Scrat Mansoor Reprised
LIKE AN OLD CLOSET...
From time to time I go rummage around in the archives of the first 18 months of this blog. The link is over on the right side of this page. For an old guy with too much time on his hands clicking through those essays can refresh my memory of events in our recent past.
A BLAST FROM THE PAST
Today I present for your reading pleasure (or not) something I wrote four years ago, on May 2, 2006, that seems particularly relevant today. It's not too long, so give it a read and let me know what you think... have things changed in four years? Take a peek at the video clip at the end and tell me if you see any similarities. (Here's a hint: Before you read further, slide over to the links at the right and scroll down to the title for this one and click on it, then continue. That will allow you to view the movie clip, below, without the background clutter of my archive links.)
Tuesday, May 2, 2006
"Scrat" Mansoor - Prehistoric Acorn Juggler
Do you remember the trailer for the movie, "Ice Age"? It portrayed a goofy, pre-ice age rodent named Scrat trying to bury a huge acorn because of the impending "winter". At one point he attempts to stomp the acorn into the snow, which results in a crack forming. The crack expands and expands and expands. Finally it causes a glacier to fracture and tumble toward Scrat.
He begins to escape, then remembers the acorn and dashes back to retrieve it. This whole trailer is all very Indiana Jonesesque as Scrat stubbornly refuses to let go of his acorn and skitters from catastrophe to calamity trying to evade the onslaught of the falling ice that he started. At the end of the trailer he ends up being inadvertently stomped into the dirt by a Mammoth, who tells him "You're an embarrassment to nature - you know that?"
I was thinking just how much Scrat reminds me of our young jailer/mayor, Allan Mansoor. Several months ago he hatched his plan to cross-designate Costa Mesa law enforcement officers to become immigration screeners. That was his "acorn" - a nut almost too much for him to carry. Despite the fact that every other law enforcement official in Orange County has rejected his idea as a bad way to go, he stubbornly juggles this "acorn" against the elements - and the wisdom of real leaders.
As he tried to stomp that acorn into the snow, our young jailer/mayor created the crack in the ice that has become the huge demonstrations on the immigration issue we have seen in recent weeks. Yesterday, for example, literally millions of demonstrators marched in cities large and small across this country. Mansoor's truly bad idea was the flash point, the catalyst for the demonstrations, as he preened before the cameras on national television and had his ego stroked by those on the radical right.
His plan has made Costa Mesa a metaphor for intolerance as he and his cronies persist in juggling this acorn. He stubbornly continues along this path even though the jagged ice shards are falling around him.
I suspect the mayor may find his own "mammoth" - the electorate. In November he may find the voters of this city telling him, "You're an embarrassment to Costa Mesa - you know that?"
HAS HE CHANGED?
So, what do you think? Has our mayor, "Scrat", changed in the past four years? Is he still in his own special "Ice Age", in pursuit of that darn acorn? Has he "Gone Nutty"?
From time to time I go rummage around in the archives of the first 18 months of this blog. The link is over on the right side of this page. For an old guy with too much time on his hands clicking through those essays can refresh my memory of events in our recent past.
A BLAST FROM THE PAST
Today I present for your reading pleasure (or not) something I wrote four years ago, on May 2, 2006, that seems particularly relevant today. It's not too long, so give it a read and let me know what you think... have things changed in four years? Take a peek at the video clip at the end and tell me if you see any similarities. (Here's a hint: Before you read further, slide over to the links at the right and scroll down to the title for this one and click on it, then continue. That will allow you to view the movie clip, below, without the background clutter of my archive links.)
Tuesday, May 2, 2006"Scrat" Mansoor - Prehistoric Acorn Juggler
Do you remember the trailer for the movie, "Ice Age"? It portrayed a goofy, pre-ice age rodent named Scrat trying to bury a huge acorn because of the impending "winter". At one point he attempts to stomp the acorn into the snow, which results in a crack forming. The crack expands and expands and expands. Finally it causes a glacier to fracture and tumble toward Scrat.
He begins to escape, then remembers the acorn and dashes back to retrieve it. This whole trailer is all very Indiana Jonesesque as Scrat stubbornly refuses to let go of his acorn and skitters from catastrophe to calamity trying to evade the onslaught of the falling ice that he started. At the end of the trailer he ends up being inadvertently stomped into the dirt by a Mammoth, who tells him "You're an embarrassment to nature - you know that?"
I was thinking just how much Scrat reminds me of our young jailer/mayor, Allan Mansoor. Several months ago he hatched his plan to cross-designate Costa Mesa law enforcement officers to become immigration screeners. That was his "acorn" - a nut almost too much for him to carry. Despite the fact that every other law enforcement official in Orange County has rejected his idea as a bad way to go, he stubbornly juggles this "acorn" against the elements - and the wisdom of real leaders.
As he tried to stomp that acorn into the snow, our young jailer/mayor created the crack in the ice that has become the huge demonstrations on the immigration issue we have seen in recent weeks. Yesterday, for example, literally millions of demonstrators marched in cities large and small across this country. Mansoor's truly bad idea was the flash point, the catalyst for the demonstrations, as he preened before the cameras on national television and had his ego stroked by those on the radical right.
His plan has made Costa Mesa a metaphor for intolerance as he and his cronies persist in juggling this acorn. He stubbornly continues along this path even though the jagged ice shards are falling around him.
I suspect the mayor may find his own "mammoth" - the electorate. In November he may find the voters of this city telling him, "You're an embarrassment to Costa Mesa - you know that?"
SCRAT - GONE NUTTY
HAS HE CHANGED?
So, what do you think? Has our mayor, "Scrat", changed in the past four years? Is he still in his own special "Ice Age", in pursuit of that darn acorn? Has he "Gone Nutty"?
Labels: Allan Mansoor, Scrat
posted by The Pot Stirrer at 5/02/2010 08:42:00 AM
2 Comments:
please write this site in spanish. thank you.
Not a chance, amigo.
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