(THE NEWEST BATCH OF) NOTES FROM A FRIDAY AFTERNOON
flipping the burgers of my
mind.
For your consideration: another curious collection
of thoughts, reactions, and observations that didn't make it into a full-length
post this week. So they're sort of like all those drive-killing penalties the
Raiders drew last night. Just when the game gets into a
rhythm...
• This week, for the fourth (increasingly) infuriating time, I received one of Hillary Clinton's This Isn't a Fundraiser and I'm Not Already Campaigning for President But Here's a National Critical Issues Survey for Someone Who Doesn't Even Live in My State packages in the mail. She's a smart woman. You'd think by now she or some of the equally smart people working for her would figure out that I -- and lots of people like me -- have no intention of falling for it. Or of returning it. Or of sending her one red cent of my blue state money. You'd also think that, if these issues are so darned vital and pressing and time-sensitive, that she and her staff wouldn't still be sloshing around in the survey stage, almost four full months after I got the first one.
• I also got a very informative mailing from the nice, scary people at the ACLU. Like Hillary, they think I’m their friend. Also like Hillary, they’re doing their best to panic me into a donation. From them, I learned that George Bush and his allies...want to permanently give the government the right to break into [my] home, invade [my] home, and rifle through [my] possessions, and that they’re seeking to wipe out or render meaningless the judicial oversight that the Constitution put in place as a check on out-of-control government power. I also learned that Power-hungry politicians and religious right extremists want to take my tax dollars and hand them to religious organizations... and give those organizations free rein to violate federal, state, and local anti-discrimination laws. Precisely how they’re planning to do all this, I did not learn. But I did learn that I could take a critical step toward protecting my freedom by forfeiting my money — or at least as much as [I] can afford. Funny, I think, how none of my political friends want to help me for free.
• I also learned that I can help by signing and sending some ACLU-approved, pre-printed protest letters to my Republican Senators. Because nothing says outraged average citizen hoping to make a difference like rubber-stamping a form letter from some national political action group.
• Speaking of my Republican Senators... Rick “Uh, Um, Uh, What's Her Name - Uh, Well" Santorum was at it again this week. He managed to behave himself through much of his Breakfast with Patricia Sheridan interview in Monday’s Post-Gazette. Enough that I’d begun to think his colleagues or his wife or someone had fitted him with some sort of electronic restraining device, maybe something that sent small electric shocks to his cerebral cortex anytime he thought about saying something typically silly or off-the-wall. But then, near the end of the piece, either those devices malfunctioned or he just couldn’t contain himself anymore. First: That is not to say that a good father and a good father — you know, two men — aren’t better than abusive parents. It is, I suppose, a relief to know that the good Senator does admit, however grudgingly, that two loving gay parents could possibly be preferable to two abusive straight ones. But his best was yet to come: Those who want same-sex marriages want their lifestyle affirmed. That's what they are looking for here. Affirmation from society that they are accepted, and that's not what marriage is about. It's not about adults; it's about the kids. Think about that for a second. Marriage is not about society's affirmation of your love and lifestyle choice. (I thought that was exactly what marriage was about.) Marriage is not about adults. (Who, apparently, should be getting hitched not out of love for each other but out of desire to procreate with the blessing of God and all his favorite Republicans.) Marriage is about kids. (Who, of course, must be produced naturally -- and presumably without sexual pleasure-- by their heterosexual, non-abusive, conservative parents.)
• Come on, Pennsylvania Democrats! Get that spin a’spinnin’! How about: SANTORUM OPPOSES CHILDLESS PARENTS. Or: SANTORUM CONDEMNS MARRIAGE WITHOUT CHILDREN. Or: SANTORUM SAYS THAT IN MARRIAGE, PROCREATIVE SEX IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN LOVE. Or even: SANTORUM SAYS MARRIED COUPLES WITHOUT CHILDREN MAY AS WELL BE GAY.
• Nice to see Michael Brown finally sent packing, even if it is only back to Washington. And even nicer to see that, while not (yet) relieved of his duties as FEMA Director, Brown still has his priorities straight. Asked by the A.P. about being relieved of on-site command at Katrina Ground Zero, Brown said he is anxious to get back to D.C. to correct all the inaccuracies and lies that are being said. Once he's finished that important task, he will presumably see what he can do about helping those damn people in Mississippi and Louisiana.
• Maybe it's just me, but the Discovery Channel's The Flight That Fought Back, a program airing this Sunday night that reconstructs the events of Flight 93, seems like an awfully crass exploitation of the deaths of those poor passengers. I know the show claims to use extensive research and unparalleled access, and I know it aims to honor the heroes who inspired a nation, but it's still one hundred minutes of hearsay and speculation and extrapolation, shot in a style that, no matter how polished the production values, still amounts to a glorified, fictionalized "dramatization." They may as well have titled it Flight 93: Rescue 911 and had William Shatner host it.
• This afternoon's sublime iTunes shuffle-up: the Rolling Stones' staggering, swaggering run through Sweet Virginia.
• Those mad alchemists at Apple did it again, didn't they? The new iPod Nano is the smartest, sexiest, most drool-inducing iPod yet. It's the Carolyn Murphy of digital music players.
• This week's trilogy of clock- and calendar-watching countdowns: 21 days until the U.S. premiere of David Cronenberg's A History of Violence; 12 days until the season premiere of Lost; 3 days until the season premiere of the Philadelphia Eagles...
