A Moment of Self-Indulgent Journaling

I went to the Third Steet Promenade in Santa Monica today for a re-supply of cigars. For those of you who aren't local, Santa Monica is the part of LA that the area radio talk hosts sometimes refer to as the People's Republic of Santa Monica. How the heck a ciger shop than encourages people to smoke in the lounge next to the requisite open windows can stay open is beyond me. One of their house brands is my favorite, so the drive from Irvine is well worth it.

Political bumper stickers are all the thing. Mostly they are leftover Kerry/Edwards campaign stickers. Less timely messages like "Buck Fush" and "Somewhere in Texas a village is missing its idiot" are also very common. A regular feature of the Promenade are a couple of guys who set up a pair of folding tables and sell such minded stickers. Their wares include quotes from Ghandi and Bob Marley, not-so-polite requests to smash global capitalism (evidently local capitalism is OK), "The Earth can't afford the Rich", and several varieties of wiccan themed stickers. I might get some of the last for friends.

Anyway, there were some I was interested in getting, because they would work just as well in an ironic sense opposed to the philosophy of their neighborhood. I had an idea in mind to buy a "War is Not the Answer" sticker and cross out War and replace it with Government, but the typographical problems seem insurmountable. Another one was "Dissent is Patriotic", but I don't think that the idea that I am dissenting from most of the opinions on the table would come through.

In the end, I got one that is true no matter who is in power:

I think, therefore I'm dangerous