perfidy

Mike Hendrix at Cold Fury has a great post up about Eric Rudolph, Domestic Terrorist. It's a response to an Andrew Sullivan piece dicussing the role of fundamentalism in fostering terrorism. Hendrix sez: 

"He's right on that as far as it goes, but he's missed something here, I think. He's assuming that most people around here share Rudolph's fundamentalist hatred of abortion, gays, blacks, etc. And while some most certainly do, Sullivan fails to consider the visceral mistrust and even outright hatred these country people feel for the Feds and especially the FBI, ATF, and IRS - institutions that they may not even know the names or acronyms for but can recognize employees of from a mile away. Anybody from those agencies would have a hard time getting the correct time of day if they had to rely on asking the locals to find out. You can double down on the veiled animosity and politely cooperative non-cooperation if the person asking does so with a Yankee accent. And most of those folks think I talk like a Yankee. If you've ever heard me speak, you know quite well that I do not."

On the same subject, the New York Times discussed yesterday how the people in Rudolph's home town helped him hide out for the last few years. Although done in that inimitable "awww, ain't they quaint" style the Times is so good at, the article deals fairly well with this deep-rooted distrust of outsiders. It mentions signs on restaurants, "Pray for Eric Rudolph," and quotes an old timer as saying "I didn't see him bomb nobody. You can't always trust the feds." Another man is quoted as saying, "He was a man who stood for what he believed in," said Bo Newton, a short-order cook in Andrews. "If he came to my door, I would've given him food and never said a word." A reasonable person might well ask, "What the hell? The guy's a terrorist!" 

This is exactly what I was talking about a few weeks ago (archives are probably hosed...again) when I said that "homeland" is not not not an intrinsically American concept, not like the Feds use it anyway. Like I said-- my homeland is Northeastern Ohio, not the USA. That's probably where I would end up if I were in bad trouble and needed help of the duffel bag and automatic rifle kind. In the same way, Eric Rudolph's homeland is Western North Carolina. In many areas, these ties are far tighter and more compelling than merely political or civil bonds. Family, clan, church, neighborhood, all of these take precedence over what the Federal Gubmint so laughably calls our "Homeland," and they would do well to remember that when they move to prosecute Rudolph. So why would North Carolinans harbor a known terrorist? Three reasons:

1. Because he's family. Sometimes blood is what matters most, for better or worse.
2. Because he bombed a gay bar, an abortion clinic, and the Olympics. I'd imagine a lot of people in the hills of NC, even if they aren't gonna go bomb a clinic themselves, can't find much to get worked up about if someone else holds back the tide of moral disorder and one-worldism.
3. Because f*** the damn Feds.

Final note: I'm with Hendrix-- good moonshine is hard to beat. I've had it exactly once, but daaaaamn. I need to find someone who goes to Tennessee on business from time to time. 

Another final note. Historian David Hackett Fisher devotes a few hundred pages to the origins of the culture Eric Rudolph comes from, in his book "Albion's Seed." Although overlong and overambitious, there's a lot to like and a lot to learn from it.

Well, the problem with the FCC is that it is deregulating the top of the market without deregulating the bottom. It is impossible (and I know people who have tried) to get a broadcast license for radio or TV in this country, unless you are already part of a large network. Cable TV provided a loophole, which is now being closed. While I am not against allowing large companies to merge in principle, the flip side is that you must allow new entrants into the field. As older dinosaurs calcify and grow stagnant, new dinosaurs move in. However, if you lock out the bottom of the market, you assure that the current players will stay there forever. 

We never truly deregulated broadcast media. That is the problem.
 

I see in our comments that Ross Judson has levelled a challenge to Buckethead, pursuant to our discussion last week on whether the Left hates America:

Hate America, Hate American. If you get to pick the set of concepts that define America, you can manufacture a hater out of anyone! Why not do a little subdivision...just so we can be clear on exactly what kind of America you think is most American.

How about it, Buckethead? It's an incredibly interesting question, on several levels.

What is "American," and what is "un-American?" Just how big is this tent? It's obviously a complicated question. Just this weekend came the news that Eric Rudolph was found hiding out in the very woods he grew up in. From his point of view, Rudolph has been arrested for fighting the good fight against encroaching un-Americanism, and some members of the community have acted in his defense. (Although, many may have helped him hide out because of family or community ties, while still thinking he was a nut). But was Eric Rudolph actually acting in an "American" fashion? I'd say absolutely not, yet many other people see him as a patriot and defender of true Americanism, holding the line against moral decline and globalism. (After all, he did bomb abortion clinics, gay bars, and the Olympics, which makes his agenda pretty darn clear.) Who is right, and is there room for both camps under the rubric of Americanism?

