Some say it should be the war, but that’s going to be a long complicated mess. It’s like Bush and Cheney and Rumsfeld were standing over a computer and Rumsfeld poured a diet coke into the workings. The computer is broken, and firing Rummy won’t fix it. There’s going to be a lot of work. Same with many of the elements of society that have slowly deteriorated under the current incompetent administration. None of them will be an easy fix.

What can be fixed, though, is the name of National Airport. National is DC’s airport. DC is a stongly democratic place with very little power to run its own affairs. Somehow, Congress thought that the best way to honor someone who was

A) Unpopular in DC

B) An advocate of local control

Was to override any semblance of local control and name DCs airport after the man. I doubt he would have appreciated it, and I know we don’t. So Congress, first order of business, change the name back to what it really is: National Airport.

This poster, which we put together, is for sale at TheDigitalSandbox.com. You can also get the cup, and buy Cityflirting t-shirts.

When I served in the Navy, I completely gave over a lot of my rights to be part of the military.  I was on a submarine, and the crew was prepared to carry out whatever orders we received.  I did make one moral choice, I did not volunteer to be on a “boomer.” But other than that, the act of enlisting is a choice to accept that the leaders of the country will wisely use the military assets at their command.

Two presidents, Carter and Reagan, were variously my Commander in Chief.  One I agreed with, one I really did not.  But neither, in my opinion, violated the basic contract that leaders in this country make with the servicemen and women.  The contract says that we will suspend our right to make individual decisions about life and death, right and wrong, as long as those who give the orders respect our choices and respect that we are defending freedoms.

Now comes a stinging indictment of the current leader from the brother of Pat Tillman, one of the most celebrated servicemen to die in the recent wars.  The brother, Kevin Tillman, also served in both Afghanistan and Iraq, and says, in very eloquent language, that the contract has been broken.  The servicemen and women are fighting for leaders who don’t honor their decisions, their sacrifices, or anything that they might be willing to fight for.  Those in active service can’t make that statement, of course.  But someone who did his time and then said what he had to say, can.

Maybe it doesn’t mean what you think it does….

This article is the latest to cover the whole “digital sweatshop” phenomena.  Basically, lazy American gamers are hiring third world computer laborers to PLAY THE GAME for them.  At least, to play through the long boring process of accumulating enough wealth to buy the cool armor and weapons.  This has been known for awhile, but now, according to the article, the Gold Farmers are stealing from the “real gamers.”

“It’s getting ridiculous. They have started mugging other characters and stripping them of valuables. It’s meant to be a game, but when there’s money involved people will do anything.”

Why do so many people believe the US Government had something to do with the destruction of the World Trade Center?  Polls keep saying the number is ridiculously high.  High enough that it can’t be accounted for with the usual “there’s always going to be a few crackpots” explanation.

Some people just like to have opinions that piss other people off, of course.  I might not believe that, say, Bill Parcels is a closet pet abuser.  But if you’re a Dallas fan and you ask me if I really think that’s true, maybe I’ll say yes.  Many people are angry enough at the current government that they’ll check whatever box on a survey is most likely to piss that government off.

I don’t think that’s all of it though.  An overwhelming number of people in this country supported the ill-concieved invasion of Iraq.  They enjoyed the pleasure of victory when things went well, and the anger of righteous outrage when things went poorly.  Now that almost everyone realizes it was a bad idea, people have to reconcile their own past feelings.  The unfortunate truth is that there was plent of reason to doubt all along.  But nobody wants to admit that, it’s easier to just go all the way and accuse the administration of something so henious, so overwhelmingly duplicitious, that it “explains” their own feelings in going along with the invasion.

It was bad enough when Fox News and the usual array of illiterate bloggers used the term: “Islamic Fascists”.  The term makes no sense, Fascism comes from the idea of a tightly bound bundle of sticks, and was used by Hitler and Mussolini to describe a powerful union of State and business, all working together.  It has come to mean a totalitarian state that controls the military and industry, dictating not only behavior but thought.

Al Quaida is undeniable evil, Islamic only by self-description, but it’s hardly Fascist.  In fact, the power of Islam comes from its very disconnected, underground, barely coordinated nature.  Cells exist independently, aware of each other only through distant communications and common viewing of websites and media.

But Fox News and their accompanying columnists are beyond education, so it’s no big deal that they started using the term.  Now, though, the President of the United States has used it, and once again we are showing the world our inability to grasp the concepts behind the words coming out of our own mouths.  No wonder they doubt our ability to understand others.

I’ve been thinking about the term “Anti-American” for some time now.  It’s an easy charge to throw out, and it often prompts a defensive flag-waving reaction.  I’m limiting my discussion to Americans (specificaly, residents and citizens of the United States).

The charge that people upset with particular aspects of government policy are anti-American seems obviously stupid.  But people keep saying it, and those who are attacked seem defensive about it, so it’s worth addressing.  Anyone who cares about America cares enough to fight over what America should be doing.

My first thought was just to flip that over and attack those right wingers who insist that their particular vision of America is the only one that is true are in some fashion anti-American.  But that’s just as facile.  I know conservatives who do care about this country, about what it does and how it does it.  We just disagree on details and effectiveness.

What I propose is reserving the term anti-American for those who do any of the following:

• Pretend to be doing something for the good of America when in fact they are working for a small sub-class of Americans at the expense of others.
• Attack the essential liberties which are part of being American.
• Do something that shames America in the eyes of the world.
• Engages in tactics that are anti-thetical to the independence of Americans.

A good example of the last is the tactic chosen by Oakland Police in their “struggle” with anti-war protestors.  They sent in undercover officers to infiltrate a labor-related anti-war protest.  Fine.  Maybe a good idea, maybe not.  But these officers were elected to actually LEAD the protest, planning the route and possibly changing the nature of the protest itself.  This is a tactic successfully used by totalitarians to disrupt and discredit political foes.  In fact, this could be an instance where the mention of Hitler doesn’t violate Godwin’s law, because Hitler was very good at infiltrating opposition groups and leading them into doing stupid things.

I have to credit my friend Carrie with this one.  A car horn, like an air-bag, is a safety device.  If you go nuts on the horn, an alert policeman can right you a ticket for mis-use of a safety device.  Since DC police don’t care, it’s unlikely you’ll get ticketed, of course.

But what if, like an air-bag, you only get a limited number of horn uses when you buy your car.  When you honk the horn more than, say, 500 times, you have to get a new horn-activition device at some substantial cost.  If you buy too many, you lose points on your license and your insurance goes up.

By shutting down escalators and elevators and letting people inure themselves to the heat and humidity.  As a global survival strategy, this makes a certain amount of sense.  If the world is getting hotter, it’s never too early to start conditioning ourselves to a hot, nasty, environment without the use of metro escalators.  And, the unfit will soon start dropping like flies.