You and me, let's go out going all the way.

~Me

Most of us had to read Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath at one point or another in school. I didn't like it all that much, though I found it somewhat interesting because the Weedpatch Camp the characters end up at was just a stone's throw away from my classroom. (The back end of my high school is right on Weedpatch Hwy.) The past few days, The Guardian has been retracing the steps of the Joad Family, and the last stop in Weedpatch has just been posted. It's compelling to see the parallels that are drawn from that era of depression to our current economic woes. The things that have dramatically changed, the things are eerily similar. All five days' worth of articles and videos are worth a look.

Wired did a brief thing on the possibilities of free international long distance. I vote sooner rather than later. Although I'm back in the States, my globetrotting days are no where near over, and it would be nice to be able to communicate more easily with the folks back home. Until then, viva la iChat and Skype.

Speaking of Skype, EBay just sold it. This, of course, made me picture a Skype auction. What would your search terms be? "Internet phone"? "Multi-billion-dollar company"? I wonder if the successful bidders had to use PayPal. (And woe to them if they did. I've had nothing but trouble with that piece of crap PayPal.)

Less than 7 days till the Dissertation of Doom is due. Eek.

~Me

The following is one side of a conversation between Me and the United States.

"Hello?...Baaaby, how's it goin'?...Oh, um, I'm sorry to hear that...Well yeah I had heard...No no, I mean y'know how France likes to gossip, and Ireland got it from them...C'mon, it's not that big of a secret that you have a credit problem...Me?...That's kinda why I was calling...No wait baby, listen. I need to come back. It's just not the same without your curly fries...NO I'm not calling you fat!...Honey please...Actually someone mentioned you had cut back on the trans fat...Just that cow England. She's jealous because now she's gonna be fatter than you soon...No baby, of course she's not prettier than you...Scotland meant NOTHING to me! Honest! Look, I need to come back to you now...I promise it'll be different this time. I mean, you've got a different boss now so maybe you'll be in less of a bitchy mood all the time...I'm SORRY! But it's not my fault you were so cranky before...Baby, I know I know. You're just fine. In fact, you're beautiful. That's why I've gotta come back...Scotland's a one trick pony, babe. I mean sure, she's really green and got clean air and free health care and lots of tasty Guinness, but you can't watch even a single Laker game! Now I know you miss doing that with me!...Yeah, it'll be like the old days, but better...Aw, I knew you couldn't say no to me...Yeah, I'll see you Tuesday."

What a neurotic bitch.

~Me

After her performance on The Daily Show, Elizabeth McCaughey resigned from her post as director of Cantel Medical Group.

From Cantel's own press release - Cantel Medical Corp. (NYSE: CMN) is a leading provider of infection prevention and control products in the healthcare market. Our products include specialized medical device reprocessing systems for renal dialysis and endoscopy, dialysate concentrates and other dialysis supplies [...]

Dialysis and endoscopy. The one thing Stewart never mentioned, and I don't know if it's because he doesn't typically like to get too cutthroat, or what, but he never brought up what it is her company does. (Even after she started down a line of reasoning that seemed to accuse Stewart of being "so rich" with his "great, big penthouse".) The woman responsible for the "death panel" stuff was, until a few days ago, the director for a company that makes dialysis machines. She claims in these interviews to be looking out for old people, and now it would appear she was only looking out for her bottom line.

Again from the press release - McCaughey [...]stated that she was resigning to avoid any appearance of a conflict of interest during the national debate over healthcare reform. No shit.

If you haven't seen the interview yet, here is the extended version Part One, Part Two, and Part Three. (Part two will actually read out as part one extended, and part three will read out as part two extended. Sorry for confusion.)

Here's my problem. I love Jon Stewart to death. He's smart, he's engaging, and most importantly, he's funny as they come. I am not, however, down with my generation's idea that he is our most trusted newsman, and he is not comfortable with that moniker either. He engaged in these clips in something that many people who agree with him are saying needed to be done - a public display of how bullshit her reading of the bill is. Why is it him? Why is it that a stand-up comedian is the one doing this? Why was it Stewart that took down Crossfire, and Stewart showing Jim Cramer for the hack he is? Where the fuck is Edward R. Murrow?

My love for the man aside, Stewart should not be in this role. In fact, no newsperson seems to have any credibility anymore, so they shouldn't be doing it either. The citizens don't need to see some blonde corporate head shilling for her company in the name of saving Grandma, and they don't need to see a middle-aged comedian who is just getting exasperated.

We need a geek. I'm talking some lumpy, unattractive egghead who is unpolished and unused to seeing the sun because he/she has spent way too much time holed up in a room (I'm picturing the steam pipe trunk distribution venue from West Wing here) reading the legislation. He/she would know all there is to know about everything in the bill, and in addition, knows all there is to know about the current healthcare system as it stands. They would be pushed out, against their will preferably, and be made to tell everyone what the hell it actually says. That's it. No spin, no bullshit. Here's what it says, here's how it's different from what we've got now.

But for now, I guess I'll settle for this -
Stewart: We're 50th in infant mortality and 46th in life expectancy.
McCaughey: Wait a second. Life expectancy, when you remove violent crime and car accidents, we are number one.
(Audience laughs)
Stewart: Point taken.

As a fan, it worries me that Stewart may be becoming what he has always lampooned.

~Me

Sometimes, I wish Texas would go ahead and secede from the Union. It's a large state; surely it could accommodate all the people who love America but only when it's government keeps it's filthy hands out of things. (Excluding the military, of course. And it's better when there aren't any dirty Mexicans. And black people. And poor people. And liberals.)

All right, so we've got those people their own state. Their own country, maybe. Much akin to when anyone protested a war overseas and they shouted "Move to Canada", we can have them move to Texas. (Which, btw, I did one better - I moved to the UK. Twice. Unfortunately they won't let me stay. Which means I have to go back to not having doctors anymore.) They can reenact the wild wild west to their hearts' content. Guns for everybody! It would be like a Conservative Never Never Land, where they never have to grow up or learn to accept gay people.

The rest of us, of course, would continue the struggle, because life is fraught with differences. Even if the hardline conservatives moved away, the people remaining would still have differing ideas on what life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness exactly means. People LOVE to harp on what the founding fathers may or may not have meant. "This is a Christian Nation" or "They never meant for the government to be so involved" or the oft-quoted Benjamin Franklin "Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both." (Funnily enough, liberals used that last quote in defense against the Iraq invasion, and now conservatives are using it to counter health care reform. I love how history is just a swinging pendulum.)

Guess what, cats and kittens, the founding fathers are DEAD. They are buried, gone, no longer of this earth. I've seen John Hancock and John Adams' graves. They are superdead. Good luck getting them to tell you whether or not your special brand of ideology is what they meant all along.

