I was watching a favorite flick the other night - the third installment of the Austin Powers trilogy. It's  the one with Michael Cain, who as an aside I believe either he or Gene Hackman have been in every movie made since 1965.

Cain had a great line about how he hates two things - those who are intolerant of other people's culture...and the Dutch. Great line, very funny stuff.

Apologies for the glass half empty perspective, but it got me thinking about how intolerant a culture we exist in, and how we are also so hypocritical about that intolerance.

Most wars have to do will religious intolerance - Arabs killing Jews and vice versa. Remember Bosnia? Ethnic cleansing. And while I'm not necessarily subscribing to this belief, it could be argued that the U.S.'s military current aggression is tied to the intolerance we've demonstrated for the cultural nuances of other countries that run counter to the American sensibilities.

And aside from wars, let's simply look here in our own back yard. Christians of varying faiths scoff at their own brethren simply because one sect's interpretation of Christ may be just moderately different. Significant racial hatred still exists, homophobia continues to run rampant, and don't get me going on mustache discrimination....we know where I fall on that one.

So where's the upside? Is there a light at the end of the tunnel? That's a tough one because every time we talk about progress - and there is lots of progress - we witness something so disgusting such as the beating of a gay teen or a black man being dragged by a pickup truck or invading a nation because it doesn't provide their citizens with the same level of freedoms as the invading nation...ahem (am I turning into a lefty commy pinko like my brother? Jeez I hope not).

On a far lesser level, I even find myself doing it at times. I might think to myself that I need not respect someone else because they may simply express themselves in a way that is different from the manner in which I do. But I'm working on it, simply by continuing to keep a conscious notion of the need for tolerance in every aspect of my life. And in my Pollyanna moment for the year, I'd hope we all do this to some degree.

I do know that we at the American Mustache Institute are doing our best to curb lip fur discrimination - some of the worst bias out there - and I certainly hope the rest of the AMI nation can do the same on all fronts....to encourage a spirit of tolerance, whether or not you get someone else's perspective, fashion sense, race, religion, hairweave, nipple piercing, lip sweater-ness....whatever.

Did I mention I hate people with beards?