[GuillermoX]

To Captain Black, every officer who supported his Glorious Loyalty Oath Crusade was a competitor, and he planned and plotted twnety-four hours a day to keep one step ahead. He would stand second to none in his devotion to country. When other officers had followed his urging and introduced loyalty oaths of their own, he went them one better by making every son of a bitch who came to his intelligence tent sign two loyalty oaths, then three, then four; then he introduced the pledge of allegiance, and after that "The Star-Spangled Banner," one chorus, two choruses, three choruses, four choruses. Each time Captain Black forged ahead of his competitors, he swung upon them scornfully for their failure to follow his example. Each time they followed his example, he retreated with concern and racked his brain for some new strategem that would enable him to turn upon them scornfully again.

- from Joseph Heller's Catch-22

[TEXICAN II]

I take your quote to be an attempt to insult & slander all who would teach & require patriatism ( can you please do me a favor here, & read 'patriatism' with the greatest nasal intonation, as though a British Sargent Major were reading it to you? It would be, first, a short A, as in the name Pat, like Buchanan, then "tree-a-tism" Thanks, thsats how I wish to project it, & with great implications for all.

To attempt to be-little Western Civilization, or our own very productive, all inclusive, ever so successful little version of it, is NOT to overcome it. The sick Arabs are actually attempting to do that-you shall just have to await the results. I am sure your presence has been duly noted by all who attend this thread-but I simply feel compelled to act, rather like when one sees a snake, one acts.