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Thursday, September 26, 2002
Dan Savage takes on the 'Virtuecrats' Read the excerpt from his new book, due out October 10th, 'Skipping Towards Gomorrah.' Here's an excerpt from the excerpt... *grin* 'Curiously, after spending three hundred pages making the United States sound like Calcutta, Buchanan wraps up his book with a one-sentence paragraph about what a beautiful country this is. Speakers at the Republican National Convention do the same thing: Once they've finished telling us that the United States is a shithole, they wrap up their speeches with claims that the United States of America is unique in the world, a shining example to other nations, and the greatest country on earth. Oh, and God bless America. It's difficult to square this circle: America speeds towards hell in a handbasket, year in, year out, through both Democratic and Republican administrations; things get progressively worse, never better; and yet the United States remains the greatest country on earth, year in, year out. How is this possible? How can we be the stinking moral sewer and the shining city on the hill at the same time? Gomorrah and God's country? Are all the other countries on earth so irredeemably awful, so squalid, so beyond hope that no matter how fast America falls we can't pass a single one on the way down? This explanation might cut it if the rest of the world were Syria, Sudan, and Serbia. But how do the Buchanans, Bennetts, and O'Reillys account for perfectly pleasant little countries like Sweden? Or the Netherlands? Or Canada? (By the way, someone needs to alert Pat Buchanan that Canada is not in Europe. On page 200 of The Death of the West, he writes, "Europe has begun to resemble the United States. Between 1960 and 2000, out-of-wedlock births soared in Canada from 4 percent to 31 percent, in the U.K. from 5 percent to 38 percent, in France from . . .")' Gotta love *that* | private feedback | |
Hey! I'm Shane... a proud gay progressive Democrat who has recently relocated to New York City from Ithaca, NY. As I am no longer in Ithaca, I haven't quite decided the fate of this blog. Drop me a line! NY Politics '06 * Tompins County LGBT Dems * Tompkins County Dem Committee * New York State Dem Committee State/National Politics Hillary Clinton for President Victory Fund Daily Kos Center for American Progress Political Wire The Note National Stonewall Dems New York Stonewall Dems Progressive Democrats of America Super blogs Getting married, sort of... StudioOneQ Kathy Luz Herrera Good As You Queerty Monkeyhutts Ithaca Action Network white male consumer Elliott Back Ithaca is Home Living in Dryden AlfredNYC AarHead drdjmike JaseWells Govind's Stochastic Comments urbanskies.com Joey Destino Rebel Prince donut jelly Burnt Orange Report Slouching Towards Banality The Student Nurse Quistilton Family Blog Observe But Do Not Interfere The Search for Love in Manhattan ISleepInADrawer.com That Happy Feeling NYCO's Blog greg3d Tales of a Shrink Blog search engines Blogarama Review My Site Blog Search Engine popdex Blog Directory eTalkingHead Archive September 2001 October 2001 November 2001 December 2001 January 2002 February 2002 March 2002 April 2002 May 2002 June 2002 July 2002 August 2002 September 2002 October 2002 November 2002 December 2002 January 2003 February 2003 March 2003 April 2003 May 2003 June 2003 July 2003 August 2003 September 2003 October 2003 November 2003 December 2003 January 2004 February 2004 March 2004 April 2004 May 2004 June 2004 July 2004 August 2004 September 2004 October 2004 November 2004 December 2004 January 2005 February 2005 March 2005 April 2005 May 2005 June 2005 July 2005 August 2005 September 2005 October 2005 November 2005 December 2005 January 2006 February 2006 March 2006 April 2006 May 2006 June 2006 July 2006 August 2006 September 2006 October 2006 January 2007 February 2007 March 2007 April 2007 June 2007 November 2007 |