An End in Sight
The crocuses are blooming! At the beginning of March, I was so desperate for spring I was
sprouting lima beans on my windowsill just to see something green and growing.
But now temperatures have been consistently above freezing for a few weeks, and the ice has
melted, leaving glacial deposits of gravel, leaves and trash on the sidewalks. The green shoots of
tulip leaves are emerging around front stairs and basement windows all over the neighborhood. . .
and the crocuses are blooming. It snowed yesterday, but winter is finally ending.
March in Boston
Boston had a glorious big peace demonstration March 29th. It was Saturday, and as I made my
way to work, there were a hundred or more people in the Harvard Square station, signs tucked
under their arms, waiting for the inbound train. They were headed for a gathering and a march at
Boston Common. I was curious, so on my lunch break I took the T to the Boylston stop.
They’d already started marching by the time I got there so I didn’t catch the whole crowd, but I
hadn’t seen so many people in one place since Arturo Sandoval played the Jacksonville Jazz
Festival.
I trotted down the sidewalk alongside the parade, part of a secondary current of photographers,
cameramen, and reporters. I wished I had brought a camera myself. It was a sort of informal
Carnival: a drum corps or two, a brass band, groups of people in costumes and masks, a few
giant papier-mâché puppets-scattered among thousands of people holding banners and signs.
The atmosphere was jubilant. If not for the signs and the policemen in riot gear scattered along
the parade route, one might never guess it was a protest at all. More like the biggest street party
you’ve ever been to. I think I understand now why people go to football games-it’s not the
runners on the field, it’s the expansive, euphoric feeling of being a crowd.
I never got to the front of the line, so I didn’t see the “die-in” staged when the parade was over. I
left to go back to work. Since it was a duly licensed parade, I’m not sure what the “die-in” was
supposed to accomplish. I thought they were meant to block traffic or otherwise snarl up the
machinery of urban life, but on a properly cleared parade route, it’s just lying down on the
pavement.
On the way back I passed a small group (thirty or fewer) of counter-protesters tailing the police
cars at the end of the line: a sullen flurry of red and white stripes that chanted “U-S-A, U-S-A” in
an angry monotone.
The television news (NECN) later reported that fifteen thousand people showed up. The Boston
Globe reported twenty-five thousand. As a party, it was a resounding success. As a political
action… it was cathartic for the participants, I suppose. They got a day of local news coverage,
and maybe saw their own faces flash across the TV screen, but then… traffic resumes. The
people in charge are content to ignore them.
They felt better for having gone, but nothing changed. It was, if anything, a happy demonstration
of obedience. Thousands of people stood up and said together that they believe the war in Iraq is
wrong, but they don’t believe it enough to withdraw their support from the government that wages
the war. They will still beg permission from the state to hold their parade, and, once there, will
stay within the appointed path and time. It said to DC: “We want peace, but don’t worry, it’s
nothing serious.” If those same thousands stopped paying taxes in protest, Washington might sit
up and take notice. But the Party for Peace strategy is much more popular.
Still, this protest-this impotent gesture-felt so good, so important, so much like a victory march.
As long as I don’t try to figure out who won, anyway.
Enviro-Hypocrisy
I love the way politicians speak out* for environmentally friendly** policies (and a whole host of
other things that are supposed to be good for us)-- as long as those policies involve more
government power and more government income. But we know that if tomorrow somebody found
a way to run cars on cotton candy and make electricity with dandelion fluff, cotton candy and
dandelions would be illegal, or at least restricted to licensed companies and dealers-all for our
own good.
Why? Because the state reaps a steady and enormous income from energy taxes. The
environment can go straight to hell as long as the state loses no income. Heck, a big toxic
pollutant disaster would be great for them-they could justify raising taxes to clean it up, and
probably get something from the big federal honeypot to help out, too. It baffles me that
environmental lobbying groups haven’t figured this out yet. Or could it be that they are just as
guilty as the politicians of being motivated by power and money?
Skeptical? Why, then, would California want to start taxing the electricity generated by home solar
panels? Why would British law enforcement so enthusiastically prosecute people who run their
cars on cooking oil? Why penalize people for safe and environmentally friendly practices?
They’re showing their true colors. Politicians and bureaucrats are happy to talk about “clean
energy” and happy to commandeer money-yours and mine-to subsidize research and
environmentally sound*** technologies, but only as long as it doesn’t cut into their revenues. They
make a lot of money from gas and energy taxes. The British government doesn’t pay “frying
squads” to catch biodiesel users because running your car on cooking oil is dangerous: they do it
because cooking oil isn’t subject to fuel taxes.
