Ann Arbor Art Fair and the Iraqi War
It’s here folks…the Ann Arbor Art Fair, and it comes to make my life a living hell.
Seriously, the person who decided that shutting down an entire city so that people can talk themselves into spending 140 bucks on a sculpture of a stapler made entirely out of staples should be shot in the face. This has to be, hands-down, the most miserable thing about living in Ann Arbor.
A quick review of why the art fair sucks.
1. You cannot get anywhere: The streets are all closed, so making it to any destination by car requires a sectant and sherpa guides, and inevitably sherpa guides get entranced by some crazy sculpture they think looks like Raguguanda the Hindi God of Small Birds (it’s real, look it up) and so they jump out of the car, and get injured and then you have to drive them to the hospital but they don’t have any health coverage, so now you’re forking over cash, and the stupid sherpas keep praying to the damn sculpture that they made you spend 260 dollars on before they’d let you take them to the hospital, and it doesn’t even look like Raguguanda, I mean the colors all wrong. I mean, how many times has that happened to you? Right, none, and that’s why the art fair sucks…no sherpa guides.
2. If you can get someplace, it’s too damn busy: Every restaurant in the city starts looking like New Delhi in the afternoon…except without sherpas. It’s 20 minutes to get a table and another six hours for food. Plus the stores are all running out of basic commodities, and there’s no parking on any of the streets.
3. Hippies. God how I hate hippies. And while usually a vocal minority on campus, during the art fair they come out in droves. Smelling bad, and insisting that you take their pamphlets on ending the devastation to the rain forest, hippies are the bane of my existence.
Speaking of hippies, they’ve put up an exhibit right in the middle of campus, made entirely of shoes, one pair to commemorate each civilian/soldier who has died in the Iraqi war. This is to draw attention to the fact that the war has caused a lot of death. Which I for one, was totally unaware of. Thank God for that exhibit, because I was 100% behind the war, but I just assumed we were using paintball guns.
Are a lot of people out their unaware that WAR = DEATH? Is that not commonly known? Look, I realize that part of it is to honor the memories of those lost, and I appreciate that thought, but a lot of seems like more ridiculous liberal whining. If you’re against the war attack the reasons we went to war, don’t just point out that a lot of people died, of course a lot of people have died, it’s a freaking war. A lot of people died in WWII, but it was probably worth it.
I don’t know exactly where I come down on this war, but I know that sometimes hard decisions have to be made. Some things are worth dying for and some things are worth killing for. Was the liberation of Iraq and the elimination of Saddam one of them? I’m not sure. Although what bothers me most about this war has always been that Bush didn’t just stand on top of a table at the UN from the get go and say “Look, if you care so much about World Peace and freedom from tyranny than you better get in line to go whup Saddam’s ass. He’s a psychotic dictator who has killed thousands, jailed thousands more, oppressed his people, abused their rights, and has used chemical weapons in the past. We’re going to go blow his ass back to the stone age, and I don’t really need a better reason than him being a really really bad guy.” I’d have stood up and applauded, and maybe even enlisted after a speech like that, but no, we danced around and came up with a lot of bullshit, and then went in with crappy reasons.
Here’s my problem with liberals’ ideas on foreign policy. My liberal friends all complain about how the horrific conditions around the world, about the starvation, and poverty, and oppression, and disease, and that we need to start doing something about it. Which I couldn’t agree with more. But guess what? You can’t fix the world with good intentions. In fact most of those problems stem from corrupt dictatorial governments or ethnic civil wars. And you can’t solve those two things with food, or money, or all the volunteer services in the world. Sometimes an army is the only thing that solves the problem. But any time anyone suggests using military force, liberals go off the deep end over “policing the world”.
I’m not saying we should start using the army to solve every problem abroad, and I’m not saying it’s ever a particularly good solution, but sometimes it is the only solution. Anyone who says violence never solved anything doesn’t study much history.
So…how about that art fair huh? At what age to men decide to just start wearing black socks all the time? Was that normal in the 50s or something?
