My online activity's been a little hindered this week, in that I'm in Los Angeles, taking care of a chore for the day-job employer. (And, as it turns out, I'm probably the very last American who owns neither a notebook computer nor a cell phone. Dinosaurs unite!) LA's an interesting place, to which I am dispatched once a year, on average, and I always enjoy coming out here. I also always enjoy going back. So, it's joy all the way around, I guess. Can't beat a deal like that.
I recommend looking at Paul Craig Roberts at LewRockwell.com today. While it's not the main point of his piece, he does touch on the compromised status of the Democrat Party as an opposition party; they have spectacularly failed to oppose Bush's wars, and seem to think "opposition" on these matters means "wage war more efficiently" or "send lots more soldiers." Yeah, right. Somehow, many supporters of the failed Kerry-Edwards ticket of '04 seem to assume that those guys were antiwar, while I recall Mr. Kerry making a huge point of just how much more warlike he was than Mr. Bush. And Howard Dean made some antiwar noises while running in the primaries for that year, but since taking over the party, he sounds just like Mr. Kerry did: war-war-war, but better-stronger-faster than that chucklehead Bush.
On the whole, I'm relieved that the Democrats are as far from principled opposition to Imperial war as they are. It means there would be no reason for me to vote for some baby-killing socialist ... not that I'd do it anyway. No, the bipartisan nature of the Corporate War Party is very well established at this point. Real opposition will have to be found elsewhere: in the Green Party left, and at my personal home: the isolationist Old Right. Between these, there can be no comprehensive agreement -- but there could be a limited common cause against the wars.
Just imagine an America with a two-party system ... a real two-party system, that is. Actual meaningful debate, elections that make a real difference -- the mind reels. It'll never happen, of course. But it makes for a pleasant and interesting dream. It makes for an appealing alternative to the nightmare: the pukefest that the Major Brands have in store for us, next time around and all the times after that.
5 comments:
I think you meant Howard Dean instead of John Dean.
Keep a sharp eye out for brush fires, mud slides, earthquakes, and other natural disasters. I hear that part of the country sees them occasionally.
I don't have a lap top or a cell phone.
The concept of LA terrifies me - probably have read too many issues of People magazine.
LA as a concept ---- what a CONCEPT! Nah, LA's reputation is like NY's, all for show.
TW -- good to "see" you again! You're right, of course -- I meant Howard. Fixed. Thanks for the catch.
Haven't seen any natural disasters yet. Traffic, of course, is a purely man-made disaster.
Lemming: Thanks for the correction; I'm NOT the last one after all. I guess we'll have to see who holds out longer, in the contest for the official Last Dinosaur in America title.
Lemming and Cathay: I find that LA is pretty much a concept ... sort of not-quite-real, from my Corn Belt point of view. It is a cool place, though, in a lot of ways. I came out here to calibrate a test collimator; since it was my design, I'm sort of stuck with its care and feeding. I needed a replacement for its visible source lamp, and we didn't have a spare here, so I had to seek one "on the economy," which was tough since this is a fairly specialized technical sort of lamp. I ended up talking to a man in his technical-lighting shop up near Hollywood, who supplies a lot of this kind of thing to The Industry (TV and movies), and he had some interesting stories to tell. I shoulda asked him for his autograph, I guess, but I was too star-struck.
The first time I came out here, of course, I expected the streets to be paved with gold, the sidewalks with cocaine, and I expected the city to be populated exclusively by stunningly-beautiful starlet-hopefuls who would do many delicious things to me, just to kind of keep in practice ... needless to say, I was disappointed. It is kind of fun, though, just wandering around a little and taking it all in.
By tomorrow night, I should be safely back in Fort Rain (errrr, Wayne): drizzle and chilly, when last I heard. But ... it's home.
Ah bartleby, you'll find the streets paved with gold (aka the yellow brick road) at MGM Studios; ALL the streets of Hollywood are laced with cocaine (you can get arrested just walking nearby a deal going down); and those startlet hopefuls are busy having plastic surgery on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills. You ain't missing a thing...Dorothy was right.
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