Short Cuts

Monday, February 17, 2003

First Wacko Jacko, Now Meshugganeh Mike: Surfing the web for information that doesn't mention the war, the frogs or demented appeasement marchers, we discovered that Mike Tyson, like Michael Jackson has gotten into self mutilation. Tyson has tattooed the whole side of his face with what appears to be the numeral 3 running from his ear to his jaw. His manager says it's an African scroll and tribal. We wonder which tribe.

What's A Shield to Do? The few dozen human shields who arrived in Baghdad last week seem bored out of their skulls. If they want to get shot at, blown up, flattened or captured they have to hang for at least two weeks. That's a long time to mill around with no drugs, wine, Laundromat or granola. The Guardian reports their lot with little sympathy. We have even less.

Class Act: The Mayor of Rome, Walter Veltroni, refused to meet with Saddam's mouthpiece Tareq Aziz to protest Aziz's refusing to answer two Israeli correspondents' questions at a Rome press conference Friday. Undaunted, Aziz tootled off to pray at the shrine of St. Francis of Assisi. Odd that he would choose the patron saint of animals. While he was there several of his boss's supporters back in New York punched a police horse in the face and dragged it to the ground with its reins.

Mental Midget Marchers: The sheer mindlessness of the demonstrations across the country this weekend was breathtaking. While the shrinks sort out what those people were really in the streets for (anger at daddy, cruising for chicks, lost hippiness or scoring drugs) Rod Dreher over the National Review Online's always sprightly water-cooler blog, The Corner, points to two signs he saw in the New York crowd. A child whose parents hung a poster around her neck that read: MORE CANDY AND ICE CREAM/LESS WAR AND BIGOTRY. He also saw this slogan on a poster: THE IRAQI PEOPLE NEED OUR LOVE, NOT OUR BOMBS. For an even fuller picture of antiwar behavior check the four hours of intelligent disagreement in San Francisco carried out by what the Chronicle calls "a splinter group."

LDotter Note: Your East coast staffers are cozily snowed in with our computers, office cat, gallons of coffee and a 24 hour Chinese restaurant right across the street. Now that we've written "Stay Away Terrorists" with duct tape on our windows we feel completely safe.

-Your Here For You LComStaff