Wednesday, December 01, 2004
The Island of Misfit Toys
A friend who has just returned from Africa says she finds it relatively easy to deal with the problems she encountered over there because you can give them a name and then propose meaningful concrete actions that would solve them. You rebuild a church, you open a orphanage, you plant some seeds. Yes, the solutions may be difficult to accomplish, but it's possible at least to imagine them, and when you do, you can see how they'd be feasible. But then you get back home and look at the mess the United States is in, and what the hell can you do? "The despair [here] is somehow different from despair born of circumstances I can understand." I know it. I sometimes find myself staring open-mouthed at my computer screen because I've seen another news story that simply defies my imagination.
For example: A couple of newspapers in the UK reported over the weekend that we've used napalm in Fallujah. According to Riverbend's Baghdad Burning blog, in Fallujah itself, it's rumored that we've been using chemical weapons.
For another example: In Pennsylvania, the legislature passed and the governor signed a bill that would forbid local communities to offer low-cost Internet access to citizens on their own unless they first got permission from corporate providers such as Verizon. Mr. and Mrs. Pennsylvania, Verizon's your daddy now.
For a third example, Nat Hentoff explains that as Attorney General of the United States, Alberto Gonzales will be even worse than Ashcroft, but he's likely to get a pass from the Senate. That's because senators are impressed by the percentage of the Hispanic vote Bush got and would have qualms about obstructing a Hispanic nominee.
As for the supposed guardians of the public interest, the media? You remember the media--watchdogs who report the truth without fear or favor? Other things on their minds, baby--don't you know the Scott Peterson sentencing hearings are going on? Thus it's appropriate that this is the week Matt Taibbi announces the winner of Wimblehack, the competition for the Worst Journalist of Campaign 2004. I am starting to think that many of the political reporters at the New York Times are as willfully blind to reality and convinced of their own rectitude as the administration they cover.
And to think that someday, we may look back on this as the Good Old Days.
But if it's all too much, maybe you can rinse out your soul until tomorrow with this: Tonight on CBS, it's the 40th anniversary broadcast of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, the stop-motion animation classic featuring Burl Ives and Hermie the Elf Who Wants to Be a Dentist. NPR reported on the anniversary this morning, and included comments from the woman who voiced Rudolph all those years ago. She still sounds like the plucky reindeer--or maybe like his grandmother.
A friend who has just returned from Africa says she finds it relatively easy to deal with the problems she encountered over there because you can give them a name and then propose meaningful concrete actions that would solve them. You rebuild a church, you open a orphanage, you plant some seeds. Yes, the solutions may be difficult to accomplish, but it's possible at least to imagine them, and when you do, you can see how they'd be feasible. But then you get back home and look at the mess the United States is in, and what the hell can you do? "The despair [here] is somehow different from despair born of circumstances I can understand." I know it. I sometimes find myself staring open-mouthed at my computer screen because I've seen another news story that simply defies my imagination.
For example: A couple of newspapers in the UK reported over the weekend that we've used napalm in Fallujah. According to Riverbend's Baghdad Burning blog, in Fallujah itself, it's rumored that we've been using chemical weapons.
For another example: In Pennsylvania, the legislature passed and the governor signed a bill that would forbid local communities to offer low-cost Internet access to citizens on their own unless they first got permission from corporate providers such as Verizon. Mr. and Mrs. Pennsylvania, Verizon's your daddy now.
For a third example, Nat Hentoff explains that as Attorney General of the United States, Alberto Gonzales will be even worse than Ashcroft, but he's likely to get a pass from the Senate. That's because senators are impressed by the percentage of the Hispanic vote Bush got and would have qualms about obstructing a Hispanic nominee.
As for the supposed guardians of the public interest, the media? You remember the media--watchdogs who report the truth without fear or favor? Other things on their minds, baby--don't you know the Scott Peterson sentencing hearings are going on? Thus it's appropriate that this is the week Matt Taibbi announces the winner of Wimblehack, the competition for the Worst Journalist of Campaign 2004. I am starting to think that many of the political reporters at the New York Times are as willfully blind to reality and convinced of their own rectitude as the administration they cover.
And to think that someday, we may look back on this as the Good Old Days.
But if it's all too much, maybe you can rinse out your soul until tomorrow with this: Tonight on CBS, it's the 40th anniversary broadcast of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, the stop-motion animation classic featuring Burl Ives and Hermie the Elf Who Wants to Be a Dentist. NPR reported on the anniversary this morning, and included comments from the woman who voiced Rudolph all those years ago. She still sounds like the plucky reindeer--or maybe like his grandmother.