WE, however, are not dead. And we the people are still trying to form a more perfect union. The United States was and is an experiment, not some dusty document signed by a bunch of white dudes. I know, I know, they are the OG Patriots and how dare I insult them. But I'm not insulting them, I'm simply stating a fact. We are alive, they are not. Did they intend for us to have unlimited filesharing or carbon caps or the right to have semi-automatic rifles or a functioning health care system? I don't know, and guess what, you don't either.

Assuming you don't want to move to the Republic of Texas with the Lost Boys, you're gonna have to face the fact that not everyone in the United States is white, privileged, or has boot straps to pull themselves up by. Not everybody thinks like you, your father, or your god. Not everybody thinks like me, either. If you want everyone to agree and to think alike, go move to a fundamentalist society like Iran or the new hypothetical Republic of Texas. You'll be happier there. But if you're willing to understand that, like the seasons, Change Happens, then maybe you should stay.

~Me

This video has been making the rounds, and I didn't know what to think. In defense of the woman, she admittedly is not very political. She is not informed. She is getting put up on national television to talk about something she knows nothing about in that ridiculous questioning manner that is central to shows like "Hardball". That is enough to fluster anyone, and being that she looks like she is going to cry the whole time, she is obviously flustered. Just because I don't agree with her opinion on the subject doesn't mean I don't feel pity for someone who is made to look a fool.

On the other hand, in the video shown of her at the town hall meeting, you see someone very different. You see someone who, though vague, is very articulate. She is angry. She is also feeding off the mob mentality that has become central to these "town hall meetings".

Citizens getting involved in politics and government is a good thing. It is a vastly better thing than a public too distracted by their iPods and Survivor to care about real issues. Inasmuch as this woman who has previously never cared about the goings on of her country and the world, it is good that she is choosing to show up to the party, even if late.

But if you're gonna show up, bring your A game.

Mike and I were having a discussion last night about my post regarding many people's lack of apparent intelligence when it comes to the health care issue. He argued that it was not, in fact, stupidity that make Americans believe that some sort of Logan's Run reality is happening over here in the UK but rather the very calculated efforts of corporations. If they can keep you living in fear, you will buy their product. In this case, the product is news and infotainment. If they can keep you hysterical, you will keep watching, which means larger and more expensive adbuys for the company. I agree with all this. But I still don't believe citizens can wash their hands of responsibility and claim "the media made me believe it". Just like the groups who think metal rock music makes kids do stupid stuff, Americans all think that they can blame the media for their own ignorance. When WMDs never materialized and the Iraq war droned on and on, citizens didn't cry foul on themselves, they got mad at the media for hoodwinking them into going to war. While the media dropped the ball on that one, and boy did they, the people let them get away with it.

For democracy to work, you must have an informed public.

Mike also said that people don't like to watch things that tell them they are wrong and I again I agree. The American's ego must always be assuaged with someone's soothing voice repeating "Pretty bird, pretty bird". If your news channel of choice is telling you something you like to hear, something you agree with, why would you want to hear anything different? And if it turns out that the people on the talking box were wrong and were manipulating you, it's easy to blame them. It is never your fault. It can always be blamed on someone else.

Bullshit.

Maybe I am asking too much from persons who are only now staring to realize that there are other things happening in the world than, as this woman said, "Getting married." Accountability. For her, and for many people, "It wasn't a priority in my life." Accountability. Perhaps I am asking too much from people whose heads have been under the sand for probably their entire lives. Perhaps we should give them more time, as they blindly yell at Senators and Congressman about stuff they haven't bothered to think through or learn about on their own. Maybe we should give them longer to wrap their heads around the idea that listening to opinions disguised as facts isn't going to help them when it comes to true understanding.

Accountafuckingbility.

If you are going to demand it from your media and your government, demand it from yourself. They are two institutions who can't do anything, ANYTHING, without your compliance. You stop buying their product, they're screwed. You demand things and vote on issues while being informed and they'll find it increasingly hard to pull the wool over your eyes.

Demand accountability from yourself. I felt sorry for this woman for awhile. And then I remembered that no one is forcing her to go on that program. No one made her ignorant. No one, but herself.

So yes, I still feel justified in labeling people with absurd beliefs as stupid. Until the day Big Brother decides what you can and can't read, what information you can and can't obtain for yourself, you have no one but yourself to blame.

Be for, against, or undecided about issues. But make sure your opinion is based on something real, because "The TV made me do it!" makes you look like an idiot.

~Me

I am a fan of debate without name calling. I am Pro intelligent discourse, Anti punditry. I dislike yelling, bullheadedness, and the general open-mouthed closed-earness of 24 hour news networks.

But sometimes, just sometimes, it doesn't matter what side of the political spectrum you're on, if you believe in something dumb, you yourself are dumb.

- If you believe the US health care system that is being proposed will have "death panels", you're stupid.
- If you believe the UK health system, NHS, makes people die once they get to a certain age or due to having a certain disease, you're a moron.
- If you think the US health care system such as it is now is the the best in the world, yup, you're still an idiot.

Go ahead and be for or against the new legislation. That is your right. But stop making stuff up.

And stop believing the Earth is flat. It's fucking annoying.

~Me

EDIT: In the words of my classmate (and Scotsman) Chik - Y'know it occurred to me that American students who have a spent a year here are some of the best people to comment on the relative merits of the two systems. I'm not an expert by any means, but sometimes I get the feeling I understand a whole hell of a lot more of what's up than anyone on television who is paid to discuss such matters.

The following is a stanza from the poetry I'm working with for my dissertation:

A fair helmet newly split has brought about that he will redden spears in battle with drops of gore; there is a bird from every flock in the house of spears of the flowing tears. THIS IS SPARTA!!!!

It's better in the original Klingon Classical Irish, of course. It actually rhymes.

It's one of the things I love about my research. The guy that this was written for, Cú Chonnact Mág Uidhir, the Lord of Fermanagh, was a PANSY. He managed to stay King over his little bit of Ireland longer than his older brother or his son, but that was due to his constant sniveling letters to the English begging them to make sure his Irish rivals, the Ó Néills, didn't overthrow him.

I'm lucky in that this particular fellow has so much evidence of his wussiness, but the other Lords I'm studying, particularly the ones a few hundred years earlier, don't have as much on record other than they lived and died. All we have for them is poetry like this. I find it fun to imagine how much of the pieces written about the various Lords are completely bogus. The art of spin, of flattery, is phenomenal at this period. Modern day publicists don't have shit on these guys, the OG Press Secretaries.

~Me

This morning, the sound of bagpipes and marching floated into the room on a breeze. At first, I was a little excited. Maybe it's a parade? Who doesn't like a parade? And then I checked myself. Wait a minute. It's summer. In Glasgow. Crap. That's right cats and kittens, it's marching season. I had to mentally check the calendar to make sure it wasn't THE Orange March. And it wasn't - that was in July. Phew.

