12/05/2002

God Bleess Amreca

As I pulled into the parking space, I noticed a traffic sign on the curb was decorated with graffiti. Someone had taken a black marking pen and scrawled “God Bleess Amreca” across the bottom of the white rectangle. I shut the engine and stared at the sign. God Bleess Amreca. Poor spellers of the world, untie!

Welcome to the War on Terror. Sixteen months ago, our friend with the Sharpie would have no doubt been scratching away, but the sentiment would have been less edifying (although easier to spell). Is it a good thing, that the illiterate vandals of America are turning their thoughts to God and country? Probably not. The graffito on the sign was not just a reflection of the depressing state of public education in Vermont, but a reminder that the response of many of our fellow citizens to terror attacks is the kind of automatic resort to jingoism that does nothing to break the cycle of violence.
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By floegel | Posted in Commentary | Comments (1)
11/28/2002

Fowl Play

Each year since 1947, the president of the United States ceremonially pardons a turkey in the week before Thanksgiving. This year President Bush, returning from Europe and Russia, intended to head directly to his ranch in Crawford, throwing a shadow of confusion across the turkey ritual. It’s difficult enough to get a nervous bird to the White House Rose Garden; no one was sure how the inedible fowl was supposed to make a connecting flight to West Texas. The turkey received a double reprieve when Mr. Bush decided to return to Washington to sign the terrorism insurance bill and pardon the ceremonial bird to boot. Turkey pardons are the only pardons Mr. Bush seems willing to grant. This year’s turkey is named Katie and is the first female – hen, I suppose – to receive a presidential pardon. Katie hails from Clinton, North Carolina and if you suspect the White House press office is engaging in subliminal messaging, you’re not alone.
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By floegel | Posted in Commentary | Comments (0)
11/21/2002

Don’t Bet On It

Television stations from the New York side of Lake Champlain carry New York State Lottery commercials. Actors sing and dance and flash the big numbers in this week’s jackpot. One commercial even features a man talking about how much fun it was to play and lose. New York State has Off-Track Betting and several casinos. Plans for more casinos are on the drawing boards. Western New York, the Catskills, the North Country – all those places the economic boom of the 1990s never reached, craps and slots are being installed as a last-ditch effort to stimulate the economy.
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By floegel | Posted in Commentary | Comments (0)
11/14/2002

The Rules of the Game

What’s the difference between a terrorist and a criminal? The men who hijacked airplanes and flew them into buildings on September 11th were terrorists. The duo accused of the Washington sniper attacks – John Mohammad and Lee Malvo – are considered criminals. Or are they? We seem to have fallen into a gray area.

For the sake of argument, let’s say a terrorist has a political agenda and a criminal has other motives. On April 19, 1995, the Alfred Murrah building in Oklahoma City was blown up. Terrorists – Arab terrorists – were immediately suspected. It was two Americans, Tim McVeigh and Terry Nichols, who were arrested and convicted of the bombing. Mr. McVeigh was executed. He and Mr. Nichols had a political agenda, so let’s call them terrorists. The justice system, however, dealt with them as criminals. Their Constitutional rights were preserved. Perhaps we could afford to preserve their rights in the 1990s. Perhaps it was a different era then.
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By floegel | Posted in Commentary | Comments (0)
11/07/2002

Can’t Blame Ralph

Having been a low-grade pundit for a few election cycles, I’ve learned not to make pre-election predictions. Good thing, too, because I would not have predicted these outcomes. I haven’t learned to avoid post-election predictions, so I may yet come to grief.

Some things we know for sure. The first is that Democrats cannot blame Ralph Nader for this year’s election debacle. The second surety is that the 2002 mid-term election marks the end of the Kennedy political dynasty. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, RFK’s daughter, was upset in her bid to become governor of Maryland by Republican Robert Ehrlich. Her defeat is made all the more ignominious in that it is the first time a Republican has occupied the governor’s mansion in Annapolis in 34 years, the last resident being the disgraced Spiro Agnew. Ms. Townsend’s brother-in-law, Andrew Cuomo couldn’t stir up enough Kennedy (or Cuomo) magic to make it through New York’s gubernatorial primary. In Florida, Jeb Bush hung on for a second term, confirming that the Bushes are America’s only functioning political dynasty.
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By floegel | Posted in Commentary | Comments (0)
10/31/2002

Off We Go to War

These are heady days for a news junkie. The elections are less than a week away, Minnesota is still mourning for Paul Wellstone, the DC sniper has been caught, Kim Jong Il has a nuclear weapon (but we’re not going to war with North Korea), Vladimir Putin is gassing his own people (but we’re not going to war with Russia) and, according to a full-page ad in Tuesday’s New York Times, you can now buy a time-travel device for less than a thousand dollars. Heck, I don’t even have a DVD player yet.

Let us not be distracted though, we are going to war. The Pentagon will not take the day off for Halloween, Thanksgiving or even Veterans’ Day. Reservists and their employers are put on alert that a quarter million troops may be called to service in the near future. Logistics planners fret that U.N. weapons inspections – should they happen – may upset deployment timetables. On the left and right, pundits speak of American casualties. The left wing hopes such sobering thoughts will bring restraint. The right wing hopes by overestimating casualties, the actual body count may seem tolerable by comparison.
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By floegel | Posted in Commentary, Iraq Invasion, Oil | Comments (0)
10/24/2002

Look At My Face

What is in the mind of the Washington, DC shooter? What does he see when he looks though his gunsight? Apparently, he does not see a person. He sees a target. The shooter, I think, knows he’s going to be caught some day. He expects to be caught, even looks forward to it. On the day the shooter is caught, he will step forward and begin his moment in the spotlight. The shooter’s arrest and trial and imprisonment and likely execution will be covered by news media all over the world. When he is at last discovered and apprehended, the shooter’s name will join the other famous serial killers: Jeffrey Dahmer, Ted Bundy, David Berkowitz.

All that, however, remains in the future; for now there are targets. The more targets the shooter hits before he is caught, the more famous he will be after his arrest. The more direct hits he scores, the longer his fame will last, the harder it will be for the next serial killer to break his record.
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By floegel | Posted in Commentary | Comments (0)