ninme

I’ve got a unique capacity for the storage of fun facts. I love days like this when I can whip them out.

The Corner - God Bless America, Mike Potemra

A friend points out a delightful story from Colorado.

It seems the Telluride town council has voted . . . to impeach President Bush and Vice President Cheney.

I highly recommend the New Sheridan Hotel.

So, apparently (while Peter and I were there on our Great Cross Country Move of 2003 my dad (PhD (Geology) Columbia) relayed this information to me), uranium ore was discovered in Telluride in the late 1800s (Marie Curie even got some of hers from there). During WWII, secret night trains lined with heavily armed agents of the government transported that ore south to a certain laboratory in New Mexico, to be used in Little Boy, which was later exploded over Hiroshima.

One wonders if the city council knows. If they do, perhaps this is them compensating for that legacy. Though I doubt it. I’ve spent time poking around the town’s souvenirs (snow globes, trail books, ski paraphernalia, spf lip gloss) and trust me, Hiroshima doesn’t come up.

Update (7.26):

Vail Daily News - Impeachment call cancels ski trips

A backlash quickly emerged after the Telluride Town Council adopted a resolution last week calling for the impeachment of President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.

“It’s huge, unbelievable,” said Telluride Mayor John Pryor. “Ski groups are canceling for the winter. Hundreds of people are bailing. The (town) Web site is flooded with people saying they’re canceling their vacations here.”

Woah.

Pryor called it a “silly initiative.” The council, he told The Telluride Watch, is too busy to weigh in on national global politics.

If this was a silly initiative, why did he vote for it? The answer would seem to lie in the fact that the council routinely adopts resolutions, on matters both big and small, with nary a further word. Further, such a resolution would be hardly controversial in Telluride, where only 17 percent of voters in the 2004 election cast ballots for Bush.

You know, 17% isn’t a small number. I mean, it is if you’re telling them “Hey guys, we don’t really like the guy you voted for much.” But when you’re saying “We think the guy you voted for is a war criminal which means we think you guys are blood-thirsty fascists for voting for him and we’re going to go way beyond our purview (and available free time) in order to announce our opinion of you 17% to the world,” then it’s actually a kind of a large number of people, to be treating them like that.

But that’s not the point of this update. I just think it’s astonishing how people, especially journalists, can’t see that.