Unfortunately, the Protestant vs. Catholic bullshit still lives on, if in more subdued and "socially acceptable" ways from the past. While not as bad as parts of Ireland, Glasgow has a heavy Irish population, many of which are descendants from people who brought the Catholic/Protestant allegiances with them. It is even present in which Glasgow football team you support. Rangers - Protestant. Celtic - Catholic. While a lot of the religious bigotry and strife is getting watered down through the generations, in the summer there are still the marches. Mostly now the only danger comes from people getting overly drunk and starting fights in the street, not unlike football hooligans. But the more serious stuff - Christians throwing bricks through windows of Catholic churches, Catholics beating up lone Protestants, on and on - is not that distant of a memory. Though summer brings slightly less rain and somewhat warm weather (it got up to 68 today!), it also revives in certain members of society old allegiances and ancient grudges.

(On a side note, I once read an article by an Irish historian that linked Protestant Orangeism to the American "Know Nothing" movement and the KKK. Daniel Day Lewis' character in Gangs of New York was a member of the "Know Nothing" group. I tried to find something about it on the internet, but haven't really come up with anything I could link to. Sorry.)

Something Glasgow can be proud of - it's invention of chicken tikka masala.

The UCLA Undie Run's cancellation even made Conan. Crazy.

Apparently Whole Foods sells a bunch of junk. Surely we could be more specific - Whole Foods sells a bunch of overpriced junk.

~Me

The Shat for the win.



~Me

Oh white people. You amuse me to no end. First he was a closet Muslim, now we're scared he doesn't have a birth certificate. This video made me think only one thing - Saturday Night Live WISHES it was as funny as these crazy white folks.

"Let's all do the pledge of allegiance to show that we are TRUE Americans! I can memorize 31 whole words, wheee!" I seem to recall these same people pushing to revoke the rule about being an American citizen when they wanted Schwarzenegger as President. I'm just saying.

And now for something equally disturbing, here's an interesting photo project a woman is doing about the real "happy endings" of some of the Disney Princesses. Jasmine is by far my favourite.

Lastly, for something that'll make you smile, kids covering Journey. Oh yeah, and they are just as intensely earnest as Steve Perry.

~Me

From doublex.com comes this article on Facebook's misogynistic beginnings. I have a couple problems with this -

1) It's based on a biography written on Zuckerberg that may or may not have fabrications.
2) It laments the lack of women execs in Silicon Valley without really taking measurement of the deficit of women in engineering/computer science/science in general. I'm not saying there aren't chicks who can't do those jobs, I'm saying more men are trained for it. Perhaps there's a correlation.
3) doublex.com is Slate for chicks. Sometimes I think if I see one more publication or channel aimed at me just because I have a vagina, I'm gonna ramrod a box of tampons up someone's ass. I'd rather watch Spike TV any day of the week over WE, though don't think I'm happy about the fact that apparently Family Guy is only for dudes, either. (Speaking of Family Guy, the article does get some points for a FG reference, and it was written by a woman! So there, Adult Swim.)

As of late, I've seen non-stop gibberish about men, women, how they're being marketed to, are they're NOT being marketed to, how they aren't in films in a realistic way, how Pixar is incapable of writing anything with a strong female lead, blar blar blar. (A really good article regarding how wanting to see a female in a film who is complex and flawed and some version of normal is a human reaction, not a political agenda, is the best I've seen recently.)

When I was a senior in high school, we were assigned to write our own piece of fiction. I jumped at the chance; after years of unending essays critiquing other people's work, we FINALLY were allowed to write our own. I was inspired (in a way that I unfortunately have not been since) and spent hours agonizing over which words to use and sentence structure. The main character happened to be a male. He was the character that jumped into my brain, fully formed with opinions and ways to deal with the world around him. It also happened to be about his relationship with a girl.

After my English teacher had graded it, he took me aside. He complimented me on my ability to delve into a young guy's thoughts, then he asked, "Why wasn't this written from the point of view of a woman?" I was startled by the question, and I had no answer. Eventually I shrugged in that non-committal high school way and said that I didn't think it would work the other way around.

Here's the thing - a story written from the point of view of a male is regarded as "normal". An "Everyman" goes on some adventure, or does something, (or if we're in a Woody Allen movie, talks a lot and does nothing.) And this "Everyman" is who you are to identify with. This is a normal film/book/play. A story written from the point of view of a woman is suddenly for chicks. Women-centric, women-catered, as if the interjection of ovaries into the plot loses the all-encompassing humanity of "man" and "mankind" and turns our character into an "Everychick". "Man" means humanity. "Woman" means we have to make due with Sex and the fucking City if we want to see females in the main role on the big screen. Because apparently we all dream of Prada, Jimmy Choos, and whatever the hell else those four were always on about.

Which brings me to my next point; what exactly is a chick flick? Recently I saw Away We Go, directed by the difficult-to-pigeonhole Sam Mendes. It had a fabulous cast, with Maggie Gyllenhaal, my hero Allison Janney, Jeff Daniels, Catherine O'Hara, on and on. They all played extraordinary characters who were larger than life and incredibly entertaining. But the two main characters, a couple going on a journey trying to find their way in the world, were juxtaposed against this backdrop by being incredibly normal. Both of them. The male and female leads, John Krasinski and Maya Rudolph, have conversations that young couples have, and not in a Judd Apatow reality or a Nora Ephron reality or Allen or Almodóvar, but as close real reality as I've seen in awhile. Some of the situations were elevated, which is good because we still want to see something different or interesting when we go to the movies, but it was all centered around two incredibly identifiable people.

Buzzer. Does this not count because, due to it being centered around a heterosexual couple, it is a "chick flick"? I would like to dispute it being labelled a chick flick at all. Whether or not they want to admit it, men often get into relationships. And sometimes, they are even with women. Even worse, sometimes men have to deal with Real Things, like pregnant partners and love. Which means, I'm sorry Men, a film that deals with these things are not just for us "innies".

The stand up comedian Patton Oswalt has a bit about hair metal bands in the '80s. His theory is that if you were a guy who was into these bands, you were harbouring some man-lust.

Jokes.com
Patton Oswalt - Metal-Mania
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I think this same idea could be applied to an intensely guy film such as 300. Nothing but muscular, nearly naked men running around, getting all sweaty with each other. As Oswalt said, "...and then they'll cut to a bunch of hot women miles away..."

Jokes aside, my point isn't to diss films like 300 or even Sex and the City. There is room for all these kinds of movies because sometimes I want to watch Shaun of the Dead or Die Hard and sometimes I want to watch Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Not because they are guy flicks or girl flicks, but because they are good. Just like there are such things as good action flicks (Dark Knight) and crappy action flicks (anything by Michael Bay), there are also such things as shitty relationship movies (He's Just Not That Into You) and quality ones (What Dreams May Come.)

