death by fiat
By: kathstack
Published On: 10/31/2007 12:37:51 PM
Since I spent my entire working life as a print and wire service reporter, then a weekly newspaper editor, it's not surprising that I continue as a news junky. I spend way too much time every day keeping up with the world, the nation and the state; what I miss most about my old job is the sure sense that, most of the time, I knew more or less what was going on.
So what did I learn today?
The Washington Post says the Bush administration has decided to enact most of its program by "administrative order" from now on, since the president "can't work" with the almost-supine Democratic congress elected last November with such high hopes. They may still give him most of what he wants, but apparently most is not enough for the decider.
I also learned that Clear Channel Communications has ordered its million or so radio stations not to play Bruce Springsteen's new CD "Magic," no reason given. Shades of the Dixie Chicks. The business article I read speculated Bruce might be "too old" for rock; I suspect he's too radical for the right wing.
People, if you're not nervous, you're not paying attention.
How did we get so ridiculously in thrall to a party so frightened of "islamofascists" that they spend all their time hiding under the bed, ready to give up anything (Constitutional rights, great music, every nickel they have to the military-industrial machine) if only they can be "safe?"
I once lived near a Connecticut town called Wethersfield, where twice within a decade meteorites smashed through the roofs of two different nice houses and buried themselves in the basements. Nobody was hurt either time, because nobody was home in one case, and people were in a different room in the other.
So here's what I think: if you can be sitting on the couch in your pretty suburban home watching Bullwinkle and be brained by a meteorite (which could have happened)then clearly you're never "safe." You might as well come out from under the bed, dust yourself off, and start worrying about real things.
Like, where have all our liberties gone?
Comments