LEAVE IT TO PEE VER

Patriolism

— Bumper sticker of the week: Get even — live long enough to become a problem to your kids.

— Quote of the week: “We need spring. We need it desperately, and usually, we need it before God is willing to give it to us.” Peter Gzowski, from Spring Tonic

“Only in silence the word, only in dark the light, only in dying life.” Ursula Le Guin

— Nationalism run amuck: Nationalism and right-wing Republicanism have blended together to form Patriolism: an overwhelming love for one’s country, with a little Jesus Christ thrown in, topped off with a superiority complex. Makes for a queer little creature, with generally a pretty big belly and a mighty big ego. “God Bless America” has become the anthem of this used up, backward looking, dehumanizing ideology, based on the moronic assumption that Christ would approve of killing those who disagree with you, or that God would favor one people over another.

— Major news networks are not the place to look for the news: Not anymore. The media now has a vested interest in everything from tax breaks to deregulation to placating their corporate owners to cowering under to all the right-wing yahoos. America’s corporate controlled newspapers, TV stations, and magazines aren’t into making waves for their new commander-in-chief. Newsweek was the latest victim of this White House-Corporate collaboration. The Pentagon confirmed last week that the Koran had been peed on rather than flushed. You got to watch your pee’s and your flushes now-a-days. The Bush administration quickly played their liberal press hand, complaining about now nasty they are and how they can never get their pee’s and their flushes straight. Liberal press, my ass. These are people trying to report on an administration and war that has been completely mired down in secrecy. We need more people doing this, not fewer. We need to break the back of this administration’s unending pack of lies, secrets and deceit.

— Rumsfeld cries about China’s military build-up: Demonstrating classical “we know what’s best for the world” politics, our Secretary of Defense says to China, “Since no nation threatens China, one must wonder, why this growing investment?” The immediate answer from China, an emerging first-world power: “Since the U.S. is spending a lot more money than China is on defense, the U.S. should understand that every country is entitled to spend money necessary for its own defense.” There’s a novel idea. I bet that never occurred to Rumsfeld. Somehow America has the right to possess the world’s largest arsenal of weapons of mass destruction, but no one else can. It must say that in the Bible somewhere.

— Someone told me immediately after the election that the new mayor wouldn’t like running council meetings and wouldn’t have the patience to see things through. Bingo! Welcome, VFW and KCAP. So long, compromise and level-headedness. I bet he’ll be more patient with Wal-Mart. And I’m betting it will be no more than a month or two before he chokes Gifford, although he may not be held accountable. At any rate, it should be interesting.

— I hear tell Andrea Zinga is going to take on Lane Evans again. Lane Evans could die six months prior to the election, heaven forbid, and Zinga would still lose by a 60-40 margin.

— Supreme Court denies use of medical marijuana: It’s great to have a bunch of intelligent lawyers looking after our lives. They don’t want doctors prescribing marijuana for medical purposes. After all, marijuana is illegal. I wonder what the Supremes think doctors are doing when they prescribe pain killers?

— Making money at Bunker Links: It’s no secret: Sell booze and charge a realistic price for a round. Take a lesson from Gibson Woods.

— Register-Mail editorial makes good point: I hate to admit it, but the Register-Mail editorials of June 5 and 6 made good points about the proposed development on North Seminary Street. The proposal is very vague and almost the direct opposite of what appears in the comprehensive plan bought and paid for by the taxpayers of Knox County in 1998-99. There should be a much better explanation of what is going to be put there, and a whole lot more discussion, before this project moves ahead. We have been bit by these overnight wonders on numerous occasions. You would think one day the city might learn. You would hope one day the city might learn. Is it asking too much that maybe one day the city might learn to ask something near relevant to a business person who is on the verge of taking more of our money?