Posting may be light. Talk amongst yourselves, or head on over to The Flight Deck and catch up on the comings and goings of the regulars.
Update: There’s a good and moderate essay up over at Captain Ed’s on “patriotism,” a subject that’s been making some waves in various quarters, as witnessed by Jonah Goldberg’s mail I quoted from yesterday:
We should hold the hyperbole, and assume the best motives whenever possible. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t criticize actions and speeches when wrong, or that we should do so with insufficient vigor. It does mean that we should hold the most dire allegations for those who deserve it. Adam Gadahn is a traitor. Robert Byrd and Barack Obama are fools. The two are not synonymous. If we don’t recognize that patriotism means love of country regardless of wisdom on policy, then we really will have reduced it to only the last refuge of scoundrels.
While we’re on that note, it’s become a kind of parlor game among people of a certain mindset to trot out Samuel Johnson’s “patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel” quote when faced with what they ought to instead label jingoism. Doctor Johnson, as many people know, was a literary figure of great importance in Britain during the late 18th Century – and a staunch Tory. Many people pretend to forget that when he uttered his “scoundrel” observation in 1775, the “patriots” of daily discourse in high political circles were the American Revolutionaries.
That’s us, he’s talking about, my fellow scoundrels.
Update 2: Shiny!
“…patriotism means love of country”
If one accepts that as THE definition, then another definition is needed: what is “country”?
Is it a mass of land or physical structure, or is it a culture based upon specific principles? If it is the structure, one might as well be a patriot for an outhouse.
When a husband is unfaithful he does not become “not a husband”, he becomes an unfaithful husband. When a law enforcement officer departs from the law, he does not become “not a cop, he becomes a dirty cop. If a naion is defined as a culture based upon specific principles, then when one departs from either the culture or the principles upon which it is founded, they can no longer define their position as “patriotic”.
Good article.
Personally, I like this quote by Mark Twain:
“Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it. “
Not that that gets anyone anywhere, of course. Its all perspective. But then again I think that’s part of what Capt Ed was saying.
That’ll show Fox to mess with the browncoats!