<He also believes the first President Bush and Bill Clinton are war criminals for destroying civilian infrastructure in Iraq. This isn't reported, because there are no "true leftists" on the staff of any major or midlevel American newspaper. The New York Times is "moderate." The capitalist system shuts out those who don't have enough money to own newspapers of their own, he says.

I wonder when this guy actually woke up.

Not reported? Where’s he been for the past couple decades? I know there were articles in the newspapers he says he hates to read that supported his warped ideas.

And regarding the absence of his kind of newspaper, maybe he should just get one started the old fashioned way -- and earn it.

Oh, and the problem with America is that it can't get over thinking it is exceptional. America is nothing great, he says.

What a crank. The United States of America was founded on being different for every country that came down the pike before, and remains as a cornerstone to global peace and democratic freedom, a bastion of goodwill and fairness. Just ask an illegal immigrant why he/she came here? It wasn’t for the government cheese, I’ll bet. This is a genuinely nice place to be.

[ >sigh< ]

Well, I guess there’s really nothing all that special about it . . .

And it seems there are always people in this world who are best avoided, too -- some at all costs -- particularly those with the high, amoral or erred ideals, the same ones you can spot right away as certain to erode and fail. These people will have a long way to fall, once they finally leave the security of university life -- and when they land it’s generally pretty messy.

Case in point:
Although UT's Austin campus is the jewel in the crown of Texas' higher-education system, not everyone you run into on campus has the intellectual seriousness of the Texans for Israel. One day I encounter a lone protester carrying a torn box made into a sign that reads: "I'm an eye sore."



I asked him what he's protesting.

"Everything!" he shouts.

Before I can follow up with something like "Wow, that's a lot. Anything more specific?" he turns to some people who seem to be within earshot, and yells: "Expel the fundamentalists!"

Who are the fundamentalists? I ask.

"America has its own Taliban!"

He has a way of both shouting and responding only with protest slogans he makes up on the fly. Everyone but me seems intent on avoiding him.

Are you even a student here? I ask. What's your name?

"I? I am an enigma!" he shouts.

A few hours later I pass the same spot, and he's still there. Now he repeats the refrain to "We Are the World." And he has a new sign: "I'm an idiot."

I don't see any reason to argue.





Thanx, Larry. I feel better, now.

Dan