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Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2003 / 8:00 p.m. ~On Politics, Hurricane Coverage, the Trainee, and Reality TV~ I'm feeling really well informed right now. CBS Evening News, followed by the Jim Lehrer News Hour on PBS, including a lengthy interview of Jimmy Carter, by Mr Lehrer himself. Good stuff. Jimmy is still so articulate and eloquent and diplomatic as hell, and wise. But I disagree with him about the US occupation of Iraq. I know I don't know as much about International Politics as he does, but I just wish we could load up the troops and bring them home. In fact, speaking of, they show the 'honor roll' of US soldiers at the end of each broadcast of the Lehrer show, the dead killed each day. Two young men, vital, whitebread, Middle American guys today, dead, gone, for what? And why oh why oh why, oh WHY doesn't CBS Evening News, and ABC and FOX and NBC do the same? Why don't they show their photos amidst a moment of silence like PBS? It was very sad indeed. Jimmy Carter was so interesting though, and boiled the whole Middle Eastern 'peace process' to two important points, recognizing Israel as a sovereign nation, in the International Community, giving them respect, I guess, as a nation with a right to their piece of land and their borders, and giving the Palestinians the same respect when they go to the 'negotiating table'. Clearly I'm missing something here, but it sounded like it was all about respect. Getting Israel to leave the West Bank and Gaza Strip, areas we've all heard about before, even the most politically ignorant amongst us, myself included, areas which belong to the Palestinians, and getting Arafat to appropriately condemn the violence of groups like Hamas (do I spell that right?). Will I be Googled for this? Do I care? I can't possibly adequately explain or translate what Jimmy Carter just said in an interview lasting about 20 minutes, but I feel I have a better understanding. And I do wish he were more passionate. What I mean is I love his diplomatic nature, but I wish he could take a stronger personal stance, on anything really. I've met him, got him to sign his memoir for me, or one of his memoirs, and he was very nice - I think he was lusting after me, in his heart of course. He told me I was very pretty. This was about 13 years ago though, back when people told me I was pretty. But that's neither here nor there. And I read a disturbing article about Clark last night, right after I wrote that I was going to wholeheartedly support him, just because Michael Moore asked me to in a widely sent email I received. That is really not good enough. I didn't know that Wesley Clark was the head of NATO back when NATO was bombing Belgrade, something I protested in my first antiwar demonstration in D.C. He may be antiwar now, but he wasn't then. He is military all the way. And though there are a lot of vets who are extremely antiwar now, they even have a web site, Veterans For Common Sense, I'm not sure where Clark stands now. Supposedly he supported the attack on Iraq, initially. And supposedly, he was 'kicked out' of NATO by Bill Clinton. This doesn't sound good anymore. And Dean is so busy raising funds, but he was here, middle of the day on a weekday, so I couldn't go, and I have yet to really hear him speak, hear what he has to say. I missed the recent debate. I'm sort of craving a good debate between these people now. I need to hear Kerry and Dean and Clark, and Sharpton for comic relief. Though Clark does look like a good alternative to Bush for Middle Americans. They will love that he is a decorated General, I think. It's all about appearances after all. They say Dean is a hothead anyway. Dr Dean vs General Clark, that's all you need to know, you want a COMMANDER, yes? To LEAD? Fuck issues, no politician ever comes through on those. Really, I'm just working this out, it helps to write it. But I can't jump on any bandwagons yet. I'm not ready. Besides, I'm not a bandwagon jumper onner. I'm not even on the Peacenik bandwagon. I join when I agree with the ultimate cause, or expression thereof. But I'm not a banner creating-partygoer. And I don't commit to the bus trip until the last minute. I still envision renting a car for next month. But I can't fathom the details. Not yet. In other news, I'm enjoying the new web site that exposes Bush's most recent lies, The Daily Misleader - I signed up to be on their mailing list actually, natch. Apparently Bush is going back on his commitment to funding aid for the AIDS crisis in Africa, already. And Bono is pissed! (***Addendum to note, Moby is copying me! He posted in his journal today the entire email about the Misleader site. I swear, I wrote this before I read his entry. Either he's copying me, which is impossible if he wrote his entry earlier, which he did, or we are on the exact same wavelength, in which case, when will we get together? It must be destiny, yes? Or we're simply on the same MoveOn.org email list...) And the Hurricane news is fun. BIG storms are always fun. There was a little snippet interview with some Virginia oldtimer on the Lehrer show - she says, white hair like cotton on her head, big smile, something to the effect of she's lived there all her life, never missed a storm, she