[moreover] Answer: Terrorism is terrorism. The American Revolution was settled in 1865. Or 1876, either way, it's done. Period.

Well, they done gone and did it. The FCC voted today 3-2 to ease ownership restrictions on media outlets. There's a great deal of debate over whether this is a good or bad move, and some good points have been made on both sides.

However, the right answer is that it's a bad move. Period. I'm right. In a perfect world, where the ineffable guiding hand of the market nurtures the good, kills the week, and makes things beautiful, the new vote would be endorsing good policy.

Unfortunately, the media world in general is more like the way Hunter Thompson describes it: "The TV business is uglier than most things. It is normally perceived as some kind of cruel and shallow money trench through the heart of the journalism industry, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free and good men die like dogs, for no good reason." Whereas media companies control information in the grubbiest and least-glorious sense, I'm fine with keeping a leash on their behavior. I know some of these people personally, and their commitment to "integrity" (*chuckle*) is entirely nonexistent. This decision by the FCC: will prevent new entries into the media-ownership market at any level; will, along with other FCC decisions, further freeze local, independent providers out of the bandwith and license auctions; will lead to an integration boom much like the music industry has seen, where four companies control the mainstream and most of the fringe with a concomitant rise in quantity and decline in overall quality; and will be my personal punching bag until I'm too old to care anymore.

I will blog more on this at a later date, but I cannot today. I sprained my wrist in a freak baking accident on Saturday (shut up.... it's not what you think. I'm a klutz. It's not what you think, the bread was delicious), and typing is rather painful. It's actually a benefit for you, dear reader that I am so disabled, as I'm sure reading my drivel is also rather painful.

[moreover] Time will prove me right or wrong on this count. Except that I'm right.

Useless movie quotes, from all your favorite movies. While the selection of quotes is not as thorough as I would like for some of the movies, it is a fun little website. For instance, I found this quote:

I would like to direct this to the distinguished members of the panel. You lousy cork-suckers. You have violated my fargin' rights. This suminonbatching country was founded so that the liberties of common patriotic citizens, like me, could not be taken away by a bunch of fargin' ice holes, like yourselves.

He basically fisks the movie, though I think he is a little tooo critical. Of course, he is characteristically witty as he goes about his business. I grant a lot of his points, especially about Zion, but hey, I dug the movie. 
 

10. War and Peace and Steve
9. The Seven Habits of Highly Successful Steves
8. The Grapes of Steve
7. The Steves of Wrath
6. Steve Grapes Steve Wrath Steve Steve
5. Men are From Mars, Women are From Venus, Steve is From Cleveland
4. Where's Waldo? Is He With Steve?
3. Time Life Mysteries of the Unknown, Volume VIII: "Mysterious Guys Named Steve"
2. The Joy of Sex with Steve
1. The Bible (King Steve Version)

From David Letterman, by way of the dusty corners of my hard drive. I think this is from the last millenium. The Cleveland bit was actually in the original. Go figure.

It has been pointed out to me that people can vote multiple times for American Idol (not that they can't for the presidency, too), making a cafeteria estimate of the real number of people who voted for President:AI more like 4:1 or 5:1.

Still... while I stand gape-mouthed at your most recent post, Buckethead (zing! bam! pow!), I can't shake a nagging worry. The very complacency which is an American's birthright is still a double-edged sword.

Ahhh, screw it. It's probably just the weather. It's been raining for five days and the weathermen predict another solid week. Tomorrow is "Wind And Rain Saturday" which is unfortunately going to make my planned "Red Sox vs. Indians Beer And Sunburn Saturday" much less enjoyable, as my seats are on the roof of Fenway Pahk. I repeat. Screw it. I'm going to go home, clean the house, and get half-numb on Midnight Vultures. (What's a Midnight Vulture? I made it up! It's a dirty vodka martini made with black olives & black olive juice in place of the standard green, with optional lemon peel and bitters.)

Buckethead, you think bumfights.com is horrigreat? (Greatifying?) Check this on for size:

Number of votes cast in 2000 Presidental election: 101.5 Million
Number of votes cast in 2002 American Idol competition: 100 Million

Kelly Clarkson received 58% of the vote in her competition. George W. Bush received 48%. That means:

Number of votes cast for George W. Bush: approximately 50.46 Million
Number of votes cast for Kelly Clarkson: approximately 58 Million.

