Saturday, March 01, 2003

340 Furniture-Holding Horses. I spent a week in Germany driving a diesel Audi A4 wagon.  Loved it.  Can't buy one here -- is America not ready for diesel?  I guess not.  Audi's S6 Avant is my new dream car.  340 horses (the better to smoke a Porsche with ;) and you can put a bunch a junk in it when you have to. I am pretty anti-SUV.  If I could buy the diesel wagon I would.  Station wagons forever.  I am astonished at my own inconsistencies.  11:33:50 AM

The Left Hand, and the Right Hand. Iraq scraps missiles.  North Korea threatens war.  I am not entirely sure that we have our priorities right, here. I was in Georgia yesterday, driving from Alpharetta to the airport in Atlanta.  Whenver I'm driving I tend to scan the radio dial, looking for something different...I guess yesterday was country music day.  Anybody who knows me knows that isn't really what I listen to on a daily basis, but hey, I figure I gotta see how the others live once in a while. Two pretty nice songs later, and I'm getting into the hybrid country-rock that's on the station.  The DJ says, "and now I'll play the song that so many of you have been requesting, all day"... It's a pro-war song.  The main chorus is something like, "Have you forgotten, Osama Bin Laden, how we felt that day".  I just sat there in stunned disbelief, knowing that there are thousands of people listening to this piece of crap song with something less than fully critical facilities.  You can be pro-war, or against war, or whatever.  What you can't do is deliver politics in a country radio song.  To the dumb fuck who wrote the "song": It's a little more complicated than you make it out to be.  It truly scares me that this country is mostly made up of people who will sit there tappin' their toes to this little war ditty.  Keep tapping when the soldiers come home in body bags.  Keep tapping when we kill a few hundred thousand Iraqis, and who knows how many women and children.  You perceive that your precious safety is at risk, and you want to turn this beautiful country in a warlike, fascist state to preserve precisely...nothing.  We're not safer. I've been checked for bombs and terrorist gadgets ten times over the past two weeks, taking over two hours of my time.  I can't honestly say I've missed a flight because of it, but I came within two minutes of doing so last Tuesday. Here's the point: All theses "insecurity" measures do nothing.  They don't help.  Where is the balance our "leadership" is supposed to be providing?  I am not ignorant of the danger, and I'm not putting my head in the sand.  I choose to live my life exactly the same as before, to the extent that the chickenshits in this society will allow me to.  Two weeks ago I got a letter from the parking company that runs the garage I park my car in.  They stated that, "due to increased risk of terrorism, we are reissuing all parking cards and cancelling all old cards.  You will need to provide proof of your parking contract."  I shit you not.  I have no problem with a business saying, hey, we gotta make sure there aren't any bogus parking cards out there.  There oughta be a fucking law that says, use terrorism as an excuse, in this context, is an offense.  It is offensive.  I want a fucking apology from the Capital Parking Incorporated.  I doubt I'll get one. And meanwhile the whining masses, perched atop their SUVs, bob their heads in agreement, in precise time, shuffling their legs in a strip-mall simulacra of military power, demonstrating their pride in a country they barely deserve to be in. These are bitter days. 11:24:58 AM