2003-07-04T09:42:00.000-07:00

the usa is an interesting country.

there is martha stewart. martha stewart is the hyacinth bucket of north america.
martha stewart has published hundreds of thousands of words about how to dust and
how to vaccuum. she has written reams about the fine points of
selecting antique bed and table linens. martha stewart has big legal difficulties
around her financial portfolio because even though she worked in the stock market
industry, she was apparently unable to grasp the fine points of ethical behavior.
nevertheless she has many many admirers and an incomparable victim-script:
she was not quite as unethical as mr enron, who is a white male.

there is the present white house administration. the present administration
appears intent on doing an homage to the 19th century Grand Tour, only this time
through the middle east complete with heavy artillery and a snipe hunt. today
i learn that there will be an apparently unscheduled stop in liberia.

back here at usa, world headquarters, members of the present administration
are busy apparently trying to subvert the bill of rights. these guys have
studied their orwell. they are lacing their language with words like "patriot"
while trying to limit the regular person's ability to speak freely, write freely, and
inevitably, think freely while trying to encourage the meter reader and the
postman and the neighbor to watch one another looking for "signs of
unusual behavior". i am all for cultural diversity. this new pattern of
usa governance has a long and hallowed history in latin america which of course
no one living in latin america would dare say anything about.

the present white house administration comes to us courtesy of soundbytes and
mass-mind media. we all know that. the present administration comes to us
courtesy of the political and financial interests of large corporate entities. it
comes to us because we did not vote, perhaps, and because many ignorant, poorly
informed, emotional people watched the campaign ads during
jerry springer and judge judy and voted for us. we all know that.

we can learn about corporate interests from medieval cultural
history. we can play with language and think this way: there is a prince in
seattle. there is a shogun at redwood shores. there is a duke in new york city.
they have their vassals. they have their serfs. serfs r us. they have not yet
invoked the jus primae noctis, but give them time. they are hard-working people.

the bill of rights creates difficulties for large interests. the bill of rights had its origins
in the desire to pretect the regular person from the power of governance. before
such protections, dissent had a big price. we still see this in the middle east, in
asia, in africa, in latin america. the people who wrote the bill of rights had
their own problems to be sure, but their heads were in the right place.

i like the bill of rights.

i hate to see it go.

http://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/constitution.billofrights.html

happy birthday america