LEAVE IT TO PEEVER

– Free America: Put a right-winger in the closet.

– Bumper sticker of the week: Freedom’s just another word.

– Quote of the week: "Prison cells are an expensive commodity, and they should be reserved for people who commit violent acts, who exploit the weak and poor. Economic crimes should be punished much more severely than behavior that is considered merely unconventional or distasteful. When it comes to interfering with what consenting adults do behind closed doors, the government should obey some useful advice: mind your own business." Reefer Madness, Eric Schlosser

– You heard it here first: From the day the land was purchased to establish another industrial park, until someone actually moves in, will be a minimum of five years, if ever. In the meantime, our tax dollars will go to increase staff and salaries at GREDA and the Chamber.

– The CEO at Cottage needs to spend more time worrying about what’s happening at Cottage, and less time worrying about what St. Mary’s thinks. His solution will be to lay off more staff, just you wait and see.

– I can’t wait for my tax refund. I’m immediately turning it over, to help the economy. I think I’m going to get a Pecan Praline Sundae at Dairy Queen.

– I like the slogan on my new hat – Change the world. The question becomes, to what?

– The drug war is no more effective than the Iraqi war: The government lies. We’ve seen it with Iraq, and we’ve seen it with the drug war. Jailing users and minor sellers is a waste of tax dollars. How often have you seen a "big" buyer of drugs jailed? You know, a fancy businessman with a $1500 suit, sitting behind a fancy desk, smoking a fancy cigar. The answer is not often. It’s always the poor, often minority person, pawning off the rich boy’s stuff on the street. It’s much easier, more visual, and takes a whole lot less brains. There aren’t many white, middle or upper class folks in prison for selling, buying or using drugs. It’s apparently harder for the legal system to see white. Dealers need to be punished, but it needs to be reasonable and humane. Users need help, not prison. The same attitude that believes killing terrorists will end terror maintains that jailing users and minor dealers will end drug use. This belief lacks a serious level of intelligence and foresight.

– When much is wrong, much needs to be hidden. Thus we have a shadow government, with Dick Cheney in charge.

– June 28 marks the anniversary of the Stonewall Rebellion, the day gays marked an end to their harassment by New York police in Greenwich Village, in 1969. This date marks the beginning of the modem gay rights movement. All you right-winged warriors out there need to mark the day on your calendars. It would be a good day for you to go into the closet.

– The last three conflicts we have been involved in, the human spirit has prevailed over the terrible destruction and violence America has inflicted on defenseless countries. Afghanistan was destroyed in a senseless chase for bin Laden, and we have attacked Iraq twice. Both times they were unable to put up much of a fight, mainly because they don’t have much of an army. I haven’t even counted another Bush production, Grenada, which was just about as dumb a thing as I have ever witnessed. You put this all together and you get a vast ocean of misery and injustice, perpetuated by an apocalyptic crusade on behalf of the oil industry. Now the Bush administration wants America to be exempt from war crimes committed during these acts of aggression. The one thing they do have is guts. This whole thing is getting way out of control. We are becoming pathetic examples of Neanderthal man at his worst, running around clubbing people over the head for no good reason. We need to stop it.