Quote of the Day
Alcoholic, that?s what I am. Every police [officer] knows me on the force. They see me drunk; they pick me up; I get five days. When I get out, I?m going to drink some more, to tell you the truth. 
Tooth Post
Everything about a person’s deeply-held beliefs on the role of government in society, economic systems, religion, and politics can be neatly summarized by a 4.0 ounce tube of toothpaste. Not convinced? Well, according to The Washington Post, finding a tube of Tom’s all-natural paste in a friend’s bathroom is a sure identification that she is, “a thinker about issues, a possessor of good books and record albums, an opposer of most wars, a composter perhaps, or at least a saver of natural resources.” 
In general, I’ve learned, Tom’s aficionados “can’t believe what’s happening to the world: the juvenile music, the vapid television, the ‘lies’ (corporate, especially), the fixation on celebrities, the waste, Dick Cheney and Halliburton, the gas guzzling — the whole concept of America is about to come apart for them. They are an oppressed class right now. They are outraged in a really quiet way.”
Coincidentally (ahem, coincidentally, No? OK…), I myself have been researching this very same subject for the past few months and will share my startling discoveries.
Paste for the People
It’s common knowledge that people who brush with Arm & Hammer paste are communists. And there is ample evidence that Arm & Hammer is inextricably linked to socialist movements. In fact, one-time leader of Arm and Hammer, Armand Hammer, was the son of the founder of the American Communist Party and a pal of Lenin himself.
White Supremacists don’t just use any ol’ toothpaste either. These groups insist on Colgate’s Total Whitening formula and wouldn’t be caught dead with a mulatto paste like Colgate’s “2 in 1″ (toothpaste and mouthwash) or the most insidious culprit of paste mixing, Aqua Fresh.
Other findings:
Art collectors and fans of the Friends theme song, of course, brush only with Rembrandt.
The filthy rich generally prefer Butler
Defenders of diversity training often brush with Crest Sensitivity Protection.
Fans of monosyllabic Brit-pop bands like Blur, Pulp, and Ride, are known to prefer Reach, Aim, or Gleem.
Urban Distractions
The most beautiful city of the 20th century is…
probably not one you would expect
The Little Tram that Could
The shortest tram line in the United States has been a success in Tacoma, Washington–even at a hefty price tag of $80 million. Not only has ridership been strong, but downtown economic development has seen a spike too: “In downtown Tacoma, the sounds of rebirth, reuse and reclamation are everywhere… The rat-a-tat-tat of jackhammers, the rumble of heavy equipment getting ready to lift another girder, move another load. Construction’s all around,” reports The Rockford Register Star. More on the little tram in Tacoma
Will We Ever Learn?
At the same time the Senate has passed a $318 billion highway spending bill, a new report by the American Highway Users Alliance has listed the 24 worst highway bottlenecks in the US. Proud owner of the number one spot is Los Angeles, with its 101/405 interchange. “There is no silver bullet. We need to look at other transportation alternatives, including busways, high-speed rail, monorail, maglev or other alternatives. Every alternative is going to be controversial, but we need to come up with solutions to the inevitable increasing congestion that we face,” explained LA Assemblyman Keith Richman.
Go Vols!
Previous tenants in my apartment subscribed to The Metro Pulse, a Knoxville-based alternative weekly, and it is still mailed to us regularly. At first, I used them for my beloved Rapidfire chimney starter but later started scanning its pages. I’ve been impressed by both the writing and art direction for a weekly in such a small market. From random articles, advertisements, and commentaries, I get the idea there is a lot of good redevelopment happening in Knoxville’s inner core. Mechanicsville Commons is one example. Good growth is even spreading to the suburbs, as New Urbanism comes to West Knox.
An Exchange on Haiti
Sandwiched between stories from The New York Times, Miami Herald, ABC News, and The Dallas Morning News on the uprising (or resisitance, or thug riots–whatever you want to call it) is an interesting exchange in the World Socialist Web Site. A reader replies to a previous piece in the journal:
“As a Haitian whose family was persecuted, arrested, exiled and/or killed by the Duvalier government for being ‘radical leftists’ and ‘communists,’ I am dismayed by the knee-jerk support the United States left is expressing for Aristide. To me, it is part of the same colonialist mentality that the United States has always had towards Haiti?that foreign whites know what is best for Haiti. Rather than blindly accepting the Aristide government?s propaganda, the United States left should consider why so many of Aristide?s Haitian partisans, including many who fought hard for his return to power after the 1991 coup d??tat, have turned against him.”
A sample response quote from WSWS (aka WWKD?) editor Richard Dufour:
“The irony is that your own position, glorifying the Haitian opposition movement, is but the other side of the same coin. You share with the pro-Aristide ‘lefts’ the view that the most one can do is support one or the other of the bankrupt bourgeois factions now at each other?s throats in a deadly feud for the crumbs of power.”
The Unmentionable
It’s the unmentionable and everyone is talking about it. Although strangely, the mainstream press in the US (much to its credit), hasn’t touched it yet. But don’t worry, they’re furiously examining the unmentionable and I believe getting closer to frothing the story all over the pages of their newspapers and web sites. There has been no such display of restraint in the UK however.
This morning on The McLaughlin Group, Elenor Clift of Newsweek, Tony Blankley from the Washington Times, and Christian Science Monitor correspondent Liz Marlantes were asked by John McLaughlin about whether the unmentionable “has legs.” All of them said that it does. The look on their faces hinted that they wanted to believe it wasn’t true but that they knew deep down that it was. I hope this thing either explodes and dramatically changes the election outlook, or is soon proved to be pure Drudge bullshit.
Twitter Stream
