Attack of the leRant

I just read this column by Ezra Levant. Ordinarily, I'm not silly enough to read this man - like several other nameless columnists that publish in Alberta, he's basically a mouthpiece for a form of conservatism that irritates me.

However, Mr. Levant leaves so many things as half-stated truths, and implied insults to anyone who might choose to disagree with him that I can't just leave my hook unbaited.

Sayeth Mr. Lerant:

No party has a monopoly on patriotism -- though the Democrats' slavish respect for the UN does raise fair questions about where their sovereign loyalties lie. Democrats usually denounce patriotism as too arrogant, or too right-wing, or not nuanced enough.

I've never seen a US Democrat denounce patriotism. I have seen them express a great deal of frustration with the current Republican bunch in power, who seem hell-bent on imposing their idea of patriotism on the rest of the world. Americans as a whole a feverishly patriotic, no matter their political stripe. Mr. Levant's assumption that someone who disagrees with the current administration is "unpatriotic" is at best false logic, at worst pathetic.

Sayeth Mr. Lerant:

That is a challenge for the Dems, who have been anti-military since Vietnam. There is not one major military system that John Kerry didn't oppose while in the Senate, from missiles to bombers to infantry fighting vehicles -- the very tools that America now relies on today.

How does opposing wasteful spending make one "anti-military". You cannot assume any such thing. Perhaps Mr. Kerry has a different vision of what the role of the US Military should be. I would point out that those "tools that America now relies on today" haven't exactly helped them win the hearts and minds of Iraqis. Most of Iraq is hardly what one could call "safe", in fact it is a land on the verge of civil war, regardless of the presence of the Americans.

Mr. Lerant Chronicles Further:

And the party that would have surrendered to the Soviets now wants America to take it seriously on foreign affairs

Give me a break. During the Cold War era, there were numerous Democrat presidents. Not one of them "surrendered" to the Soviet Union. Oh yes, the enlightened wisdom of the Republicans - the same bunch of geniuses that have given the United States the laughable "Communications Decency Act"; Under both Reagan and Bush Jr., record deficits; the "Defense of Marriage Act", and most recently a proposal to amend the US Constitution against the imminent threat of Gay Marriages. How wise, really?

In the closing chapters of his Testament:

America, the only superpower, but more accurately the only grown-up country these days, cannot afford that luxury.

Canadians and liberals around the world can afford to despise America's strength, because we secretly know America will always protect us.

Really, Ezra, surely your lawyer's wit can do better than that? America "the only grown-up country"??? What are you smoking in your spare time? Leading up to invading Iraq, America sounded far more like a petulant teenager than a grown-up. Bush hasn't changed - he's still his narrow-minded self - busily trying to convince the world that he has changed.

Canadians and "liberals around the world" do not despise America's strength. Get your facts straight. We despise the overt use of that strength to achieve goals that have nothing to do with improving the world we live in. We despise being lied to by a bunch of politicians whose sole agenda is to start a war in another country. Above all, we despise people like you who sneer at those of us who would disagree with your pugilistic way of solving problems. I thought we got past that once we left grade school!