I call it Ogden's Law (since no one else has claimed it as a law), and Ogden's Law states:
It is inevitable that no matter what the circumstances are, if one should ever criticize, in any way, the American military, that person will be E-Mailed maliciously and narcissistically by at least one person with the typing and writing skills of a third grader.
That's one of the biggest golden calfs in American culture; the military. It's a taboo to criticize the military in any way, and God help you if you should. That's how it is in this country, you can criticize the government, you can criticize the president (just as long as it isn't your president), you can criticize everyone from every ideological group, you can criticize religion, but you can't criticize the military, because if it weren't for them, this country would be invaded by all kind of communists and Islamic fundamentalists, leaving everyone small, helpless, and unable to defend themselves.
We're also expected to respect the freeloaders who joined the military only for the benefits. It reminds me of a conversation I had with my father a couple of weeks ago. The military was pestering me again, trying to get me to contact them and possibly enlist with one of their services, and as usual, I remained firm in refusal to even consider the matter. My father though, tried to persuade me to consider it, since they would pay for my college and give me all kinds of benefits. I explained to him that I don't want to live off someone else's hard-earned tax dollars, just so I can make my own life a bit simpler.
I'm sticking to what I believe in. I refuse to be cannon fodder for the State so that I can be sent to kill someone else, in a foreign land, whom I have no quarrel with, and I refuse to have respect immediately commanded to me just because I joined the right club.
I expect this post will win me E-Mails from all kind of looneys, nutters, and all matters of fruits and nuts. But then again, that's just Ogden's Law at work.