Took some pics last night down on the National Mall while a storm was moving through. Most of the fireworks were over by the time I got there so I did not get the best pics, but here are the two I liked most:
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If George Soros wants to be a thorn in George W. Bush’s side he should offer a free copy of “Fahrenheit 9/11” That would piss him off.
The NRA should spend some of that enormous budget educating and employing the people who normally grow up to commit crimes with guns. That would be the best gun control—and the card carrying NRAers could still own their thousand round a minute guns and re-wallpaper the forest in deer blood every time they go hunting.
And there where like 20 other half formed thoughts that flew out the sunroof somewhere between Chantilly and Logan Circle. Lost thoughts never to be committed to paper—or recorded as electron bits on some server in… where is my server again? Oh well.
I did get a nice package in the post today—a picture of Audrey Hepburn. That will cheer me up any day. Thanks Tati!
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The Best Democracy Money can Buy
Last night J███████ and I trekked up to UDC to see Greg Palast give a lecture. If you don’t know who Greg Palast is you should.
I stumbled on Greg Palast’s web site while I lived in London because of articles I read in The Observer but I did not pay much attention to it after I left England. That is until J███████, S██████ and I went to Japan to visit Jim. While we were there J███████ picked up a book off Jim’s shelf. Called The Best Democracy Money Can Buy.
This book is amazing. It exposes a lot of the dirty little secrets the politicians and big business don’t want all us cattle to know. Given the book has a liberal bent, but Palast is loathed by both Democrats and Republicans for exposing their dirty laundry. With chapter titles like, Jim Crow in Cyberspace: the unreported story of how they fixed the vote in Florida, and Inside Corporate America, the book is very pertinent to the events surrounding the election this year.
Palast’s book helps to confirm that the bad guys won. They won long ago. And they were not democrats or republicans accept in name. In reality they are rich, greedy, lying bastards who parasitically feed off the ignorance and stupidity of the American public. Be they George Bush’s or Kennith Lay’s they don’t have the best interest of anyone outside their close knit group of scavenger groupies.
Anyway the lecture, while short, was very good, and I even got my book signed. Pick up the book and read it, it might open your eyes, or just confirm your darkest fears.
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In the Polly Magoo
What color is your insanity?
Mine is blue. The blue of Alice’s eyes. Somewhere between the deep crisp blue of the clearest day, and the cold blue of midwinter ice.
I fell in love with those eyes one evening in a small bar called the Polly Magoo on Boulevard Saint Germain in Paris.
At the time I lived in London, studying near the City. I was in Paris to visit my best friend, Scott, who studying at the Sorbonne. We sat in the smoky, poorly lit bar drinking a beer. Talking about nothing in particular, waiting for Alice. Scott thought we would get along so he wanted us to met. Alice was another overseas student at the Sorbonne.
We had been in the Polly Magoo about a half hour when she arrived. Scott sat with his back to the door so I caught sight of Alice first. She walked in and I knew who she must be immediately. Dressed in blue jeans and tee shirt with a University of Virginia emblem ironed on. As she crossed the room, all I could see was those blue eyes.
“Bonjour,” Alice smiled as she walked up to Scott and I.
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prisoner abuse and the ICC
What to do about the abuse? Bush says it was “terrible” and “here will be a full investigation.” But who should carry out the investigation and who should punish the guilty? If America carries out American justice then those who already see America as the aggressors and the “evil empire” will accuse America of show trials, victors justice, etc, etc, etc. The Iraqis won’t be happy, the rest of the world will not be happy. So what to do? Can’t really hold the Americans to Iraqi justice—they don’t have a valid system yet, and you can’t use the old system. I do have a suggestion—why else would I be writing this entry? The ICC [ icc-cpi.int ]. The International Criminal Court. I don’t know exactly what falls under their jurisdiction but I don’t see any other judicial body that could carry out an investigation, trials and hand down sentences to the guilty. And while some people will never be satisfied but not only would a great many people outside the Middle East be happier if the investigation was done by the ICC but it would give legitimacy to the ICC and heal some of the wounds opened when the US refused to put it’s soldiers under the jurisdiction of the ICC when it was founded. Anyway, it’s for people who are smarter than me to figure out.