im remembering this because of emmanuelles post where she reports on a challenge that i was given.
we were talking about morrissey’s new cd and how he sings about how america acts superior because we gave the world hamburger.
i said, we dont feel superior because we gave the world hamburger, but because we gave the world mcdonalds.
some one said, are you serious?
i said, yes, other than french girls and swedish girls, (i forgot to say asian girls but i was drinking, and think even less during those moments) america has given the world everything that everyone loves
and thats why they so desperately want to be like us.
ugly americanism at its best.
and only mostly true.
around 2am we were debating free trade.
we’ve come a long way since dropping acid and gazing at the palm of our hands.
i was all, i have no problem giving Nike a bribe, i mean a tax cut, i mean an incentive for setting up a factory in hollywood so that americans can produce $150 american-made shoes that can be sold alongside the $100 indonesian-made sneakers.
let the lebron james shoes or the new air jordans get made in america. the 75% price increase will more than absorb the cost increase of american workers and the union they will probably join.
and i bet all the cool kids would be more than happy to have the latest kicks made in hollywood… where dreams are born.
blair and welch of course poo pooed the idea, unfamiliar with logic and progressive ideas, rigid in their hardlined freeeeee-traaaaaade mantra. ambivalent to the fact that when americans had jobs under clinton the economy boomed, there was prosperity, and there was no need to inject the collective psyche with fear.
their philosophy, i imagine, is that as developing countries come out of their tin shacks to nike factories to earn their $5 a day, those countries will begin to prosper and they can then import american goods and services.
like mcdonalds, ford trucks, and nike shoes.
sorry, but i dont have 100 years to wait for such malarky. and why are some people so hesitant to infusing THIS country with the aid that they’re so willing to ship off around the world?
have you ever spent much time in downtown LA?
it’s my belief that a strong american workforce will inspire a stronger american entrepenuer culture. one that will take what successes it learned here and go to foreign lands and start up newspapers, soul food chains, and Foxy Boxing circuits.
a shoe factory in hollywood or compton in 2004 producing quality trends will not only foster a work ethic that exists in every zip code in this country, but it will create generations of americans who can have pride in what they do, while improving their currently dilapidated community from within.
no offense but fuck indonesia while ive got concerns in my own backyard.
of course my ideals were shot down by the learned gentlemen of letters, so i brought it home.
fine then, screw shoes, i said. screw factories.
america is the worlds breadbasket.
i pointed to blair’s pack of smokes.
i said, from what i can assume, a pack of cigarrettes contain about 1/8 of an ounce of tobbacco. from what ive read, 1/8 an ounce of marijuana goes for about $60.
the cost of cigarrettes to the manufacturer, including advertising and shipping, etc. is probably about $1 a pack.
i said, you could put a $14 a pack tax on marijuana cigarrettes, if you had the free trade courage to legalize it, and with the tax and production revenues, pay for all the education and free health care that the dems cry about, but you could also pay off our debt and probably have a little left over for all the bombs youre dying to drop on the taliban.
america would have an export that could be made in the usa. the quality would be unmatched. their boys, big tobacco, would have the new product they are dying to release, and the enviornmentalists would be thrilled because hemp would replace trees for producing paper.
and the Christian right would be appeased because god’s happy plant, so perfect you plant a seed in dirt, water it, and it creates a weed that when ingested makes you smile, would be freed to do what He intended it to do.
but the only reason you wont do it, i posed, while lifting my half drunken bottle of rum at them
is because youre racists, and you know that by keeping weed illegal, you keep minorities under your thumb, and in prison
where you think they belong.
and thats why people take me into dark alleys and beat my ass when i say shit like that in the xbi.
welch and blair, gentlemen that they are, just laughed and called it a night.
the holy writer has finally moved to blogger + Outfoxed producer catches O’Reilly in a new lie + best new blog design ive seen + one year ago today
last night i was up till 3am talking politics with welch and