![\"100513-1\"](\"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/100513-1.jpg\")
\n(Tex is triumphant over the new self-serve suds delivery device, known as “the Champagne Bucket.”
\nThe big government shut-down is affecting everything. I strolled into Willow after a day spent in the pursuit of moderation. I exercised moderately, getting my shirt off to capture the last rays of the season, and thought only moderately about what was going on. Other than that, there wasn\u2019t much moderation in town.<\/p>\n
Attitudes seem to be hardening, and people were busy painting themselves into corners they are going to have a difficult time getting out of. Regrettably, we are all collateral road kill in their game.<\/p>\n
The weather was wonderful; warm and sunny in Washington, though portents of snow were coming in from the higher elevations out West, and it is clear we are on borrowed time. I ordered the components for the Halloween Party, though, and that was my sole concession to the coming change of season.<\/p>\n
I did my best to stay away from the toxic mess downtown, but it was hard not to run into it on the radio and with all the email flying around.<\/p>\n
Willow was a pleasant diversion from all of that. I walked into the dimness and slid into my usual stool next to Old Jim. He had his ear-buds jammed in, listening to sounds from some other place. He gestured in front of him to something altogether new. I gaped in amazement.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat do you think?\u201d he asked. \u201cGuess who did it?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBrenna?\u201d I asked. He shook his head.<\/p>\n
\u201cNope. Tex figured it out: the perfect delivery system.\u201d<\/p>\n
A silver bucket sat at the apex of the Amen Corner. It contained precisely six long-necked Budweiser beers, buried to their dark caramel shoulders in chipped ice.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a result of the shut-down,\u201d said Tex with a grin. \u201cWe have to save manpower wherever we can!\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSelf-serve, just like the monuments downtown,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n
Jon-without arrived in a crisp dress shirt and sport-jacket without tie. He has his standards, even between jobs. \u201cSpeaking of which,\u201d he said, \u201cdid you hear about the guy who set himself on fire on the Mall? The latest reports say that the man is in critical condition.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cJesus,\u201d I said. \u201cYesterday it was the cops gunning down a young mom. Now it is Buddhist monk wannabees. What the hell is next?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSelf-serve beer,\u201d growled Jim.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey closed all the Commissaries,\u201d I said. \u201cBut the liquor stores on base are still open. I called to make sure. I might want to stock up.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, at least they have their priorities straight. I heard the golf course at Andrews is open, too, just in case.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Lovely Bea and Jamie strolled in. Both had large deadlines in the week and were ready to ignore current events, though it was hard.<\/p>\n
The lovely Bea crinkled her brow as Jon-without said: \u201cIs it the situation that is driving people to these terrible acts? Are the politicians fomenting it with their rhetoric? Or is NSA bombarding us with mind control beams like the Navy Yard killer?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cKnock it off,\u201d said Jim. \u201cYou are starting to sound that that pompous John-with.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, how is it that his Department is working, and I can\u2019t get fresh veggies at the Commissary? All that food is going to rot, and they actually make a slight profit with the surcharge.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is all intentional, isn\u2019t it? Asked Jon-without. \u201cSeems like they want to inflict the maximum pain, even if it means assigning essential Park Service police to arrest people for going to places that don\u2019t have people assigned to them even when the government is open.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"100513-2\"](\"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/100513-2.jpg\")
\nJon decided he was not going to have a draft beer- he is watching his carbs, and asked Tex if he needed to come behind the bar himself and make something if that would help out during the period of staff reductions. Tex laughed and told him to do something colorful with himself as he bustled off to make a strawberry vodka and soda.<\/p>\n
Jim cleared his throat. He is an old-school Democrat, you might remember the kind, though he once ran against Marion Barry for Mayor as a Republican, and actually served briefly in the Nixon White House. \u201cGail Norton, Bush’s Secretary of the Interior, once told me that the Park Service has always had its jackbooted thugs. She had to watch them like a hawk.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou mean Ranger Smith from Jellystone Park is the Administration\u2019s Brown Shirt?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cGreen Shirt, I think. Gail was a fox. She was a Cabinet Secretary I would have done in a New York Minute. She said the retaliatory tactics from the Park Service over budget cuts has always been to maximize the visibility of the “hardships” to the Service by shuttering the most iconic memorials.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, and messing with the Rangers is a Federal beef you want to stay away from. I remember we used to call that the Washington Monument strategy- put the most popular thing in your budget on the cut list when we were told to reduce the budget. But of course, this time it was already closed because of the earthquake damage, so they had to pick other stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cPolitics has always been about high elbows, but this is high-sticking at an entirely new level in national politics.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cStill just politics.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"100513-3\"](\"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/100513-3.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know. Ranger Smith versus the WW II Vets? Think of the optics of that. It seems like this is nasty and personal. The last guy that tried this level of spite was Dick Nixon, and his was much smaller crap: and it got him tarred, feathered, and run out of town on a rail.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah. I remember the White House tours being cancelled over sequestration,\u201d said Jon-without. \u201cThat was right before the $100 million African Safari.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cGive it a rest,\u201d growled Jim, leaning over to snag a bud from the bucket in front of him. He twisted the cap off and drained the first golden mouthful from the bottle glistening with dew. \u201cWe are all going to need one before this is over.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMaybe the way to go is just let the Leviathan fail, push this crisis right through the budget ceiling and just say, fuck it.”<\/p>\n
\u201cNot going to happen,\u201d said Jim. \u201cSomeone is going to blink.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI hope you are right, but they are saying that this is really scary.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBullshit.\u201d Said Jim. \u201cThe 14th Amendment to the Constitution says the Government can\u2019t default, even if it wanted to. It will just not be able to borrow more money to keep running up new bills.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou think? Trying to impose a balanced budget means they may just leave the Commissaries closed, and start talking about your Navy pension,\u201d said Jon-without pensively.<\/p>\n
\u201cCrap,\u201d I said. \u201cWe can\u2019t have that. But I think I can have another glass of Happy Hour White.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI think this is serious enough that I will have an Amaretto,\u201d said Jon-without. \u201cAnd then go home and write my Congressman about Ranger Smith.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"100513-4\"](\"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/100513-4.jpg\")
\n(A Willow tableaux by Jamie Austin.)<\/p>\n
Copyright 2013 Vic Socotra
\nwww.vicsocotra.com
\nTwitter: @jayare303<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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