I'm not asking for writers to sit down and go "I must make this story about a woman", I'm just asking that we please be recognized as People, like men all ready are. We can be flawed, we can go on adventures, and we can talk absolute bollocks about Star Wars and Reservoir Dogs. In case of zombie attack, we'll go for the head, and if we were ever allowed into a Guy Ritchie film, we might know not to mess with "sneaky fuckin Russians". And in matters of the heart, sometimes we win and sometimes we lose. Being present as something other than a mere sexual catalyst doesn't make the story any less satisfactory.

So would the high school me have been able to write the same story with the gender roles reversed? Perhaps, if I knew the person the reading it could enjoy it with the same universality as it had with a young man as it's center. But really, it's about People. And stories that portray people rather than tropes and gender stereotypes are always what I enjoy the most.

~Me

I got a little lost on my way to the doctor's office which was about a 15 minute walk from my flat. As such, I arrived exactly at 10:10, which I thought was good timing. The matronly woman behind the desk did not agree. I was handed three pages to fill in as a new patient, then told disapprovingly that the doctor is waiting and I'll have to do the paperwork after I saw him. Sheesh. I didn't know I was supposed to show up early to a doctor's appointment. Every time I'd ever been to one back home, it was at least 20 minutes after the allotted time that I got in, and usually longer.

I went in to a smiling middle aged man. He examined me and then, much to my surprise, asked me how much I remembered from biology class. I told him it was 10 years ago, so not much. He took out a piece of paper and drew a diagram of my shoulder, explaining which muscles were messed up. Then he drew a second diagram of the fibers of the muscles and explained how I had torn some of the fibers and that the reason I felt better for a day or two and then much much worse had to do with the bleeding from the fibers and the corresponding spasms. (I have NEVER had a doctor draw me a diagram before, I must say.) We discussed my allergies, then various treatment options. He asked me which I'd prefer, then set about to writing me a prescription. He told me that while the visit was free, I'd have to pay for the prescription. My heart sank. He looked at me very gravely and told me that all drugs were one flat fee. I nodded. "It's five pounds. Can you handle that?" If my shoulder and neck weren't so screwed up, I'd have got up and done a happy dance.

As he went on typing things into a computer, we discussed the pitfalls of UK NHS (the middling gray area between not a super emergency like a heart attack or a basic doctor's visit - waiting lists.) He told me that the UK's system is the most cost effective in Europe, but in his opinion, some of the other European systems were a little better. Then we moved on to comparing it to the US system. He mentioned that since health care was a business in America rather than whatever it is here, he figured, "The Americans aren't likely to give up their golden goose any time soon." I told him I hoped he was wrong and he shrugged. Then he made this analogy - "I have a brother in Burbank. You know what the weather is like there. Here in Glasgow..." He motioned out the window and I nodded. "My brother told me that in southern California, he was surprised how no one talks about the weather. I guess because it's pretty much always sunny. Then, on the off chance it rains, everyone drives crazy and has problems. Here in Glasgow, it's always crap. And we always talk about the weather." He paused for a moment as I thought about how he was pretty much spot on so far. "What Americans DO always talk about is their health. Health problems, what procedures they've had done or wish they could have done. The health system. Here, we never talk about our health. Maybe because it's always the same. Sometimes we have little freak outs when someone falls through a bit of a crack, but mostly, it's just fine."

I left his office and went down the hall to the pharmacy. My prescription was four pounds for two weeks worth (apparently the rate had been lowered rather recently), and about five minutes later, I was on my way back home.

Apologies for any misspellings or overly repetitious word usage. I'm rather loopy on my four pound drug, but the pain in my shoulder isn't killing me anymore. Yay!

~Me

There is a lot going on about health care recently. Of course. Funnily enough, tomorrow I will be availing myself of some of that free health care we've got in the UK that is either praised or condemned by Americans, depending what side of the political spectrum you're on.

I've had intense shoulder and neck pain for the past 4 days, and in my inexpert opinion, I don't know if a doctor can do anything about it. If I were in the States right now in my usual uninsured state, I would have to go on not knowing if a doctor can do anything about it because I would never see one. But luckily, I'm here for a little while longer, covered by NHS. After a farewell hug from Chan this morning almost put me on the floor, I put myself to bed. This afternoon, I decided enough was enough. Around 3PM, I called my nearest GP group, they asked me if I could prove I had a student visa and was still currently a student (yes and yes.) They took my name, and BAM, I have an appointment for tomorrow morning at 10AM. No lengthy questions. No begging for a reasonable time slot; I automatically received one.

Problems some Americans present are along the lines of "That's fine and dandy for small stuff, but what about when it gets serious?" Well, a few things about that.

One - prevention. A health care system based on wellness rather than on sickness works to prevent some of the serious stuff later. The current US system, if you can call it that, isn't big on prevention. My doctor in the US wanted to charge me $1,000 for the inoculation against HPV, which of course meant I didn't receive it. Here, it's given out free, thus preventing future costs and run-ins with cervical cancer.

Two - you can still go get yourself care for money. Some Americans cringe at the word waiting list, (obviously they're not the ones who had to go to an emergency room to receive basic health care. THAT'S a waiting list.) At least in this system, options do still exist. Bill, a man in my course at Glasgow Uni, was diagnosed with lung cancer 10 years ago while in his 60's. Put on a waiting list for a test, he decided to avail himself of a private oncologist by paying for it. He was glad he was able to as he believed it helped prolong his life. (He recently passed away a few months ago from a heart attack.)

These are just my experiences with a nationalized health system. There are flaws to be sure, but at least none of them are turning away patients when their only sin is not being wealthy.

An insightful article on "rationing health care" came out yesterday that's worth a read through. Also, a good interview on last night's Daily Show with Kathleen Sebelius, the Secretary of Health and Human Services. (Part one here, and part two here.) Stewart brings up some good points about the middle class stranded between not being eligible for Medicaid yet not being able to afford private health insurance.

We shall see tomorrow if there is anything that can be done about my shoulder. Maybe there isn't, and I just gotta grin and bear it for awhile. But that's the glorious thing - at least I will know.

~Me

To sorta quote the great Chris Griffin, "How does this guy keep getting work?" A show about a sketch comedy show? Right, because THAT was the secret missing ingredient from Stella. You needed the meta to bring the funny. What, VH-1 isn't doing anymore stupid countdowns for you to provide snarky commentary on?

(Yes, I know, Pot, meet Kettle.)

At least I'm not as bad as these guys, the angry white men of 24 hour news networks. Where have you gone, Walter Kronkite? Our nation would turn it's lonely eyes to you, but it's too busy watching Bill O'Reilly lose his shit. (That's okay, Keyboard Cat makes it all better.)

Perhaps when we are angry or feeling jerked around, we could take a page from this guy's notebook, and write a song that embarrasses the guilty party into some form of an apology. Ah the democracy of the internet.

