SOMEWHERE IN TEXAS A VILLAGE IS MISSING ITS IDIOT

“Did you see this in the Common Dreams site?” Raven is making sounds which he thinks pass for chuckling, but which sound more like the horselaugh to me.

***”This was Sydney, in all its wonderful diversity and stripes. Right in front of an elderly and well-heeled group carrying a banner saying North Shore Against the War was a group of young Iraqi-Australians with a flag, and in front them some students with the banner "Somewhere in Texas, a Village Is Missing Its Idiot". (Published Thursday, Feb. 20, 2003 by the Sydney Morning Herald (Australia)”***

I assume they mean Midland, Texas, Rave.

“Quite the geographer, aren’t you. Did you just pull that name out of a hat?”

Not exactly. I have a friend in Santa Fe who is from the same oiltown in Texas as Baby Bush. Midland.

“Sounds suspiciously like Middle Earth to me....”

You a Tolkien fan, Rave? I know you can’t be talking about movies, as there are no cinemas anywhere near here and I have no tv and vcr. Or have you been peeking in other people’s windows?

Raven gives me a look that would fry eggs. “Look, one of the few benefits of being a bird is that you can look into people’s houses and nobody thinks anything about it. You would not believe what some people get up to....”

That’s diversity, Rave. As a progressive, you should be championing their right to get up to whatever they want in the privacy of their own homes.

“Don’t stuff me into the fascist barrel with Bush and his buddies. Since you won’t buy a tv watching the antics of other species is the only mindless entertainment I have access to.” Raven returns to reading aloud from Common Dreams:

***”We believe that of all the lessons the tragedy of September 11 demonstrated, the most salient is that just one person with enough white-hot hate in him can become a weapon of mass destruction all on his own.”***

A little context, please, Rave. Whom are they talking about: Osama Bin Laden or Bush?

“Osama Bin Laden probably had less to do with 9/11 than Bush did. It’s obvious that Bush is a weapon of mass destruction. Listen to this:

***”We finally believe that of all the wars and potential wars of our time, the distinguishing feature of this one is that it is driven by political leadership with little backing from their populations. And in New York, London, Barcelona, Paris, Rome, Melbourne, Adelaide and Armidale last weekend, a large tranche of those populations had the will to say, "NO! Stop this madness, now, while there is still time." And our only hope now is that there really is still time.”***

“Right on!” Raven shoots his wings skyward.

Tolkien? Right on? Rave, you’re looking a little tie-dyed around the edges.

“I am a bird for all seasons....”