“I should be a happy man” after the Bush win, says the Michigan Review’s Karl Sowislo. So what’s clouding his otherwise untroubled countenance? It’s those freeloaders who vote but don’t pay income tax! Why should our election laws allow these people, who are probably poor, to have any say in what goes on in this country?
In fact, why stop there - we could have a special tax for those who want to vote. Call it a “poll tax” or something.
The latest Quidnunc in the Ann Arbor Paper is full of white-hot celebrity gossip - in the last month, A2 has had sightings of Bob from Sesame Street and Randy and Robin from The Real World: San Diego. But even with all these A-listers in the mix, this little site still got a mention for our previous item on the column, in which, it should be pointed out, we were really trying to mock the material it has to choose from, not its writer.
It’s the ultimate in Ann Arbor “sensitivity”: the Inter-Cooperative Council is looking into banning dogs from all co-ops, because residents from cultures where dogs are not commonly kept as pets might be “intimidated.” No one from such a culture has actually complained about dogs in the co-ops. But it could happen! Conservative writers often like to claim dogs as their own and associate fickle, free-spirited cats with the left; it’s always seemed like a silly dichotomy to us, but maybe they have a point. In some places, both feline and canine pets are seen as Western cultural imports, but as far as we know, no one’s suggested a blanket ban on cats.
The new dorm that’s going in place of the Frieze building, reports the News, will be near “a neighborhood of modest homes across Huron Street.” By which they mean the Old Fourth Ward, where houses have been on the market for upwards of $1 million. The residents of this beleaguered little area are worried about parking, as well as the possibility that “more chain stores catering to students will open in the retail area.” It would really be a shame if chains forced out all those great independent local businesses on State Street like Potbelly, Starbucks, Urban Outfitters and Jimmy John’s.
You’re probably familiar with the hardware store on Packard whose sign bears an ever-changing array of cutesy aphorisms - in September, it might read “Hello students, goodbye parking spots,” or that sort of thing. Right now (and presumably all last week), it says, “Vote your heart. Vote Nader.” Now, admittedly, we don’t have much to go on, but we’ve never had the impression that the writer of these slogans is a hard-core leftist who believes that there’s no difference between Bush and Kerry.
We somehow find it hard to read National Review today with the usual arch detachment, so our heart isn’t really in it, but here’s the latest Nordlinger A2 reference, a reader’s story about a researcher who’s lived in Germany, Spain, Italy and France. “Everywhere he went, he was too far left to fit in. So that’s why he settled here in Ann Arbor, where he fits in just fine.”
Slashdot asks their readers if they’re planning to move to Canada after the election, and the option “Already live in Ann Arbor, which is close enough” is polling at 3 percent. We’re not sure if they mean politically or geographically, but /. founder Rob Malda lives “somewhere between Dexter and Ann Arbor”, which he describes as “an absolutely wonderful place to live.”
We can’t wait until this election season is over and we can get back to mocking pet boutiques in Kerrytown, but we thought we’d make some endorsements, since everyone seems to be doing it.
Larry Kestenbaum is a friend of ours, but that shouldn’t stop you from voting for him for Washtenaw County Clerk and Register of Deeds. His comments here and on his own blog show that he really gets it about student issues, housing, the role of the Internet and just about everything else you can think of. He’s a politics geek in the best possible sense, with an encyclopedic knowledge of everything political and the nuanced insight to make sense of it.
We were planning to vote for Jane Lumm for mayor just to throw out the incumbent - and Hieftje was actually looking less bad of late when his Sierra Club pals started to turn on him. But after Friday’s debate, we feel good about voting for her as more than a protest vote. On the one issue on which the candidates seemed to differ most, accessory dwellings (see summary here,) she outlined a clear position that indicated a willingness to stand up to neighborhood groups. Murph’s comment on Arbor Update sums up our general feeling.
We also endorse Election Night Drink Specials. Heartily.