Little matches the vein-popping frustration of a Noho parking ticket. I don't say Hamp, because these tickets seems particularly of the new Northampton. It's an awesome feeling to get a ticket in the fashion I last got one–I happily cruised on down the street on foot, returning to my car. My meter ran out at 1. It was 1:03. But of course, sure as summer precedes fall, one of those obnoxious little birds fluttered away, pinned to the windshield by my wiper.
Oh, the joy! I watched, jaw twitching, as the meter maid, her socks pulled up tight, sauntered down the street quite some distance away. She had to have been there when the meter ticked down, anxiously waiting to scratch out the ticket. How else to explain it? Who are these people? Does this meter maid enjoy her work? I think she relishes it.
This is one of many reasons I prefer the chilled-out vibe–and free parking–of nearby Easthampton.
Anyway. The fun doesn't end with the city's happy "parking enforcers" offering little souvenirs to those who would dare to shop the streets of Northampton. No, it extends as well to Northampton's finest. This little video, filmed by apparent Northamptonite (poor guy! hope he doesn't own a car) Aaryn Blain, offers some tiny measure of relief from the volcano of anger I feel when I get my very own Northampton ticket, followed, when I forget to pay it instantly, by another ticket charging me still more money for daring to brave the rapids of truly evil crime: the seconds following meter expiration.
Watch the awesomeness as a bevy of Northampton's finest tow away (on a flatbed!) what is reportedly an illegally parked wheelchair. Welcome to Northampton! Maybe someone will organize a vigil…
CHOMP ON THIS: There has been violence among the terminally dumb protesters (and dumb ain't party-specific) at town hall meetings. That is clear fact, as demonstrated on video more than once now.
But the latest report? Supposedly a tea partier punched a pro-health reform protester and the pro-health reform dude bit off his finger. Who are people trying to kid? It may be that a human can bite off–up to the knuckle, reports say–another human's finger, but it seems so unlikely as to strain credulity to its limits, unless the guy held still while the biter sawed away for a while. I mean–there's bone there, cartilage, the whole shebang.
Something untoward probably happened with guilt all around, but
that? The whole thing smells of ginning up a story in the hope it will go big to counter the punching that happened in Florida. (So I ain't linking directly to the blogger who's largely generating it. The link is in the
Talking Points Memo coverage if you want it.) Is it not at least slightly suspicious that the fellow who got punched in Florida was a pro-reform 65-year-old, and the finger-biting victim is an anti-reform 65-year-old? I'll see your bet and raise you one senior plus a finger…
The blogger reporting this says all this town hall violence is only one-way–from pro-health reform protesters. That alone discredits him, since it's clear that even the very incident he reports involves acts of violence from people on different sides. That's some hubris for you!
UPDATE ON FINGER CHOMPING:
Well, multiple witnesses say something happened, though it is not clear precisely what, beyond one anti-reform dude punching a pro-reform dude in the face, knocking him to the ground and starting a fight. (So says this witness, and it seems to be consensus.) I assume the police report will finally clear up what happened next, and if anybody's finger ended up on the ground.
It's a mistake to get too caught up in these kind of specifics, on the other hand (or finger). So I'll just say this: we will most likely end up with some modest and incremental change to our health insurance system, and the current march of care rationed according to the profit motive will continue indefinitely. The health care industry has too much money to be tangled with.
Our march toward corporate governance is really what is continuing, toward what unpleasant end point only time will tell. And the people doing all that marching don't seem aware of the cause they serve, focused as they are on the immediate. We have to realize government by the people is leaving the building before we will get it back.
