Archive for August 12th, 2008

Washington State is where I live, and I love it.  But now and then I just have to boggle at something in the news here.  Let me provide you two examples.

A few years ago, we were all treated to pictures on the news of a lost killer whale….a young thing that got named “Luna” by whomever names such critters.  Luna was lonesome, since she was not with the usual “pod” of orcas and she took up a dangerous hobby: hanging around the boats in the water with her.  Eventually, we were all saddened when she was killed by a boat propeller.  Fast forward a bit and here is this young idiot who decides to “protest” her death.  So he cuts the HIGH VOLTAGE electric lines to Orcas Island.  Now, mind you, Orcas Islanders had nothing to do with her death, nor did the electric line contribute to the poor Luna’s early demise.  But that was his choice….out the lights to many thousands of people who may have been just as upset over the young killer whale as he was and oh, for a bonus—shock the crap out of yourself.  Enough so as to lose an ARM.  Then, of course, get caught and put on trial.

But for what?  Malicious mischief?  Or maybe eco-terrorism?  No, he was charged with a misdemeanor and basically set free because “he has suffered so much already.”  Right.  He was a numb nuts.  His protest had zilch to do with the topic at hand, and he goes free cause he was inept enough to lose an arm?    Yes, perhaps I am a merciless bitch, but he deserved more than that, if you ask me.  I’m not sure jail time would be what I would have had in mind for him, but putting out the lights to thousands as a “protest” struck me as freaking stupid; pitying him for hurting himself in the process says little about the spirit of the law.

But, just so you know, you will all be safe in Washington from really terrible horrible threats, because someone else IS a merciless bastard.  Just this month, a 14 year old (who got his first hunting license at around age 8 iirc) had a terrible accident.  He was out on the first day of bear hunting season and shot a hiker.  She died, the boy was a damn good shot, unfortunately.  His whole town was shook up, sorry for her death and sorry for the boy who, naturally, feels really terrible.  But he, doing something he had done for years, is going to trial for manslaughter.

A judge decided that he should never have been hunting on a foggy day.  Excuse me?   This is the Pacific Nor’west…if we didn’t “do” whatever we do in fog and rain, the damned state would have to close down for six months or more of the year.  Oh, and the boy should have used binoculars, not his gunsight, according  to ‘his Honor.’   Now, my dad hunted all the years of his life and so far as he was concerned, carrying additional stuff into rough country was to be avoided.  If you have good gunsights….why have binoculars?

I think the judge wants a tough rep so he can run for office as being all rough and ‘hanging judge’-ish.   I think it is a lot of crap; a 14 year old boy is going to be pilloried for a hunting accident.  The freaking Vice-President shot a man in the FACE and didn’t even get a scolding for crying out loud!  Yes, the woman died, but even her family didn’t go demanding prison time for this boy.  But hey, 14 year olds don’t get to vote anyhow, do they?  So obviously the judge is safe to harry the boy all the way down.  And it is so much easier than doing something that would REALLY protect the citizenry, like LOUDLY announcing when and which hunting season is open.  I had no idea whatsoever that there even WAS a hunting season as early as August….and I am certain that poor hiker had no idea.  It would do a lot more good to WARN people to hike wearing bright yellow or orange, not shades of green and blue that blend into our landscape.

So, yeah, even out here on the rim of the country, the stupid, it still burns.   Oh, say can you see, indeed.

I didn’t see the opening of the Olympic Games. I cannot completely claim that I avoided watching because it is taking place in China, but that is part of the reason. Another part of the reason is that I get a big case of pissed every time the Games roll round because some poor business owner here in Washington state gets sued for using the name “Olympics.” This royally pisses me off that the Games can assert ownership over a name that has been around since before their hoity toity “Committee” ever existed. And every Washingtonian knows those many businesses with the word “Olympic” in the name are not talking about any hepped up display of perfect bodies and flags like a traveling United Nations: they refer to one of the state’s mountain ranges and a big peninsula attached to our shore.

So, while I do often take in viewing of a couple events, this year, I was too pissy minded to even do that. I don’t think China deserved to host the games, I do think cash changed hands…..well, that or arms were economically twisted. China sits astride the Tibetan “top of the world” like a very evil spurred cowboy and is economically getting ready to saddle up and ride the rest of the world with just as much enthusiasm. I think letting them trumpet their “worthiness” to join the 21st century while they act like warlords of old is a gigantic mistake. Just because they hide their brutality behind high-flown language in ideological statements and by ripping cameras out of documenting hands doesn’t mean they have changed their ways since they rolled tanks over people in their “heavenly” square. I don’t think they would have been handed the Olympic Games in any era that hadn’t already seen America completely lose her moral imperatives under George Bush. The whole thing looks like a metaphor for the “Portrait of Dorian Gray” sort of story that the world is becoming: Do whatever venal, money-oil-grubbing vicious thing you like, just dress it up in beautiful wording and lies first!

I feel for the many athletes who put so much into it that they have to go compete in that polluted and glassed in Potemkin village in Beijing. But I don’t feel THAT much….in a world where children starve and die of simply cured illnesses, and where teachers can’t afford to buy a house, and ordinary people suffer unimaginable horrors, the sympathy I can muster for the professional athletes of the world is limited. Yes, I know the Olympics supposedly does not use “pros”; but we all know most of those who go spend more time honing their skills and beautiful physical arts than workers on the average job. Just because they are not paid for it does not make them any less professional. Housewives are not paid either, you know? But it sure as hell IS their job! And if I recall correctly, I think some literal paid pros did go to play basketball one recent Olympic Games, right? But I do admire those athletes and the deceptive ease of their physical arts, although I tend to be one of those hard-ass sorts who thinks “But what does this change for the better in the world?” on every news story that is meant to “lift” my spirits.  It is hard for me to see all the lovely camera footage as anything but a modern “circus” distraction in an America where schools are firing teachers, cutting heat & air conditioning, and closing schools because they have no money—foreclosures mean less in property taxes, you see.  In America, property taxes fund the schools.  So, infrastructure crumbles, with roads and bridges leading the way….and we are still be “lifted” by medals on ribbons and stirring music with flags?

The Games are sold as beautiful and spirit lifting. And this one more than possibly any other before. So beautiful that it has been revealed that a lovely little girl singing for her nation on the opening night was actually just lip-synching it. The actual beautiful voice belonged to a wee songbird two years younger, but with a less perfect face. She wasn’t good enough for the Chinese to display to the world, although I found her picture completely adorable. So, they faked the singer with a red-gowned doll. Chinese Barbie is nine years old and felt beautiful before the cameras.

They apparently also faked the fireworks display somewhat. The actual opening night shots were not as good as the film of the practice run ahead of the Games, so guess which ones everyone NOT in the arena that night saw? I guess these two examples say a lot more to me than any of the splendor that is the athletic performance underway in Beijing.

It is all about appearances. It is smoke and mirrors to hide the way reality actually works. Will the seven year old with the perfect voice always hide her “imperfect face”? Will she work in the background forever, not good enough? And lest you think only the Chinese do this, think twice. They do it badly enough to get caught, or they think their reasons are good enough to do it and thumb their collective noses at anyone calling them on the deception.

Human nature, you say, to want to put the “best foot forward”? Just remember when that glass slipper sticks itself in the door…this is China. Behind that “glamoury” the hobnailed boot is the next step. The fact that it looks as perfectly shined and styled as the Pope’s (in)famous red slippers doesn’t mean it won’t stomp a new brand of brutality into the world. Just ask the Tibetans.