Guest post: HBO

I'm in a motel that offers HBO, and happened to turn it on when Maher and Michael Moore and some others were discussing, in effect, why we had 9-11 coming.  Maher carefully said it was not that any of the people who died deserved it.  But the attack itself was totally understandable and predictable because, after all, we have been running a worldwide empire since the end of WW2 and running roughshod over billions of people. After all, we have something like 150 military bases across the world, or so he says.  Personally, I am wondering where that number comes from; we've been closing bases in Europe for the last 20 years, closed one of our two bases in Okinawa, and sure closed others here and there across the world.  And some countries are pretty happy to have our bases there, like South Korea.

It's interesting that apparently having any sort of presence anywhere is the same now as having an empire.  The Romans long ago and the Ottoman more recently and the Russians most recently all had collections of nations where they really controlled what went on in them, and freely extracted various forms of treasure from them for the good of the conquering nation.

I can't think of anywhere we have had any kind of serious control for a very long time now, and in terms of seizing treasure, we didn't even demand war reparations in the form of megabarrels of oil from Iraq after either scraps there.  In contrast, we pour our treasure into countries like Iraq, Afghanistan, and Kosovo where there has been conflict, and Haiti, Indonesia, and many others when there have been natural calamities.  Not to mention our multi billions in foreign aid that goes to many score countries across the world.

If we are imperialists, damn, we really suck at it!

If foreigners are upset with us, justly or unjustly, they can scream and yell about it, as the Palestinians do, in the court of public opinion, or even come to this country and scream at us, as the whacko president of Iran has done.  Conceivably they could take us to world court.  All that would be fine, it's called civilization.

Coming to murder thousands of innocent people who just got up to go to work in the morning is NOT remotely a legitimate way to register protest against us.  It is simple terroristic butchery, and nothing we have ever done to anyone means "we had it coming".

People like Maher and Moore sicken me deeply, and also enrage me.  They have no problem becoming rich in our system, and living very privileged lives here, while holding our nation in contempt.  The question that always comes up in my mind is, if you are so contemptuous of this nation, WHY ARE YOU STILL HERE?  Take your self-justified moral superiority and go somewhere else, anywhere else.  You are disgusting parasites luxuriating in your egomaniacal arrogance, and you make me wish for the possibility of retroactive birth control.

I think I'll have to write HBO and tell them that I will never engage their service, as long as they allow such total dreck to be part of their programming.  Maybe that's a good idea to pass on.

Del