<I'm a Bad American...

Nobody's perfect - but, some are worse at it than others.

I believe the money I make belongs to me and my family, not some midlevel governmental functionary with a bad comb-over who wants to give it away to crack addicts squirting out babies.

I believe the money the local, state and Federal governments leave me after I've supported some necessary infrastructure and relief programs belongs to me (it's my preference to think of my taxes supporting programs I'm in favor of, including saving the lives of 'crack babies'), but my estranged wife has other ideas, so I barely see any of it.

I don't care about appearing compassionate.

Then don't expect me to respect you as a whole human being... that is, unless you act with compassion without regard for appearances.

I think I'm doing better than the homeless.

I think I'm doing better than when I was homeless - I'm not sleeping in the woods in my truck anymore. I am still relying on my job in food service to provide one of my two meals a day, and I still have neither bed nor telephone, nor a dozen other things Americans presume are necessities, not luxuries... but at least I have a warm, dry place to sleep, with a kitchen and a bathroom of my own. And I got it without government assistance - other folks need that more than I do.

I don't think being a minority makes you noble or victimized.

Being a whole human being makes one noble (see above). It's the actions of majorities - often well documented and seemingly perpetual - that create victims of any minority.

I have the right not to be tolerant of others because they are different, weird or make me mad.

True - but everyone else has an equal right not to endure public exposure to your ignorance.

This is my life to live, and not necessarily up to others' expectations.

Tell that to my estranged wife.

I don't celebrate Kwanzaa. But if you want to that's fine; I just don't feel like everyone else should have to.

I don't celebrate Kwanzaa either - or Christmas. Folks like me celebrate Hanukkah, in spite of Christmas being rammed down our throats, beginning on Halloween (earlier, if we receive mail-order catalogues).

I believe [...] if you are an American citizen you should speak English. My uncles and forefathers shouldn't have had to die in vain so you can leave the countries you were born in to come disrespect ours, and make us bend to your will. Get over it.

I've personally known dozens of people who came to this country for the freedoms your forefathers, etc. died for (not "in vain", or we wouldn't have them - now who can't speak English correctly?). They did their best to learn enough English to become official citizens and contributing members of American society - that is, after all, why they came here, as well as why Lady Liberty lifts her lamp beside the golden door. Those same immigrants also got to witness the complete Americanization of their children - and the loss of traditional language, culture and custom that inevitably follows. Is it an even trade? Should there be a trade at all? I think not.

I don't use the excuse "it's for the children" as a shield for unpopular opinions or actions.

Sure you do. That's why you, through the actions of lawmakers who think like you, continually attempt to erode freedoms of speech, press, association and privacy, and the rights of due process and protection against unreasonable search and seizure. You claim far too often that it's to protect the children from seeing (and learning) things you'd rather they not, though you're apparently too busy to supervise them yourself. You'd rather pay teachers and librarians to baby-sit, while you simultaneously complain about having to pay at all, and restrict their freedoms to do anything except baby-sit.

I didn't take the initiative in inventing the Internet.

Yes, you did: your tax dollars funded the Department of Defense, and various Federal research programs at universities. Where did you think the Internet came from, anyway?

I want them to bring back safe and sane fireworks.

So do I. Hundreds or thousands of small towns across the country used to be able to stage Independence Day pyrotechnics. Now they can't afford the liability insurance.

I think that being a student doesn't give you any more enlightenment than working at Blockbuster or Jack In The Box.

You're correct, in a way. Working at Blockbuster or Jack In The Box (or in my case, Subway) doesn't give you any less enlightenment, either. The capacity for enlightenment is a trait of individuals that has no bearing on their whereabouts or circumstances. It doesn't come without learning, but one needn't be a matriculated student to learn.

I don't want to eat or drink anything with the words light, lite or fat-free on the package.

Then don't - no one forces you to. I don't want to eat or drink anything that contains artificial coloring or preservatives (not to mention pork derivatives), so I buy products without them and do my own cooking.

Our soldiers did not go to some foreign country and risk their lives in vain and defend our Constitution...

There's that phrase again: "in vain"; I suggest you research its meaning. Meanwhile, consider that the only time Americans fought to directly defend the Constitution, they were fighting other Americans, on American soil. All of our foreign wars have been to avenge indignities done to us or to our allies, and/or as expressions of our government's foreign policy - usually on economic, not political, grounds. [By the way, before you respond with the Pacific Theater of World War II, consider this as well: at no time was the Empire of Japan capable of invading the continental United States, let alone subjugating its people or replacing the Constitution with colonial occupation.]

...so that decades later you can tell me it's a living document ever changing and is open to interpretation. The guys who wrote it were light years ahead of anyone today, and they meant what they said - now leave the document alone, or there's going to be trouble.

"The guys who wrote it" could be no other than men of their time, aware that they could not predict the future (though many tried). So, they included within it both the means to change and expand it and for continual interpretation: respectively, the amendment process and the Supreme Court. The Constitution has always been in far more danger of attack from within than without (see above), most often by people who think like you. Now, leave the document alone, or there's going to be trouble.

[Since you seem not to know, light years is a unit of distance, not time. If the Framers had been 'light years ahead', they'd not have been on Earth.]

I don't hate the rich. I help the poor.

I don't hate the rich, either, even though I am the poor.

I believe a self-righteous liberal Democrat with a cause is more dangerous than a Hell's Angel with an attitude.

I believe a self-righteous zealot of any persuasion is a danger to liberty and peace. A Hell's Angel (the ones I've met, anyway) can at least be conversed with, attitude or not.

I don't believe in hate crime legislation. Even suggesting it makes me mad. You're telling me that someone who is a minority, gay, disabled, another nationality, or otherwise different from the mainstream of this country has more value as a human being that I do as a white male. If someone kills anyone, I'd say that it's a hate crime. We don't need more laws! Let's enforce the ones we already have.

That would be fine, if the laws actually were enforced. They're not. Meanwhile, "hate crime" has always been a bigger issue than murder of minority individuals of any kind. Graffiti on synagogue walls is a hate crime; racial profiling is a hate crime; persecution of foreign-born Americans is a hate crime, no matter how many times you wrap it in the flag of anti-terrorism. While you're at it, ask the Native Americans if genocide is a hate crime.

I will not be frowned upon or be looked down upon or be made to keep silent because I have these beliefs and opinions. I thought this country allowed me that right.

It does, and it allows others the right to opposing beliefs and opinions. It also - and this may be the most important right of all - allows people not to care what you or I or anyone else believes, thinks, or says.

I will not conform or compromise just to keep from hurting somebody's feelings.

Then you will miss learning a great deal, being shunned by polite society.

I'm neither angry...

Really? Coulda fooled me...

...nor disenfranchised...

Not as long as you actually vote.

...no matter how desperately the mainstream media would like the world to believe otherwise. Yes, I guess by some people's definition, I may be a bad American.



But that's tough.



By my experience, what you are is a Typical American.

And that's sad.