Byzantium's Shores: chronicling the misadventures of an overalls-clad hippie

Here's a specific complaint I have about Glenn Reynolds: a post in which he complains that no one protests against Saddam, but everyone protests against the United States.

This is a standard complaint by the right/warbloggers -- SDB raises it often, for instance -- but it's simply not true, judging by the amount of mail I started receiving from precisely the left-wing groups like Amnesty, International and others when I subscribed for a single year to Mother Jones. I got mailings detailing all manner of atrocities and disgusting behavior by dictators all over the world, including detailed descriptions of what the Taliban was up to before they leapt to the Head of our Anger Class by getting behind 9-11-01. People have been protesting these tyrants for years, and anyone claiming that they haven't is either ignorant or lying. In Reynolds's case, I will give him the benefit of the doubt and assume the former, with the full implication that maybe when he bitches about the left he should extend a bit more effort into, well, knowing just what he's complaining about.

And if it seems as if these organizations are a bit louder about their demonstrations here, well, perhaps (a) it only seems that way because these organizations and their protests simply don't receive that much coverage unless they happen to be protesting something going on here, and (b) perhaps they're under the impression that the United States, being a democratic nation, not only sanctions people demonstrating against their government but in some ways actually endorses it. Some people consider such dissent as part-and-parcel of citizenship, much to the apparent chagrin of those whose idea of citizenship involves marching lock-step behind the President, no-matter-what.