The Boy King visits London:

“Beware the leader who bangs the drums of war in order to whip the citizenry into a patriotic fervor, for patriotism is indeed a double-edged sword. It both emboldens the blood, just as it narrows the mind. And when the drums of war reached a fever pitch and the blood boils with hate and the mind has ‘closed’, the leader will have no need in seizing the rights of the citizenry. Rather, the citizenry, infused with fear and blinded by patriotism, will offer up all their rights unto the leader and gladly so. How do I know? For this is what I have done. AND I AM CAESAR.”

–Julius Caesar

The abuse of American citizens at the hands of the Gestapo airport security agents is a continuing theme here at the Event Horizon. This time it’s noted food author and TV chef Alton Brown who had his lethal omelet pan legally stolen by a thug with a badge.

What can I say but good riddance.

I was raised on East-coast USA politics, a mixture of bought-and-paid for politicians and old-school political machines. I’ve lived in Chicago, so I’ve seen how professionals do it. I currently live in California, where politics in general is mostly a joke, filled with fools and dilettantes. But you gotta love Texas politics; there’s nothing else like it.

Yesterday’s Salon has an interesting interview with retired US Army four-star general Wesley Clark. They also openly discuss his potential as a US presidential candidate, a very, ahhh, “interesting” idea.

If you’re not a Salon member, they often have a free day pass, in which you watch a brief commercial and they give you free access for a day. (Yes, I agree, that makes no sense, but this is not the time or place for yet another rant about Salon’s goofy business model and how badly they’re hemorrhaging money. Oops, I did it again, didn’t I?)

If you read my entry of 22 December, here’s a look at what happens when it goes the other way. Too bad you have to be a famous comedian to get this reaction.

I’m getting tired of saying it, but we have the government we deserve. The problem is, I’m not sure I believe any longer that it’s possible to change it.

There are plenty of stories like this these days. I don’t know how many I’ve read where the writer describes some breach of civil liberties by employees of the state, then wraps it all up with a dire warning about what we as a nation are becoming, and how if we don’t put an end to it now, then we’re in for heaps of trouble. Well you know what? Nothing’s going to stop the inevitable. There’s no policy change that’s going to save us. There’s no election that’s going to put a halt to the onslaught of tyranny. It’s here already– this country has changed for the worse and will continue to change for the worse. There is now a division between the citizenry and the state. When that state is used as a tool against me, there is no longer any reason why I should owe any allegiance to that state.

And that’s the first thing that child of ours is going to learn.

And this is in Portland, once a bastion of citizens’ and states’ rights.

Yet another example of the monumental incompetence of the US Immigration and Naturalization Service.

It shows my shortfalls as a writer that I cannot find the words to express how I feel about this.

(Update: the article has scrolled off the Post, but Googling for “Deena Gilbey” finds the story.