| Thursday,
July 4, 2002
Independence Day
Happy Birthday,
America
Studio City has its own parade, but here in the Triangle we have ours.
With all the neighborho0d kids and dogs. The only one unhappy was the
calico cat, who had a ribbon tied around her neck and her yard filled with
dogs. This was a terrible thing to do to a cat...
The parade forms up and moves out, around the corner to a busy street
and goes past our house. This is Heartland America, California style. You
won't recognize the Movie people, but they're here, makeup artists and
projectionists and writers and several working actors and actresses taking
a few years off to raise their children. Studio City is pretty well an
Industry town.
Meanwhile the CEO of Global is spending tens of millions to get his
Bell Aire house -- $94 million, the most expensive house in LA -- fixed
up. That's his money, of course, which he got from his golden parachute.
The company can't manage to find $42 million to pay severance pay to its
employees. Fortunately the CEO bailed out just in time, having done what
he was hired to do: get that stock price up there, up up up.
I don't know if what he did was illegal. Some of the other firms that
went down the tubes clearly broke the rules. I contract with you for $1
million worth of services to be delivered over the next 12 years. You
contract with me for $1 million worth of reports to be delivered over the
next ten years. I now have made a million dollars, while incurring no
losses this year. True, in a couple of years I will have $100,000 a year
to pay, but just now I don't have any losses and I can report $1 million
in profit. You can do the same. And our debts cancel out, so
no actual money changes hands, but I do have to report my payment to you,
and I have already reported as profits the payment you would be making to
me only of course neither one of us sends the other any money.
But this year we both tell our stockholders how we made a million
profit, and thus how wonderful we are. We get big bonuses, discover we
have Frimpington's Syndrome and can't continue to work, take our money,
sell our stock, and go buy a house in Bell Aire. Those who bought
our stocks cheer us and give us gold watches, and wish us well in our
treatments, which turn out to be summers on the Riviera and a beach house
in Malibu.
The only cure for that sort of thing is jail. But whether that
will happen or not is another story.
"Artie got my job!" he yelled and started shooting. Next
thing we know there are all kinds of shots fired, people hurt, the LAX
airport shut down, flights diverted, thousands of people lost a day, and
the Foreign Minister of a foreign nation comments about an incident in the
Los Angeles Airport.
When I heard there was shooting at a ticket gate at LAX I wondered if
it was just some guy taking a shot at his ex wife. It seemed a rather odd
form of terrorist attack. And early on no one knew much, I guess, so
perhaps it made sense to flush the airport while waiting to know more.
Then there would be a press conference, only all the press were herded
away, and the police weren't talking. Heavy security measures continued.
And finally the story came out. Artie got someone's job, and this chap
didn't like it. Never mind, the airport got shut down anyway, thousands of
police got to do their thing, passengers on incoming airplanes had to dump
all their luggage for inspection, no one could get near the airport... And
well after it was clear this was no more than a personal incident, the
security crackdown continued. Why waste a good opportunity to harass
people?
This is a pretty high price to pay for empire. If we are going to
continue to pay such a price, we need to levy tribute on the rest of the
world and lower taxes on ourselves; that way we at least get something out
of it. Of course we don't do that. We will continue to have a passenger
disruption system and pretend that it is a security system; and we will
continue to tax ourselves to pay people to inconvenience us. And for that
we gave up a self-governing Republic? Can't we at least have some of
the benefits of Empire?
Do I believe all that? Dunno, but surely the questions can be
asked?
More mystery. Who shot whom? When? Who got stabbed, and who is under
arrest? Local news still doesn't know. This is very odd.
There are a lot of conflicting reports, newscasters aren't being
treated very well and are being told to leave, and everyone is acting
strangely now. I don't know why.
Someone else is saying that the "Artie got my job" remark was
actually a joke by Howard Stern. Others have uglier things to say. The
Israel foreign minister is involved. Who is under arrest?
Whatever happened, this doesn't look like any kind of organized attack.
And my earlier point still stands: this is no way for a republic to
operate. And it's not a competent way for empire to work either...
The news isn't getting any clearer. The police have ordered the
hospitals not to tell anyone who has died. We don't have any information
at all. Earlier we were told two people were in custody. Now they are not
saying anything. The gunman is dead. Who is in custody?
The Israeli Consul General is saying this was terrorism.
One early account said passengers subdued the assailant. Now we hear
that he was killed by El Al security guards. Reporters aren't allowed on
the scene. Hospitals and morgues aren't allowed to talk to the press.
Are they TRYING to make it look like a terrorist incident? Does any of
this make sense?
I did not grow up to be suspicious of my government. Perhaps all this
will make perfect sense in the morning.
I do not think I will bet large sums on this.
TOP
Current Mail
|
CLICK HERE for
a Special Request. 