Now for something completely different, holy crap, this is sad.

~Me

The huge protests in Beijing have reached their 20th anniversary. One man stood in front of the tanks by Tiananmen Square on June 5th. The New York Times has an interesting piece with four photographers talking about that day and what they had to go through to get that shot, and keep it away from the police. Meanwhile, China has blocked Twitter, Flickr and other sites in anticipation of the anniversary.

Robert Gibbs is talking trash about the British media. (Seriously, we need to replace this dude. I was informed after my campaign to replace him with the Sham Wow guy that said spokesman was arrested on a felony battery charge. So, now I'm gonna go with the OxyClean guy.) Go ahead make fun of certain publications, Gibbs, but much like the States, you have your good ones, your decent ones, and your crappy ones. If I had to pick one publication to read for the rest of my life, it very well might be the UK's own Guardian. Also, it's not like this is the first time sexual assault has come up about Abu Ghraib. I had a dig through my old entries and found this article from 2004.

Cheney has officially admitted there was no link between Iraq and 9/11. I do not believe, and I have never seen any evidence, that [Hussein] was involved in 9/11. Damnit, I hate it when I'm right.

Obama's Facebook feed. Read it. It's funny.

~Me

Recently my buddy Albert put up on article on Facebook regarding Texas possibly allowing concealed handguns on college campuses. It sparked a rather large debate about gun control, as these things do. I am not like typical liberals when it comes to this issue. I have not made up my mind about it. I guess dating a one-man arsenal for a number of years can cause you to see things from the human perspective, something that so rarely happens with these issues.

A lot of the arguments do revolve around numbers, facts, parsing of historical events, and discerning the exact meaning from laws. Unfortunately, much more of it involves emotional attachments, classism, and, most frequently, FEAR. Legal gun-owners fear their government, other nationalities, and home invaders. Gun control advocates fear rednecks, people who one day just SNAP, and, well, getting shot. Legal gun-owners see it as an inalienable right and don't understand why others would want to take away something that they use only for a hobby and/or self-preservation. Gun control advocates see them as in love with power and destruction, both of which are rather loathsome qualities in a human.

I don't know. I do know that the legislators in Texas who are using Virginia Tech as a reason why college students should have concealed weapons seem to conveniently forget that the gunman bought all his guns legally. It's a bad argument. Stop using it.

I also know that here in the UK, where any guns owned are kept in gun clubs or are reserved for farmers, gun deaths are so rare that when one random guy gets shot in England, it is on the front page of every newspaper and discussed at length on the BBC for weeks. In Bakersfield if someone got shot, it might, MIGHT, make the local 11 o'clock news, along with all the other people who got shot, stabbed, or in other ways offed that day.

Anyway, as I am wont to do, my response to Albert's posting was lengthy. Facebook made me divide it into multiple comments. I figured I would include it here, since a lot of my friends are not necessarily also friends with Albie. (It almost makes me want to draw a Vinn diagram. It was one of the few things we ever did in math class that made sense to me.) ( Here it is, behind the cut. )

I know the news of the day isn't necessarily this topic; it's much more about North Korea and gay rights at the moment. But I wanted to put this on here anyway, if nothing else so I'd have a record of it for myself. (Though regarding North Korea, I think this is just more proof that Bethesda should switch all manpower to working on Elder Scrolls 5 because pretty soon, we'll all be playing Fallout 3 the Home Game.)

~Me

A webcomic with Scottish and American history jokes? I am SO there! (Granted, there is actually mostly Canadian history jokes, but since it's not maple syrup or The Tragically Hip, I don't really know what's going on with those.)

In case you haven't been to the random Highland valley that is Glencoe, I had some fun with Photoshop...


In equally unimportant news, I'm re-addicted to Oblivion. Come on Bethesda, quit messing around with Fallout 3 expansion packs and get on Elder Scrolls 5. Since you can't use Patrick Stewart (or Sean Bean) for this go around, maybe Ian McKellan? Or you could hop on the Civ train and use Leonard Nimoy.

Whoa there, pickle. That's a pretty intense response. But I guess 6 million dollar bribes are a pretty intense allegation. If we were to use 6 million dollars worth of corruption as the literal jumping off point, how many American politicians, bankers, oil barons, etc. would the world suddenly be without? I am, of course, not advocating any sort of violence, but can you imagine any American white-collar-criminals taking the shame and guilt so personally?

~Me

Hey Obama, why don't you assign ME to your UK ambassador post? I mean sure, I have no diplomatic experience and I'm only 25 years old, but I've at least lived here, which is more of a credential than anyone can give to your apparent appointee. I know that MP doesn't stand for Military Police and have a pretty good handle on their 31 flavours of political parties. If all it takes is $500,000, I'm sure I could find that kind of dough somewhere. I'll go ask Dick Cheney.

Christina Patterson of the Independent is not a fan of Every half-wit in their bedroom. Every begoateed young wannabe gunslinger blogging away in Starbucks. Every nutter vomiting out vitriol, every parasite cutting and pasting and posting... Well I don't have a goatee, but it would seem you are the one vomiting vitriol, madam. Go ahead and campaign for people to pay for something that they've been getting for free for awhile now, but there is no need to attack some of your most dedicated and involved readers. If the last decade has taught us anything, it is that the old truism of democracy only working with an informed public is deeply, painfully true. When George Bush and your Tony Blair were selling us a war on a lie, what was it that you in the media with your "nicely crafted prose" were doing? Oh yes, it was playing their intended part, that of a glossy used-car salesman hocking lemons.

Perhaps I am a "young wannabe", but you Ms. Patterson only have one thing that I do not, and it certainly isn't talent. The difference is your paycheck. It isn't about quality of content for you, it's your salary. Of course anyone with a brain would fight to keep their jobs, especially if they are particularly fond of it, but you are not some intrepid reporter. Even your "opinion" pieces for the Independent read like a blog entry, with multiple subjects in one article. Robert Fisk you are not. I only have a readership of maybe 10 and you have a readership of 10 thousands, but it isn't due to your skills, craftsmanship, or investigative mind. You were hired. I do it for free. On top of that, I do it gladly, for fun, and most importantly, for the sake of spreading information. I'm sorry if that threatens you. Step up your game, and then it will be worth paying for.

~Me

Dear Fuckers Who Live Upstairs -

I don't know what on earth you could possibly be hammering directly over my bedroom that takes two days to do so. Two words - NAIL GUN. Also, if you could NOT be doing it at 8AM, that would be appreciated. I'm on vacation.

Also, whatever it is you're drilling, it better not involve me sitting here, minding my own business, and then half of my ceiling falling on my head. You can't even imagine the unpleasant things I will do to your body with that hammer and drill. The film Saw ain't got nothing on me.

Sincerely,
Bitchy American

PS...I'm a pacifist, but please die.

