LEAVE IT TO PEEVER


­­ Bumper sticker of the week: Where have all the Hippies gone?

­­ Quotes of the week: ''If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has his foot on the tail of a mouse and you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality.'' Desmond Tutu

''What does it matter to the dead, the orphans, and the homeless whether the mad destruction is wrought in the name of totalitarianism or in the holy name of liberty and democracy.'' Mohandas K. Gandhi

­­ Right-winged warriors get their wings clipped! Galesburg ain't what it used to be, which just tickles me pink. There are two high profile groups out there that think discrimination is a commandment that must be kept at all costs. One is the Boy Scouts, the other the Salvation Army. Both think gay people are ungodly, unworthy, and have sick souls. These groups have done plenty of good in the past, but are outdated, mislead, and rapidly going to hell in a handbasket. It's really too bad, but at least its coming to light that all is not well in these almost exclusive ''Christian'' organizations. Right when our right-winged warriors thought they were in firm control of Galesburg's morality, along came the Knox College students to knock them on their butts. But I'm sure they won't stay down for long. This divinely inspired group has a mission, which unfortunately has a lot to do with how each of us lead our lives. They have an apparent better way. I wish they would all become missionaries and ruin someone else's life.

­­ To John Ashcroft, deposed Missouri Senator, thrown out of a conservative state for his right winged autocratic ideas, now U.S. Attorney General: What undermines democracy is not when the public criticizes our leaders, but when our leaders try to muzzle the public.

­­ The conservatism of the Knox County Board reminds me of a story I made up about the Titanic. After the ship hit an iceberg, some of the upper crust passengers were heard bragging about having put their valuables in the ship's ''safe,'' and how good they felt that their money and jewels were in a ''safe'' place. Ends up it didn't do them a world of good. The county board uses this same logic. While the ship is sinking, you'll be glad to know we have some money in the bank.

­­ Nissan's new slogan: Everything you want. Nothing you don't.

Peever's new slogan: Everything I want is going to cost you an arm and a leg.

­­ I saw this ad on TV for an art school in Minneapolis. You draw them something, send it in, and they'll tell you whether you qualify for a student loan.

­­ The downfall of Enron and all of the corporate, political, and personal greed wrapped up in the whole affair will hopefully help move ahead some of the agendas to clean up the gigantic landfill in Washington that some call government. Congressmen, Senators, and cabinet members are all scampering across the floor faster than a cockroach in heat, heading for the cover, or rather cover-up. Vice-President Cheney hasn't surfaced since the first shot was fired, not in Afghanistan, but in Texas. We'll discover that he is so deeply mired in the muck he may never be seen again. This is going to make Whitewater look like an amateur gathering. It couldn't happen to a nicer group of people. Unfortunately, many innocent bystanders will be sacrificed. Isn't that always the case?

­­ The wisdom of Jack Welch, General Electric's recently retired CEO and now best selling author. He cut GE's domestic workforce by half and doubled the number of workers abroad. His take home pay for such brilliance in 2000 was $231 million, plus $57 million in stock options. That's 4 times the wages of 15,000 of GE's Mexican workers. Good work, Jack.

­­ Right-winged foundations dominating Republican thinking: The Heritage Foundation, Sara Mellon Scaife, Adolf Coors, Howard Pew Freedom Trust, Smith Richardson, Lynde and Harry Bradley, David Koch and Charles Koch, Noble, Bechtel, and the Lilly Endowment. Right-winged ideology now has control of the Presidency, Congress, and the Supreme Court. Welcome to Bush World .

­­ Detaining the al Qaeda suspects in Cuba is getting a lot of attention. Apparently we are violating a number of points in the Geneva Convention. Oh, how silly of me. I forget, there's no longer international law. It's now BushLaw.



Uploaded to The Zephyr Online January 30, 2002

Back to The Zephyr