Tuesday, March 25, 2003

Oh my god - Paul Cellucci, US Ambassador to Canada, just told the Canadians that we're upset with them. And there "there may be short-term strains here."And "security trumps trade," which sure sounds like a threat to me. Jesus Christ. Stop the country...I want to get off!
8:45:26 PM p e r m a l i n k trackback [] say something []

Lowell is really quite nice when it's warm and sunny, especially when the rivers and canals are running high. Lowell is the ur-American mill town - the first town in America to be built entirely around the mills. For that matter, it would never have existed without the mills - there was nothing here before then. It's a town of its rivers (I live right at the confluence of the Concord and Merrimack Rivers) and its canals (more canals than I can name - my building is surrounded by the rivers on two sides and a canal between the two on the remainder, for example), and they're all running high right now, melt-off from the snowy winter. There's something soothing about water running, at least to me. I've always been fascinated by it. And it's all the more so when the water is so high as to make the trees growing alongside the Concord, behind my building, look like they're drowning - the river's got to be running at least three feet above normal, probably higher still. They've also reopened the trolly lines. They're just curiousities now, ferrying tourists from one part of the National Historical Park to another - the downtown (where I live) is full of old mills, and a number of them now hold museums as well as apartments, like the one I'm in. The trolley storage facility is across the street from me - I can see them coming out in the morning. There's a trolley line going across the street and through Kerouac Park, on my side of the street but seperated from my building by a canal, but it's not used any more - the tracks run down to the old Federal building, next to my building complex, which is being rebuilt as an arts center for the Middlesex Community College, based across the street from the Fed building. Across the Concord from the Federal Building lies the Lowell Auditorium and the adjacent Merrimack Rep Theatre, with a massive Catholic church next door to MRT. It's a nice area, right around here, with plenty of history. I really appreciate it. But right now, I've got to run - I saw ducks in the Concord that looked hungry, and I've got some stale bread...

1:57:47 PM p e r m a l i n k trackback [] say something []

CNN.com headline: President presses Congress for $75 billion to fund war, promises humanitarian aid "as soon as possible" The unseen rest of the quote? "...or whenever we get around to it. They're just poor people, right?"
12:28:47 PM p e r m a l i n k trackback [] say something []

Quote seen on a baseball message board: George Bush is not the Anti-Christ. There is no such thing as "the Anti-Christ." George Bush is simply Benito Mussolini without the journalistic background.
12:01:07 PM p e r m a l i n k trackback [] say something []

God damn...I just can't stop being so amazingly angry. This is astonishing to me - how did we get here? Is this really happening? I know, it obviously is, but it doesn't feel real, on some level. I mean, the US? Invading another country? While the whole rest of the world condemns us? It's one thing when we're already THERE (Vietnam) but this...this is the Soviet Union invading Afghanistan. That's the only parallel I can come up with. And that's SO not a good parallel. There's an article at Salon today talking about the feeling of needing to leave the country. I can't deny it, I 've been feeling that myself. I've even found myself casually looking at job sites for Montreal, just in case, y'know. Is that what this has come to? Are we really that complacent as a people that we'll accept invading other countries on a whim, insulting anyone who disagrees with us (and then implicating them in arming the countries we're invading), and depriving ourselves of our most basic and important civil liberties? Well, yeah, this is America - land of the pretty damned dumb.

10:51:11 AM p e r m a l i n k trackback [] say something []