March 11, 2004
NO JOSS
Today started with bad karma, and don't they all.
Terrorism struck Madrid to the tune of nearly 200 dead souls, and the fiends turned out to be not Basque separatists, but, surprise, Qaeda terrorists. But of course. Presidential elections in Spain are Sunday, and Aznar, as a champion in the War on Terror, must be defeated. What better way than to blow up some trains, and human flesh? And, yes, blowing up trains is particularly heinous to me. I'm sure the bobble-head Eurotrash protesting the War have the same talking points as the Qaeda, though, and will blame Aznar.
Listen up: Spaniards are in this because they look at Moorish architecture and ruins every day, at some point. Most of that country was under the boot heel of Islam for over 700 years. And the Moors want it back, apparently. This was coldly calculated political murder, make no doubt. And do not think it can't happen in New York City a few days prior to the Republican convention. The great leveling effect, to me, is the fact that Islamists are terrified shitless of United States Marines. One company of Marines deployed in New York is worth two years of supplication at the knees of Kofi Annan. That is our best defence.
The second bad vibe was entering the parking garage at work. A woman stepped right in front of me as I was negotiating the turn on level 2. Dumb thing. She never even looked my way. I locked down, then had to suffer through her Stare, as she froze in place, in my right-of-way, and muttered some nonsensical bullshit at me. I have no idea what she was saying, Joe Strummer was screaming something about London calling in my ear, but she had the definite attitude of a Person Aggrieved. Friends, up hers. She was Wrong. I hope she read lips, because I was blistering her for the obvious floor scrap she was.
The third bad vibe was work. Doomsday, aka the Great Layoff, is the week of the 22nd. That much has been deduced despite the Cone of Silence that traps my boss, and his peers. Given the fact that is the week of The Players Championship, I reason the bloodletting will occur the 22nd or 23rd. No Big Swinging Johnson wants blood on his trou at the Tournament from Wednesday on. One must be tidy. I care not. I've spent my potential severance several times over, and I think that this town is ready for a real strip club, with responsible management.
Comes the night, and it gets worse. A schoolmate of my elder daughter struck, and killed, a pedestrian last night. I found out tonight. This woman was walking down Racetrack Road, jabbering on her cell phone, and was not paying attention to what she was really doing, and therefore walked into the path of a high school girl driving home. She thought she was walking down the street, trying to keep her ass within grasping weight, no doubt, when she was actually walking down a County Road, that has seen belligerent growth over the last 5 years. That cell phone not only killed her, it killed the soul of a teenage girl who will have to live with the horror of smashing another human being, and grinding her into lumpmeat, for the rest of her life.
I don't ask for much: I DO ask for women to put down the cellphone, and pay attention. Behind the wheel or before the mast.
The fourth bad vibe? I can't even go there. The ears have walls, as they say. That particular cold sore will manifest itself here soon enough.