We interrupt this news report for a public service announcement: Communists for Kerry have not been deterred by the defeat of their Glorious Leader! Through diligent political re-educaiton, they have transformed themselves into The People's Cube. (But the CFK site is still active.) Also, those of you with sufficiently elevated class consciousness will be permitted into the special State Stores for a limited access to decadent capitalist materialism cleverly disguised as political indoctrination tools.

Back at Union Square: Before I got there, three of the A.N.S.W.E.R. goons had surrounded our organizer, took him by the arm and tried to "walk" him out of the park. He put up his hands and started calling "officer!" The cops came over and told the goons to cease and desist. (The cops later told Jason that if they tried it again, to fall down and claim they pushed him, because then it would be "assault.") The cops told us we could engage in debate at our spot, and wander around if we wanted, but not to "provoke" anyone out in the main park area where we were outnumbered. The "debates" were the usual - mostly unsatisfying because people on both sides just threw strawman soundbites at each other. But it is good to be reminded that there really are flesh and blood people out there who think Bush engineered 9-11, that the US is responsible for every oppressive act of any other country, and that there are no gulags in N Korea (like the mild-mannered hardcore Communist in the ponytail, full beard, and three-piece suit who hung out with us ("I love you guys!") patiently explained to me). And it's fun to argue at that level once in a while, even though it's kind of pointless.

My favorite was the earnest t-shirted clean-cut 30-something who tried to enlist me in class warfare.
"Doesn't it bother you, all these CEOs making millions of dollars, with huge mansions and yachts?"
"No, why should it?"
"You mean it doesn't bother you that [more stereotypes] while you're just trying to get by?"
"Most of them are not like that little guy in the top hat on the Monopoly board. Some people just happened to be in the right place at the right time and had stock options in the right companies. Some people took advice from Warren Buffet. Anyway, it's not a zero-sum game. they having more doesn't mean I have less. In fact, the more they have to invest, the more jobs there will be."
"Well, okay, but, meanwhile some people are getting enormously rich off your labor!"
"Off their own labor and smarts. Their creativity creates jobs."
"What, you think those guys work?"
"Entrepreneurs and corporate executives work their asses off, are you kidding?" (Well, I know there are badly-run companies and highly-paid slackers too, but I was making a point.)
"Well, but why should they get paid more than somebody who works with his hands? How much does a plumber really make? $50,000 a year, maybe?"
I guess he never saw Moonstruck.
"Licensed plumbers and electricians made tons of money. And those rich plumbers play the stock market and have pension plans too. Their investments also create jobs. In fact, everyone should invest and have a stake in the system. They'll make more money that putting it in the bank." (I know, I was painting a very rosy picture, but it's all true in the aggregate.)
"Anyway, why does it bother you so much that some people are rich?"
"You mean it really doesn't bother you that [stock phrases about stealing the labor of the workers or whatever] ...?"

Man, talk about organizing your life around envy! So here's the kicker: the guy tells me he's a tech writer. Not exactly a menial low-paying job. Then everyone's favorite Irish Protest Warrior Brian comes by. I tell the guy to try his schpiel on Brian, who works in construction. The guy starts telling Brian how he's blue-collar too. "C'mon," I say, "You work in an office!"
"Well, the owners are the white-collar guys, all us workers are blue-collar!"
"That's the oddest definition of blue-collar I ever heard." At that point I realized this clown bored me and I left him to Brian, who probably chewed him out in his inimical Irish way.

Knowledge workers of the world unite, you have nothing to lose but your laptops!

My next favorite was the libertarian anarchist, who explained to me how now that we have sophisticated computers, we can predict how many products to manufacture, so we don't need money, so every's job would be worth the same.
"So how do you decide who does what job?"
"After the revolution, it will be self-managed."
Watch out for that passive voice! "So what if someone doesn't want to do a particular job?"
"Well, everyone will work that out."
"And if they don't agree, you line them up against the wall and shoot them? Or put them in a re-education camp? I think that's been tried."
"No, not at all. Anyone who doesn't want to contribute to our new society can just get out of the way of those who do."
"Well, hundreds of thousands did get out of the way. They fled the USSR, China, Vietnam... there were huge shortages....."
"This won't be an oppressive society like those. I'm not defending the USSR. That was state capitalism. That's not what I'm talking about. We can predict how much of everything to make now, there won't be shortages."
We went around in verbal circles for a few minutes about basic economic principles.
He said "I believe in a society in which everyone's job is equally valuable."
I said making choices is an intrinsic part of being human, and we don't all value everything the same, and if someone wanted to work the 3 PM shift instead of the 3 AM shift, he would offer the 3 PM guy a few extra rations to switch with him, and you would immediately have a black market, and therefore "money" or something like it.
"Well, yeah, okay, that would be a problem. We would have to work that out."
"Money is just a concrete measurement of value. Read von Mises, okay?"
"Read who?"

Then there was the nebbishy Jewish guy in the Bukharan kippa who had also come by after Yizkor services, from a different nearby Conservative shul, who told me how "Muslims and Jews always got along before."
I asked him if he had ever heard the word "dhimmi."
He hadn't.

UPDATE: Photos! And more photos! Courtesy of "Rogue 9," via Scott.

(God I need to lose 10 pounds....)