Day: December 2, 2002

Politicians double murder rate

/ Kevin B. O'Reilly

Yes, it’s true!

According to an editorial in yesterday’s Chicago Tribune, “Last year alone, of the 570 slayings in which police determined motives, 260 were tied to gangs, narcotics or narcotics turf disputes.” That’s almost half of the murders cops have pinned down a motive for.

These murders are a direct result of the illegal drug trade in Chicago. There might be a lot of ugly things about legally available hard drugs, but will there be anything as ugly as those 260 lives that were lost last year. Or that are lost every year, in every major metropolitan area in this country?

The answer, of course, is more vigorous prosecution of this war on drugs and gangs, says the Tribune editorial.

Hooray for stupidity!

The empire strikes out

/ Kevin B. O'Reilly

Dubya & Co. think what the world needs now is a war, sweet war, but empires ain’t what they used to be, the Cato Institute’s Ivan Eland says. He writes:

The strategy of empire is likely to overstretch and bleed America’s economy and its military and federal budgets, and the overextension could hasten the decline of the United States as a superpower, as it did the Soviet Union and Great Britain. The strategy could also have the opposite effect from what its proponents claim it would have; that is, it would alarm other nations and peoples and thus provoke counter-balancing behavior and create incentives for other nations to acquire weapons of mass destruction as an insurance policy against American military might.

See his full analysis here. Also posted to Stand Down.

Dubya, friend of liberty

/ Kevin B. O'Reilly

The new terrorism insurance bill Dubya signed will ensure that the feds take on the risks that insurance companies think are too high. Want to build a huge skyscraper that will prove a tempting target for terrorists? “Go for it,” says the new law.
By leaving this in private hands, real estate developers and insurers would have a profit incentive to be creative and design buildings that actually reduce the risk of terrorist attacks. So much for that. That “giant sucking sound” you hear, to quote Ross Perot, is your tax dollars going to pay off big insurance companies the next time there’s a major terrorist attack.

Can I unbuckle my stomach?

/ Kevin B. O'Reilly

That’s the question I uttered in between groans of satisfaction/pain somewheres about 9:30 p.m. on
Thanksgiving, thanks to two heaping platefuls of all the fixin’s, minus the candied yams thanks to a certain debacle which should go unmentioned henceforth.

Of course, I had already unbuckled my belt a couple of notches but that wasn’t nearly enough. Especially since I decided to throw dessert into the mix, in this case my mom’s wonderful rice pudding.

Chuck says that calling Thanksgiving “Turkey Day” misses the point. I guess. Seems to me that turkey’s pretty essential to the meal.

You know, Thanksgiving’s always been one of my favorite holidays (along with Independence Day), and one reason is because it is the one day a year when fat people like me can really pig out without shame. Indeed, eating less than your fill on Thanksgiving is seen as a bad thing. You’re just not being thankful enough.

I guess that in some way all holidays involve the senses, but Thanksgiving is special because there’s nothing more basic than food. We need it to survive. The food we receive on Thanksgiving, though, is a metaphor for that other stuff we really need not only to survive but to flourish: the love and support of our family, friends and loved ones.

So, those two drumsticks, three pieces of pumpkin pie and one pound of mashed potatoes aren’t an alarming sign of your rapidly deteriorating health. They are a simple reminder that each bite brings you closer to the ones you love and who do you the great favor of loving you back, in spite of your many flaws.

For that, I’m thankful.