Swimming in Tainted Water

For all we know, Charles Manson, deep down, is a really nice guy who used to volunteer at day camps, help the infirm carry their groceries home, and wax the vehicles of the downtrodden. Not likely, but possible.

Similarly, Sirhan B. Sirhan may well be operating a free lending library out of his jail cell, the Khmer Rouge might have sponsored Little League teams every summer, and the Tonton Macoutes could have really been a beneficent organization with just a few bad apples in the barrel.

It would take the greatest optimist in the world to find redeeming value in the people mentioned above. Therefore, most of us avoid swimming in the waters they inhabit, for fear of being consumed by them or of being regarded by others as being like them.

Which is why, before jumping into the water with all the teabaggers (!) out there, one should consider the intelligent, well-stated views reproduced below:
(from Salon)
Another seemingly sedate protester, Brian Smith, a marketer from Greenville, S.C., who was in Washington on business and came by the rally, wandered equally off message. "I love my country and I don't like what's going on," Smith said. "Government -- to be honest with you, and this will probably be misquoted, but on 9/11, I think they hit the wrong building. They should have gone into the Capitol building, hit out, knocked out both sides of the aisle, we'd start from scratch, we'd be better off today." I pointed out that "they" did try to hit the Capitol. "Yeah, I know, they missed," he said. "The wrong sequence. If someone had to go, it should have been the Capitol building. On that day I felt differently, but today that's the way I feel."

So there you go; if you were out there masking your unbridled hatred for Barack H. Obama by pretending to protest taxes, which have gone down for you unless you earn over 250 Gs a year, Rockefeller, you're in league with this yokel from the home town of "Shoeless Joe" Jackson, and he wanted every member of the U.S. Congress to be killed by foreign terrorists. And tell me how Rush O'Reilly would react if Tim Robbins even dreamed of thinking of mentioning wanting that to happen.

We liberals want the best for everyone without hurting anyone. Brian Smith, hick town marketer (chewing tobacco? flyswatters? Iron Boy® overalls? Goo-Goo Clusters? Confederate flags?) wants 435 congresspersons and 100 dead senators, not to mention their staffs and whoever else might have been in that location on 9/11/01.

Maybe he'll be a top draft pick next month when the Macoute chooses next year's rookie candidates.