The World

Bush is toppled by 100,000 protesters in London. (Photo: David Bebber/Reuters.)

Anyway, I saw this article about Hillary Rodham Clinton’s appearance in Iowa prior to the primaries and decided to post about it because of the irony in the article. In the middle of the page, away from everything else on
the other side, in parentheses, capital letters, quotated, read the
following words:

(Six actual presidential candidates are here, too, and some campaign officials worried that Clinton’s presence would confine them to parenthetical attention.)

Heh, journalism humor. Such a strange animal.

Why is it that among Howard Dean, John Kerry, Dennis Kucinich and Joe Lieberman, not one has mentioned the arts within the “issues” area of their websites? (I haven’t bothered to check the other Democratic candidates.) Am I just missing it, or is arts and culture not really an important part of American life anymore? Normally there is some attention given to this issue, either positive or negative. I’d like to know their stances before I decide who I will be voting for.

I took the SelectSmart Quiz which asks you for your political opinions and tells you which Presidential candidate matches your views. The program told me that I should vote for Al Sharpton. What are your results? Leave a comment.

Speaking of comments, I updated the look of the comment viewer window and changed the code around so it won’t be quite as slow.

Johnny Depp made some critical remarks about the United States in a German magazine called Stern. Stern is apparently a weekly news and current affairs magazine, kind of like Entertainment Weekly with nudity. Unfortunately, I can’t actually check out the magazine from work, so I’ll have to find the article later and post a translation.

I expect there to be some mild backlash in the media, people calling to boycott his movies, etc. For my own part, I’d probably be happier staying in the south of France, too.

A school district has competed their project of installing cameras in every classroom. The recordings are viewable on the web by administrators, but parents and students cannot view them without going through a court. That bit seems unnecessary to me. Why not just let everyone view them?

I’m completely inundated with work. I needed to take a break, so here are some curious things in the news.

Jessica Lynch to tell story in book. Of course. Here’s a quote from her “spokesman:” “Jessica and her family have concluded that the most appropriate and complete telling of this story will be in a book, which they will have more to say about soon.”

By “appropriate and complete” he means “lucrative.” This is why she wouldn’t tell her story from the beginning. If everyone knew the facts in the beginning, who would buy the book? Also, she was probably told to keep quiet so the governmental propaganda machine could have fun with her “rescue” or “hero” story.

Piecing puzzle of Sept. 11 flight. The article revisits the theories of how this flight was brought down in a field in the middle of Pennsylvania. Mysteriously gone from the list of possibilities is the formerly widely-accepted theory that the military air support shot this plane down. As far as I know this hasn’t been disproven, and according to the flight data originally released (and later tucked away for security reasons) this seemed to be the most viable theory according to many. Now it’s not even mentioned at all; instead the tale of the downed plane has become another “hero story.”

Picture a mother walking with her teenage daughter along the beach. “Do you ever get that… manipulated feeling?” the daughter, a young adult learning about the way of the world, asks her wiser mother.

I am completely sick of American politics. I have always doubted the average intellgience of the people in my country, but never so much as now. Clinton lied about his sex life and was impeached (but not removed from office–there’s a difference). Bush lied about issues of national security affecting thousands of lives and no one seems to care. In fact, some people want to blame Clinton for Bush’s ignorance.

I just don’t understand how most of the public buys into this crap. Republicans decried Clinton for lying, saying the president of the country must be a perfect citizen, yet when Bush lies about something much more important to the lives of people around the world, the blame is shifted elsewhere. As president of the United States, Bush is ultimately responsible for everything. If he can’t handle that responsibility and must shift the blame elsewhere, he is not fit for the position.

That is all. There is more I want to say about, for example, CNN.com‘s headline last night: SONS DEAD! but it will have to be some other time. Now please read the entry below this because it is infinitely more important.

I was two hours late to work this morning. I had already planned to arrive in the office a half-hour later than usual (still technically “early” based on my official hours), but someone had a different plan in mind for me. The bus, through detours, got me to the station just in time to catch the 8:33 express train. The station was packed; I had never seen it as crowded as it was this morning. It turns out that no trains had been running for the last hour. When the next train finally arrived at around 8:50, it was the delayed 7:48 train, one I might normally take if it doesn’t look crowded.

Not knowing when the Amtrak Clocker train would show up, I took the NJ Transit train that arrived. It took more than an hour to get to the first stop, and by the time I reached my destination it was 10:30.

I don’t like the fact that I have to rely on mass transportation to get around. I guess this is one thing I’ve taken away from people who used to say to me things like, “All things that happen to you are your fault; you are the only one who controls your life.” Thus, even when I’m late due to train problems, it’s my fault for not having my own transportation–or for having a job that requires stepping outside of my place of living.

Here’s another news story (AP) about the accident.

Why, oh, why does our unillustrious, comparable, imitable president of our fair nation act like such a moron? He can’t really be that stupid, even though he is the only living person who could fall off a Segway. Bush’s response to Iraq attacks: “Bring them on!” It’s lunacy, I tell you. Let’s just invite more violence, because that’s clearly the solution to the problems in this world. It’s sad that the Democrats have no one who will be able to come close to challenging him in the next presidential election in this country. It’s sad that political parties exist in the first place.

Some people just shouldn’t be allowed to procreate.