Headphones On

Well maybe on most days in Chicago yes, but today the city is far from crowded. On one of the most beautiful days of the year we're facing ghost town conditions on the streets of the loop. I'm guessing the neighborhoods are not nearly as empty as our central business district. With the low numbers of workers comes the realization that it's "Independence Day" weekend. Beyond running that damn movie all weekend on some ridiculous telly station it means "us" Americans generally crowd around BBQs and frolic joyfully about kicking those silly redcoats out of the east coast many years ago. Oh, and fireworks. Personally, I've never given a damn for this holiday. I like that it falls in the middle of summer and believe you me, I'll take the day off work, but it's not something that I have ever felt strongly about.

I'm not anti-American, even tho I have been accused of such in the past. I appreciate the ideals this country was founded on, and those ideals I do celebrate. I just don't see those ideals reflected around us on a daily basis. Democracy sounds good in history texts but in reality it rarely even shows up in the newspaper. I'm not going to be glib. There are places in the world that have it FAR WORSE than we do in the U.S.A. I do appreciate that but I still feel like most of our 'democratic principles' are lip service. I leave you for the weekend with this glorious stand up routine from David Cross...

"and I vowed I would retain that image every time I heard George Bush say 'The Terrorists Hate Our Freedom'.
You know what? I hate our freedom. Me, little old me, I'm an American. I f#cking hate it. That's all we've done with it? We're f#cking assholes man. We are awful. Aww man.
(in whispery George Bush voice) 'The terrorists hate our freedom. The terrorists hate liberty. They hate freedom. They're freedom haters. We're freedom lovers. Shh. Don't tell anybody.'
He's always like whispering that..
(in bush whisper) 'We're freedom lovers. They're freedom haters. Don't tell Canada.'
And seriously if the terrorists hated freedom, then the Netherlands would be f#cking dust. As would Denmark and Sweden and Switzerland and New Zealand and Canada and every other country that's truly freer than we are. It's true.
And uh. I don't think Osama Bin Laden sent those planes into attack us because he hated our freedom. I think he did it because of our support for Israel and our ties the with Saudi family and all our military bases in Saudi Arabia. You know why I think that? Because that's what he f#cking said!
Are we a nation of six-year-olds? Answer? yes. God damn it.
(in childlike voice) 'Why did the bad man put the plane in the building?'
(in bush whisper) 'Cos he hated freedom'
(childlike) 'Oh cos I went to the Nexus-Lexus database and there's over 1400 articles that actually explain why...'
(in bush whisper) 'Shhh... he hated freedom. Have a cookie.'