Pandagon on Chickenhawks:
The chickenhawk argument has virtually nothing to do with the act of not serving in the military – it is instead what that lack of service represents. Chickenhawks are unprincipled prevaricators obsessed with the imperative of “defeating America’s enemies” through the sacrifice and toil of other people. The chickenhawk exists because they took proactive steps towards avoiding the military service they were asked to participate in. What many chickenhawks did (and still do) is to trumpet the military as the ultimate expression of patriotism, especially through membership, even to the point where those who object to this are attacked viciously as “anti-American” or “loony” or one of Rush Limbaugh’s other entries on the short list of bad names for liberals. However, when they were asked to partake in this ultimate expression of love and devotion to the country which they supposedly held so dear, they had more moves than Barry Sanders at the line of scrimmage to get away from serving.
This land is Your Land on why Some Where Communists in Italy:
This is by Giorgio Gaber, Italian singer, author, performer and, as this makes abundantly clear, ex-Communist. A lot of this is very Italian but I left it in because, well, because never mind if you don’t get it. It explains a lot about Italy, really, including what Italians mean by “Communism”. I do hope it falls under fair use. It’s basically satire. I guess.