Fictional grouches like Grampa Abe "Old Man Yells At Cloud" Simpson can be very funny, but in real life, that's seldom the case, and sometimes their venting is flat-out loathsome.
For example, this past Wednesday, the twelfth anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Daily Kos blogger "enhydra lutris" expressed his annoyance with certain post-9/11 uses of "patriot," including the designation of each September 11 as Patriot Day, which he associates with mindless, over-the-top nationalism:
...The Patriot is a missle [sic], a weapon of war, as befits our warfare state economy.
The Patriot Act is an unspeakable act, pointless overreaching authoritarian malice codified...
The Patriots are New England, with the abysmally ugly faux nouveau...logo that looks like a forties era advertisement for a railroad. A franchise that hasn't been any fun since they had Jim Plunkett.
And now we have, give me a break, George effing Orwell stop effing laughing and pointing, effing Patriot Day?
Patriot effing Day is right up there with and possibly tops effing National Day of Prayer. Why not bundle them together, toss in effing Flag Day, and call it Totalitarian Day, Authoritarian Day, or Statist effing Horseshit Day?
Am we supposed to wrap ourselves in the Flag and chant the effing Pledge of effing Allegiance on the hour, followed by a rousing chorus of "USA! USA! USA!! we're numbah one! we're exceptional!", or what?
Oh please spare me.
