JUNE
25, 2006 --
LPR
hopes …
… that the distant media does not assume "Frontline Plus" is
a new
PBS series committed to bashing Bush brazenly. It is an application to protect
dogs from fleas, ticks and lice.
LPR is concerned …
… that
one day there will be no more parking violations in New York City.
(No, not because cars will be banned -- because all meters are fed,
alternate
side rules are obeyed, no one double parks, and so forth.) What will the city
then do to keep the Parking Violations Bureau a revenue raising arm of the
Department of Finance -- make it the Parking and Pedestrian Violations Bureau?
Crack down on consumers of "fast food?" (There actually is a councilman
who proposes a city campaign against fast food.) Put toll booths on sidewalks?
LPR would note...
… that the northeast has had abundant rainfall the past month (with super-abundant
rain in the Houston area,
recently). Perhaps, this summer, we will be spared media alarms of a water
shortage crisis. LPR reiterates its past concern that Iran (joined by North
Korea?) has built a Weather Manipulation Device (WMD), not nuclear weapons.
LPR presents this Freedom of Information request of the Bush Administration:
do
satellite photos indicate an unusual and massive buildup of arks in Iran and
North Korea? (LPR would not dismiss the possibility that the Iran-North Korea
WMD, as described here, and not U.S. cars, is also responsible for Al Gore's
global-warming gloom.
LPR calls on the Treasury Secretary …
… to require every bank that pummels its credit cardholders with oppressive
late fees and penalties to change its name
to "The Henry F. Potter National Bank of [fill in name of applicable state
or locality]." Mr. Potter was the villainous banker in Frank Capra's movie "It's
a
Wonderful Life," who,regarding people as "rabble," took advantage
of them--including embezzling $8,000 from George Bailey's Uncle Billy who intended
to deposit that amount in the Potter bank.
If we can't get banks to restore humane business practices, at the very least
we can have them comply with truth-in-lending rules and there is so much truth
in
putting the fictional name of "Henry F. Potter" on banks that squeeze
customers with oppressive interest rates and late charges.
LPR bears in mind …
… that in in the Capra movie, George Bailey urged people to work together.
Nowadays, it seems people are encouraged to turn to government, not to each other
-- an approach that does not seem to instill a sense of personal responsibility
as the mark of a good citizen.
The Capra view is consistent with the vision of the Founding Fathers that the
People, not Government, are sovereign in the United States of America. (LPR
also notes that the Constitution does not require that the President be a member
of the Republican Party or the Democratic Party, nor have the surname of Bush,
Clinton or Kennedy -- not even Washington or Adams or Jefferson.)
LPR salutes …
… Cleveland Municipal Court Judge Robert J. Triozzi for dismissing a breach
of contract action brought by Discover Card against a cardholder, declaring the
sums Discover sought to recover from the cardholder -- far, far in excess of
the original debt -- "unconscionable."
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LPR
has a hunch …
… that people demanding we release the Guantanamo detainees do not believe
we are in a war against terrorism. In war, POWs are, generally, not released
until hostilities have concluded. Should President Roosevelt have ordered the
release of German troops under the command of Adolf Hitler who were taken
prisoner in combat? The Great Escape, a World War II movie about airmen held
in a Luftwaffe camp, was not a film about habeas corpus claims demanding that
Herman Goring release downed pilots.
LPR has another hunch that if the media
thought we were in war, it would be less likely to use the euphemism :"insurgents" as
the name for atrocity-committing jihadists.
(LPR must also note that the anti-Bush media gives, at best, passing mention
of our enemy's atrocities and then goes back to Abu Ghreib. Was anyone beheaded
at Abu Ghreib?)
LPR recalls another movie …
… Command Decision, starring Clark Gable, that showed in a bad light congressmen
who meddled in military
operations. But, of course, that was a war movie.
LPR wishes …
… a happy midyear to all. If it's July, the November elections are just
four months away. LPR appeals to the Founding Fathers in heaven above to help
us get
leaders to represent the people, not rule them and who will recognize that
populism is what you gave us, to rid us of government that was of the insiders,
by the insiders and for the insiders for the purpose of achieving the "ambitious
sacrifice of the many to the aggrandizement of the few."
LPR still believes …
… the
country would benefit from an Aggrandizers Anonymous program
-- kind of a sensitivity program for officials, business people
and others who regard the "common good" as a function
of their very substantial wealth and success.
LPR thanks …
… the people who have given this website 150,000 clicks since its first
appearance, December 2003, and some 106,000 visits since last June. (LPR prefers
to believe that that 95% of the visits are not robotic.)
And, LPR also thanks …
… Terri Fassio, its webmaster, for her super work organizing and laying
out the LPR copy and photos, making it possible for LPR to have life on the internet.
LPR reminds clicksters …
… the Connecticut Agriculture Fair, with Terri as Entertainment Coordinator
and Todd Gelineau, Fair President (and designer of the LPR logos), is just a
month away. The fair is held on the
Goshen CT fairgrounds, July 28-30. For more information, please click the LPR
link to the fair.
Please click the LPR link …
… to
the Pamphleteer, which is filled with insight, humor and leads
to other thought-provoking websites. Pamphleteer has been keeping
track of losses in Iraq -- of Iraqis killed by other Iraqis.
LPR has not
seen, or heard mention of, this statistic in our distant media.
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