The Lexus and The Olive Tree
I saw a man on the Metra train this morning, wearing baby blue sweatpants and a vinyl jacket, discard his McDonald's bag under the seat in front of him. I wanted to say to him, "Hey this isn't the CTA! There's a garbage can a few steps in front of you. You can't just make your refuse magically disappear by placing it outside of your peripheral vision!" I believe in the rule of law. Nature may be arbitrary, but you can't have a society of arbitrary actors. There have to be mutually accepted norms based on general principles and values.
Tom Friedman was on Charlie Rose last night, and I always enjoy his point of view. He mentioned that Paul Wolfowitz had given an interview in Vanity Fair (i can't look up the link now, if it's online please share the URL) in which he basically stated that the weapons of mass destruction issue had been "exaggerated" and that it really didn't matter whether Iraq possessed them or not. I'm rather annoyed that I spent time trying to refute the WMD issue when it turned out not to matter at all. Oh well. And I never got a chance to tell you that I think even a sensible imperialist would think three times before launching into a campaign to "reshape the external world." If I had the opportunity to step before a computer monitor when the Saudi Arabia bombings happened, I would have told you to advocate the bombing of the Saudi people. Why waste time with mustached misanthropic super villains when it's the ordinary men women and children that are a security threat. They hijack planes, they bomb apartment buildings... sure some innocent members of the Saudi royal family will get killed, but at the end Crown Prince Abdullah will be dancing in the streets.
Instead of having traditional Presidential elections next year, we should elect either a Tom Friedman foriegn policy or a William Kristol foriegn policy. The democrats get Friedman (sure he's a ringer, but they need the help) and the republicans, Kristol. Let the people vote. It's Kristol's "bomb the world" vs. Friedman's "save the arabs... by bombing them" and "McDonald's for peace." (Friedman wrote that no two countries with a McDonald's would ever go to war. Shh. Don't tell him there's been a McDonald's in Belgrade for years. Right now Iran and Syria are saving up for the franchise fees.)
Last week, I was in such a pleasant mood. Not only was the memorial day parade downtown but also the International Man of Leather competion was at the Palmer House last weekend. So there was the lovely juxtapostion of veterans in uniform and gay men in leather and fatigues. But look at me now, I'm a shell of a shell. Maybe I should wear more leather.
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