~ an addendum to yesterday”s kerry vs. vietnam rant: perhaps if kerry”s braggadocio about serving in vietnam was tempered with some regret at the entire debacle which cost the lives of 58,000 americans and two million vietnamese, it would be easier to take. instead of talking like vietnam was a great opportunity for someone to demonstrate that he/she can be a bad ass, maybe he could simply state that, though the vietnam adventure proved to be a mistake, he served as honourably has he could while still trusting his government. it isn”t like he has to explain his slitting of sleeping women”s throats, like senator bob kerrey has done. kerry doesn”t have to say “i acted dishonourably” or even “i didn”t kick ass”, but it would be helpful if he mentioned that the entire scene was regrettable and a shameful part of u.s. history – kind of like he did in the 1970″s. there must be some way for kerry to pretend to be as tough of a guy as bush pretends to be – without telling us that vietnam was a lot of fun.
~ for our confused, non-atlanta-based readers, ponce is not a thing, it is a place. it is short for “ponce de leon avenue”, which is a thoroughfare from midtown atlanta out to decatur and eventually stone mountain. ponce cuts through the upscale residential area of druid hills, which was laid out by frederick law olmstead of new york city’s central park fame. the stretch of ponce between briarcliff and decatur still contains the lush linear parks and the nationally registered homes that were built according to the plans of olmstead and his son, j.c.olmstead. the western stretch of ponce, between downtown and briarcliff, where “the incident” occurred, is less pastoral; it is highly developed and congested and inhospitable to human life.
another feature of ponce is that it once served (and still does to some extent) as the unofficial dividing line between whites and blacks in eastern atlanta; the names of streets change as they cross ponce, so that whites and blacks would not have to live on the same street; briarcliff becomes moreland, monroe becomes boulevard, charles allen becomes jackson. you can also see this phenomenon in new york city at 110th street, in case you can”t make it to the south.
'john' responds:
haha, you live in the white section of town!
27 August 2004 _ 00h11m05 EST [link]
'the angry red planet' responds:
i didn’t say which side of ponce is the white and which is the black side. anyway both sides are ‘white’ now, save for the boulevard corridor, but i promise that in 5 years, people like flounder and deep thinker will be buying houses in there.
27 August 2004 _ 08h09m32 EST [link]
public response: