Steven Den Beste has a superb post about how American power is not intentional, which is why resisting it is so hard, but those who detest America can only see it as harmful. (link via Occam's toothbrush). Of course, he's preaching to the converted with me, even if I don't particularly like the low-class culture he celebrates. Then again, I'm still stinging from one of my snobbish peers who derided my tastes as bourgeois. Speaking of preaching to the converted, Occam's toothbrush also links to the Confessions of an Anti-sanctions Activist by Charles M. Brown, who remarks that the only books about Iraq they read were by Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, and Edward Said. I hope that's just exaggeration. And speaking of only paying attention to those you agree with, David Brooks argues that that's what Americans do. (link via Hit & Run).