[Huck]

I saw a bumper sticker while outside earlier. It was an American flag and the words "The Sleeping Giant Awakes." I contend that the government did not connive or contrive that sentiment. It is the expression of the attitudes of a lot of Americans. That's off the topic of the CIA, but I thought of our earlier discussion when I saw it, and wanted to share it with you.

[JohnGalt]

Friend, that is a blatant appeal to emotion rather than reason.

The country has been so conditioned to accept the premise that the state can protect them, despite what there independent thinking told them on 9/11, that the state saw an opportunity to grow rather than decentralize. Rather than demand the punishment of the those who failed so miserably, there were appeals to abstracts (9/11 changed everything, they hate us for our freedom) that are almost absurd in retrospect in the context of rational discourse and conservative responsibility to the institutions we have been left by our ancestors.

Where for some, 9/11 was a reminder of the debt we owe each other to protect the herd as seen on Flight 93, to others it was an excuse to ignore the failures of the government (let bygones be bygones) and instead embark on a new war and taste/recapture all the good patriotic feelings that come with a good solid ass kicking. (The media obliged by flashing the amoral leftists at Berkley as the anti-war movement.)

I don't expect for their to be justice in this world, but I do like to think shining light where it does not want to be shown, is the best conservative patriots can hope for politically, in a rapidly declining culture. Then just raise our kids, hope they have more freedom then we do, leave them some money, and hope the King doesn't demand our first born sons for the battles on the fringes of the Empire.

"More Todd Beamers, Fewer Ivy Leaguers"