One Radical Opinion

by "Radical" Russ Belville

"Radical" Russ Belville was born on the first day of the Tet Offensive of the Vietnam War in the town of Nampa in the "red" state of Idaho, where any opinion to the left of Reagan gets you labeled as "radical". He currently resides in the suburbs of Portland, Oregon (a.k.a. "Little Beirut") where he works in Information Technology. In his spare time, he enjoys writing about current events, playing the six-string bass guitar, and volunteering for liberal political causes. You can contact him via e-mail at letters 'at' radicalruss.net.

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OK, I don't know enough about port security (other than we have none) to make an informed decision about the whole Dubai business. On one hand, why is any company other than American doing this business? On the other hand, UAE is not Great British, er, Britain. I'm just glad someone is talking about the (lack of) security at our ports, something we "radical" lefties have been screaming about for over three years now.

So, instead, I like watching the outrage and the outrage over the outrage and the outrage over the lack of outrage over more outrageous things. Since I have no children, I can be a little more cynical about the whole thing. This country began to decline with the Santa Clara decision (Corporations = People, therefore, We the People = We the Corporations); winning WWII just gave this country the perfect engine of infinite growth: blow shit up, or get other people to blow shit up, and you can make a mint rebuilding it and selling the weapons necessary to blow other people's shit up.

George W. Bush finally found the one business venture he's good at.

The funniest part to me is Chimpy McFlightsuit pulling the race card. I thought I had experienced the sublimest of ironies with him getting stuck without an exit strategy from a Chinese meeting room, to Dead-Eye Dick going off half-cocked without a plan, shooting a man in the face, and getting him to apologize for it. But Mr. Saddam = al Qaeda = Muslim terrists = ideology of hate = 9/11 *now* wants us to have a nuanced view of differing Arab cultures?

That's so funny! Not that we shouldn't have a nuanced view of differing Arab cultures -- most Americans can't tell a Turk from a turkey, much less a Shia from a Sunni. Hell, I can't; I think one side thinks god's holy dude must be from a certain bloodline and the other thinks god's holy dude can be elected, appointed, or just take over by force. Something like that. I'm sure someone has a better answer, but, really, for me it comes down to people arguing over ancient superstitions and asserting the dominance of their mythology, which was the previous civilization's perfect engine of infinite growth.

It's entertaining watching C- Augustus' red state rabble either freaking out about the United Arab Emirates running six of our ports, or desperately rationalizing ways to not freak out about the United Arab Emirates. "Waitaminute! I thought them A-rabs were the bad guys! Hell, they got a 'United' in their name, jes' like us! And what the hell is an 'Emirate'? Is that like 'Immigrant'? Holy Christ, it's a bunch of United A-rab Immigrants comin' to take our jobs!"

It just goes to show that for BushCo Int'l (a division of The Carlyle Group, another one of those 'people') it ain't about Sunni vs. Shia vs. Kurd, it's not about white people vs. Arab people, it's not about Christianity vs. Islam, or even a clash of civilizations. It's about the cash of civilizations. BushCo Int'l and its braintrust at the Project for a New American Century see the Middle East as nothing but a whole bunch of uncivilized heathens whose land is sitting on top of a vast black reservoir of our rightful riches; their outright imperial lust for treasure akin to the Spanish Conquistadors who, upon arriving in the New World were heard to say, "oh, you people worship GOLD and cover almost everything in GOLD and there's a whole bunch of GOLD here, huh? Here, have some smallpox." Or perhaps, more rightly, like the Puritans who made their way to the New World, who were heard to say, "oh, you people have timber and water and fertile land and plentiful game... AND no concept of private ownership? Here, have some smallpox. " There's your weapons of mass destruction for you.

If any of this is just too depressing to tickle your funny bone like it has mine, don't worry. That means you are a normal human being. If you can't find the cynicism to enjoy the rapid decline of the American experiment, try this exercise: listen to any of the news stories or people's opinions and try to imagine what the atmosphere would be like if the subject of the headlines was "President Hillary Clinton is pushing for a deal to allow a state-run company from the United Arab Emirates to run operations at six major American ports." Imagine the endless investigation of "Vice President John Kerry accidentally shot a man in the face during a quail hunting trip... And didn't report it for fourteen hours.... After admitting to drinking a beer at lunch. "

Try not to laugh too hard. It hurts after a while.