(originally written July 20th)
Seriously, the person who decided that shutting down an entire city so that people can talk themselves into spending 140 bucks on a sculpture of a stapler made entirely out of staples should be shot in the face. This has to be, hands-down, the most miserable thing about living in Ann Arbor.
A quick review of why the art fair sucks.
1. You cannot get anywhere: The streets are all closed, so making it to any destination by car requires a sectant and sherpa guides, and inevitably sherpa guides get entranced by some crazy sculpture they think looks like Raguguanda the Hindi God of Small Birds (it’s real, look it up) and so they jump out of the car, and get injured and then you have to drive them to the hospital but they don’t have any health coverage, so now you’re forking over cash, and the stupid sherpas keep praying to the damn sculpture that they made you spend 260 dollars on before they’d let you take them to the hospital, and it doesn’t even look like Raguguanda, I mean the colors all wrong. I mean, how many times has that happened to you? Right, none, and that’s why the art fair sucks…no sherpa guides.
2. If you can get someplace, it’s too damn busy: Every restaurant in the city starts looking like New Delhi in the afternoon…except without sherpas. It’s 20 minutes to get a table and another six hours for food. Plus the stores are all running out of basic commodities, and there’s no parking on any of the streets.
3. Hippies. God how I hate hippies. And while usually a vocal minority on campus, during the art fair they come out in droves. Smelling bad, and insisting that you take their pamphlets on ending the devastation to the rain forest, hippies are the bane of my existence.
Speaking of hippies, they’ve put up an exhibit right in the middle of campus, made entirely of shoes, one pair to commemorate each civilian/soldier who has died in the Iraqi war. This is to draw attention to the fact that the war has caused a lot of death. Which I for one, was totally unaware of. Thank God for that exhibit, because I was 100% behind the war, but I just assumed we were using paintball guns.
Are a lot of people out their unaware that WAR = DEATH? Is that not commonly known? Look, I realize that part of it is to honor the memories of those lost, and I appreciate that thought, but a lot of seems like more ridiculous liberal whining. If you’re against the war attack the reasons we went to war, don’t just point out that a lot of people died, of course a lot of people have died, it’s a freaking war. A lot of people died in WWII, but it was probably worth it.
I don’t know exactly where I come down on this war, but I know that sometimes hard decisions have to be made. Some things are worth dying for and some things are worth killing for. Was the liberation of Iraq and the elimination of Saddam one of them? I’m not sure. Although what bothers me most about this war has always been that Bush didn’t just stand on top of a table at the UN from the get go and say “Look, if you care so much about World Peace and freedom from tyranny than you better get in line to go whup Saddam’s ass. He’s a psychotic dictator who has killed thousands, jailed thousands more, oppressed his people, abused their rights, and has used chemical weapons in the past. We’re going to go blow his ass back to the stone age, and I don’t really need a better reason than him being a really really bad guy.” I’d have stood up and applauded, and maybe even enlisted after a speech like that, but no, we danced around and came up with a lot of bullshit, and then went in with crappy reasons.
Here’s my problem with liberals’ ideas on foreign policy. My liberal friends all complain about how the horrific conditions around the world, about the starvation, and poverty, and oppression, and disease, and that we need to start doing something about it. Which I couldn’t agree with more. But guess what? You can’t fix the world with good intentions. In fact most of those problems stem from corrupt dictatorial governments or ethnic civil wars. And you can’t solve those two things with food, or money, or all the volunteer services in the world. Sometimes an army is the only thing that solves the problem. But any time anyone suggests using military force, liberals go off the deep end over “policing the world”.
I’m not saying we should start using the army to solve every problem abroad, and I’m not saying it’s ever a particularly good solution, but sometimes it is the only solution. Anyone who says violence never solved anything doesn’t study much history.
So…how about that art fair huh? At what age to men decide to just start wearing black socks all the time? Was that normal in the 50s or something?
(originally written July 20th)
posted by drs at 5:29 PM
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