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Shouting into the Storm
Rantings, ramblings, observations and musings from the insipid to the sublime
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Thursday, November 21, 2002 :::
Well, so much for writing two or three times a week.
I wish I had a great excuse. Traveling, developing super powers, trying out to be yet another starting QB for the Redskins. No, I've pretty much just let this slip. I couldn't focuse my thoughts into a coherent tirade, and so just didn't write. So, without further ado, and random listing of things that have been rattling around my head...
Christmas - the local mall has been in full "Santa puked all over the place" mode for the last two weeks. Santa is already doing photos with the kiddies. We aren't even to Thanksgiving yet. You think the presidential elections keeps getting earlier? Try the retail worlds rape and pillage of the Christmas season.
The Elections - Make no mistake, the Democrats blew it. The most exciting thing most of them could come up with is prescription drugs for the elderly, and then mudslinging. In the meanwhile, the GOP laid out a clear plan of what they were for, and why you should be scared out of your mind if the Democrats won. In Georgie, Max Cleland lost his Senate seat because his opponent painted him as unpatriotic. Mr. Cleland lost 3 of his 4 available limbs in Vietnam. And they wonder why Young People won't get involved in politics. Anyway, what I want to point out is how much bullshit this "Mandate" talk in the media is. The Minnesota, Georgia and New Hampshire senate races were all won by the GOP by 15,000 votes or less. Consider that on average, barely half of registered voters actually voted. If the Dems had gotten their base out in New Hampshire and Georgia, and if Paul Wellstone hadn't been killed, the Dems would still control the Senate. Doesn't seem like much of a Mandate now, does it?
Iraq - I had a fairly bitter spat with a friend about this a month or two ago. His arguement went something along the lines of "He's dangerous, he's been hanging around for 10 years, something must be done. And going out and doing anti-war protests doesn't cut it." I disagree vehemently on the last part, of course, but I've come up with the most simple explaination of why I'm against the current administration's stance on Iraq. I could point out the historically bad concept of "Pre-emptive strike", or the long-term problems with Regime Change, or the fact that toppling Saddam will increase the probability of terror attacks against the US(and since I live and work in the immediate DC region, that means *me*). No, here's one much easier to grasp - I do not trust the motives behind their actions. They are running a game plan that conservative think tanks have been hopping to run for the last 10 years. Pax Americana is the big buzz phrase they use. It is the hgh point of the arrogance and ignorance of the official gov't view of the world. and let's face it - if there was no oil or Israel in the Middle East, we wouldn't give a rat's ass about the region.
With such mind-crushingly important news in the world today, I'm glad the major news outlets can still waste precious time and resources to Michael Jackson. My apologies to Paul Gutman, since he actually linked the latest Jacko fiasco(Hey, I could write for the NY Post with mad skillz like that) to his blog.
The latest Foo Fighters album, "One by One" is tremendous. Go buy it. Now.
In a little levity - ladies, if you are swing dancing and you utter the phrase "If you can lead it right, I can follow it" you better be able to do just that. A stuck up Jewish Princess tossed this out to me at swingn class this week. She then botched the move up completely by trying to back-lead it.
::: posted by Chris at 9:28 AM
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