Damn. Pretty exceptional, alright.

The FCC is set to vote next week in a closed session on whether to allow further deregulation of the media market. Large companies like Viacom, Fox, and ClearChannel stand to benefit heavily at the expense of what few smaller media corporations are left. I oppose this strenuously. There is already too much centralization in the media.

For once, William Safire and I agree, and his writing is pungent. Check it out.

[moreover]: A recent poll conducted in the wake of the Jayson Blair fiasco revealed that very few Americans trust news sources, taking a "hey, whaddaya gonna do?" attitude to what they see as inevitable distortions, lies, and covert biases on the part of news providers. Even Jessica Lynch's father, upon reading the Jayson Blair story about his family which contained blatant fabrications, declined to mention it to the Times, on the grounds that he pretty much expected such behavior from reporters. Why do I bring this up in this post? No reason.

James Lileks writes today about Star Trek serieseses as commentaries on the times in which they were made. Hardly a new observation, but it's Lileks and therefore done with unusual grace, elegance, and insight. I suggest you read it.

As Nigel Tufnel said in This Is Spinal Tap,

"It's such a fine line between stupid and clever."

The surprising thing is not that bumfights.com is popular, it's that it's not more popular. I can understand your temptation to draw parallels between the late Roman Empire and the United States, but that would mean returning to the month-long discussion on empire I thought we'd settled. (Dear readers... if you can get the archives to work, look anywhere in late March. If you dare.)

Bloodsports are eternal. Did you know that the most popular sport in Pittsburgh at the end of the eighteenth century was eye-gouging? Well, wrestling, but eye-gouging was an accepted move. There are accounts of travellers from the East pulling into Pittsburgh in the 1780s and '90s, and coming away aghast, not only at the dirt and backwardness, but at the incredible number of one-eyed men. You can read about it too, in Thomas P. Slaughter's excellent "The Whiskey Rebellion." Leaving aside the fact that it was Pittsburgh, the residents of the area were no more than one or two generations removed from their ancestral homes in Northern England, Scotland, and Ireland, where similar traditions prevailed.

Or even the code duello that claimed Aaron Burr's life-- that's a refined and codified version of a knife-fight. Or Andrew Jackson's famous temper-- same dealie. Hell, ever watch amateur hockey or rugby, or friday night fights?

My point is, although the modern age makes it easier than ever before for hooligans to entice insane homeless people to fight each other for money, the tendency toward such behavior has always been with us in Western civilization. Whether it's sublimated into fencing, Marquis of Queensbury rules boxing, and football, or out in the open like dog- or cockfights, blood spectacle is an integral part of our culture. For me, the remarkable thing is not that the United States is once again like Rome, but that we've come so far without actually, erm, "civilising." That's spelt with an "s" for full Victorian effect, please note, which is my signal that I don't wish to get into discussions of biological determinism or Whiggish progress.

* A note about the title: you really need to own this album by the Minutemen. Then you will understand. And your life will be changed, forever.

Generated this poem, an ode to this webpage:

Johnny Good idea... Warren Buffett!!
To Johnny I’
already be alien or
more
wrong. No longer be European
and c look hard bitter core
of my fist in
memory to eat a year from
the stinky ones will complete
if it is accounting, and over at the burning
that money gained. Enact a Cleveland
Indians, the war;
people died. no Good idea...

Antisocial contrarian that I am, I went with the wife to see the X-Men sequel this weekend, hoping all the fanboys, gamers, and backwards-hat mofos would be engrossed in the Matrix.

Everything really worth saying has already been said by Jacob Levy. I shall only add that it was wonderful to see another Marvel comic book movie succeed at balancing reverence for the material with the demands of the Hollywood script. It was just great, especially the human touches-- each character in the rather large cast was well-drawn, and acted with depth, panache, and a sense of fun. No Gnostic parables, just modern allegory, tight uniforms, and a whole lotta Rebecca Romijn-Stamos and fighting with knives.

Of the two matrices, the first was clearly the better. Nevertheless, the second installment was well worth the $18.50 ticket price. My only real quibbles, aside from having to wait half a year before seeing the next one, is that the art direction for the zion city scenes was a little, well, over the top; and that at a couple points the change between live action Neo and cgi Neo was too obvious. (And even so, the cgi human characters in Matrix were much better than last year's spiderman.)

