GEE, WHERE WAS I?
This long absence from blogging is embarrassing and frankly inexcusable on my part. Suffice it to say inertia took over.
Sadly, I look through my notes and see a mention of a hate crimes panel sponsored by the CJP which l I attended- but never wrote about as well as discussion of Tillman and the two NFL players who earned Medals of Honor:
Maurice Britt and
Jack Lummus. I also had notes on Saddam's capture, including this
filk.
I do owe you my poverty/pathology essay, wherein I propose a new term to describe the status of being poor and dysfunctional: 'Patharty,' or pathological poverty. Also I need to find a George Will essay so I can explain why Californians who learn nothing are making Arizona more liberal. I do owe you an explanation as to my cryptic remark why video games prove Eurabia is coming.
So, why my return? Well, I was attending a
National Review sponsored party at Doyle's in the Jamaica Plain Neighborhood. Of course I wanted to meet the
Corner gang. In addition to meeting
Ramesh,
Jonah,
Rich and
Katie, I also met some local bloggers. One was the poor bastard who is the token conservative on the
Weekly Dig- which is like
The Village Voice put together in a dorm room where the bong fumes are so thick they obscure the Che posters. Another attendee was Cantabrigian libertarian
Steven Jens.
Anyhow, when I mentioned my name, while introducing myself to some of the attendees and someone recognized it- from the comments on
Tim Blair's blog. He also mentioned that it had not been updated since 2003. Big oops.
About the convention: I have been largely avoiding the DNC footprint. I eschewed downtown during the event- paranoid visions of tear gas and molotov cocktails danced in my mind. Thankfully I was wrong. Indeed, around 2 PM Thursday I was able to drive from Storrow Drive to I-93 southbound in astonishingly little time (For non-Bostonians, Storrow Drive is the generally congested road along the Charles River. I-93, the focus of the 'Big Dig,' is perpetually congested. Both are notorious in a metropolis filled with choke points). Earlier I was in an astonishingly uncrowded Harvard Square. I chatted with some merchants who described the situation as 'quiet.' But the lack of the thronging crowds were eerily reminiscent of
Evangelion, an anime that takes place after a catastrophe decimated mankind. As
Howie Carr noted, everyone who could flee, has.
It's not merely north of the Charles, either. Instead of helping local businesses, the convention- with its attendees eating free food at lobbyist parties whilst safely ensconced in their security cocoon is actually
harming downtown.
Around Boston, businesses anticipating a boost from the Democratic National Convention were left to stew in the disappointment of streets emptied by warnings about highway closures, rail line disruptions and huge crowds of outsiders.
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Mayor Menino, having been
rescued from humiliating 'information lines' by Governor Romney, is undoubtedly less than thrilled with Kerry's high handedness and the detrimental effects of the convention. He is
not alone in his anger. At a recent family gathering more than one person snarled about the
convention center in South Boston. This white elephant, originally meant for the DNC, is not being used, though
Romney suggested it. (There were fears during planning that it would not be completed in time. Though ready, the networks vetoed any use because of camera angle issues. Thanks, Dan, Tom, Peter.) If it were in Southie, there would have been MUCH less impact on the Hub's easily impacted thoroughfares. Additionally, the security would probably end up uncovering the rest of
Whitey's death pits.
Hopefully this disgruntlement will turn into something tangible. Massachusetts is politically odd, but not inexplicably so. Like a labor union, our political overclass is far to the left of most of the electorate, with one notable exception that will be discussed shortly. While many seem to believe that the Democrats and their veto proof majority are detrimental, they never hold their representative rouge accountable, if they even know or vote for the wretch. Of course the state Republicans barely fields any candidates, even for the U.S. Senate race in 2002 against... John Kerry. The one exception is the Governorship- the corner office. (Massachusetts has no governor's mansion.) No matter how much we like our guy, we want at least one break on the rest of the lot.
However, this convention, held not in the patronage pit built for it, but in the arena abutting the mess from the seemingly endless construction, thus adding further to the chaos, will hopefully cause the voters to consider accountability regarding the party responsible for the building blocks of the fiasco- even if pepper spray did not waft through riot-torn downtown.
Heck, it's only the second
most important convention in Boston this year!
