‘The End Is Near 91.7 FM’
courtesy of ‘pasa47’

I was driving down New Jersey Avenue yesterday around lunch, lost in thought, stopped at the light right before 395, when a disheveled man tapped on the window glass. I was expecting it to be one of the panhandlers that usually frequents that block, but I was surprised to find instead a man in a white wifebeater undershirt with a hastily stenciled message about the end of the world on May 21st.  The green light saved me from response and I drove onward.

The group is part of the Family Radio Network, a Christian fundamentalist radio network lead by Harold Camping, who set the date for the end of the world on May 21st, 2011.  The Post has a detailed story, including a hysterical anecdote from a person employed by the Department of Homeland Security who has taken a leave of absence until the 23rd of May.

You may see these folks on the street corners here in DC for the next week or two, but let ’em just be. I suspect they’ll be pretty disappointed come 6:01pm on May 21st, when the world hasn’t ended. That’s punishment enough. Though, a friend tweeted yesterday, if they’re right, at least we won’t have to deal with them constantly reminding us they had it pegged.

‘IMG_0153’
courtesy of ‘A. L. Huber’

The “crackberry” phenomenon has finally made it to DC proper. Last night, hundreds, if not thousands of devotees lined Connecticut Avenue to get a taste of the west coast’s favorite frozen yogurt, Pinkberry. According to Pinkberry, their new DC store handed out around 2000 free samples of their tangy brand of fro-yo that had people lined up down the block and around the corner.
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Photo by Andrew Bossi

This evening, a group of four eight women protestors, lead by Mary Cheh, were arrested near the Capitol for blocking traffic as part of a protest against the 251-175 vote to prohibit local tax dollars being used for abortions.

While it’s clear that the District’s rights to self-governance are being deeply abridged, pointless protests like the one today, and the one scheduled for next week, same time/same place, do nothing to advance the cause of self-determination for the District. Instead, they’re just a sideshow that demonstrate that we understand the theatrical part of politics, but we’re failing categorically at its other half: policy.

I’d like to ask public figures in DC a favor: Until you can come up with a solution to the problem, if you’re going to get arrested, do us all a favor and stay in jail until you think of something that will work.

So that begs the question, DC: Who would you like to see locked up for good for protesting? A set of options, and a write-in field, after the jump. Continue reading →

©Jimmy Chin; courtesy National Geographic

You’ve got until noon to register for a pair of tickets to a May National Geographic program!

’20_16A’
courtesy of ‘m hoek’

In the wake of last week’s horrendous storms with EF-5 tornadoes that tore through central Alabama, many people have been looking for ways to help.  A group of University of Alabama alumni in the DC area are working to promote various supply drives to help provide needed items for the devastated reasons.  There’s a drive Tuesday, collecting at Fairlington United Methodist looking for a long a list of supplies, from clothes to non-perishables to toiletries to baby supplies.  Collections start at 8am tomorrow (Tuesday), and will run into the evening.  if you can, lend a hand?

DSC_2508
Originally uploaded by maria jpeg

The news started to trickle out around 10:15 last night that US Forces with help from US Intelligence agencies had found and killed Osama Bin Laden in Abottabad, Pakistan. I got the news during the cleanup from yesterday’s Sweetlife Festival, and as the news began to firm up, the word passed through the remaining staff at Merriweather Post Pavilion, and everyone’s eyes lit up.

For those of us who were resident here ten years ago when Flight 77 hit the Pentagon, this is a day that many of us thought wouldn’t come. The first response from everyone I told was raised eyebrows and surprise, followed almost universally with a fist-pump.

There’s been a lot of hand-wringing this morning on social media services about what it means to celebrate in the face of another death among the tens of thousands that followed the attack on the World Trade Center and Pentagon in September of 2001. But celebrate many did, with a raucous gathering in Lafayette Park and around the Northwest Gate to the White House last night, and spilling up Vermont Avenue toward K Street.

The photos from our Flickr Group are just starting to flow in as people wake up and process what it was that happened last night.

In a town where we’ve had more cause for mourning than celebration, to see DC go wild like it hasn’t since Election night in 2008, well, color me happy for the momentary jubilation.