The real surprise in the movie is the sense of humor that Agent Smith has developed. In many respects, the new Agent Smith is the most engaging character in the movie. As our cast of heroes soldier through with grim seriousness, the formerly dour Smith is almost whimsical. A+ on that.

But the thing that was most intriguing was the new philosophical underpinning of the movie. This is what kept my friends and I in the parking lot for an hour after the movie talking. The first Matrix had, at its center, the question of reality and perception. At the time, I found the idea of an action adventure movie centered on a question of rather abtruse phenomenology to be delicious. But now, we have an action adventure movie centered on serious questions of free will and predestination. Imagine a Hong Kong style sf action flic starring Cotton Mather and Erasmus, Abelard and Heloise, with a supporting cast of hundreds of genetically engineered Ignatius Loyola/Steven Wright hybrids. This movie is as close as you'll get to that ideal.

There are many reasons why the House of Lords is groovier than Congress*. First among them is the utter loopiness of many of the exchanges, such as this one, posted yesterday on Slashdot: 

Lord Sainsbury of Turville: My Lords, I totally agree. These statistics on accidents are extremely fascinating; they prove that the British public can use practically anything in this world to hurt themselves with. It is understandable that there are an estimated 55 accidents a year from putty, while toothpaste accounts for 73. However, it is rather bizarre that 823 accidents are estimated to be the result of letters and envelopes. It is difficult to understand how they can be the cause of such serious plight. I agree with the noble Baroness that it would be helpful if people paid careful attention. 

Baroness Strange: My Lords, does the Minister agree that sardine tins and anchovy tins are also very difficult to open with their tin-openers? 

Lord Sainsbury of Turville: My Lords, I think I will just agree with the noble Baroness on that question. . . . . Lord Mitchell asked Her Majesty's Government: What are their plans to reduce the growth in spam (unsolicited e-mails). 

Lord Renton: My Lords, will the Minister explain how it is that an inedible tinned food that lasted for ever and was supplied to those on active service can become an unsolicited e-mail, bearing in mind that some of us wish to be protected from having an e-mail? 

Lord Sainsbury of Turville: My Lords, I am afraid that I have not been able to find out why the term "spam" is used, but that is the meaning it now has. It is a matter that should be taken very seriously because it not only clutters up computers but involves a great deal of very unpleasant advertising to do with easy credit, pornography and miracle diets. That is offensive to people, and we should try to reduce it. 

Lord Faulkner of Worcester: My Lords, I can help the Minister with the origin of the word. It comes from aficionados of Monty Python, and the famous song, "Spam, spam, spam, spam". It has been picked up by the Internet community and is used as a description of rubbish on the Internet. . . .

If you read the whole thing, you get the distinct impression that the entire House knows Monty Python, and what's more, the song. *Not better—I'm not one of those who assumes that just because it comes from Engalind, it must be superior. This fallacy is responsible for Dr. Who, Burberry, and Liz Hurley, who, though she is hot as a thousand suns, still can't act her way out of an open phone booth.

That reminds me. The truest test of where a person is truly from in the USA is what local jingles they know by heart. From time to time, I run across people from my general neck of the woods, and if they know how to finish the line "Ed Mullinax is" - then there is an instant brotherhood born that can never be torn asunder. More than anything else, that defines my homeland. 

Here in Boston there is an association of Kentucky Colonels who live in New England. Only real Kentucky Colonels need apply. Perhaps I should start a competing society, open to only those souls of briar-hopper and hillbilly lineage from Ohio, western Pennsylvania, and West Virginia. The Friends Of The Burning Rivers, New England Chapter. We'd sit around watching old videotapes of Superhost from Cleveland, Ghoulardi and Son of Ghoul from Akron, Don Fedko's news reports from Pittsburgh, and listen to broadcasts by Myron Cope, Voice Of The Pittsburgh Stillers on KDKA. It'd be grand. 
 

Not that I have much to add, but Jacob Levy at the Volokh Conspiracy is blogging like a madman about X2. In my value system, that makes him cooler than John Lennon.

As for the movie itself, I'm waiting until the backwards-hat wearing tools have all seen it so I can enjoy my nerd-movie in peace and quiet.

Contest: If any man/woman jack among you can email me the correct origin story for Shadowcat, I'll send you a free CD. Responses to the johnny email at left. Extra bonus points for the title/issue it's in.

