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Ironies

Monday, March 18, 2002

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From Olympia, Washington
Thurston County GOP Lincoln Day Dinner
• Irony: [noun] Incongruity between the actual result of a sequence of events and the normal or expected result.

• The weekend abounded in ironies, some global some trivial. The most tragic of them was the grenade attack on a church in Pakistan killing five worshippers and wounding 45 more.

• It is unclear to me how the Muslim extremists, who are assumed to be responsible for this attack, think they are doing anything but isolating themselves more and more by attacking Christians as well as Jews.

• In promulgating this holy war, it is ironic that the Muslim factions responsible, are attacking religions which worship the same God as they do.

• Joe Klein, writing in yesterday's NY Times points out there are six former high-ranking Clinton Administration officials running for public office themselves. Klein writes: "All will face the challenge of explaining the actions of their former boss�"

• Klein makes the point that of the six, five have never run for public office before and they run the risk, like Al Gore, of getting wrapped around themselves trying to take credit for Clinton's policy victories while separating themselves from Clinton's scandals.

• The irony is that they won't be able to run away from their boss' misdeeds now, because they didn't do anything to separate themselves from him when they had the chance. Even after they realized he had sent them out to lie for him, not a single one found it within themselves to leave in protest.

• Another delicious international irony: Last May, the members of the United Nations Human Rights Commission decided to bounce the US from having a seat at the table. This was done to the great glee of countries like (surprise!) France which, former U.N. Ambassador wrote in the LA Times:

  "Attributed the success of his country with the Human Rights Commission to the fact that France's foreign policy is founded on 'dialogue and respect.' By implication, the U.S. failure is based on their absence."

• So now the Human Rights Commission is going to meet and guess what? They miss the good old U.S. of A. swinging in there to help out.

• The incoming chairman, Krzysztof Jakubowski (known in diplomatic circles as "The Big Jakubaowski), said:

  "The United States is the symbol of the fight for human rights, and I come from a country where the understanding of this is profound�Many burning issues can't be resolved without the active participation of the United States."

• Really? Well why don't we just let France handle those "burning issues" with that "dialogue and respect" for which the French have become so famous over the past century.

• Finally, the most local possible irony. I am here in the great Northwest for a speech tonight. Early yesterday morning, I ran out to find some coffee. I got in line behind a young woman of a certain type: Glasses with those black Rocky Horror Picture Show/GenX frames; Baggy painter's pants with big pockets down the thighs bulging with who-knows-what; Jet black hair highlighted with streaks of bright green and orange.

• Got the picture? She was also wearing a jacket the style of which we used to call a Letter Jacket with a badly lettered and badly sewn patch on the back where the designer's name would normally be.

• The lettering said - and I am paraphrasing here - [Down with] Brand Names.

• Here's the irony: It was seven in the morning and I was standing behind her in line � at a Starbucks.

• This is why you have to listen to other people's conversations: The Mullings Director of Standards and Practices and I were out to dinner the other night when we overheard - ok, I overheard - a conversation among a small group of what we decided were prosecuting attorneys. One was telling this story:

  An undercover cop busted a guy who protested that he was the wrong guy. He said he was retired.

  "What are you retired from?" Asked the cop.

  "Auto theft," the guy said.

• Keep track of the former Clinton Officials running for public office and the current members of the U.N. Human Rights Commission on the Secret Decoder Ring page.
  --END --
  Copyright © 2002 Richard A. Galen

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