Seriously Obama? Seriously? 'New era of human rights' my left ass cheek. You can't make an intrinsically unfair trial 'more fair'. Pretending the extra "safeguards" will supposedly make the Gitmo military tribunals better is like saying gargling acid while being set on fire is better than gargling acid while on fire and being forced to watch Angels & Demons. It's trifles.

(Also, can someone give Robert Gibbs some caffeine or a snort of cocaine before he does these press conferences? Bush's press secretaries could get away with being Ben Stein-esque because the guy they were relating messages from was baboon-esque. Gibbs can't compete with Obama oratory. Can we get the Sham Wow guy? Please?)

If you could guess what retard, boneheaded university would give Schwarzenegger an honorary degree, which would you guess it was? That's right, USC gave him an honorary doctorate while at the same time, this very man is cutting billions from state education. Oh wait, that's right. USC is a private institution that doesn't give a flying fuck about California. Much like the current governor.

On this side of the world, both Tory and Labour MP's are causing scandals. Good to see US politics isn't alone at sucking.

~Me

I've been busting my ass as of late between essays and tests and the like. And even though I have a huge presentation in four days that I haven't even started on, I decided to take a break and go see Simon Pegg's attempt at a Glaswegian accent.

That is to say, I saw the new Star Trek film. ( My review here. (No significant spoilers.) )

And the verdict on Simon Pegg's accent? Well according to the Glaswegians a few rows behind me, it was "Nae bad."

I agree.

~Me

Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don't stand in the doorway
Don't block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
There's a battle outside
And it is ragin'.
It'll soon shake your windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin'.

Come mothers and fathers
Throughout the land
And don't criticize
What you can't understand
Your sons and your daughters
Are beyond your command
Your old road is
Rapidly agin'.
Please get out of the new one
If you can't lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin'.

Dylan's just better at it than I am.

~Me

A wonderful, moving, winsome and arresting letter to his 16-year old self by Mr. Stephen Fry. (Yes, the gentleman in my icon.)

One of the things I loved about the above piece was in the comments below it (other than a few people thinking that using multi-syllabic words and being *gasp* gay are all terrible things), so many people felt compelled to write little bits to themselves at 16. It's really sort of interesting going through and reading them, figuring out which ones are written by people who are probably only about 20 now, who is in their 40's, etc. How many of them write about just kissing the girl instead of letting the moment pass.

I kinda feel like I don't have enough perspective on how things turn out to write one yet. However, I'm feeling particularly self-involved today. ...

Dear young(er) me,

Don't bother trying to join the army. September 11th is about to happen, and I know that's just a date on a calendar right now, but you'll find out the significance very soon. Just take the ASVAB test to get out of 3rd period chemistry for a day, and when the recruiter comes calling, tell him you're a lesbian.

Start saving money now, and bet it all on Arsenal in the 2005 FA Championships to beat Manchester United. You'll still be calling it soccer at your age. That's okay. I forgive you.

Do not, under any circumstances, go to Jerry's Pizza. You'll lose some of the hearing in your right ear. Also, you'll think the guitarist is your friend. He's not. This will feel oddly important at the time.

Kurt Vonnegut will change your life.

Be nicer to Brandon. He'll grow a sense of humour in a couple of years, and then you and his wife can tease him over Coronas.

Be nicer to your high school English teacher. You'll grow out of your cynicism in a few years, and then he'll be teasing you about it over Coronas.

Your parents aren't always right. They are, however, awesome.

Yes, you are as geeky and awkward and loud as you fear you are. You also will never be this thin again. Enjoy it, you skinny bitch.

Love,
The old(er) me

Due to my inability (thus far) to come up with a research proposal for PhD applications, I've been looking at teaching gigs back in the States to hold me over for a year or so while I come up with something that doesn't sound like I put it together in 10 minutes. (Who are we kidding, I'll probably still put it together in 10 minutes anyway.) Also, the deadlines for scholarships pretty much everywhere have passed for this year. I've all ready applied to some private high schools and some colleges. But there was one that I nearly applied for until I had a good look at just which college it was.

Bakersfield College.

Now wouldn't that be some shit?! Strangely, out of the community colleges I've looked at/applied to, by far they pay the best.

The thought kinda makes me queasy. And laugh maniacally all at the same time.

~Me

I don't consider myself a feminist. I am a proponent of equality for humans - that means all genders, races, sexualities. I am not for "girl power" but rather "human power". (Of course in certain quarters, being a fan of equality is enough to make me a bra-burner.) So from this mindset, when I read this article, it was almost enough to make me buzz cut my hair and start wearing flannel.

What bothers me about it isn't necessarily the "science" - ...women's "market value" declines steadily as they age, while men's tends to rise in step with their growing resources (that is, money and maturation). Countless studies -- and endless anecdotes -- reinforce [this] conclusion. (Anecdotes aren't enough, but I am not immune to using them from time to time to try to prove an argument. So while it is a false or weak logic, it would be hypocritical of me to attack them purely from that angle.) What bothers me is the idea that the only thing a woman has to offer a relationship, her "market value", is how many offspring she can pop out before her eggs wither up and die. The man's value is money (as in his career is the only important one), and maturation (boys can be so immature. That's why according to this guy, it's okay for men to slut around until their late 20's but is unnecessary for the womenfolk.)

It doesn't just bother me that the man writing this article, Mark Regnerus, is pigeonholing all women kind into some sort of 1950's ideal of baby-factories that cease to be important once all that work with their fallopian tubes is done. It bothers me that he also boxes in the men. By his standard, there is something kind of off-kilter about them if they aren't just about the money. Regnerus leaves no room for barren couples, gay or lesbian couples, couples who don't desire marriage, or straight couples that just flat out aren't interested in procreating.

What happened to love?

So women's ability to have a child decreases after a certain age...yeah, and? We've known this for quite some time. Did you know if you leave a bag of chips open for too long, they start to go stale? This is irrefutable evidence that women, like Nacho Cheese Doritos, only are valuable when they're fresh.

Here comes my anecdotal evidence. Ready? I always have dated older men. I haven't married any of them and there's not a single part of me that wishes I had. I always have been a person who likes doing what I want with my life, which usually involves college, travel, and other things that I fancy. For ME. Are these things selfish? Maybe, but what's the point of pretending that I don't want these things in order to fit into some dingdong idea of what a vagina-wielding-creature should be? That would make me a shitty spouse and an even shittier parent. And that's where Regnerus is really screwing up. Sometimes, people don't want to get married yet. It isn't a sign that they are a slut or they are immature. To do so against their nature in order to fulfill some societal norm does far more harm than good.

Female animals often choose their mate based on how strong they seem to be. This is so she can have the strongest possible offspring. However, that's the fun part about being a human endowed with a higher mental capacity. No one has to start rutting just because I'm 25 and apparently my only valuable asset, my ovaries, are starting to degrade. I can choose love.

