a berlin blog
|
a berlin blog |
|
|
Wednesday, March 03, 2004 In Another CountryBrian, who lives in Japan, blogs about the Ollie North protest Marc and I and a few other people mounted a while back. Marc and I now live in different cities, but Brian asks, "don't you sometimes feel like you're both together, but in an entirely different country?"Actually, no. Conventional wisdom says the nation has changed, but the tone of San Francisco, L.A., New York, Boston, and New Hampshire -- the parts of the U.S. I see regularly -- is honestly not that different. People are more aware of the Middle East; we all have some kind of opinion now. But I don't feel widespread paranoia, mindless patriotism, or willingness to spy on the next-door neighbors in case their gardener might turn out to be a Qaeda ringleader (if that's what Brian means). It's mainly the Bush administration that seems to live in another country. Washington itself seems to have moved offshore. Soon I imagine we'll read that the whole operation has quietly shifted headquarters to the Bahamas and no longer needs to abide by the Constitution. Which, frankly, will be OK with me. When that day comes we'll just hire a good law firm to sue the place for gross malfeasance and find a new capital city. Happily, John Kerry seems to grasp the Saudi part of this problem. He also has a good record of investigating extra-Constitutional affairs, like Ollie North's coke racket. But for now my enthusiasm is muted. Kerry tends to know a lot but do little. He's a smart but cautious careerist, who after that big malfeasance suit might find himself retired in the Bahamas with the rest of them. posted by Michael Scott Moore | 6:04 PM | |
|
|
 Too Much of Nothing, a novel  Politics and Prose  about our editor 
The Underground Grammarian  current Berlin blog page  |
