Massachusetts Accent
Up two hours early to get into the office two hours early, the morning dark and cloudy, hot and sunny as I sit this late afternoon looking out at the new paint on the building across the lane. I say “lane” to indicate it's a relatively narrow one way street so the newly painted side of the building pretty much dominates the view. I understand what they were trying to achieve with their three shades of brown, but I wonder if a little more time spent working with the swatches might not have led to a more pleasant blend. Still, “not terrible” is pretty good in a world where other people paint their buildings without asking my advice.
I am, of course, listening to the Republican convention as I'm writing. I will say one thing for the Republicans, they know how to run an election. Maybe they should put Karl Rove in charge of the rest of the federal government. It's bad enough to get beaten by people you think are off in la la land on the war, on the environment, on human rights and on the economy, but it's doubly worse when you also realize they're incompetent. Or is that too strong? Probably, but this is the heart of politically polarized ground zero, a place more anti-Bush than those folks over in Europe. I can assure you the rumors are true: we drink French wine and eat French fries (with American catsup) at baseball games. Actually, French wine is less prevalent at the local baseball games, but then I assume you understand the concept of creative exaggeration.
So you're some kind of fervent Democrat?
The Democrats delivered us Vietnam. I was never all that happy with Kennedy or Johnson in the sixties for their single minded misunderstanding of our interests in Vietnam. Vietnam was not the critical third leg that propped up the Chinese and the Soviet empires. The Vietnamese government, from everything I've seen and heard, was as bad as any government in a century of really bad governments. They killed millions of their own in the name of “Political Correctness”, just as we killed millions of their own in our Cold War crusade against Communism, just as we've invaded Iraq in our crusade against terrorism. I have no problem with crusades against Communism or crusades against terrorism except when they seem so obviously at cross purposes with our survival.
So am I a fervent Democrat? Let's just say I'm fervent about the idea of acting rationally when it comes to our own safety and interest. Is Bush on the right track? I don't think so. Is Kerry on the right track? I hope so, but you never know until you know. Am I voting for Kerry for President? Oh, yeah, but I'm not alone in understanding this is not necessarily a rational universe and the Joker in the Deck could, as easily as not, come with a Massachusetts accent.
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