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Saturday, March
22, 2003 at 02:25:41 (EST) |
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Triumph of the Will of the media to have
something to print
Every so often an article captures the tone and presence of an historic
moment. I've been waiting for a bold journalistic voice to put everything
into perspective concerning our leaders, the war, the people in
the streets of Baghdad who are wounded, the people who have died.
Tonight, I am honored and humbled to present to you a piece whose
headline says more about the nature of what has been happening around
us than countless books and pundits have previously uttered. Ladies
and gentlemen, I give you:
Bush
Watches Some of Baghdad Bombardment on TV
Posted By Jimmy Legs
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Friday, March 21,
2003 at 16:45:21 (EST) |
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What a Splendid Little War
Since the war started, I'd been feeling a little unsure of the power
of protest. If the protests couldn't stop the war from occurring,
what good would they be now that it's begun? But B talked me down
last night while we were at Freddy's.
So I'm gonna go to the march
tomorrow, and encourage anybody who has the slightest inkling that
this war is not a good idea to do the same. I can totally understand
the protesters in San Fransciso who called for all-out chaos and ended
up getting some 1000
of them arrested. In times like these, it seems pretty much the only
way to let the world know that we're pissed off that we have so little
control over things. But since pro-Bush folks always paint any type
of dissent as "Commie boy-lovin' anti-Americanism" I gotta
go with the more orderly protests like the one that will go on tomorrow.
Of course if even one person is arrested, that's all we'll hear about
on the news, but the truth gets around eventually.
Meanwhile, lots of Iraqi
soldiers are surrendering. Bug surprise. It's pretty obvious that
one of the reasons Bush was so hot for this war in Iraq (as opposed
to say, war in North Korea), is because Iraq will be so easy to
beat. As long as they can get in there and collect enough white
flags from the enemy, while trying not to crash their helicopters
or kill themselves with friendly fire, this operation could go over
without a hitch. Say, where's those weapons of mass destruction
that Hussein was supposed to be deploying? I guess if they're gonna
do it, it's better that nobody gets killed. But if nobody had to
die, then why was a military solution necessary at all? Let's not
forget that what a war is all about is just soldiers shooting at
each other. Though our weapons get more and more advanced, we don't
seem to have come up with any of way of waging war than individuals
killing other individuals. Of course, the people who have to do
the dirty work are the ones with least say in the matter.
Posted By Jimmy Legs
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Thursday, March
20, 2003 at 11:26:59 (EST) |
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Oh yeah, I feel much better now, what a load
off my mind
What a surprise, we're bombing
brown people again, and everybody is sighing with relief that
"the waiting is over." Bullshit. If you feel better about
a war going on because it relieves you from a feeling of uncertainty,
how the hell do you get out of bed every morning? The only way anybody
can really feel better is if the waiting ended with Bush saying "Forget
it, nobody wants a war. We just figured out another way to get Saddam
Hussein to comply, plus everybody gets free ice cream!"
But no, now I'm listening to Rumsfield tells us how our planes
bombed a "leadership compound" (which I believe is a compound
to which other compounds look to for advice and counsel). The implication
is that the US may have already blowed him up good. Now, if it was
so easy to take him out, why didn't somebody do it during the past
decade, considering how often we had planes bombing at the outskirts.
Rumsfield sounds like he's a proctor at the SATs, "Read silently
as I read aloud ... you must have two No. 2 pencils ..." I
still feel that "Read Silently as I Read Aloud" is an
excellent name for an emo band. Think about it kids!
In other irritating news of solipsistic leaders, the friggin' City
Club of Cleveland awarded
Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia some ceremonial key in honor
of his support of free speech. Now, right there is enough to make
ya go hmmm, but that ain't all. Scalia banned the broadcast media
form the proceedings. Not only was this event kind of noteworthy
in a human interest sorta way, the City Club regularly tapes its
gatherings. I used to listen to them on NPR in Ohio all the time.
