Tuesday, June 17, 2003

The Goose and the Gander. Imagine the outrage an American would feel if one of their own were caught somewhere overseas in, say, France, and had OVERSTAYED THEIR TOURIST VISA. As a result, the French Authorities toss him in jail, houses him with lights on 24 hours a day, calls him a global-dominating capital pig military-complex terrorist, and doesn''t bother letting him see a lawyer or talk to his family. In fact, he can just damn well sit there until the French authorities have determined that he's not some sort of terrorist or malcontent.  Which may take a few months, if you're lucky.  What we're really talking about here is how Joe America would like to be treated in other countries. What we're talking about the are the basic courtesies that citizens of one country should exhibit to those of another country.  It's a measure of how insular America has become that its citizens have no concern for how they will be treated in other countries, and how little the opinions of others in the world mean to them. There was no world-wide crackdown and round-up of American students and tourists abroad. Perhaps there should have been. We didn't round up white people when we attacked Kosovo. Being legal doesn't make it right. 4:36:14 PM    comment []

Being Branded. Michael Taht writes on trying to remove brands from his day.  Can't say that I blame him.  Do we have any sort of right to live our lives in that way?  I suppose we can all make our own spaces brand-free, marketing-free to an extent.  Does this right extend to public places?  I guess not.  The only thing that will have any effect on marketers as a breed is for public revulsion to have some kind of effect on them.  The problem is that they specialize in the creation of inoffensive noise that probes at the boundaries of your psyche without truly annoying it.  It's really the accretion of all that crap that's problematic. 4:27:55 PM    comment []

Double Standard. It looks like there's actually going to be a recall vote on California Governor Gray Davis.  That is amazing.  If the Republicans had only fielded Richard Riordan, the popular and centerist ex-mayor of Los Angeles, instead of Bill Simon, the unknown and conservative magazine publisher's son, this would not be necessary.  But since they didn't, it is.  If you want to know why, check out California's $38.2B deficit.  Amid stories everywhere about state budget shortfalls, California wins the prize for biggest deficit and worst management.  Our kids are the ones who suffer, among others... [Critical Section] Or is it?  CS usually writes well to the right...and here we have a conservative criticizing the California budget deficit.  Good Lord, what do you think Bush is doing at the Federal Level?  The federal budget is growing massive beyond all reason.  At least California has an excuse...it's got a weirdo property tax-avoidance scheme that'll never change, a high tech industry in the dumper, and the amusing destruction of finances caused by the energy companies (who didn't do anything wrong in right-wing-collusive-business America). CA's budget deficit is bad and needs to be dealt with at the systemic level.  I suspect that property tax reform would do the trick.  Deficits are a cheap-ass way of avoiding the wrath of the public, until you can't get money any more.  It's just another iteration in the loan shark war.  12:24:43 AM    comment []

60 seconds of feeling my stomach drop out; 60 seconds of not knowing what to do, where to go.  But it doesn't last.  Not any more.  12:12:25 AM    comment []