People make the mistake of thinking the left, collectively, actualy means what it says. They remind me of the sheep in Animal Farm, re-bleating whatever comes out of the mainstream media. One minute four legs is the right number, the next minute it's two legs. I'm sad that such a large percentage of our citizenry has fallen to have such a low level of critical thinking.

For example, we heard endlessly, from the left: "Why weren't there more troops in New Orleans?" This despite the fact that huge numbers were mobilized in times that were right in line with (and quantities that exceeded) historical standards.

More troops were needed. Noted.

So I was floored when I heard, through several sources, that Cindy Sheehan, via Michael Moore's website, was saying things like this:

One thing that truly troubled me about my visit to Louisiana was the level of the military presence there.... what I saw was a city that is occupied. I saw soldiers walking around in patrols of 7 with their weapons slung on their backs. I wanted to ask one of them what it would take for one of them to shoot me. Sand bags were removed from private property to make machine gun nests. [...]

George Bush needs to stop talking, admit the mistakes of his all around failed administration, pull our troops out of occupied New Orleans and Iraq, and excuse his self from power

Two points:

1. Note that she shows a hatred and distrust, in general, of anything military. If there are seven of her own citizens working together, and they are military people who carry guns, her first image is of them shooting her. There are no bad people out there to protect against; the real threat is the military.

(This despite the fact the son she allegedly reveres was one of them. I'm sure it brought her a bit of cognative dissonance when her own son readily fell in with these crazed killers, and then even voluntarily re-enlisted.)

2. More importantly, if we have learned the criticism can be made that there are too few troops in New Orleans, we now see the same people are equally capable of making the exact opposite criticism, that there are too many troops in New Orleans.

This is the typical approach we're seeing these days: No matter what is done, it is wrong. Ordinary people listen to the outcry, magnified by the media's megaphone, and assume there is some serious, principled criticism going on, that there is some reason for the complaint. There is not -- in an alternate universe, the opposite action would have produced the same kind of outcry. There are no core principles behind the complaint, other than the obsessive need to gain control over the instruments of the state; to gain power over us all.

Normally, I'd write Cindy off as a fringe element, but her current proximity to people like Michael Moore -- the man who occupied a seat of highest honor in the last Democratic convention -- and other prominent leaders means that her ravings cannot currently be dismissed as non-representative of the left's leadership.