So not only is it highly suspect that Scalia would get the award
in the first place (he's protected his free speech, but nobody else's),
but it's odd that he has the ability to stop them from doing something
they usually do. Anyway, the best line is this:
"The Constitution just sets minimums," Scalia said.
"Most of the rights that you enjoy go way beyond what the Constitution
requires."
What an arrogant asshole. I might appreciate my rights, but I don't
"enjoy" them like I was eating the white stuff out of
an Oreo cookie. The way he phrased his comment reveals how he believes
he's the one who gives us our so-called rights. This article
sheds further light on his philosophy, in which he basically says
that God gives him his powers to dole out rights to us peasants.
Posted By Jimmy Legs
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Tuesday, March 18,
2003 at 08:05:14 (EST) |
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Please note the terror alert level is back
up to "Very Fucked."
I purposefully avoided the Bush speech last night so it wouldn't ruin
my St. Patrick's Day, but of course there was no way to avoid it.
This is such a bag of bullshit I can't believe it. I'll say this for
the administration, they know how to use cultural amnesia to their
advantage. They give us a lot of complex information and we quickly
remember only the simplest aspects. Everybody's relieved that the
waiting is over, but I think that relief is halved since, what we
really should have wanted was an end to the waiting that resulted
in anything besides war. But now half the country thinks the September
11th hijackers were from Iraq, that Hussein tried to have Bush Sr.
assassinated, that Iraq is the public face of Al-Qaeda, that blowing
up another country will produce happiness and prosperity. We think
this way because our memory of the past couple years is hazy; we leave
it up to the government to tell us what happened and what it means.
Consequently, many Americans are likely adopting the attitude of
"Well, it's too bad we have to go to war, but Hussein left
us no choice. I bought a yellow ribbon!" People said the exact
same thing last time we had a war in the Gulf. In retrospect, that
little engagement was nothin' but sweetness and light compared to
the motivations behind the current operation. It reveals how much
the government has really taken from us when we begin to find ways
to rationalize whatever they do, in order to live with ourselves.
I suppose if the government was a completely trustworthy entity,
we could give them the benefit of the doubt. But considering the
integrity levels of our leaders throughout American history, it's
obvious we should be taking them task more, not letting them tell
us what to believe.
Now the US is putting its foot down, and suddenly the UN seems
almost, but not quite, as evil as Iraq. Everybody's been holding
us back! Oh boy, Bush says Iraq has 48 hours to comply. I'm glad
the Hussein boys didn't waste any time in rejecting the ultimatum,
it defuses the dramatic flair Bush is trying to weave around this
whole thing. But the Hussein clan is not without its own sense of
occasion. They claim that if attacked, "the wives and mothers
of those Americans who will fight us will weep blood, not tears."
Great, these assholes are just as crazy as Bush.
Posted By Jimmy Legs
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Tuesday, March 18,
2003 at 00:58:27 (EST) |
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yeh i'm drunk
bush sucks. kiss me i'm an asshole.
Posted By Jimmy Legs
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Monday, March 17,
2003 at 13:34:29 (EST) |
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Wanted to buy: BASEMENT
In other news, I finally did my taxes. Ugh. One of these days I gotta
figure out why my refunds are so minimal. And also why I always end
up owing money to NY State. I keep trying to remember that it's actually
better to have to owe a little tax, as it means the government has
been sitting on money that belongs to me all year. But just once I
wanna get an enormous tax refund myself. I suppose if I buy an apartment
that would help in terms of getting something back. B and I have been
talking about this a lot lately. I realize that sooner or later I
need to buy a place. It's the only way to combat the endless money
pit of renting. But the more we talked about it, the more I realized
how good we have it here. We have a partial duplex, with sole access
to the basement (where all the band equipment is kept). We have a
backyard, and a small outdoor porch/bunker thing. I can't say I like
the way this whole place has been renovated, total cheap job using
poor-quality materials. But the space is great, and has spoiled me
for anything less. But the chances of finding an apartment that has
all of these amenities at a price I can afford seems next to impossible.