And that is the only time I'll ever choose to get married. When I'm in love. My ovaries simply won't have a say in the matter.

~Me

Today was a balmy 55 degrees Fahrenheit with not a cloud in the sky = Glaswegian t-shirt weather!

Not wanting to waste a day like this, after class, I traded my jacket for my camera ( and went for a wander. )

Days like this are prime for people watching. So after my wander took me to the Botanic Gardens, I sat on a bench with a hot dog and enjoyed.

There was a pair of brothers, the older couldn't have been more than 15 and he towered over his sibling who must have been around 10. Both were ginger, and both wore matching school uniforms, though the white shirt belonging to the smaller one was untucked and covered with dirt and grass stains. They were deep in an intense conversation, and the younger was looking thoroughly dejected. After awhile, the big brother reached out and took the more diminutive hand in his and they walked away together in this manner.

There was a man who looked like Henry Rollins in a tracksuit. His gait was purposeful and his face was that of someone who never smiles in photos because he thinks that his square-jawed intimidation-stare makes him cool. The best part about this G.I. Duncan was who his companions were: a line of 20 odd schoolchildren who must have been around the 4th grade in US terms. They all had on their school uniforms, just like the brothers from earlier. It was a scene out of Madeline, all Mary Janes, knobby knees, high-pitched voices...and Secret Agent Hamish looking like he'd rather be in a comic book. I laughed out loud at this juxtaposition, which I'm sure made me look just as crazy as the Wannabe Superhero.

There are more photos from today that I've added to the end of this Facebook album.

Off-topic, I totally still do this.

~Me

There's a certain dust he will never understand. What that sound is, filtered through years and heat and sweat and toil. There's something about that sandbox that only us and those like us will ever truly comprehend. The silence and the fury - all in one choking, consuming breath.

Only those of us from the desert know what dirt and asphalt is about.

~Me

I once had a boss that believed in astrology. No, not astronomy, astrology. He blamed Mercury being retrograde for why all the computers in the studio weren't working all of a sudden and why my car had taken a dump on the same day. I said maybe there was a city-wide EMF pulse that momentarily put everything on the fritz and he looked at me as if I was from Mercury. "Well now that's just stupid," he said. My boss was a little...you know, there simply isn't a textual onomatopoeia for that whistley sound you make when you're trying to imitate a spaceship. 'Cuz that sound was what was going through my head then, and I was trying to share with you all now, but there is no combination of letters that yield that effect. Sigh.

I was thinking of this today when the news of the shootings in Germany and Alabama came out. This of course is hot on the heels of the multiple murders in Ireland. These events are awful, hideous, and disruptive. These are the kind of events that make people turn to their various systems of belief and go "WTF?" Astrology, I would assume like any big or small religion, would try to cope with these things as best as it could. My question is, would it look something like this? "Well, the past week Mars has been in retrograde and Alpha Centauri has Gatorade which historically generates the effect of causing certain Crazy Mother Fuckers to snap and go shoot up as many people as they can before meeting their own (un?)timely demise. Pay me another $5 and I'll tell you what kind of shit will go down when Pluto is in Powerade." My bet is he's still pissed about being demoted from planet status.

Fortune for this week - Stay away from cops, schools, businesses, front porches, pizza delivery men, and anyone who causes you to make the spaceship-whistley-sound in your head. Mostly, just steer clear of anyone with a gun.

~Me

President Obama, all due respect, you are fucking up. Merely acknowledging that someone who is not an elected official, who has not had a single vote entered for him, who is merely an entertainer as the voice of the Republican Party is a mistake. Now, I am never an advocate of putting one's head in the sand. I understand Mr. Limbaugh has many, many listeners. But he, like so many other pundits and supposed "Guardians of Patriotism", is at the beck and call of one thing and one thing only - money. He has no obligation to the people. He has no obligation to Americans of any ideal, gender, or political affiliation. He has no obligation to Americans of any colour. His only obligation is to the colour green. And to take on someone who is not playing on the same field, much less the same sport, is lunacy.

So he has said he wants you to fail. He wants Democrats to fail. Ladies and gentleman of the United States, the Democrat Party has actively not just sought the failure of Republican presidents, and policies, and now war for the first time. The Democrat party does not stop at failure. Talk to judge Robert Bork, talk to justice Clarence Thomas about how they try to destroy lives, reputations and character. And I'm supposed to say I don't want the president to fail? We are in for a real battle. We are talking about the United States of America... remaining the country we were all born into and reared and grown into. And it is under assault, it has always been under assault. But it has never been under assault like this, from within. He has eschewed bipartisanship. To us, bipartisanship is them being forced to agree with us after we have politically cleaned their clocks and beaten them.

Actually, Mr. Limbaugh's statement reminds me of the words of a certain junior Senator from Wisconsin many years ago:
The American people realize this cannot be made a fight between America's two great political parties. If this fight against Communism is made a fight between America's two great political parties the American people know that one of those parties will be destroyed and the Republic cannot endure very long as a one party system. Later, the same Senator said - The issue between the Republicans and Democrats is clearly drawn. It has been deliberately drawn by those who have been in charge of twenty years of treason. The hard fact is -- the hard fact is that those who wear the label, those who wear the label Democrat wear it with the stain of a historic betrayal.

What is a major difference between one junior Senator from Wisconsin and one radio talk show host? Senator Joe McCarthy was elected, Rush Limbaugh was not.

Is Rush Limbaugh wrong? Yes, just as Joe McCarthy was wrong. Rush Limbaugh is going after the "evils" of liberalism just as McCarthy was chasing Communists. But does it dignify the office of the President to acknowledge someone who has not a single loyalty to anyone other than his sponsors? He may claim himself to be the protector of civil liberties but make no mistake - just like Sean Hannity or Keith Olbermann - the day his rants stop paying the bills, his voice will fall silent, seeking instead other ways with which to make a dollar.

Do not dignify this man with your time, Mr. President. It only keeps him and those of his ilk on the air.

We are to a large extent an imitative society. If one or two or three corporations would undertake to devote just a small traction of their advertising appropriation along the lines that I have suggested, the procedure would grow by contagion; the economic burden would be bearable, and there might ensue a most exciting adventure--exposure to ideas and the bringing of reality into the homes of the nation.

To those who say people wouldn't look; they wouldn't be interested; they're too complacent, indifferent and insulated, I can only reply: There is, in one reporter's opinion, considerable evidence against that contention. But even if they are right, what have they got to lose? Because if they are right, and this instrument is good for nothing but to entertain, amuse and insulate, then the tube is flickering now and we will soon see that the whole struggle is lost.

