I was driving to work this morning on 59 (inside the loop where it dips down and has bridges over the top) and found that someone had written in bright orange on the stonework overlooking the freeway messages like "No War!" and "No blood for oil!" and whatnot. I am generally sympathetic to these political positions, being unenthused about a war myself. But defacing a freeway so brand-spanking new they haven't finished building on it yet just pisses me off to no end. It is hard for me to be respected in asserting my position when I have these losers to be confused with all the time. And, do we have to soil our own bed just because we're not happy about something? Do they hate their own city so much? Find a legitimate form of communication.
No argument from me. San Francisco is all painted up also, as if we didn't have enough graffiti (sp). And I kind of like good spray-paintings, the artful stuff. But the anti-war painting is of the lowest possible quality.
We have to keep in mind that these people are desparate for attention. Having recently failed miserably in their attempts to rally against the proposed war (only 1 in 13,000 Houstonians attended), they are clearly frustrated. We have to remember that these people are very short-sighted and are prone to outrageous behavior. They offer no viable solutions to the problems abroad. They side with Saddam Hussein on issues such as human rights, tyranny, terror and abuse. Their message alone is not worthy of attention, so they must resort to crime. These people have no idea what goes into national security, economic security or foreign policy. These people are radical extremists, and they must be treated as such.
This angers me. I really like that new section of 59. It's one of the few nice looking stretches of freeway in the area. For those goons to paint on it is reprehensible. On a related note, I'm also pissed about the stupid idiots who spray paint "Tenshin" (sp?) all over this city. I think that's what they're writing, anyways, but it's kinda hard to make out all the letters. Does anybody know why they write that? What does that mean? I've seen that on the same stretch of 59, on the newly painted street lights on Montrose, and also on some buildings in Midtown and the edge of downtown.
I don't get your post. Are you pleased that they defaced our new stretch of freeway? I can't tell if you're being sarcastic or not. If you think this idea is furthering the peace movement, I think you're wrong. This type of behavior only serves to turn people off.
I heard on the radio that someone wrote "Ipeach Bush!!" You'd think they would spell it right if they are going through all the trouble.
I forgot to even go into that! The quality of the stuff is piss-poor. I would prefer ten times over if a local gang had tagged the place with the fat lettering and the incomprehensible symbols. They at least show some pride of workmanship. Whoever did these doesn't even have decent handwriting.
In my best Foghorn Leghorn voice: I say, I say, it's a joke, son. Spraypainting anything that isn't yours is pretty juvenille and it doesn't serve much of a purpose most of the time. I just thought the whole "the freeway is so beautiful" thing was kinda funny considering the 59 expansion actually required the cutting down of some gorgeous old oak trees. I do agree that the stretch of 59 in question is probably the best-looking in Houston. I wish they all looked like that.
The Anti-Warriors On the streets with the protesters. By Daniel J. Flynn Tens of thousands converged on the Mall in Washington, D.C. this weekend to protest the prospect of a U.S.-led war on Iraq. News reports of the event described the participants as a cross-section of America. A CNN report on the eve of the protest maintained, "throughout the ranks, today's peace activists are growing grayer and more moderate." In case you didn't get the message, an on-screen headline reading "not the usual suspects" accompanied a later CNN report on the demonstrators on Aaron Brown's NewsNight. After noting the radical presence at the demonstration, the Boston Globe reported, "a wide array of first-time protesters suggested that the antiwar movement is drawing from a broader base." Thanassis Cambanis, the writer of the piece, observed "quiet knots of families and older people" at the protest. While a small number of families, political moderates, and senior citizens salted the ranks of Saturday's march, a much-larger contingent escaped the notice of most journalists. Waving inflammatory signs, wearing scary costumes, and partaking in street theatre, the anti-American extremists who dominated the event were hard to miss. Yet, they were somehow overlooked in most of the press accounts of the protest. Reesa Rosenberg, a Muslim from New Jersey, came to the nation's capital bearing a sign that read "Bush Is the Real Terrorist." "When it comes down to it, it's all for oil and global domination," she believes. "It's almost like Hitler." Rosenberg contends that people in the U.S. government had advance knowledge of the 9/11 attacks. "Another thing about 9/11 — the United States is like a stuck-up little b****. They just do and take all of what they please. I mean, 9/11 was terrible, but it was the first terrorist attack on this