posted by Thomas on Jul 19
Couple of reasons.
Home keyboard has still not been replaced because last weekend I didn’t fancy going to the Apple store in the middle of iPhone mania. I’ve never understood people that get excited about gadgets the way they do about stuff that’s important. Like when I skipped a class to wait in line ffor hours or Episode 1 Star Wars tickets. (Thanks George. Thanks again for destroying my favourite childhood movies.)
Not having a space bar is difficult to write anything longer than a Facebook update. The way around that is to copy and paste a space but that isn’t a barrel full of monkeys either. The other way around it is to use my work computer. Which is what I am using now.
I’m trying to properly write a play and I am trying to focus. On the bottom of page 11 at the moment on the ‘puter. Wrote 4 ½ pages long hand last night. I have bits in my head so now I’m discovering how to string the bits together and trying to shut off the part of me that says, “You know this really sucks ass.”
I give you another Max line which was inspired by my friend Al:
MAX: You know I have no interest in history other than what I can use to mock other nationalities. Specifically Americans, The French, Germans and the Welsh.
For those of you that are theatre inclined and also know my struggle with dramatic action (I tend to write good lines but have a hard time with plot) I think I have it under control. . . but it is still early days. So yeah. Trying to focus.
There’s been lots of things I’ve wanted to write about but I didn’t have the energy and I didn’t want to write my usual flippant posts because there are a lot of things going on in the news.
Quickly. . . The New Yorker Cover. So obvious it is satire. So obvious what they are doing. Obama camp seriously messed up by taking the PC route. That said, a lot the Hilary supporters that are rolling their eyes would have tweaked if a similar cover had been done for Ms. Clinton. I’m just saying. I’m a bit sick of all the black/white thinking- and no I’m not talking about race.
The economy. Hoping the current pound to dollar rate stays similar as it makes it easier to pay off my student loans.
Christopher Hitchens. I’ve long had conflicting feelings about the gentleman due to watching a couple of debates with Robert Scheer at the LA Times Festival of Books where Hitchens defended the US Iraq war position. It wasn’t only folks on the right that lost their mind after 9/11 as few lefties did too and in my mind Hitchens was one of them. That said, the man is far more clever and possesses more intelligence than my right foot. And I also don’t have a lot of time for people that just parrot back my views back at me so I do appreciate his willingness to say things that can be unpopular in certain circles.
I do think, however. . . he can be a bit of a cock.
The last few years I’ve caught a few of his pieces where he has surprised me. He has said that he didn’t think waterboarding was torture. His editor thought he should look into it a bit more. . . This month in Vanity Fair he has an article on waterboarding where he submits himself to it. You can read the article here and watch a video of it here.
Yes. It is torture. And guess what. It’s wrong.
Funny. I remember the first time I lost a bit of love for America. I think I was 12. I found out about the Japanese Interment camps and the injustice of it made me so angry. Much like a relationship with a lover when you first realise that they aren’t perfect, so was my first realization that there was a lot of dust bunnies under America’s bed.
I do love my country. (Well. It isn’t my country anymore. I don’t belong there. And I don’t belong here really. I need to find a secluded island somewhere where I do nothing but sit in the sun and have a house boy bring me cold drinks with little umbrellas.) I love America in a co-dependant way that you love an alcoholic, or a wife beater or someone with borderline personality disorder. “Oh, he just does that because he loves me. He wants to know where I am and make sure I don’t get into trouble. In fact, it’s my fault. I need to behave better. I make him slap me around.”
That segues into something that blew my little mind. I’ve long been pissed at my alcoholic, wife beating, borderline personality disorder county for Guantánamo. No huge surprise there.
Last night I read on Amnesty International about Omar Khadr (who is a Canadian citizen) and watched the video of his being interrogated in 2003. Khadr has been at Gitmo since he was 16 for war crimes and allegedly throwing a grenade that killed a US soldier.
Yes. 16.
I don’t want to get into a is he guilty or innocent debate, (although there is certainly doubt given the initial report was altered in order to cast blame on Khadr) and a US Military Judge has thrown the case out due to his not being prooved to be a “unlawful” enemy combatant, but you have to ask yourself, why was it reasonable to keep anyone in prison for so long without a trial especially at a place like Gitmo, especially if they were 15 when they were first taken into custody?
I’m rather ashamed of myself that I didn’t know about him sooner.
Sigh. There’s other things I could blather on about but I’ve taken too long to write this. And now my blood pressure is up.
Oh, yeah. And the weather is rubbish today.