The result is that while politicians stand around pretending to be eco-friendly, some Californians
will likely be quietly unplugging their solar panels, and many more will think twice about getting
them in the first place. In Britain, many of the people who had (because it was cheaper)
converted to biodiesel are going back to gasoline because the fines more than make up for the
savings they found in cooking oil.
Government: 2 Environment: 0
Whatever Happened to the Liberal Media?
Remember the liberal media-the one we griped and complained about so much? Where did it
go? If you use a good search engine, you can hunt it down online, but dissent is gone from the
television news and the newspapers I’ve seen.
Instead, the TV reporters have adopted the official line and the official vocabulary like little boys
spouting phrases from their favorite video games. Everything from “Operation Decapitation” and
“Operation Iraqi Freedom” to the inane “Freedom Fries” rolls lightly off their tongues, while civilian
casualties and US screw-ups are censored from the airwaves. Our media cries foul when Iraqi
TV and Al Jazeera show captive
Embedded Journalist
US soldiers, but has no problem whatsoever showing the multitudes of surrendering and captured
Iraqi soldiers.
And then there’s the whole issue of embedded journalists (i.e. military groupies with
microphones). Are they allowed to say anything critical of the military? Are they allowed to leave
their assigned military units to do investigative work? How fast would they get booted out of Iraq if
they did?
From what I’ve seen, the news networks have mutated into some kind of Bush administration fan
club. Where did the liberal media go? Perhaps it’s in a basement somewhere, cowering next to
our civil liberties and Democratic congressmen, terrified that someone will call it unpatriotic, or-
God forbid-anti-American. Then again, maybe it’s the same media it’s always been - soulless,
spineless, and rolling over on command like a good little spaniel.
Thumbsmudge is the offspring of my own feeble brain and nobody else’s. Send complaints and correspondence
to Elleason@aol.com. Send free prescription Viagra offers elsewhere. ………………..Lilith
Boston had a glorious big peace demonstration March 29th. It was Saturday, and as I made my
way to work, there were a hundred or more people in the Harvard Square station, signs tucked
under their arms, waiting for the inbound train. They were headed for a gathering and a march at
Boston Common. I was curious, so on my lunch break I took the T to the Boylston stop.
They’d already started marching by the time I got there so I didn’t catch the whole crowd, but I
hadn’t seen so many people in one place since Arturo Sandoval played the Jacksonville Jazz
Festival.
I trotted down the sidewalk alongside the parade, part of a secondary current of photographers,
cameramen, and reporters. I wished I had brought a camera myself. It was a sort of informal
Carnival: a drum corps or two, a brass band, groups of people in costumes and masks, a few
giant papier-mâché puppets-scattered among thousands of people holding banners and signs.
The atmosphere was jubilant. If not for the signs and the policemen in riot gear scattered along
the parade route, one might never guess it was a protest at all. More like the biggest street party
you’ve ever been to. I think I understand now why people go to football games-it’s not the
runners on the field, it’s the expansive, euphoric feeling of being a crowd.
I never got to the front of the line, so I didn’t see the “die-in” staged when the parade was over. I
left to go back to work. Since it was a duly licensed parade, I’m not sure what the “die-in” was
supposed to accomplish. I thought they were meant to block traffic or otherwise snarl up the
machinery of urban life, but on a properly cleared parade route, it’s just lying down on the
pavement.
On the way back I passed a small group (thirty or fewer) of counter-protesters tailing the police
cars at the end of the line: a sullen flurry of red and white stripes that chanted “U-S-A, U-S-A” in
an angry monotone.
The television news (NECN) later reported that fifteen thousand people showed up. The Boston
Globe reported twenty-five thousand. As a party, it was a resounding success. As a political
action… it was cathartic for the participants, I suppose. They got a day of local news coverage,
and maybe saw their own faces flash across the TV screen, but then… traffic resumes. The
people in charge are content to ignore them.
They felt better for having gone, but nothing changed. It was, if anything, a happy demonstration
of obedience. Thousands of people stood up and said together that they believe the war in Iraq is
wrong, but they don’t believe it enough to withdraw their support from the government that wages
the war. They will still beg permission from the state to hold their parade, and, once there, will
stay within the appointed path and time. It said to DC: “We want peace, but don’t worry, it’s
nothing serious.” If those same thousands stopped paying taxes in protest, Washington might sit
up and take notice. But the Party for Peace strategy is much more popular.
Still, this protest-this impotent gesture-felt so good, so important, so much like a victory march.
As long as I don’t try to figure out who won, anyway.
Enviro-Hypocrisy
I love the way politicians speak out* for environmentally friendly** policies (and a whole host of
other things that are supposed to be good for us)-- as long as those policies involve more
government power and more government income. But we know that if tomorrow somebody found
a way to run cars on cotton candy and make electricity with dandelion fluff, cotton candy and
dandelions would be illegal, or at least restricted to licensed companies and dealers-all for our
own good.
