More from Blog and Mablog

The founders really were exceptional in a lot of ways, and gave us an exceptional form of government. It was exceptional because they knew that Americans could not be trusted with power, not any more than anybody else in history could be, and consequently gave us a government of checks and balances. They did it like this, in Madison's words, because they knew that men are not angels. The men who were not angels included a bunch of Americans with that lean, hungry look. We needed to be restrained, and our founders gave us a form of government designed, in the first, second, and last place, to restrain Americans tempted by the corruptions of power. They did this because they already saw the lust in our eyes.

But gardens always have serpents in them, and our serpent started up the myth of American innocence, an "exceptionalism" that is grounded in the bloom of youth on our idealistic cheeks, as we gazed out upon a world that needed saving. And it is this kind of crap that we hear non-stop in almost all our political speeches these days. And as soon as we accepted this version of exceptionalism, we became just like every other growing hegemonic collection of rationalizers, just as soon as the whiskey of empire got to the brain cells.

Conspiracy?

Bum bum bummmmm.

Does anyone find it odd that the majority of undershirts come in white? These are the shirts that no one sees, so they could be any color at all, and it wouldn't matter, and yet they most all come in the one color that most shows off sweat stains and the like. If I were any more paranoid, I'd swear the companies like Fruit of the Loom and the like had made a deal with the companies that sell bleach. *suspicious looks*