Amos,

I'm not trying to say that I should avoid looking at the dark side of my country. I simply presented one facet of the issue -- that the American left has a real problem with each other when they call themselves "patriotic". They have to include (very quickly) all the qualifiers to that patriotism that make it, as a concept, palatable to their co-liberals. Mick's post (above) is a classic example, as it contains elements of at least three of my five points.

And of course Piers was agreeing with the Shaw quote. p'Shaw.

Have a nice day!