the news from the
(ivica)
"A raven, having learned by rote the single word
'Nevermore',
and having escaped from the custody of its
owner,
is driven at
to seek admission at a window from which a light still gleams...."
(Edgar Allan Poe)
In Vacatown,
you can speak any language you want. The present mayor (Mr. Ciccone)
had hired a special clerk for any language group that had over 5% of the
citizens in the latest census---so that the Citizens can now be told off in the
circular language of their choice (the almighty census providing). This
election-promise got him a lot of votes. I love to
watch a democracy in action; you never know what you're
going to get.
His next project, to keep
the Citizens occupied and NOT thinking about their rising property taxes,
targeted the Provincial Lotteries. I suggested to him that he was staking out a
mighty high moral ground here. But
he ignored me when he didn't hear what he wanted to hear. He's
different from most petty politicians, so I keep showing up at his press
conferences.
His father was a newspaper-man. I understand people who grab one single line
of attack or argument or food. You can always, at least,
count on them. Ciccone came into office with
half a house paid for and some honesty. I have a feeling that he'll leave with the same two assets. Not
more. Not less.
They have a new Lottery just
for weekend gambling-addicts. It's a scratch-and-win
card. The proceeds (minus a government cut and a bureaucratic
cut and an advertising cut and a retailing cut) go to a charity that
only comforts weekend gambling-addicts. Nietzsche says that the most common lie
is the one we tell ourselves (not the one we tell other people).
"Ich sehe
nix. Ich weiss nix."
(Sergeant Schultz)
In old
The mayors and their boys
were completely crooked and, by sharing a little with the Citizens, plenty more people were happy and corrupted. The honest (smart)
Citizens kept quiet and went about their business. The system worked and it
worked well. (As long as the fish kept biting....) But then, some high hat usually comes along to start
pointing the finger. Some people just don't like democracies.A vote is a vote, no matter how you count it. A
buck is a buck. A win is a win.
"The
whole thing is too disgusting for words...."
(Groucho Marx)
"I shall go back again to the bleak shore
And build a little shanty on the sand...."
(Edna St.Vincent Millay)
I dropped in on a neighbourhood church. I asked a parent with a two-year-old
child. I asked a local athlete-hero bound for the Olympics. I even asked a
scarlet Mounted Policeman with his "For Sale" sign ("But it's
for a good cause!"). I asked an up-and-down crook by the name of Johnny
Shinto. I even got desperate and asked a passing high school geography teacher.
I asked Alice and Celia, the Tag-Team Twins from Gateau. Once they cleaned "that" town up, there was nothing---I mean NOTHING---left. I confronted Uncle Charlie and he said, "How come they don't deliver beer like in the old days? I mean right to your front door and everything. If this is progress and computers, your generation can go take a...."
Some call him
"Five-card" Charlie. Uncle Charlie (Go "Leaves" Go!) told
me once, "Honesty in advertising is one of the ten signposts of
civilization." (Another is a one-price-no-haggle policy, but I could never
agree with that.) He would, at this point, hold his
palms up high with their radiating fingers. How come
the lotteries don't tell me every day about the million sad losers (drenched in
disappointment), but they tell me about the one winner (jumping for the moon he
now owns)? (And how come this is tax-free when other
countries tax it quite happily? (Who would complain? Not all
the losers!))
But let some poor store not have enough
tuna in stock at their advertised price and the full mighty power of various
levels of government will swoop down to administer God's Justice concerning
"Truth in Advertising". And how come all
these foreign companies here in the
How come
when crooks do
it, it's a crime against humanity, but when the government does it, the same
crime is now NOT...? They might as well go whole hog and get into drugs,
prostitution, thieving, bribes, booze, cigarettes, weapons, and protection
money. Or as Ciconne says:
"They already have." (He pronounces it in the English way to rhyme
with Marconi.)
bye-bye, ivica-buying-low-and-selling-high
(The
unemployed crooks and gangs will now have to fill the gap and keep busy by feeding the poor, treating the sick, sheltering
the homeless, laughing at politicians, playing amateur
sports, running with children, et cetera.)
[PAR.DUO
PARIA.TRIPLEX.SPATIUM.FLUXUS.DOMUS
PLENA.QUADRUPLEX.FLUXUS SPATII.FLUXUS
REGNI]
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