Feds haul passenger off cruise ship in cuffs for marshmallow incident

BY CATHERINE WILSON

A teacher’s aide who forgot to put away her marshmallows and hot chocolate at Yellowstone National Park last

year was taken from her cruise ship cabin in handcuffs and hauled before a judge Friday, wrongfully accused of

failing to pay the fine.

Hope Clarke, 32, crying and in leg shackles, told the judge she was rousted at 6:30 a.m. by federal

agents after the ship returned to Miami from Mexico. [She spent nearly nine hours in detention.] She insisted that she had been required

to pay the $50 fine before she could leave Yellowstone, which has strict rules about food storage to prevent wildlife from eating human

food.

Customs agents meet all cruise ships arriving from foreign ports and run random checks of passenger lists, and a warrant

claiming Clarke had not paid the fine was found in the federal database.

This seems like an overreaction, to

terrorize someone over such an offense. I hope she sues John AssKraft. mjh

My favorite of THE WOOD’s environmental photos from Metaquerque. It’s a bit more whimsical than this Alibi cover. mjh

Reagan, Race and Remembrance on

the Great Divide
by Tim Wise

This is the twisted psychosis of growing up privileged, as a member of the dominant group: a group

that must view their nation as fair and just, as a place struck off by the literal hand of God, as a place where ”average” guys

like Ronald Reagan can become ”great leaders.” As a place where an ”aw shucks” smile, and a profound lack of knowledge about

the details of public policy — or even the names of foreign leaders — is not only not cause for embarrassment, but yet another good

reason to vote for someone; where refusing to read up on important policy details prior to a key international meeting so one can watch

The Sound of Music on TV, is seen as endearing rather than cause for a recall.

This is why we get people like George W. Bush, for

those who haven’t figured it out yet. Oh sure, vote fraud and a pliant Supreme Court help, but were it not for the love affair white

Americans have with mediocrity posing as leadership, things never could have gotten this far.

It’s why a bona fide moron like

Tom Delay can brag about not having a passport (because, after all,

why would anyone want to travel abroad and leave ”Amur’ca,” even for a day) and not be seen as the epitome of a blithering

idiot, and why he could probably be elected again and again in thousands of white dominated congressional districts in this country,

and not merely in Texas.

The

Village Voice: Nation: Press Clips: Das Rongold by Richard Goldstein
Reagan’s funeral as a Wagnerian opera.

And every other

piece of news was pulled into the funeral’s magnetic orb. Ray Charles’s death was dealt with by working his rendition of ”God Bless

America” into the soundtrack. That was a deeply ironic flourish in an almost lily-white — and for that matter, masculine —

have understood.)

Former President Reagan” href=”http://www.edgewiseblog.com/mjh/000302.htm”>mjh’s Blog: The Beatification

of Former President Reagan