If James Lileks is going to spend the week blogging, I'm going to spend my week bleating. Ohhh, he might have the age, experience, and talent, but I have youth, obliviousness, and raw enthusiasm. And like they say, youth and enthusiasm trumps age and guile every darn time. 

When I was younger (so much younger than today) I used to tape songs off the radio and make mix tapes to trade. The content of these tapes were bad classic rock ("Double Vision," "The Final Countdown"), amateur comedy skits, and a huge avalanche of novelty songs from the local morning show, sub-Dr. Demento stuff that was hi-larious to a twelve year old but maybe isn't quite as compelling now that I have quality-control software installed. 

Nevertheless, there were some stone classics in with all the dreck. "Smoke That Cigarette," "Dead Puppies," and the entire Weird Al Yankovic oeuvre, from "My Bologna" to "Eat It" remain great stuff, soul food for my inner preteen. In fact, just mentioning "Smoke That Cigarette" puts it back in my head.

[camera pans slightly up and to the right as a thought balloon appears above J T-C's head. Cartoon animals gambol within as a barbershop quartet of monkeys link arms and sing "Smoke, smoke, smoke that cigarette/ Puff, puff, puff, until you smoke yourself to death/ And tell Saint Peter at the golden gate, that you hates to make him wait/ But you just gotta have another, cigarette."] 

Ok - I'm back, that was nice. Somewhere, Thomas Pynchon is having a fit. There was an actual, erm, point to this post, but it has been shoved into a corner by the cartoon animals so here's some stuff about clothing. 

Went shopping with Goodwife Two-Cents this weekend for a new summer wardrobe. It is an indication of just how much being married has changed me that I am now aware that there are summer clothes and winter clothes, the difference being more than just whether they keep you warm or cool. The big change was that I found myself agreeing to buy alien garments that a younger me would have kicked my ass for wearing. A lavender shirt. A baby blue shirt, in a really nice subtly two-tone fabric (the miracle of synthetic textiles!). Brown, backed clogs (clogs!?!) with excellent arch support that look totally boss with my unfashionably unfashionable brown suit. And the capper, a tie that in certain lights could be accurately be called, um, PINK. Pinkish, anyway. To wear with the same brown suit. I really should kick my own ass anyway, just out of duty, but I look so shaaarp, and I don’t want to wrinkle anything. Besides, I still wear black jeans and plain t-shirts on the weekend, just like the forty-year-old I will become eleven years hence. 

The mall trip reminded me of one of the very best novelty songs of my youth, which neatly combined my incredibly nerdly Star Trek fixation with the base humor I still love. If you have ever been a fan of Dr. Demento, you have heard it and probably even know all the words. It is Leonard Nimoy's immortal 1967 classic, "Highly Illogical." The pertinent stanzas run thusly: 

From far beyond the galaxies I've journeyed to this place

To study the behavior patterns of the human race

And I find them highly illogical 

[cue cute two-step pop music] 

Girl meets boy they fall in love 

She says he's everything she's dreamed of 

But when they get married before he's aware 

She changes his habits the way he combs his hair 

She changes him to someone he's never been 

And then complains he's not like other men 

Now really I find this most illogical

Not that Goodwife Two-Cents has changed me at all. I have simply learned that some things I used to do are wrong, and that there are better ways. Her guiding hand has merely eased my path to enlightenment. 

Ahoy! The point!! 

It occurs to me that Doctor Demento is a perfect example of how niche genres of music thrive in a non-commercial setting. Somewhere in a drawer, on a little homestead in the brown hills of northeastern Ohio, lies a shoebox filled with those mix tapes, the truest documents of my childhood. Of the hundreds of pieces of copyrighted material within, not a bit of it was licensed in any way. And you know what? Even as the RIAA is planning to burn down the house to kill the mice within, my record collection contains many, many legitimately bought records by everyone from Weird Al, Spike Jonez, and The Frantics (authors of the greatest novelty song of them all, "Ti Kwan Leep/Boot To The Head"), to Europe ("The Final Countdown," a legacy of my poodle-metal days back in Ohio). All these purchases were made possible by my illegal taping and distribution of those songs when I was very young. I know these songs because I came to love them for free. Not necessarily over the radio, mind you, but because my little community shared the songs within itself. The RIAA can crack down all they want—it just proves that, after fifty years of peddling rock and roll and twenty years of focus-groups and statistical analysis, they have no idea why people buy what they buy, and why they choose to download it for free instead. 

[update]: Umm... heh, heh... I would never, ever, EVER wear the pink(ISH) tie with the lavender shirt. Just for the record.

