[doctorzlo]

Not bitter at all. Kind of like Bill Hicks, but a lot angrier. I don't think there is anything cynical, satiric or bitter in that. I think it's a pure statement of aims and goals in light of what's possible to achieve. I honestly believe you have to be some kind of masochist to want to Tikkun Olam a world that not only doesn't want it, but hates you for trying. There are no more national issues.

So let's call a spade a spade, shall we? Let's give the Alabamas and South Carolinas their head. Let's allow them to form their own feudalistic enclaves with whatever opressive retrograde bigoted laws and mores they want. They can outlaw anything they can bring back prayer in school, hell they can bring back the lash and the pillory too. Screw em. Give them their local issues. Let the guy from Oklahoma put monitors in the girls bathrooms because of, and I quote "Rampant lesbianism that goes on there" unquote. Let red states make performing abortions a capital offence. With any luck someone they 'save' can someday grow up to the be the state's executioner.....because life is precious and god loves you....

This is what I say. Accept that there are really are different Americas and maybe we need to explore the notion of state's rights in a new way. Stop fighting for people who don't share the same goals. Instead of working against them, just stop. We can work a lot more effectively if we work to protect our interests instead of trying to impose our interests on them. And at the same time resist their interests being imposed on us.

I've been to North Dakota, they can have it. Rural heartland god gays and guns lilly white christian America is not the goal. That's not where our future lies. Maybe in some ridiculous 'security mom' fantasy it is but not in the real world. We had a phrase for that once: Ein Volk. Our future is actually, in the future; in cities, capitalism, urban development. In opening not closing the country to foreign students, to welcoming people who are different from us. We complain that Saudi Arabia negates its own future when it discards 50% of its human capital that is female. Are we that different? We've got Senators now who say, as part of their campaign that married women should not be allowed to be teachers because they should be home cranking out babies, and single women shouldn't be teachers either because they might be gay. This is not a man bites dog story - this is normal. So I say again, screw em. Let them burn witches and outlaw libraries, let them rip a page from the Taliban. I'm sure I don't care.