~ after a memorial day cook-out with ‘radicals’ who think that the encroachment of tract homes into west philadelphia is a marvelous idea, we see in cnn [w] that susie briones, of the san joaquin valley is upset that her marine son had to see dead bodies:
“He had to carry that little girl’s body,” she said, “and her head was blown off and her brain splattered on his boots.”
that’s rough. that poor marine had his boots soiled. it sounds like he had it much harder than the little girl his buddies had just murdered. having to look at dead bodies must be a far more traumatic experience than actually being one of the civilian ‘bodies’ just killed by the marines.
anyway, since when are marines supposed to be ‘traumatized’ by dead bodies? aren’t the marines trained to make dead bodies out of people?
~ there must be something in the water, or they are still electing cowards to the united states senate:
“…you have no civil liberties if you are dead.” – Sen. Pat Roberts (R-KN)
is that supposed to scare us into allowing the NSA unfettered access into our homes and lives? try moving to west philadelphia, chickenshit. you can’t ride a trek across baltimore and 48th at 10pm if you’re dead.
Date: May 17, 2006
Time: 7:00 pm
Where: Starts at the steps of the Philadelphia Art Museum. Brief ceremony at 6:45 pm.
Join cyclists worldwide in a silent slow-paced ride (max. 12 mph/20 kph) in honor of those who have been injured or killed while cycling on public roadways.
www.rideofsilence.org
~ we woke in new hampshire to the news that president bush’s approval rating has dropped to 29%. traveling to philadelphia, we listened to the news regarding usa today’s revelation that the NSA has been taking notes on every phone call made by americans—whom they talk to, when and for how long they call, where they are when they do so. as we waited for months to see bush’s rating drop into the twenties, we were, aside from our outrage at being spied upon, bemused that his rating should now lose the remaining 29 points in a matter of hours; it must become zero percent, for where would they find an american citizen who approved of having the gov’t monitor their conversations?
however, we were surprised, which itself is surprising, given the mental lethargy of our neighbors, when npr gleefully reported that over 2/3 of americans said that spying on them is acceptable. One can almost hear the self-righteous thugs proclaim, ‘if you’ve done nothing wrong, you have nothing to hide’ (if that principle were true, then the bush administration would not have killed the justice department investigation into the laws violated by the nsa’s original wiretapping), or the information is ‘just digits’. The purpose for warrants is not to impede the cops or to give comfort to terrorists; it is to put the burden upon the gov’t to prove that, when weighed against a potential crime, it is worth violating the rights of a particular suspect. the notion that every call made in america needs to be monitored by the gov’t – with or without a warrant, and in this case, without—demands that every call is suspicious and, by extension—no pun intended—every american is a suspect.
~ trent lott, referring to those of us who insist that our privacy, not to mention the constitution, be respected spouts, “Do we want security … or do we want to get in a twit about our civil libertarian rights?” By portraying us as a bunch of whiners, reducing our concerns about constitutional violations to being something silly like a ‘twit’, Lott is trying to embarrass us or make put us on the defensive, when, if anyone should feel like coward it is Lott—and anyone else who is frightened into allowing any restraint on our rights or invasion into privacy by the gov’t. If Patrick Henry had been half the pussy that Trent Lott is, we would still be drinking tea and/or chicory. Fact.
also the aforementioned ‘fact’ that a majority of americans agree that gov’t monitoring of their lives is ‘okay’ seems to be exaggerated:
‘A majority of Americans disapprove of a massive pentagon database containing the records of billions of phone calls made by ordinary citizens” –usa today
~ green line cafe quote:
“isn’t furness the same one who did our church?”
the trend mentioned in a previous post [+] has continued. at first it was merely a curiosity that lovely, clever-looking young ladies would spend their afternoons studying the holy bible. now it is no joke, with spring arriving, the tables are packed and you can not enter the place without seeing someone cracking open the bible or at least ‘dive into ecclesiastes’. we always knew there were christians out there somewhere, presumably running hallmark franchises in strip malls and trading in glass doves at craft fairs, but we didn’t expect that they had decided to co-opt the myth of intellectualism and cafe culture, exchanging incendiary discourse and revolutionary texts for the gospels.
we thought west philadelphia was a hotbed of radicals, but apparently it is a cradle full of holy rollers. there seems to be less overt christianity at the other green line; perhaps it should be moved up in the queue of scheduled tableaux.
anyway, cafe tableaux has a new green line photo.
~ another anatomy of a fieldtrip:
the angry red planet [single day] long distance record
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