My other rant is a BMW.
With all that is going on in the world, I want to discuss an issue of such importance that I'm surprised I have not covered it before. Bumper stickers! I am going to take a stand and declare that I am against bumper stickers. Of course while I oppose the use of bumper stickers, I would defend to the death your right to slap them on your cars. But really, what's the point? Drive around town and you are assaulted with clever quips and political statements (or what some idiot thinks is clever). That's not to mention all the soccer moms telling you from the bumper of their SUV's that little Brandon plays soccer or that Kayla is an honor roll student at her elementary school. I don't care! It's one thing for my random and pointless thoughts being on exhibition here because you had to seek this out. But bumper stickers are like people yelling from their cars. Believe it or not, I actually have a few points to make on this. A while back well-known prick Bill Maher took some heat from the right for his comments in When You Ride Alone, You Ride With Bin Laden about displays of patriotism. I happen to agree with what he wrote. His comments were aimed more about flags and ribbons, but could just as easily pertain to bumper stickers. Maher wrote, "The problem with the flag at this moment in our history is we’ve become masters at fooling ourselves into thinking there is a way to get everything with very little effort. It’s ridiculous we need to even be reminded of this, but just displaying a flag doesn’t actually do anything, any more than 'tying a yellow ribbon' brings home a hostage or AIDS ribbons cure AIDS. If we think we’ve done something because we went to Kmart and bought a flag, then the flag is actually hurting, not helping us." To boil it down to the basics, someone who slaps a patriotic sticker on their car and think they are doing something to support the war or our troops is doing nothing other than covering a portion of the back of their car. I got into quite a row on a discussion board trying to explain that point to someone who thinks that flying a flag or affixing a yellow ribbon "Support our troops" magnet on the backs of vehicles actually helps the troops. And while on the topic of political stickers, would the Democrats across the country please remove your Kerry/Edwards stickers? And for that matter your Gore/Lieberman stickers? How pathetic is it to keep a campaign sticker on your car well after an election, regardless of who won or lost? I have no doubt that the drivers think they are making some kind of protest against the president. It really make them look like poor losers. There is certainly a difference in the tone between the political bumper stickers on the right and those on the left. The right has supportive things to say. The left are mostly obnoxious and childish. Case in point. During the 2004 campaign the Republican had a rather nice little square black sticker that simply had a white "W" and beneath it said "The President". Of all the stickers from the campaign, that one was the classiest. What was the response from the Bush haters? A little square black sticker that simply had a white "M" (the upside-down "W") and beneath it said "The Moron". How witty! That was relatively tame compared to other vicious and insulting statements also displayed. Standard disclaimer here: Not all leftist stickers are childish and negative and not all of those on the right are positive and mature. I actually got a chuckle from a sticker here on the bumper of a car regularly parked at the Law School. Republicans for Voldemort. I have to give some points to the person who thought that one up. The other thing about stickers and such is that I just don't care about what religion or sexual persuasion the driver is. This goes to the Jesus fish medallions and rainbow bumper stickers. I have previously shared my views on the penchant for Christians and homosexuals for telling everyone that they are Christian or homosexual, so I won't blather on about that again. (I know there are a lot of Christian fundamentalists who will just hate the two being put in the same category. That's reason enough to do it.) What's worse is that the Jesus fish spawned the medallion of the Darwin fish (with the little feet), which in turn spawned the medallion of the Jesus fish eating the Darwin fish. Enough already. And I always feel sorry for the poor schmucks who are driving their gay friend's or relative's car with the rainbow stickers. Whatever the sticker is supposed to be advertising now does so for them. Better watch out they don't get rear-ended. (Sorry, that was uncalled for, but I could not resist.)
And another thing...
W. Mark Felt. Does that name mean anything to you? If it does, it's only because the news just broke. It sure didn't mean anything to me and will continue not to matter. If you are reading this after June 2005 and don't remember, Mr. Felt was "Deep Throat" from Woodward and Bernstein's Watergate investigation. What should be the reaction to this news? "Hmm, how about that?" Or perhaps a yawn. I don't know what kind of prolonged coverage this is going to get beyond the initial explosion. It shouldn't get much at all. The story is three decades old. This is the final spasm (albeit delayed) of the collective orgasm that the Baby Boomers had over the ousting of Richard Nixon which they see as their greatest accomplishment. I've never really understood the beef that generation had with Nixon before the Watergate mess. They would not have been old enough to remember when the nickname Tricky Dick was coined in the 1950's or why. He didn't get the U.S. into the Vietnam War, the acceleration of which was done under the previous Democratic administrations. He was in fact withdrawing troops and worked to end the draft. He created some of the bureaucracy that the Boomer left loves to this day in the Environmental Protection Agency, Minority Business Development Agency and Supplemental Security Income program. He normalized relations with Red China. His administration negotiated disengagement agreements between Israel, Egypt and Syria. He even appeared on "Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In". Yet the whining children of the Boomer generation still despised him. I don't know why other than the fact that they were generally counter-everything and despised all authority.
Yes, the cover-up of the Watergate break-in was wrong. It was an incredibly stupid thing to do. But the first instinct of politicians is to cover up. (Paging Bill Clinton!) He did try to stop the publication of the "Pentagon Papers" by the press, but they were classified documents in a time of war. Show me any president who would not have tried to do the same. I do not excuse any of the actions of the administration in the scandal, but Bill Clinton was forgiven the day after his problems came to light. His illegal cover-up was glossed over. In fact the Boomer left and the media turned on the very people accusing the president and investigating the matter. Would they have done that twenty years earlier? Not only no but hell no! I do get a chuckle in the knowledge that Mr. Felt did all this not so much as a noble act but as the result of a beef he had with Nixon over not being appointed the head of the FBI. He was held up (before his identity was known) as a great hero. Hero? Ha! He was a disgruntled government employee who vowed to get even. If he was so troubled by the whole matter (and he should have been), he should have resigned and taken the matter to a grand jury. But he did not. He created the feeling in the press that they had the power to take down a president. They still think they have this power and are trying to use it every day against our current president using the same methods from thirty years ago. What they realize is that with talk radio and the alternative internet media, whatever power they had as the sole disseminator of information has diminished greatly in the intervening three decades. I have previously drawn the connection between Bush/Iraq and Nixon/Vietnam in the eyes of the left and the media. (Sorry, that was redundant wasn't it?). But people aren't buying their crap anymore and they are frustrated. Talk about self-delusion.
And another thing...