Freedom is Untidy

Remember back when the US first liberated Iraq, and Donal Rumsfeld commented on the looting images flowing back from Baghdad? In case you don't remember, here is what Rummy said: "Freedom’s untidy, and free people are free to make mistakes and commit crimes and do bad things."

Well, now New Orleans looks like something from a John Carpenter movie. Rioting, looting, "armed gangs patrolling the streets." But the right-wingers are not at all happy about these looters. Marshall law has been declared. But, does anyone else besides me wonder about the "looting guns from stores" aspect of this? Could it be that stockpiling lethal weapons and selling them like donuts at a bake sale isn't the wisest policy to pursue?

This country is falling apart. All the loose nuts and bolts are now rolling willy-nilly over the national floorboards. We have a president who is so bad even Pat Buchanan is calling for his impeachment. We have loony religious right leaders proclaiming Christian fatwas against foreign leaders. We have a raging counter-insurgency war roiling the Middle East and costing our national treasury upwards of $300 billion. Meanwhile, gasoline is headed to $4.00 a gallon and the airlines are going broke.

Face it, folks: The wheels have come off and our national Hummer is rolling on bare axels into the roadside ditch of history.