I would say that the Olympics are distracting the American public from more ponderous world events such as Russia’s invasion of Georgia and the Taliban’s successful insurgency in Afghanistan, but that would imply that if the Olympics weren’t going on, people would stop watching “America’s Got Talent” and “So you think You Can Dance” long enough to pick up a newspaper and figure out that both crises can be chalked up in part to the failed international diplomacy of the Bush Administration. Instead, Americans are outraged that China would pull a Milli Vanilli with the little girl who sang during the opening ceremony because the real singer was not attractive enough to appear on stage. If only the national outcry over China’s occupation of Tibet had half of fury that we have about a lip-synching little girl! Gee whiz, I’m already sick of the Beijing Olympics. It’s been like 5 days already. Did the other Olympics last this long?
Police State
A neighborhood is so plagued with violence that police have placed it under 24-hour curfew for the past week. Any resident who ventures outside can be legally stopped, questioned, and, if necessary, jailed. Where is this degenerative city where pestilence trumps civil liberty? Iraq? Israel? China? Rio de Janeiro? Crawford, Texas?
Try West Helena, Arkansas, a town of 15,000 in one of America’s poorest regions. The police do not arrest people for violating the curfew, but only brandish military rifles while questioning people about why they are outside. Citizens who lack a “good answer” or who “act nervously” get “additional attention.” Wow, only in America. And parts of Africa, the Middle East, and Asia.
With characteristic indignant lovable fuming, the ACLU complains that these friendly little curbside police chats are “unconstitutional” and warns that any arrest resulting from the stops will likely be overturned. But the mayor of West Helena insists that “a judge will see it the way the way the citizens see it … some infringement on constitutional rights is OK and we have not violated anything as far as the Constitution.” Wait, the Consti-what? The What-ution?
The what-what?
I’m Scrubbin’ It
In Ohio, a Burger King employee was fired after posting a video on his MySpace page of himself taking a “soapy bath” in a utility sink at the restaurant. The worker was understandably let go because of hygienic concerns, but let’s break it down: He was bathing in a sink that was used to clean large pieces of equipment such as mop buckets. Is the concern that he would contaminate the sink, which would contaminate the mop buckets, which would contaminate the mops, which would somehow permeate the cleaning solution and contaminate the floors, bathrooms, and equipment, and then contaminate the food or the customer? Look at the high, mighty, and righteous Burger King who makes a fortune of off hawking heart attack burgers, cancer fries, and diabetes drinks, firing an employee for purporting to contaminate the sterile and healthful fast food environment.
