I must say, I was totally prepared for disappointment. And my prepared disappointment was disappointed. Which doesn't disappoint me in the slightest.

Obama released the torture memos. Bravo for him. I know he was under a lot of pressure not to release them, especially from the Bush-school holdovers who still rank high in the CIA. And special kudos to the ACLU for pushing and winning an issue that's often maligned, forgotten, ridiculed. Without the ACLU, it would have been just right-wing sources imploring that Obana keep these fake "state secrets" secret. Well, there is no there there, except to say that conscious, approved torture is criminal and punishable. Or at least should be. I understand no one's going to jail this time, and while I could be outraged, I'll be for today cnotent with our latest victory. We won. Kudos for the Big O. Kudos for the ACLU. Kudos for the blogosphere that pushed and mattered (Glenn Greenwald, EmptyWheel/Marcie, Andrew Sullivan, Digby...). We won.

Don't tell me what to do. I'm an American.

Americans are free. The freest country in the world.

Democracy is the worst of all systems except for all the rest.
Don't like it? Go live in Burkina Faso or Vladivostok.

We have the best health care, the best universities,
the best movies, we invent the best stuff, and the rest
of the countries in the world are just jealous of us.

Even sports - they run around kicking a little ball.
We have sports that require some thinking, some strategy,
some toughness.

Okay, had to get that out of my system.

Strolled by Andrew Sullivan's for a rare peek, and
came across a note from an ER physician noting the
sense of entitlement people coming in have. I guess
I always assumed this was mostly right-wing spin
against the poor. Now I start to think again. What
he describes is not just desiring access to treatment,
but controlling the process - how quick, which
tests, what prescription. Veruca Salt style - "I want
it now."

Where I live, far from the US, people do use their
free health care a lot. But it doesn't feel like
entitlement. They seem to go when they need treatment.
And tend to take what they're given rather politely.

But everything that gets beamed out of America is
about some kind of entitlement, an exemption to
pollute more, entitlement to torture, entitlement
to not be subject to international rules and norms,
entitlement to rule the roost, dominate the world's
currency and markets, decide who gets nuclear
weapons, offshore but retaliate, to tilt everything our way.
The world was waiting for us to anoint our new Messiah,*
not say to get our shit together and start listening to
friendly, intelligent foreign voices.

We are entitled to drive as much as we want,
to insult others in the name of freedom as much as
we want, to invade and threaten and harass and extradite
and embargo and sanction wherever and whenever we
feel appropriate. We're #1. We don't need a mirror.
Just another beer. Road trip. Let's go blow up some shit,
go taser someone. Entitlement in little things and big -
"I pay my taxes, get out of my lane".

Our talking back to power has become a parody.
By talking back, we mean "act irreverent" without
actually accomplishing anything. We make YouTube.
The bullshit continues. It's there on the left and
on the right. Puppets in our own game of superiority.
Our media has become a cottage industry catering
to the self-perceived entitlement of its audience.

Who will we mock today? Who will fill my little pot
of entitlement or risk my wrath and ire?

Entitlement is a virus, an earwig that's eating through
the American brain and psyche.

*Note that of course we're entitled to a Messiah,
that it's inconceivable that we could deserve a plain
ordinary politician as our leader, much less a poor
incompetent one. That would be un-American.