This instrument can teach, it can illuminate; yes, and it can even inspire. But it can do so only to the extent that humans are determined to use it to those ends. Otherwise it is merely wires and lights in a box. There is a great and perhaps decisive battle to be fought against ignorance, intolerance and indifference. This weapon of television could be useful.
- Edward R. Murrow

~Me

Culinary Disappointments

- Going to a KFC, thoughts of mashed potatoes and macaroni and cheese dancing through my head all day just to discover SURPRISE!, the only side dish Scottish KFCs have is french fries. Which they so graciously call "fries" rather than "chips" to keep up with the whole American theme. What, have they never seen Patton Oswalt's diatribe on Sadness Bowls? How do they not know that the side dishes are the only reason people visit their establishments??!!

- In the whole time I've ever lived here, I've never found ranch dressing. It keeps me from eating things like salads, chicken nuggets, and almost anything involving potatoes (don't judge.) I've come to accept this as a necessary evil of living over here, and it's okay because at least they don't have bottles of crappy salad dressings parading around with the false label of "Ranch" like they do with the impostor sodas they try to call "Dr. Pepper". To someone like me, the fake Dr. Pepper is like taking a starving refugee from some war-torn region like Darfur and bringing them to a tent and saying "There behind the flap is a table full of food and drink just for you and you'll never have to deal with hunger or bombs or roving militias ever again!" and then they unzip it and Hey! it's 40 scary-ass militia dudes who, in fact, have no food for you and are instead going to sell you into a sex slavery ring and while you're at it, swallow these cocaine-filled balloons because you're also gonna be a drug mule!

It's just like that.

ANYWAY, there's no ranch. Or so I thought, until I was at Tesco a few days ago and I see Paul Newman's baby blues peering at me from a shelf on a bottle labeled "Ranch Dressing". I felt like a parched lost soul wandering the Mojave who catches a glimpse of a 7 foot tall Slurpee sweating in the shade of a 10 foot tall Slurpee. I was so happy, I bought frozen barbeque chicken and a 6-pack of Corona to celebrate. I was going to have me a California meal in the last place on Earth I ever thought I'd get to have one. Well, of course, UK ranch dressing, even with the promise of Paul Newman's beautiful mug on the front and his cute little story on the back, is AWFUL! Instead of giant Slurpees, I found MURDEROUS DRUG LORDS.


So now I sit, Corona that's been bottled in Belgium in hand, wannabe barbeque chicken sitting lonely on the plate with nary a dipping sauce in sight (nevermind mashed potatoes or a hush puppy), 311 playing in the background and I'm thinking...PUB!

~Me

Woke up to find an email from Riz telling me that Steven Page has left the Barenaked Ladies. While I'm very bummed, and a little curious how they'll perform his songs, it makes me glad that at least I got the chance to see them live a couple years back.

~Me

I'm a little crushed under the weight of research proposals for PhD programs (or programmes, we are in the UK after all,) and I don't even really know what to propose. Well, I do for a couple of them, but not the Celtic applications.

All right, I admit, I plan on applying to more than just Celtic doctorate degrees. Some of them are more political in nature. From some encouragement I've been receiving from fantastic people in my life, I'm putting myself out there for some poli sci/political journalism programs. Yes, even though I haven't done any of it in undergrad or in my master's degree. It's what I wanted to do in 2002 when I was trying to go to school in Washington DC. Here it is 2009, 6 years of mostly-political blogging later (no, I'm not including my stupid LJ in my application before you cringe,) and that interest hasn't diminished. What's the worst that could happen? I don't get in. But this is my last chance before it truly is too late.

I guess my silly desire to be CJ Cregg never died out. Damn you Aaron Sorkin.


Binyam Mohamed is back in the UK today after 4 years in Guantanamo Bay, and various internments in Afghanistan and Morocco. The Ethiopian-born 30-year-old has in the past accused the UK of having knowledge of what he claims was widespread torture during his time in detention and of being involved in the interrogation process by providing and receiving intelligence. The mistreatment included, he said, the repeated slashing of his genitals with a razor blade while he was in Morocco. [...]

"Before this ordeal, torture was an abstract word to me. I could never have imagined that I would be its victim. It is still difficult for me to believe that I was abducted, hauled from one country to the next, and tortured in medieval ways – all orchestrated by the United States government.

"While I want to recover, and put it all as far in the past as I can, I also know I have an obligation to the people who still remain in those torture chambers. My own despair was greatest when I thought that everyone had abandoned me. I have a duty to make sure that nobody else is forgotten."

We do this over and over. By 'we', I mean all humans. But the United States can't play the holier-than-thou card when they are just as guilty of the exact same atrocities. From the first 'Red Scare' at the beginning of the 20th century, to the Japanese internment camps, to Gitmo, why is liberty always the first thing to go when citizens get scared in a society that supposedly trumpets that very thing? "They hate us for our freedom" isn't just a thoroughly ridiculous argument in it's simplicity, it's also hilarious when you consider how much that freedom is contingent on the mood of the mobs. The Sedition Act of 1918 comes to mind, if you're sick of hearing about the Patriot Act.

Anyway, listen Obama. I know you've inherited a hell of a mess, but you gotta do something about this. I don't mean the token bullshit of "I'll close Gitmo in a year while I figure out if Bush was on to something with this whole not letting them have trials thing." Is it not chillingly telling that the US Bagram Internment Facility in Afghanistan was taken over from the old Soviet occupiers?

Speaking of Russians and imprisonment, in Alexander Solzhenitsyn's commencement address at Harvard back in the 70's, he said the following: A decline in courage may be the most striking feature that an outside observer notices in the West today. [...] Political and intellectual functionaries exhibit this depression, passivity, and perplexity in their actions and in their statements, and even more so in their self-serving rationales as to how realistic, reasonable, and intellectually and even morally justified it is to base state policies on weakness and cowardice. [...] they get tongue-tied and paralyzed when they deal with powerful governments and threatening forces, with aggressors and international terrorists. Should one point out that from ancient times decline in courage has been considered the beginning of the end?

Men of action with no real thought processes have been running the show for the past 8 years. Surely there can exist men of courage who also can think?

~Me

Looks like I left California at just the right time. Ugh.

Obama might rethink the constitutionality of the Copyright Act's huge fines, and meanwhile the Pirate Bay trial sails on with prosecutors being very confused about how everything works. Arr matey!!

Apparently the advertisement culture in France is very different than Stateside or the UK. Not necessarily the most important thing I've run across today, but I found it interesting nonetheless.

It often smells like car exhaust in my room due to the proximity of my window and the street. I called the appropriate people who said they'd get back to me. I give them till Tuesday to call me back before I go from polite request to Bitchy American.

~Me

So Scotland is mad at England, England is mad at Starbucks, and I'm not too happy with Obama right now. (Hey, if you think I'm gonna be less critical of the guy just cuz I wanted him to win, you've got another thing coming.)

Amidst all this anger, let's sit back and enjoy this - a senior citizens' choir doing hip hop:


I dunno what was better, Grandma attempting to 'shake it like a Polaroid picture' or the one word change to "Hot in Herre".

~Me