Un-Inspected
Posted on August 9, 2004 at 9:19 am | No Comments
Coming down from a somehow relaxing yet simultaneously productive weekend… feel like I’m finally back to ‘normal’, whatever the hell that is. My to-do list is seriously shorter, the figurative weight on my brain a bit lighter, feel like I can slow down and damn well deserve it.
In this mindframe I drove to work this morning, sunny skies over Boston, low humidity, a fresh start to a short work week (Vermont vacation imminent!). I hop on the Mass Pike for the one-exit trip to the Back Bay, join the processional through the EZ-Pass lane, where I notice a lone standing policeman staring at each car as it passes by. Guessing he’s watching for too-fast fast-laners, I figure I’m in the clear…
… until I hear him yell “Pull over!” as he points right at me. My heart crashes into my adam’s apple. Aw crap!
I ease over to the side of the pike entrance, turn down WEEI, mind racing as the approaching cop gets larger in my rearview. Why do I get so damn nervous even when I know I’ve done nothing wrong? ‘Cuz maybe I have?
“License and registration please.” Aw jeez… do I have my license? Whew, it’s here in my pocket. Registration? Uh oh. The one in the glove box is expired. Wait, I had a new one, didn’t I? Oh, I put it in my backpack to remember to put it in the glovebox. Grab my bag out of the backseat, and as I do, I accidentally bump on the windshield wipers and turn on my brights. What a freak. I empty my backpack into the passenger seat and find the registration.
“So, do you know why I stopped you?”
“No, I don’t…”
“Your car inspection is expired.”
I look to the sticker on my windshield and it’s got a big “7” on it. July. What month is it again? Oh, right…
… and it’s deja-vu all over again. One year ago I got pulled over not a half mile from this tollbooth for a late inspection, thankfully given a warning, just as I was this morning. And I was as clueless then as I was today. You’d think I’d learn a lesson. Maybe next year?
He must be butter …
Posted on August 6, 2004 at 2:44 pm | No Comments
… ‘cuz he’s on a roll.
In addition to our appointed leader’s inadvertant speaking of the actual truth yesterday, in which he said…
“Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we.”
… we’ve got another classic hot on it’s heels. Check out Bush’s response to a question posed to him by Mark Trahant from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, at the UNITY: Journalists of Color Convention this morning, regarding the sovereignty of Native American tribes …
Q: Most school kids learn about the government in the context of city, county, state and federal. And, of course, tribal governments are not part of that at all. Mr. President, you’ve been a governor and a President, so you have a unique experience, looking at it from two directions. What do you think tribal sovereignty means in the 21st century, and how do we resolve conflicts between tribes and the federal and the state governments?
THE PRESIDENT: Tribal sovereignty means that, it’s sovereign. You’re a — you’ve been given sovereignty, and you’re viewed as a sovereign entity. And, therefore, the relationship between the federal government and tribes is one between sovereign entities.
Can’t you just hear him saying that? Realizing he doesn’t actually know what the word “sovereign” means, but fumbling his way through anyway? I honestly wish someone was making this stuff up. How many more days until the election, again?