loves the storms, they're wonderful, or did she say fun? She's planted. Good for her. It's one of those things, if she's killed, it will be while she's doing something she loves, watching the storm come in! But the coverage is the same as always, it's power screwdrivers and plywood and water hording, and cars on expressways heading inland and voiceovers promising continued coverage of the really good stuff, the DEATHS, the DESTRUCTION, so stay tuned for that!!! Tomorrow!!! DEATHS, the FLOODS, we hope! We'll bring it to you LIVE! See people's homes DESTROYED!! Whoo hoo!!! From the comfort of your own DRY home. Join us as we revel in the hardship of others. Er, report to you the latest. Every time, it's the same. And I wonder when Dan will fly out to be there, right there, microphone in trembling hand, clinging to nearby stop sign, or truck bumper. I told the trainee today at work, "They LOVE this stuff! They eat it up, the news agencies, and especially Dan Rather". Love ya 'Uncle Dan'!! She's cool too, the trainee, as well as I can surmise after two days of sharing my cube with her. She's INTELLIGENT, EDUCATED, bright, funny, chatty and interesting, and regardless of whether she's telling me she thinks a man who brings home a vibrator to his wife, or a dildo actually, and uses it on her, then sucks on it himself, and gets her to insert it in his anus has homosexual tendencies, and I am disagreeing, telling her about the prostate, or she's telling me that little 3 year old boys shouldn't play with dolls, and she would take one away from her nephew if she saw him playing with one, but not a truck from the niece of the same age, and I'm disagreeing with her, and explaining that I was raised by a mother who totally disagreed with gender stereotyping of children (she read Dr Spock, don't you know, and others), we don't argue. It's great. Really. So far... I listen to her, she listens to me, my phone rings, she's hooked up to my headset so she can hear the call, and I explain to her what I'm doing and why after it's over, and then we continue, "A lot of men derive orgasmic pleasure from stimulation of the prostate gland", "But that means he at least has the 'tendencies', and I'd be worried", "But you'd tell him he can play with the doll, then it's the little girl's turn? You wouldn't take it away from him to give to her?", "No, if he didn't take it from her, he just saw it and wanted to play with it, and she wants it, I'd tell her to wait until he's through, or give them time limits, he can play for half an hour, then it's her turn, half an hour, I wouldn't tell him it's wrong, or that 'boys can't play with dolls because they're not supposed to', that's crazy". "And no, Dave Letterman is NOT to old to be having a child!" - yet we both agree he should quit his show after the baby is born, or maybe go to two nights a week. I have her in my cube tomorrow too, and then the three day kamikaze training is over. She probably won't be back, but she already wants to switch to our department. She hates her job. Or more likely, her Supervisor. So we dished more dirt. And my PMS-y morning turned into a not so bad day. So far, as I said, so far, I like her. It also didn't hurt that when she found out my age she refused to believe me, I had to pull out my driver's license to prove it. She's 35, and she said she thought for sure, for SURE, I'm younger than she. Wow. It's been awhile since anyone complimented me. She says I have no wrinkles. I guess that's it. Even the increasing stray grays in my hair don't make a difference, she says. Nice. I think I'm not wrinkled because I don't smile enough. And I've not been in the sun for years. I mean, I don't stay out in it, not since I got tattooed, and that was years ago that I got started with that. I think the only other thing I have is the "BB4" eviction tonight. My theory is Robert will go, as he is clearly 'America's Choice', and may therefore be seen as the jury's choice. Jun and Allison are evenly matched, they've played the game about the same, so neither has a clear advantage over the other. Bye, Robert! You can hold your little girl now. He'll love that. That "Reality of Reality" series on Bravo last week, which was really, really good and interesting by the way, pointed out the worldwide fascination with and popularity of "Big Brother", almost literally everywhere (even Baghdad soon, I think I read recently) but America. Americans don't like the pace, or the cheap set design, because it's not a set, it's a pre-fab enclosure. I have always loved the premise, the psychological angle, lock these strangers in this enclosure for three months, force them to compete for their food, use one toilet, with a camera overhead, and one shower, likewise, and have them vote each other out every week. Whee! What could be better? Why aren't more people watching? Aha! In the other countries where the show actually is popular, the 'houseguests' engage in sex! And nudity! Nude activities. Their clothes are often off and scattered, and they're straddling each other constantly. What fun! We are still such prudes. Thrilling to gore and violence, but gasping at bare breasts. I still long to be an ex-pat. I have no neat way to wrap this up. None at all. Cost of the War in Iraq
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