April 13, 2003

Art Car Parade

It seems incredible that a soul-sucking wasteland like Houston would have a fantastic art car parade, sponsored by the Orange Show, and that Austin would have none. Well, no longer. Yesterday was Austin’s first art car parade. Did I get pictures? No. Am I an idiot? Yes. There were some wonderful creations there–my favorite, if I had to choose one, would probably be the Aero Car, a brilliantly adapted BMW bubble-car. The add-ons and paint were flawless; the interior had an altimeter fitted to the dashboard; the propeller spins.

Other notables included the Roachster, twinkle twinkle, Student Driver, Iron Maiden, the bookmobile, and of course the Objet Dart. I wish I could scare up a link for the scorpion–it was amazing.

[update: Someone else got some pictures.]

The war and the bigger picture

One of many, many disturbing aspects of the U.S. invasion of Iraq is what the broader ramifications could turn out to be. Howard Dean has suggested that China may feel emboldened to “liberate” Taiwan. For that matter, India might decide to “liberate” Sri Lanka (but perhaps not Kashmir, because Pakistan’s got nukes). Yeehaw! I got yer New World Order right here, pappy.

A few articles in the paper today struck me as interesting as repercussions of the war. North Korea is sounding more conciliatory. So is Iran.

I suspect Bush apologists will look at these two data points and smugly declare that it was the strategy all along with Gulf War II to make an example of Iraq and get these other Axis of Evil honorees to play nice. And I’ll even allow as how, just maybe, such really was the intent all along. But I would argue that any similarity between that goal and these glimmers of possible outcomes is completely coincidental. These outcomes are completely unpredictable, as Cuba’s current crackdown on dissent suggests. No word on any actions, provocative or conciliatory, taken by unindicted co-conspirator in the Axis of Evil, Syria.