Hospitality, Diversity, etc.

Yesterday's massive Lick Bush protest in New York—or as the The New York Times lovingly described it, the "roaring, two-mile river of demonstrators"—was certainly a sight to behold, especially if you happened to stumble out onto the front porch of Madison Square Garden, only to encounter a swath of the 200,000 Very Angry people who were screaming things like "SHAME!!!" while pointing directly at your own head. Republicans tried to laugh it off (and surely the procession did not lack for people and placards to snicker at), but the mood on the steppe was mixed with some awe and much nervous laughter. Oh, these people … these 200,000 furious people marching for hours in the miserable heat and humidity … they sure are foolish, ho-ho!

At any rate, since the scale was so enormous, it was hard for individual flowers of human conflict to bloom, except further off the beaten path. For instance, the corner of 32nd St. and 5th Ave., where a lone member of the lefty-tweaking troupe ProtestWarrior.com stood on a curb, wearing a "Fry Mumia" T-shirt while holding a very large sign indicating his preference for self-defense and prosecuting criminals over gun control. This proved too much provocation for some of the straggling protesters nearby.

"Your president is a murderer! Your president is a murderer!" one man repeated, not unlike a cuckoo clock.

"I feel sorry for you, sir," a graying hippie chimed in, shaking his head. "Go home!" he suggested.

The Protest Warrior, full in the flush of Operation Liberty Rising, attempted now and then to utter a sentence, usually about how he didn't agree with the protesters, thought they were making the U.S. look weak, helping the enemy, etc.

Then the already shrill exchange escalated with the entrance of a late-20s early-30s woman, voice quavering in a barking rage, who got into Protest Warrior's grill and began screaming: "Get THE FUCK out of this city!!! Get THE FUCK out of this city!!!"