A little late, but in times like these, we can’t let Independence Day pass without a few words. The peace people made a good showing at the annual parade down Broad Street. Although they weren’t well represented in the parade, they made their presence well known from the sidelines. Suspicious glances were the only blows struck between the peace people and the people who see patriotism and a celebration of war as synonymous. The people are portrayed as deeply polarized, and the most powerful people in Washington say quite clearly that people who are against war are unpatriotic, even treasonous, but here in Nevada City on the 4^th of July, they were mostly tolerating each other. I sense that the hard core, shoot-‘em-up war monger types have crawled back under their rocks, and the people who still like to wave the flag and talk solemnly about how the US is bringing stability and peace to Iraq aren’t quite so sure of themselves anymore. Maybe they even understand that the people protesting the war are just as patriotic as anyone else.

It’s a difficult position, though, to love your country but not be proud of it. All of us grew up being told that the US was the shining light of hope and freedom for the whole world. Some people respond to that indoctrination by blindly supporting anyone who happens to be running the government. Others respond by being appalled to find themselves citizens of the most hated country on the planet. Already we can see the friction being smoothed a little by the sands of time, but war and peace isn’t just an exceptionally long Russian novel, it’s also an argument that never stops until the war stops.

The history of humans is one war after another with only brief periods of relative peace on Earth. It ebbs and flows, but armies are doing battle somewhere nearly all the time. To hear the Bush gang tell it, ours will be doing battle in Iraq indefinitely or until it needs to regroup in Iran or North Korea. Bush has been trying to scare the civilians recently with stories about how North Korea is making nukes and building missiles to carry them as far as California. North Korea test fired some of its missiles this week and they all splashed into the Sea of Japan, just a few miles from launch. Thanks for the warning, George. Call me again when the sky actually is falling.

Dub hasn’t been quite as specific about Iran, but he doesn’t need to be. Iran’s head of state brags that he’d happily nuke the US if he got the chance. Dub hints that before such a thing happens, he’s interested in doing to Iran just what he did to Iraq. Many leaders in the Muslim world, past and present, have talked a much tougher game than they can play. To hear them tell it, anyone who doesn’t follow Islam will be toast. Come to think of it, some protestant churches in this country make similar threats. The difference is that the Baptists are talking about the hereafter; Islam isn’t.

US politicians and the media backing them like to call this country the last super power in the world. That’s true to the extent that the US still has enough nuclear weapons poised to do some global warming way beyond anything caused by burning petroleum products. Maybe that would work if the rest of the world thought the US really was as benevolent as it claims to be, but the Bush gang has dispelled that notion for a long time to come. No one should be surprised to find other countries scrambling to get their own nukes. It’s the Cold War all over again, but with a new twist. When the Soviet Union was stocking its nuclear weapons and aiming ‘em in this direction, I don’t recall the US ever threatening a military invasion. It’s hard enough being the toughest kid on the block, but you at least can claim to be the good guy. When you’re the only tough kid on the block, all you can claim to be is a bully.

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We ought to be talking about the race for governor of California, because that ought to be pretty important, but so far, the candidates aren’t saying or doing anything to draw much attention to themselves. Maybe they just don’t want to peak too early. Arnold says Phil wants to raise your taxes. Apparently Arnold is speaking only to the rich cats Phil has in the sights of his semi-automatic taxation weapon. Phil’s having a hard time finding anything nasty to say about Arnold. These two guys are on the cutting edge of political campaigning fine tuned over many generations of serious scuffling, spending and lying for votes. Both of them read the polls, then each promises to fix whatever the people seem to want fixed. The people know that neither is likely to fix anything, however, so they don’t have anywhere near as much enthusiasm for election day as they have for Independence Day.

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I’ve been wanting to talk about net neutrality, but first I have to figure out what it means. I’m assuming it means that big corporations are planning to take over the internet and charge us through the nose for using it, just like they did with radio and television. I’ll let you know if I ever find out that’s an unfair assumption.

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I read this week that something called "click fraud" now is in the lexicon and the litany of electronic glitches and ripoffs. It seems that some big money providers of on-line services have been lying to their advertisers about how many clicks they’re getting–how many people actually see their marketing messages. This is done, of course, to extort more money from the advertisers. It’s comforting to know, I think, that someone already is paying through the nose to use the internet, and it’s the people who see it as just another place to put up a billboard.

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Finally, I read a piece from the NY Times about the current most popular atrocity the US is said to have committed in Iraq. The paper in which I read it ran it under a sub-head which said, "Procedural violations suspected in rape of Iraqi teen and killing of her family. Indeed.