country. It's like, 'oh, no!' Somebody broke the United States' nail, now the whole earth is going to blow up." Rosenberg was hardly a lone nut in comparing George Bush to Hitler or by conjuring up visions of an administration welcoming the 9/11 attacks. It didn't take too long to find marchers enthusiastically peddling stories of the Bush family financing the Third Reich, seeing the American government standing behind the terrorists, or contending that a cabal of oil barons runs U.S. foreign policy. Bush "definitely knew in advance," remarked John Bostrom, who traveled to the march from Staten Island. "It was like when Hitler burned down the Reichstag." Why would the Bush administration refuse to act on its prior knowledge of the terrorist attacks? "What they want to do, basically, is build a worldwide planetary death machine that's technology driven, computer run, and hooked up to satellites that cover every square inch of the globe, and allows them to target and eliminate anything they want to wherever they want to," maintained Bostrom. "This is their plan. It's black and white. That's what they've been calling for. That's their strategy and they're obsessed by it." "I saw 9/11 as the Reichstag," maintained Chris King. "I'll compare it to what Cassius did to Spartacus back in Rome. I'll compare it to the Lusitania, to the Maine. I'll do it, every single time." The bearded Vermonter suspects 9/11 "was allowed to happen." While protesters labeled 9/11 "a drop in the bucket" and compared it to breaking a nail, what did they see as a serious terrorist threat? A glance at the thousands of signs on the Mall revealed the answer. Placards read: "USA Is #1 Terrorist," "Bush Is a Terrorist," "The NYPD Are Terrorists Too," and "Get the Terrorists Out of the White House." A table display exhorting passersby to defend North Korea's right to nuclear weapons or an activist who cheered in vain for a policeman to fall off a fire-escape ladder 30-feet above a Pennsylvania Avenue restaurant were typical of the happenings at this weekend's rally cast aside by too many reporters covering the demonstration. Instead, the media treated viewers and readers to a sanitized version of the action, which depicted protesters as patriots acting in the American tradition of dissent. Harmless old ladies, middle-American Republicans, and well-dressed students, and not someone like Reesa Rosenberg, were the folks shown on television or quoted in the newspaper. And as for Ms. Rosenberg, the Garden State Muslim who believes the U.S. government let 9/11 occur, she summed up the real theme of the "antiwar" protest by proclaiming that America should be viewed as "very scary and threatening" by the rest of the world. Whether America scares the rest of the world is open to debate. A truthful look at this weekend's protest confirms that the demonstrators should frighten people — even other opponents of a war in Iraq — here in America.
Defacing a new stretch of highway is so weak. I'd like to spray paint back "I'll vote for Bush in Florida in 2004 now, you morons!"
while i don't condone vandalism... the same can be said about sending thousands of troops, supplies, ships and tanks to the mid east... whatever happened to looking for OBL?? did we just give up on him?
B-Bob, we all should be so lucky to have at least visited San Francisco. I have once as a kid and it was great, plus the nice BART system there is really helpful. It is very hilly and very cramped and small, but the scenery is gorgeous, I sure wouldn't mind living there, unless the cost of living is outrageous, which it may be . Btw, what college do you teach/lecture at?
Everyone -- please post sources for authors and their articles. People like to know about who is writing the pieces and where they were published. Thanks ! BTW, this is the only info I could find on Mr. Flynn: Dan Flynn is the author of Why the Left Hates America: Exposing the Lies That Have Obscured Our Nation's Greatness. Dan, formerly a program officer at Young America's Foundation, now serves as executive director of Accuracy in Academia, a nonprofit public-service organization in Washington, D.C. His articles have appeared in the Boston Globe and on National Review Online, among many other publications, and he's appeared on Fox News, C-SPAN, Court TV, and on numerous other television and radio programs nation-wide. He lives in Washington, D.C.
Your point? I wonder if all of the right-wingers are willing to defend the actions of all other right-wingers?
Now I've seen it all. Never mind an unjust war, whose buildup continues while none of the promised evidence has been delivered. Never mind the costs of this unnecessary war, in blood and money. I mean never mind all the innocent dead people. No, let's just all get righteous and indignant about spray painting a freaking freeway. Some of you guys need to grow up. Trader_Jorge, I don't even believe you believe the spin you're trying to pass off here. Is the Pope one of the whacked out radicals you're so upset about? This attempt to paint any person with an objection to a war whose necessity hasn't begun to be proven as an unpatriotic lunatic is beneath even you at even your lowest moment. Guess you're taking up the slack for that hateful, dim bozo tdork. Nice work.
