’s because, as a member of the latter, both are one and the same to him.

Thanks for the ammunition. I’ll try to make every shot count.