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Tuesday, February 18, 2003

John Ashcroft, America's own personal Jesus un-righteous need not apply Am I the only person who cringes every time John Ashcroft is on TV? Whenever I see him deliver his moral pronouncements with that grim look on his face, I just get this idea that this man really hates most of the human race. From draping naked statues, to prosecuting principled medical marijuana growers, to forcing prosecutors to seek death penalty, John Ashcroft has taken us back to the middle ages in his interpretation of Christian charity.  I'd like to be a fly on the wall when he confers with his (vengeful) God through a personal pipeline. I heard a story on NPR recently about Ashcroft's life, and how he thinks he was "chosen" to do what he is doing. Despite several political defeats, he has repeatedly been appointed to positions of power. Apparently, he remains blind to the obvious interpretation of his career. He is a man who has gotten to where he is through his connections, not through a divine providence or the will of the people. So Mr. Ashcroft, given that you are such an upright Christian, tell us, what would Jesus do? Manipulate a jury into convicting a medical marijuana grower, who happened to be within the laws of his own state? order federal prosecutors to seek the federal death penalty take advantage of the nation's fears to pass a law that allows for detention of terrorism suspects because of the color of their skin Execute the innocent based on a technicality? Let's face it, not unlike our enemies in Al-Qaeda, this is a man who has never stopped to question the righteousness of his beliefs. Only history will tell who the bigger threat to America's democracy is. 3:57:53 PM     comment The terror alert strikes again. I'd like to see if Tom Ridge is going to apologize to the people who died in the Chicago nightclub thanks our state of the art terror alert system. At least now we know the terror alert is having some sort of effect... 2:10:03 PM     comment When you buy duct tape, the terrorists win, or, will someone from our government tell us the truth for once? Well, loading up yahoo news to read this headline sure was a surprise: Bad Tip May Have Helped Boost Alert.  Thankfully, duct tape is cheap.  Better yet, I didn't buy any.  Does anybody actually think that duct tape is going to save them from a chemical or biological attack?  Even if sealing off your house could keep out, let's say, anthrax spores (quoth an AP article: "Just a few tiny anthrax spores are enough to cause a deadly infection in some vulnerable people"), who's to say you will have enough warning to actually do this?  If a bunch of smallpox is released on a U.S. city, before you can get to your local CVS, infection will already be spreading - if you're unlucky enough to be in the wrong place on the wrong time, you're shit out of luck. To be quite honest, I think the whole terror alert system is a bunch of bs.   What makes terrorism scary is that it could happen anywhere, at any time, at your workplace, at the coffeeshop across the street, or at the ballgame.  It's warefare brought to your door when you least expect it.   Who in our government thought up the brilliant idea that if they tell us that "something bad is more likely to happen somewhere sometime in the near future,"  this will actually help people prepare for it?!   You know what?  I bet nobody in our government thinks that.  What they know is this:  terrorist attacks are unpredictable.  If they weren't, they wouldn't happen.  But we the little people can't be expected to understand  these big ideas.  We need something simple, like visual aids, to break it down for us. Lest my cynicism shows, I will not suggest that uncle Sam may have had the idea that a fearful people is an unquestioning people.  Oops, my bad. 2:04:22 PM     comment

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