ZoNotes: I Thought By Now, You'd Realize, There Ain't No Way to Hide Those Lyin' Eyes...
On a tangential note, the NFL has mastered the marketing realm of major sports, leaving its capricious baseball and basketball bretheren to waste. The League's decision to open the 2002 season on a Thursday night not only makes the opening weekend a bit longer, but it makes it an event, complete with wall-to-wall coverage of Bon Jovi. He'll be there for you tonight on ESPN when the 49ers take on the New York Giants. For all of you fans, you're halfway there, living on a prayer of a new season. Hopefully this game will meet the hype being generated, and that it ends in a valiant blaze of glory. However, the game to watch will be the Cowboys, on the steel horse they ride when they play Houston on 8 September at Reliant Stadium, where the envious Texans want the 'Boys dead or alive.
Lines of Departure
President Bush's decision to contact the congressional leadership to get "permission" to launch military operations against Iraq designed to remove Saddam Hussein doesn't exactly represent the "beginning" of the process. Instead, I see that we are somewhere between a third and halfway through the timeline between opting to strike Iraq and then justifying it to the domestic leadership. Naturally, Congress should play a role, but essentially the Bush Administration used the summer to build a case absent any organized opposition by those hoping to avoid military action.
I doubt that Congress would deny Bush the authority to extend the mandate of the 1991 resolution that gave George H.W. Bush the "green light" to go into Iraq. And if it did deny it, especially before the November elections, then incumbents of both parties could face the electoral dissatisfaction of the voters.
As for trying to bring in the French, Russians, and Chinese, I assert that their support or opposition does not particularly matter at this juncture. These countries' consistent and enduring opposition to American leadership roles in the world is nothing new. Indeed, especially in the case of Russia, resorting to the Security Council veto could prove catastrophic for President Vladimir Putin's vision of a more equitable relationship between Moscow and the West. Even Russia's recent economic deal with Baghdad is fungible -- given the hard choice between hard western trade opportunities and a one-sided "deal" with an Iraqi regime that is already steep in debt, I think that Moscow will abstain from a Sec. Council resolution on the use of force.
They're Not All Like This, Right?
Last night as I slowly descended into sleep, I caught clips of ABC's documentary that takes us across the country to display tenets of American life. Boulder, CO is a beautiful town from what I gather, a mountain oasis that is the home of the University of Colorado and, incidentally, the happily married ZoNoting pair of Livy and Sharlene Keithley (C'98 and C'00). The documentary focused on Fairfiew HS and its production of the notoriously infamous 1960s protest play, Hair. One impetuous child uttered that all of Boulder should be dropped in a 3rd World country to see how it was on the outside. Look, suburbia may seem like a minium security prison for those looking to see "how it really is," but trust me, these bubble-gum poppers don't want to know what it really is "out there." These kids' ex-hippie parents may look upon the 1960s as a golden era, but even they grew up! They drive BMWs and pay their mortgages. Boulder is a fine place, full of fine people (political leanings notwithstanding). It is a fine place in part because of its affluence and peacefulness.
There is absoultely nothing wrong with the comforts of modern America, and the protest value of this interpretation of Hair itself is a hollow facade. The play itself has been watered down, and rightly so, given the, ahem, bare performance that marks the end of the show. The 1960s were not a sentimental era, and the very reason that the flower children could smoke weed, burn their bras and draft cards and have free love was because thousands of men were dying in Vietnam and holding the line in central Europe. Do you think Woodstock could have taken place in 1969 Havana or Moscow?
Wordplay
"Living in glass houses won't stop pundits from throwing stones."
On a tangential note, the NFL has mastered the marketing realm of major sports, leaving its capricious baseball and basketball bretheren to waste. The League's decision to open the 2002 season on a Thursday night not only makes the opening weekend a bit longer, but it makes it an event, complete with wall-to-wall coverage of Bon Jovi. He'll be there for you tonight on ESPN when the 49ers take on the New York Giants. For all of you fans, you're halfway there, living on a prayer of a new season. Hopefully this game will meet the hype being generated, and that it ends in a valiant blaze of glory. However, the game to watch will be the Cowboys, on the steel horse they ride when they play Houston on 8 September at Reliant Stadium, where the envious Texans want the 'Boys dead or alive.
Lines of Departure
President Bush's decision to contact the congressional leadership to get "permission" to launch military operations against Iraq designed to remove Saddam Hussein doesn't exactly represent the "beginning" of the process. Instead, I see that we are somewhere between a third and halfway through the timeline between opting to strike Iraq and then justifying it to the domestic leadership. Naturally, Congress should play a role, but essentially the Bush Administration used the summer to build a case absent any organized opposition by those hoping to avoid military action.
I doubt that Congress would deny Bush the authority to extend the mandate of the 1991 resolution that gave George H.W. Bush the "green light" to go into Iraq. And if it did deny it, especially before the November elections, then incumbents of both parties could face the electoral dissatisfaction of the voters.
As for trying to bring in the French, Russians, and Chinese, I assert that their support or opposition does not particularly matter at this juncture. These countries' consistent and enduring opposition to American leadership roles in the world is nothing new. Indeed, especially in the case of Russia, resorting to the Security Council veto could prove catastrophic for President Vladimir Putin's vision of a more equitable relationship between Moscow and the West. Even Russia's recent economic deal with Baghdad is fungible -- given the hard choice between hard western trade opportunities and a one-sided "deal" with an Iraqi regime that is already steep in debt, I think that Moscow will abstain from a Sec. Council resolution on the use of force.
They're Not All Like This, Right?
Last night as I slowly descended into sleep, I caught clips of ABC's documentary that takes us across the country to display tenets of American life. Boulder, CO is a beautiful town from what I gather, a mountain oasis that is the home of the University of Colorado and, incidentally, the happily married ZoNoting pair of Livy and Sharlene Keithley (C'98 and C'00). The documentary focused on Fairfiew HS and its production of the notoriously infamous 1960s protest play, Hair. One impetuous child uttered that all of Boulder should be dropped in a 3rd World country to see how it was on the outside. Look, suburbia may seem like a minium security prison for those looking to see "how it really is," but trust me, these bubble-gum poppers don't want to know what it really is "out there." These kids' ex-hippie parents may look upon the 1960s as a golden era, but even they grew up! They drive BMWs and pay their mortgages. Boulder is a fine place, full of fine people (political leanings notwithstanding). It is a fine place in part because of its affluence and peacefulness.
There is absoultely nothing wrong with the comforts of modern America, and the protest value of this interpretation of Hair itself is a hollow facade. The play itself has been watered down, and rightly so, given the, ahem, bare performance that marks the end of the show. The 1960s were not a sentimental era, and the very reason that the flower children could smoke weed, burn their bras and draft cards and have free love was because thousands of men were dying in Vietnam and holding the line in central Europe. Do you think Woodstock could have taken place in 1969 Havana or Moscow?
Wordplay
"Living in glass houses won't stop pundits from throwing stones."
posted by Lorenzo at
9:46 AM
