America, I Do Love You But...

Jordan Brown is a kid from Pennsylvania who's being tried as an adult for shooting his dad's girlfriend when he was eleven. To the knee-jerk, law n' order types, this is cool. But for most people who think in context and remember what it was like being 11 years old, it's a f*cking national disgrace.

So how do you stand up and say no to this kind of barbaric bullsh*t when the right-wing will always make you look like Osama bin Laden if you object to anything America does?

To the wing nuts, patriotism is North Korean style: a lockstep, unconditional love of country that makes criticism unthinkable. But liberals see it differently. We're like those nerdy, analytical kids who love mom and dad but are constantly questioning and criticizing them in an effort to make them better, less embarrassing people. Think "Dad, I do love you, but you can't wear that wife-beater to the parent-teacher conference," or "Mom, stop flirting with my friends... they don't rate you as a MILF."

Extrapolate that out to the macrocosm and you might end up saying "America, I do love you but stop trying little kids as adults. It's f*cking retarded and makes me embarrassed when other countries start whispering behind our back." Say the Guardian:

The US is the only country where juveniles are serving life imprisonment without parole under the so-called "life means life" policy. Only the US and Somalia have refused to ratify the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which rules out life sentences with no chance of release for crimes committed before the age of 18.

Even the most unquestioning patriots must have a problem with our country being in a club of two with Somalia for anything. Surely..?