Why? Because the state reaps a steady and enormous income from energy taxes. The
environment can go straight to hell as long as the state loses no income. Heck, a big toxic
pollutant disaster would be great for them-they could justify raising taxes to clean it up, and
probably get something from the big federal honeypot to help out, too. It baffles me that
environmental lobbying groups haven’t figured this out yet. Or could it be that they are just as
guilty as the politicians of being motivated by power and money?
Skeptical? Why, then, would California want to start taxing the electricity generated by home solar
panels? Why would British law enforcement so enthusiastically prosecute people who run their
cars on cooking oil? Why penalize people for safe and environmentally friendly practices?
They’re showing their true colors. Politicians and bureaucrats are happy to talk about “clean
energy” and happy to commandeer money-yours and mine-to subsidize research and
environmentally sound*** technologies, but only as long as it doesn’t cut into their revenues. They
make a lot of money from gas and energy taxes. The British government doesn’t pay “frying
squads” to catch biodiesel users because running your car on cooking oil is dangerous: they do it
because cooking oil isn’t subject to fuel taxes.
The result is that while politicians stand around pretending to be eco-friendly, some Californians
will likely be quietly unplugging their solar panels, and many more will think twice about getting
them in the first place. In Britain, many of the people who had (because it was cheaper)
converted to biodiesel are going back to gasoline because the fines more than make up for the
savings they found in cooking oil.
Government: 2 Environment: 0
Whatever Happened to the Liberal Media?
Remember the liberal media-the one we griped and complained about so much? Where did it
go? If you use a good search engine, you can hunt it down online, but dissent is gone from the
television news and the newspapers I’ve seen.
Instead, the TV reporters have adopted the official line and the official vocabulary like little boys
spouting phrases from their favorite video games. Everything from “Operation Decapitation” and
“Operation Iraqi Freedom” to the inane “Freedom Fries” rolls lightly off their tongues, while civilian
casualties and US screw-ups are censored from the airwaves. Our media cries foul when Iraqi
TV and Al Jazeera show captive
Embedded Journalist
US soldiers, but has no problem whatsoever showing the multitudes of surrendering and captured
Iraqi soldiers.
And then there’s the whole issue of embedded journalists (i.e. military groupies with
microphones). Are they allowed to say anything critical of the military? Are they allowed to leave
their assigned military units to do investigative work? How fast would they get booted out of Iraq if
they did?
From what I’ve seen, the news networks have mutated into some kind of Bush administration fan
club. Where did the liberal media go? Perhaps it’s in a basement somewhere, cowering next to
our civil liberties and Democratic congressmen, terrified that someone will call it unpatriotic, or-
God forbid-anti-American. Then again, maybe it’s the same media it’s always been - soulless,
spineless, and rolling over on command like a good little spaniel.
Thumbsmudge is the offspring of my own feeble brain and nobody else’s. Send complaints and correspondence
to Elleason@aol.com. Send free prescription Viagra offers elsewhere. ………………..Lilith
Remember the liberal media-the one we griped and complained about so much? Where did it
go? If you use a good search engine, you can hunt it down online, but dissent is gone from the
television news and the newspapers I’ve seen.
Instead, the TV reporters have adopted the official line and the official vocabulary like little boys
spouting phrases from their favorite video games. Everything from “Operation Decapitation” and
“Operation Iraqi Freedom” to the inane “Freedom Fries” rolls lightly off their tongues, while civilian
casualties and US screw-ups are censored from the airwaves. Our media cries foul when Iraqi
TV and Al Jazeera show captive
Embedded Journalist
US soldiers, but has no problem whatsoever showing the multitudes of surrendering and captured
Iraqi soldiers.
And then there’s the whole issue of embedded journalists (i.e. military groupies with
microphones). Are they allowed to say anything critical of the military? Are they allowed to leave
their assigned military units to do investigative work? How fast would they get booted out of Iraq if
they did?
From what I’ve seen, the news networks have mutated into some kind of Bush administration fan
club. Where did the liberal media go? Perhaps it’s in a basement somewhere, cowering next to
our civil liberties and Democratic congressmen, terrified that someone will call it unpatriotic, or-
God forbid-anti-American. Then again, maybe it’s the same media it’s always been - soulless,
spineless, and rolling over on command like a good little spaniel.
Thumbsmudge is the offspring of my own feeble brain and nobody else’s. Send complaints and correspondence
to Elleason@aol.com. Send free prescription Viagra offers elsewhere. ………………..Lilith