The Real World: Fallujah [Nov 15, 2004]

My apologies to anyone who read an earlier version of this post, which had a bit of a maudlin and didactic feel. But that's what happens when you're going about your innocent business looking for blown-up pictures of Tara Reid's nipple and your wife sends you a video, backed by hard-edged German techno music, of fetuses mutated by depleted uranium exposure. Note to wife: It's not healthy to spend too much time in the comments section of The Daily Kos.

That said, look very hard at these pictures of what's really going on in Fallujah. If Americans are going to support this war, then they need to see the truth, so they can make an honest assessment. As for me, I don't think my tax dollars should go toward our soldiers dumping fly-specked corpses in a ditch and Iraqi toddlers losing their limbs. Then there's the undeniable fact that our own people are getting the crap blown out of them as well. What a bunch of heartless schmucks we have running this country.

And that's the undidactic version. You can only imagine.

Now then. I would, as usual, like to shut Andrew Sullivan up. So, fine. The murder of Dutch filmmaker Theo Van Gogh was a horrible atrocity, and the people who killed him are a menace to civilization and modernity. I have quite a few Dutch friends and have spent many semi-conscious hours in Amsterdam, and I can say without a doubt that the Dutch are a good and tolerant, if somewhat uptight, people who never meant anyone any harm except during the 17th Century. This situation must be very hard for them.

I doubt that I'm what Sullivan considers a "liberal pundit," but I'll have to do. And, you know, he doesn't really bother me that much these days. At least he acknowledges that our country has been largely taken over by far-right Christian lunatics. Christopher Hitchens, on the other hand, continues to fulminate against the evils of Islamic fundamentalism while ignorning the rise of fundamentalism in the country that he rents on an hourly basis between sojourns to trouble spots.

Yes, Hitch, occasionally the left does "apologize for religious fanatics," and also for Cold-War relics like Fidel Castro and pompous faux-Guevara powermongers like Hugo Chavez. But how can an ostensibly intelligent person ignore the ascencion to power of fanatics equally as dangerous and much better-funded? No, Republicans aren't murdering filmmakers in broad daylight. Nor are they kidnapping people and beheading them on television. But should that really be the standard for acceptable behavior?

If you're going to oppose religious fanaticism, then oppose it in all its forms, and open your eyes. Because Bush isn't a secularist. The real "vicious theocratic challenge" to our country is coming from within. Do we have the courage to meet that challenge? Inquiring minds want to know.

Meanwhile, I desperately need to tone down this site and give it a mild redesign. My rock n roll period has ended and my graphics style should reflect that. But my webmaster has fallen in love with an actress and is having trouble leaving the greater Los Angeles area. Would any one of you good people be willing to step into the breach? It really won't be hard. I promise.