[dovate.com] » 2006 » April
Until today, I’d never seen the majestic (for a duck) Wood Duck within Philadelphia City limits. Today I saw 5 of them down in the Wissahickon Valley. Being a fan of birds and such, this really made my afternoon. It also justified my biking around all day with a heavy ass 300mm peice of glass in my bag.
 |
|---|
I smoked for 10 years. I quit a year and a half ago. While I was a smoker, I looked with fear and dread towards each smoking ban that forged way into Philadelphia City Council. Each piece of legislation introduced in Philly has died somewhere along the way, but someday one of these bans will stick. At this point I could give a shit either way.
At this point the issue is so muddled with idiots that it’s nearly impossible to take a side. On one side, smokers act as though the right to smoke is enshrined in the Bill of Rights, somewhere just above the second amendment and that a smoking ban in indoor public places is just legislative terrorism enacted by a cabal of rabid fascists.
On the other hand, they have a point. Proponents of a smoking ban are often more concerned with not having to be near cigarette smoke than they are about the bar and restaurant workers they use as the moral pawns in their stupid little game. As New Jersey debates outdoor smoking rules, (as was quoted in an NPR story to keep people from having to walk through a “cloud of smoke” when entering a restaurant) I can’t help but think of this photo I took up in Portland, Maine last summer… In case you can’t read it, the neatly stenciled message on that giant oil tanker reads “PROTECT THE ENVIRONMENT - NO SMOKING”:
In my irrelevant opinion, smoking ban indoors = arguably ok. Smoking ban outdoors = arguably the weakest argument for environmental and human health ever proposed with a straight face. Banning smoking in outdoor public places is probably about as an effective way to clean up the planet, as duck and cover is for surviving a thermonuclear attack. That’s all for now.
Half my family is Jewish. Most of them are of the typical liberal stripe, but like an increasing number of Jewish Americans, bizarre ideas about foreign policy have metastasized among a small minority of them. It seems that neoconservatism can be frustratingly infectious.
But anyway, back in 2003 at a Passover Seder I got into a spirited ‘debate’ with a (non-blood) relative about his fucking insane notions of the then, fresh-off-the-shelf Iraq war. It was still the statue toppling, museum looting days, so the dispute was largely intellectual. Being right, I argued that the United States would likely face seemingly unending guerilla warfare as the country slid slowly into civil war. He argued that Americans would be showered with rose petals and that by today most of the Middle East would be mounting homegrown democratic insurrections.
Over the last few years, I’ve had the common decency not to mention his horrible idiocy. I bring it up now though – because I still hold to the belief that if we just leave Iran alone, they will turn out just fine. If we bomb them, then all bets are off. The youth of Iran, (who make up a majority of the population) do not much care for their pole up their ass holier than thou government. Leave them alone and eventually grow out of them, either violently or by sheer numbers and force. It was going in that direction before we went and invaded Iraq and it will continue to do so as long as we stop threatening to attack them.
When your country gets attacked, people rally around even the stupidest, most despotic dipshits. [i.e. 9-11 and (possible upcoming attack to be blamed on Iran)] Bombing Iran will not help along the process of Iranian democratic reforms. It will just kill a lot of people and make the rest murderously angry. O’well.
 |
|---|
Devil’s Walking stick
Wissahickon Valley, Fairmount Park, January 2006.
I’m sure most everyone enjoys their daily emails from MoveOn.org. Although I never give $, I do sign all their petitions. Sometimes I even read 1/3 to 2/3 of an email.
But none of this is what I came to write about. To tell you the truth, I’m starting to lose whatever faith I may or may not have once had about just about everything. For example, it was a real optimism crusher when, coming back from lunch I saw the MoveOn subject line: “Don’t Nuke Iran”
Let’s be honest here… When’s the last time a MoveOn campaign actually worked? Conclusion being, Iran will soon be nuked. There’s no way that’ll play out well.
 |
|---|
Image 93
 |
|---|
Cherry Blossom festival, 2006
I deleted my weekend’s posts because of some formatting trouble. They’ll return when I fix them. Until then, to get that godawful Hoff Soap image off the top of the page, enjoy this symbolic blast from the past. This building is no more. It was beautiful in death.
 |
|---|
For the complete gallery, click here.
I haven’t had much sleep, so I might be a little deranged, but this is quite possibly the greatest thing I’ve ever seen. I need to order a couple for work.
