WAR ON WAR: On my way to meet friends for dinner in Manhattan on Saturday, I stumbled into a few hundred of the anti-war protesters, apparently on their way back downtown from that morning's UN rally. The atmosphere reminded me a lot of a radical New Years' Eve, as there were loud revelers all over, and Times Square was blockaded at every block. I must say I was pleasantly surprised by the crowd- while I may totally disagree with their stance in regards to military action, I saw very little of the anti-American, anti-Israel, and anti-Semitic content that I had heard had been traditionally associated with these protests, though I am told such sentiment was there, albeit scattered. This may be because unlike the last couple of protests, this one was not sponsored by ANSWER, the far-left group that's been associated with some quite shady interests (Stalinism, defense of Saddam and Milosevic, Ramsey Clark, etc.); ANSWER also disallowed Rabbi Michael Lerner, perhaps America's left-most Jewish public figure, from speaking at San Francisco's rally due to his support of the continued existence of Israel.
Of course, the rally itself severely undercut arguments from many on the left that America is turning into some sort of fascist police state; in how many countries on Earth are citizens allowed to march through the largest city, carrying a picture of the president that says he sucks? Try that in Baghdad with Saddam and see what happens...
I did encounter two things, however, that crossed the line: I saw a flier for a seduction seminar (www.RealSeduction.com) that shamelessly tried to piggyback on anti-war sentiment, with a headline of "Make Love Not War: A Bush in the hand is worth 2 in the White House" (rimshot). Then later, after the rally was long over, I saw a crudely-drawn cardboard sign on top of a Village Voice box that said "Powell is a Puppet." Then I turned it around and the other side was the sort of sign I often see used by homeless people: "I need $ for beer, cigarettes, and hookers- at least I'm honest." This means either A) the homeless guy made the sign after the rally was over and the sign had been discarded, or B) The homeless guy had it first and the demonstrator stole it from him. I'm betting on the latter...