Eat the flag, take the flag pill, tattoo flags on the insides of your eyelids

(For a personal retrospective look at Independence Day today and past, please hop on over to mrchair)

Not to be melodramatic, but am I the only one who is having a hard time swallowing the annual patriotism orgy of the fourth this year? Maybe it's that it's Sunday and I have to work tomorrow, but I don't feel a damn thing. I usually don't really, but there's a notable vacuum of patriotism this year. I read an interview with Michael Moore in Entertainment Weekly where he had to put up with the typical shelacking from his interviewer.

I find it obnoxious that Michael Moore takes more shit from the press than President Bush does. Because god forbid somebody actually does the job of the fourth estate and slams what needs slamming. Because he's not a complete fucking pussy when it comes to saying what he believes to be true. They detest him because he says what they can't and people listen. He's manipulative with images, but you have to consider: HE'S A DOCUMENTARY FILMMAKER. His job is to provoke a response. This is not a piece of journalism, but it's bolder journalism than any network has done probably since Vietnam, and so when he sits down with Matt Lauer or EW, they nag at him like jealous little bitches.

But anyway, Moore gets a little fed up when Daniel Fierman suggests that showing images of normal Iraqis at play is dishonest.

"We killed a lot of civilians, and I think that we're going to have to answer for that -- whether it's now or in the hereafter. If you pay taxes and you're an American, your name is on those bombs."

This fourth, I have this itching feeling that history isn't going to look back on me and my compatriots fondly. They say liberals hate America, but I think they just wish America wasn't so easy to hate.

An aside to all this: Ralph Nader has officially lost his mind. I usually listen to Ralph and get this fired up feeling about how much brilliant sense he makes. Not anymore. On Meet the Press this morning, Nader was covering his tracks and rationalizing his idiot presidential quest in the face of conservative groups funding his campaign to spoil it for Kerry. But here's the proof that he's fucking lost it: Apparently Nader sent Michael Moore a letter saying that he was disappointed to not be invited to a premiere of F9/11, then criticized Moore's weight. He defended himself on MTP, saying he's genuinely concerned about his weight problem and intended to give the filmmaker "a jolt." Cuckoo.

I know this was a little political, but I'd file it under media/culture. And just to support that, I'll finish by saying that Mean Girls was really funny and I want to have Tina Fey's baby.