Added to that is the fact that in a condo/co-op situation, we probably
won't be able to get away with all the noise we make. You ever notice
how many property ads say "on a quiet street," or "very
quiet building." I can just see the realtor's face when I ask,
"Do you have something in a loud building? I plan on making a
lot of racket."
I've been making cursory investigation online, and the results
are mixed. I can find duplex apartments, some of which are on ground
floors. This sometimes means getting a garden, and may also mean
direct access to the basement. But it seems near impossible to find
such a situation in which the building manager is as clueless as
our landlord. Originally, she told us the basement was not part
of our apartment, although we'd be able to use it for some storage.
In the end, however, the basement has pretty much become our domain,
even though I know she could shut us down at any moment. But she
doesn't seem to have any interest in what goes on down there, past
what the city made her renovate in terms of the furnace and meters.
If we could find a duplex that is the proper size, we might be able
to continue band practice on the lower floor, but considering how
much sound filters up to the second floor here, I suspect that would
result in plenty of complaints.
This leads me to more extreme options, like heading farther out
into Bed-Stuy, Crown Heights, or other neighborhoods with less subway
access and fewer commercial options, and just buying a whole goddamn
house. Just checking the real estate sites last night I found several
townhouses that are cheaper than most of the the 1-bedroom apartments
I've been seeing. It's an awfully seductive idea, getting a whole
house in the bargain. There'd be no common charges, no neighbors
to placate (well, none in the building anyway). We'd have all the
space we could need, and of course there is the famed possibility
that I could become a landlord myself, renting out an upper apartment
or something. The obvious downside is living even further away from
where things are happening, in a neighborhood I'm not familiar with,
not knowing the area's disposition, or how I would be perceived
there.
It looks like what I have to do now is go see a mortgage broker
and get pre-approved for a loan. This will tell me how high a price
I can afford, plus it helps keep the Realtor's attention since it
makes you look like you're serious about buying. Then it's time
to get with the realtors and start looking at properties. It just
sucks that we like our current place so much that it seems like
we could only find apartments for sale that don't measure up. Quite
an oddity. Maybe we'll just hang on to this place as long as possible
until we find its exact replica! Why do I have visions of B and
I crowding each other on a futon in a studio in Flatbush?
Posted By Jimmy Legs
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Monday, March 17,
2003 at 12:18:22 (EST) |
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See, I don't go to the bar and we go to war
I kind of broke my streak; I didn't go out to the bar last night.
I really wanted to see Oneida, but nobody wanted to go with me. The
idea of going alone coupled with the fact I think they went on last
resulted in me not going anywhere. But all is not lost. B and I spent
the afternoon in the East Village. We went to Kate's
Joint for brunch, something I feel might become a regular thing
for us now. Kate's is a nice little place, good food, stiff Bloody
Marys, lotsa coffee. And best of all, a smoking section! Of course,
in a week or so that won't matter, but it was nice to sit in a restaurant
and smoke for one of the last times.
After that we wandered around for a while, walking down St. Marks
Place. I know it's not the same as it once was, but there are still
a fair number of weirdos walking around down there. We had a drink
at a pub before rushing home to meet the guys for band practice.
We got to test a transit theory we've had for a while: when at the
Hoyt-Schermerhorn
station, is it quicker to get home by taking the 
train which is waiting for you, or is it better to wait for the
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which shows up much less often. I got on the ,
stopping off at Clinton-Washington.
But even with a brisk pace, B beat me home. The
showed up right after I left, which put her much closer to home.
I guess that's reassuring but waiting for that train is sometimes
just too trying to bother.
Tonight it's St. Patrick's Day at the Alibi.
The guy who owns it appears to be Irish, so I guess it qualifies
as an Irish bar. Certainly not a pub, but it will do.
Posted By Jimmy Legs
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