It is a time of freedom and fear, of Gaia and of borders, of many paths and the widening of a universal toll road, emptying country and swelling cities, of the public bought into privacy and the privacy of the public sold into invisible data banks and knowing algorithms. It is the time of the warrior's peace and the miser's charity, when the planting of a seed is an act of conscientious objection.

These are the times when maps fade and direction is lost. Forwards is backwards now, so we glance sideways at the strange lands through which we are all passing, knowing for certain only that our destination has disappeared. We are unready to meet these times, but we proceed nonetheless, adapting as we wander, reshaping the Earth with every tread.

Behind us we have left the old times, the standard times, the high times. Welcome to the irregular times.


 
It's official: George W. Bush will only take a two-week vacation in 2004, not the full-month vacation he took in 2001, again in 2002 and yet again in 2003. No, this year he pledges to be on the job for two weeks of the month.
 
What state of world or domestic affairs demands that George W. Bush work like he has never worked before, and limit his summer vacation from four weeks to two weeks? Is it some need for extra diplomacy? Is Mr. Bush going to work extra hard to help Americans generate new jobs? Is the man possibly going to work on reducing his record deficit?
 
Of course not. When we say that Bush pledges to stay on the job for two extra weeks of August 2004, we don't mean the job of being the President of the United States! Don't be silly! Bush is still going to take his vacation from that job. No, he'll be spending the extra time on the job of trying to get himself re-elected.
 
That's right: Bush hasn't bothered to cancel his annual vacation to deal with terrorists' threats, a crashing economy, record deficits, looming health-care disasters or any other problem that faces Americans. He only grudgingly cuts back his vacation time to look after his own personal fate.
 
The only thing that will get George W. Bush off his own ass is looking after his own ass. What a typical silver-spooned, blue-blooded, spoiled rich kid attitude! (Source: International Herald-Tribune July 19, 2004)

Posted by James Cook at 11:04 PM. # (permalink)




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