Semi Truths

For the past few years, I have been getting my gas from Citgo because it comes from Venezuela and not from the Mid-East or Africa. Yes, I know that Venezuela is still an OPEC member and that Hugo Chavez is far from an angel, but I still admire how he stands up to Geo. Bush.

Normally, I gas up at the Citgo on Ivy. I like the fact that it’s a full-service station and that the attendant will wash my window and offer to check my oil. I tell my kids that this is what gas stations used to be like.

A few days ago, I found myself going up 29 and in need of gas, so I pulled into the 7-Eleven on Hydraulic, for they also carry Citgo gas. Or they used to. After I could not get my Citgo card to work, I stepped into the store. The clerk told me that 7-Eleven as a corporation no longer carries Citgo gas because Chavez had  called Bush “the devil” at the U.N.

“But that’s why I buy Citgo gas!”, I protested. The poor clerk was a little confounded by that answer and responded by trying to sell me a suspicious-looking meat product and a People magazine.

I can think of no earthly reason to ever go to 7-Eleven again.

On August 1, 1966, twenty-five year-old Charles Whitman ascended the UT clock tower with a personal arsenal and, shortly before noon, began shooting tourists and passersby. He killed 15 people that day, including his wife and mother that morning, and wounded 31 others. It was a horrible crime that shocked a nation. More than twenty years later, I visited Austin and they were still talking about it.

Two days ago, twenty-three year-old Seung-hui Cho walked through Norris Hall at VA Tech shooting students and faculty. He killed 32 people, including two early that morning in a student dorm. Once again, the nation is shocked, but we are no longer stunned. This spree shooting is simply the bloodiest and most recent in a line of memorable shootings.

The worst thing about living in a post-Columbine world is that Columbines are no longer inconceivable. What was once incomprehensible has become comprehensible. For some disturbed souls, such incidents become challenges to out-Columbine Columbine.

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I love the idea behind Wikipedia, an online collaborative encyclopedia. Yes, the site has its critics, but the promise of a publicly available and “editable” repository of collective knowledge is a very 21st century concept.

Not surprisingly, in this age of targeted information, other groups with focussed interest have set up their own Wiki repositories, such as Wookepedia, the Star Wars encyclopedia.

It therefore shouldn’t be surprising to learn of a conservative wiki called Conservapedia. Started in November of 2006 (before or after the mid-term elections, it does not say), the site describes itself as “an online resource … where we give full credit to Christianity and America (with) concise, clean answers free of ‘political correctness’…” (of that last promise, I have no doubt).

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This site is participating in the Impeachment Black-Out. Starting at noon on September 1 2006, participating websites and blogs will replace their front pages with the single word “Impeach” in simple white text on a black background. For 24 hours, web surfers and blog readers will see that word first when they visit their favorite sites. In this way, we hope to get the public talking about the one tool guaranteed by the Founders to restore our Constitutional Democracy.