#1026

Sunday, as many of you know, was the busiest driving day of the year. I'd planned to celebrate by re-blogging the 101 through Marin and Sonoma counties, but when I went out I found that practically every sign I'd put up on Wednesday was still up: not just the discrete ones, but the really big, in-your-face signs as well. It was practically impossible to drive between Santa Rosa and San Francisco without seeing a sign of protest somewhere along the way: "Impeach", "The War is a Lie." or "Let's Impeach the President for Lying." Not because the area is a hotbed of political activism, mind you, but because one guy spent a couple of hours painting and driving around. Because of that, damn near everyone travelling north of San Francisco over Thanksgiving weekend saw protest signs instead of just fences and trees.

So I drove back home with a truck full of signs and the weird sense of pride and failure that's come to characterize my feelings about this project. The pride comes from being able to take something as stupid and destructive as freeway traffic and use it to speak out for what I believe in: the voice of the individual. The failure comes from my seeming inability to motivate more than a handful of others to do the same.

And then I come home and read about this guy.

If I could've talked to him, not only would he still be alive, but from now until the war is over you wouldn't be able to drive in or out of Chicago without knowing how he felt about it. Instead he chose to stand next to a freeway, douse himself in gasoline and end his life in the most horrific and painful way known to man. By videotaping it and leaving instructions he trusted that the media would cover it. And they didn't.

I've been preaching this for over five years now: Fuck The Media. When you can reach a quarter of a million people in a day with nothing more than cardboard and paint, you don't need the goddam media to cover it: You ARE the Goddam Media.

USA - 1026
FB - 878

Today's Postings

"It is playing safe that we create a world of utmost insecurity." - Dag Hammarskjold

"Don't fight forces, use them." - R. Buckminster Fuller

"Of all the varieties of virtues, liberalism is the most beloved. " - Aristotle

"I'll sleep when I'm dead." - Warren Zevon

USA - 1025
FB - 876

Word of the Day

"A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government." - Edward Abbey

"There are only two things we should fight for. One is the defense of our homes and the other is the Bill of Rights." - Smedley Butler

"The primal principle of democracy is the worth and dignity of the individual." - Edward Bellamy

"Americans believe that if you know something, you should do something about it. " - John Le Carre




"I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them. I shall use my time." - Ian Fleming

USA - 1025
FB - 868

New Rule

When all is said and done, America's adventure in Iraq will be remembered for many precedents: most poorly executed, flimsiest excuse, greatest number of dollars lost, stolen or unaccounted for, etc. etc. Ultimately though, I think the war in Iraq will be remembered most for being the first war to be planned and instigated entirely by men who were demonstrably cowards. Pick a war, any war - from Kosovo to Carthage - you won't find a war council so thoroughly devoid of combat experience as the one who took us into Iraq. AWOL George, Five-Deferments Cheney, Wolfowitz, Perle, even ol' blood-n-guts Donny Rumsfeld... none of them ever bore witness to so much as a single shot fired in anger.

New Rule: No President shall be allowed to declare war unless they goddam well fought in one.

The Busiest Driving Day of the Year

People Who Get It.


Paint up a bunch of signs, go for a drive and hang 'em. It's a lovely way to spend a morning, and by the end of the day a couple hundred thousand people get to see what you think.




"Action expresses priorities." - Mohandas Gandhi

USA - 1025
FB - 856

More SF Bay Area

"A free America... means just this: individual freedom for all, rich or poor, or else this system of government we call democracy is only an expedient to enslave man to the machine and make him like it." - Frank Lloyd Wright


"America wasn't founded so that we could all be better. America was founded so we could all be anything we damned well pleased." -P.J.O'Rourke

"All the problems we face in the United States today can be traced to an unenlightened immigration policy on the part of the American Indian." - Pat Paulson


"If you want to make God laugh, tell him about your plans." - Woody Allen

USA - 1014
FB - 856

Ann Arbor and Friends

USA - 1014
FB - 848

Bay Area Yesterday

Photos from Freewayblogger.
Lyrics by Leonard Cohen

"It's coming through a hole in the air,
from those nights in Tiananmen Square.
It's coming from the feel that this ain't exactly real,
or it's real but it's not exactly there...

From the wars against disorder,
from the sirens night and day,
from the fires of the homeless,
from the ashes of the gay...
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A."


"They sentenced me to twenty years of boredom
For trying to change the system from within.
I'm coming now, I'm coming to reward them...
First, we take Manhattan,
then we take Berlin.

I'm guided by a signal in the heavens.
I'm guided by this birthmark on my skin.
I'm guided by the beauty of our weapons...
First we take Manhattan, then we take Berlin."

USA - 1004
FB - 848