Book Clubs

The talk is book clubs today.

I never did understand the whole furor over Oprah's book club. So she recommends a book. I have yet to actually take her word for it. I started reading James Frey's book on my own, because I read memoirs (Running with Scissors by Augusten Burroughs and Truth & Beauty by Ann Patchett), not because Oprah told me to. And during her first book club, every book she picked was about dysfunctional people. I don't mind that for every other book or every third book, but I do need a bit of happy to make my life worth living. I live with a glass that's partial full, not heading toward empty.

So I probably won't be too interested in Osama's book pick, Rogue State, by William Blum. I hear Mr. Blum's point though. I find myself nodding my head at his insistence that U.S. support for rogue leaders in third-world countries, heck, in any country, does not bode itself as supporting democracy. But hang on, Mr. Blum.

I voted for the GOP in the last two elections. I put these people into power. So it is not you who have the right to be furious as much as it is my right to be furious. There are certain people in power right now who lied, seduced, manipulated, and played with my vote so as to ensure their ability to cheat, embezzle, and coordinate the powers for their advancement. You know who you are Bill Frist and Tom DeLay and others in Congress who say you care about these things, but turn and do otherwise. Walk softly, gentlemen. You have a GOP party that now says "Cheat on us once, your fault, cheat on us twice, our fault."

We will no longer walk blindly behind your rogue policies. You cannot change the law because you "feel" like it.

But, Mr. Blum, walk softly yourself. Painting the United States as this threatener of the world is not the answer. We must answer the Bin Ladens with definitive military action, lest they come again with their suicide bombers and kill another 3,000 people. I do not think all of Iraq is a mistake. I do not think all of the Patriot act has been a failure. Mistakes in each of these things. Oh yes. But we don't throw the baby out because the bath water is dirty. Moderation now. Men fail because they crow too loudly.

If we are to figure this out, both extremes, Mr. Blum's extreme left and the blasphemous extreme right, must meet in the center and work together. There has to be give and take. There has to be truth. And there should be no more Osama's book club.

What do Oprah and Osama think? That we're stupid? I beg to differ.