Did you know that May 1 is Loyalty Day? It was decreed so yesterday by our President. Huh. Thanks to Matthew Yglesias and "Stentor Danielson" for the pointer and a little perspective on the matter. 

From what I can find, "Loyalty Day" started in the thirties as an anti-Communist counterpoint to Mayday, hence the positioning of both on May 1. Occasionally, the holiday has been exhumed by Presidents (Clinton, Kennedy, Truman) hoping to inspire an upwelling of patriotic fervor in the breasts of the teeming masses. 

Even though I am a spineless jellyfish of a centrist, I have some pretty clear and solid ideas about what America means. "Loyalty Day" is just about as American a concept as "Worship The Giant Stone Tiki Day" would be, if a day of Tiki-worship were foisted upon us by the government. 

Warning: hifalutin pompousness follows. Ridicule at will. Bill Whittle is better at this sort of thing. 

Certain events in the recent past have changed how Americans approach freedom, liberty, and the rest of the world. Despite some people's fears, we do not yet live in a police state where dissent is met with brutality (that only happens in Leftist paradises like Cuba and China, and also some theocracies and dictatorships, but not here). Yet, in response to the threats we now know we face, concepts have arisen that don't belong in our national lexicon. Two such are the terms "Homeland" and "Loyalty". Both are fabulously alien to the American experience (in that they imply things the United States was founded as an alternative to), both are used too much these days, and neither should ever be common coin around Washington. I'd go so far as to call them un-American. ”

"Homeland" doesn't make much sense applied to the United States as a whole - it smacks of a European sense of place and obligation. If your family can trace its lineage in the Black Forest back to the time of Charlemagne, and it's fairly certain that someone in your bloodline repelled Roman legions and fought at Verdun, then you have a homeland. Hell, for that matter, if your family settled Saco, Maine in 1640 and stayed on through Algonquin raids, witch hysterians, and the various wars and famines, then Maine, if that's where you live, is your homeland. To a certain degree, northeastern Ohio is my homeland, in that it's where I was born, grew up, and learned about the world. I feel a kinship to the place and its people. Jim Traficant, sorry to say, is one of mine. 

In short, the word "homeland" implies the residency in and identity with a specific place, accompanied by a specific way of seeing the world, something akin to the French concept of terroir. The United States is too young, too big, and too diverse to warrant such a sweeping term. Furthermore, United States is a collection of people, whereas "homeland" places the emphasis on the place itself. Similarly, "Loyalty" implies an authority that flows the opposite way of that on which the United States is founded. "Allegiance" is more apt. Allegiance implies that you have considered your citizenship, weighed its benefits against the alternatives (such as living in France or a compound in upper Montana), and voluntarily chosen to participate in the ongoing project of the USA. Of course, nobody actually thinks about these things when taking the pledge, but that is nevertheless the underlying idea. Where "Allegiance" implies a pact freely entered, "Loyalty" suggests something demanded of a person by a superior. In cases such as swearing-in of new citizens, this language is appropriate (as is so for members of the Armed Forces). Such new Americans are taking an oath to cast off other ties they may have in order to affirm the solidity of their commitment to the United States. 

But oaths of loyalty are not required by the United States of its citizens. The word "union" appears ten times in the Constitution, "loyal*"” none. And, of course, the preamble has all that crap about "we the people" and "more perfect union." Everything is voluntary, open, and based upon the will of the people to bring themselves together. 

Ideas like an "Office of Homeland Security" and the revival of "Loyalty Day," though they might seem like good fixes to immediate crises, are in the long view not part of the American ideology at all. Problems like this happens from time to time in American history, and they are often far, far worse than those I'm discussing. A huge number of Native Americans are dead. Slavery wasn't addressed seriously until 1860. Lynchings happened all the way into the era of color photography. But we don't kill Indians any more (partly because there aren't many left, yes), nobody keeps slaves today like they did in 1820, and lynchings are now front-page horrors when they happen, not a dirty secret. Although far from perfect, at its best, America is a self-correcting system that finds its bedrock principles no matter what temporary diversions it encounters. I just hope that the current fetishes for "homeland" this and "secret courts" that are temporary, and over time the inertia, collective idealism, and ingrained teachings of the American people will make these things as curious in the future as debates over the Gold Standard are today. 

A final note. May is also "Masturbation Month." "Loyalty Day" or "Masturbation Month": the choice is yours. (Thanks, Matthew!)