• ...which have me thinking, Oscars, Emmys, Super Bowl. And, feels like a pretty good month to me...
• This week, for the fourth (increasingly) infuriating time, I received one of Hillary Clinton's This Isn't a Fundraiser and I'm Not Already Campaigning for President But Here's a National Critical Issues Survey for Someone Who Doesn't Even Live in My State packages in the mail. She's a smart woman. You'd think by now she or some of the equally smart people working for her would figure out that I -- and lots of people like me -- have no intention of falling for it. Or of returning it. Or of sending her one red cent of my blue state money. You'd also think that, if these issues are so darned vital and pressing and time-sensitive, that she and her staff wouldn't still be sloshing around in the survey stage, almost four full months after I got the first one.
• I also got a very informative mailing from the nice, scary people at the ACLU. Like Hillary, they think I’m their friend. Also like Hillary, they’re doing their best to panic me into a donation. From them, I learned that George Bush and his allies...want to permanently give the government the right to break into [my] home, invade [my] home, and rifle through [my] possessions, and that they’re seeking to wipe out or render meaningless the judicial oversight that the Constitution put in place as a check on out-of-control government power. I also learned that Power-hungry politicians and religious right extremists want to take my tax dollars and hand them to religious organizations... and give those organizations free rein to violate federal, state, and local anti-discrimination laws. Precisely how they’re planning to do all this, I did not learn. But I did learn that I could take a critical step toward protecting my freedom by forfeiting my money — or at least as much as [I] can afford. Funny, I think, how none of my political friends want to help me for free.
• I also learned that I can help by signing and sending some ACLU-approved, pre-printed protest letters to my Republican Senators. Because nothing says outraged average citizen hoping to make a difference like rubber-stamping a form letter from some national political action group.
• Speaking of my Republican Senators... Rick “Uh, Um, Uh, What's Her Name - Uh, Well" Santorum was at it again this week. He managed to behave himself through much of his Breakfast with Patricia Sheridan interview in Monday’s Post-Gazette. Enough that I’d begun to think his colleagues or his wife or someone had fitted him with some sort of electronic restraining device, maybe something that sent small electric shocks to his cerebral cortex anytime he thought about saying something typically silly or off-the-wall. But then, near the end of the piece, either those devices malfunctioned or he just couldn’t contain himself anymore. First: That is not to say that a good father and a good father — you know, two men — aren’t better than abusive parents. It is, I suppose, a relief to know that the good Senator does admit, however grudgingly, that two loving gay parents could possibly be preferable to two abusive straight ones. But his best was yet to come: Those who want same-sex marriages want their lifestyle affirmed. That's what they are looking for here. Affirmation from society that they are accepted, and that's not what marriage is about. It's not about adults; it's about the kids. Think about that for a second. Marriage is not about society's affirmation of your love and lifestyle choice. (I thought that was exactly what marriage was about.) Marriage is not about adults. (Who, apparently, should be getting hitched not out of love for each other but out of desire to procreate with the blessing of God and all his favorite Republicans.) Marriage is about kids. (Who, of course, must be produced naturally -- and presumably without sexual pleasure-- by their heterosexual, non-abusive, conservative parents.)
• Come on, Pennsylvania Democrats! Get that spin a’spinnin’! How about: SANTORUM OPPOSES CHILDLESS PARENTS. Or: SANTORUM CONDEMNS MARRIAGE WITHOUT CHILDREN. Or: SANTORUM SAYS THAT IN MARRIAGE, PROCREATIVE SEX IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN LOVE. Or even: SANTORUM SAYS MARRIED COUPLES WITHOUT CHILDREN MAY AS WELL BE GAY.
• Nice to see Michael Brown finally sent packing, even if it is only back to Washington. And even nicer to see that, while not (yet) relieved of his duties as FEMA Director, Brown still has his priorities straight. Asked by the A.P. about being relieved of on-site command at Katrina Ground Zero, Brown said he is anxious to get back to D.C. to correct all the inaccuracies and lies that are being said. Once he's finished that important task, he will presumably see what he can do about helping those damn people in Mississippi and Louisiana.
• Maybe it's just me, but the Discovery Channel's The Flight That Fought Back, a program airing this Sunday night that reconstructs the events of Flight 93, seems like an awfully crass exploitation of the deaths of those poor passengers. I know the show claims to use extensive research and unparalleled access, and I know it aims to honor the heroes who inspired a nation, but it's still one hundred minutes of hearsay and speculation and extrapolation, shot in a style that, no matter how polished the production values, still amounts to a glorified, fictionalized "dramatization." They may as well have titled it Flight 93: Rescue 911 and had William Shatner host it.
• This afternoon's sublime iTunes shuffle-up: the Rolling Stones' staggering, swaggering run through Sweet Virginia.
• Those mad alchemists at Apple did it again, didn't they? The new iPod Nano is the smartest, sexiest, most drool-inducing iPod yet. It's the Carolyn Murphy of digital music players.
• This week's trilogy of clock- and calendar-watching countdowns: 21 days until the U.S. premiere of David Cronenberg's A History of Violence; 12 days until the season premiere of Lost; 3 days until the season premiere of the Philadelphia Eagles...
• ...which have me thinking, Oscars, Emmys, Super Bowl. And, feels like a pretty good month to me...
Posted: Fri - September 9, 2005 at 05:36 PM
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Published On: Aug 28, 2008 10:24 PM
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Published On: Aug 28, 2008 10:24 PM