i thought that PJ O` Rourke accurately summed up my mood this morning.
i don`t generally read newspapers, i haven`t really since i choose advertising as a career; i look through them to see the ads or if i have something published, i don`t watch television news either, i find the news for the most part depressing and biased, which in turn depresses me more.
i would love to bury my head in the sand and avoid the news altogether, but i`m not built that way, i need to know and i tend to go out of my way to find out the whole story. which is why i tend to get my news online from a variety of sources, the most reliable of which is the bbc, which in my humble opinion is the only news source without an axe to grind. the beeb remembers what news is about; fair and unbiased coverage. but i`ve been down this road before.
today, i happened to glimpse a newspaper and saw this headline;
however there maybe hope in the form of Freedom to Read Protection Act of 2003; which is an amendment to the annual Justice Department appropriations bill that would effectively refuse any money to support use of the USA PATRIOT Act to obtain library or bookstore records without probable cause, so if you`re eligible don`t sit this one out, write your representative today.
i have no desire to see Michael Moore`s new film and this Bush administration does not fill me with confidence either. to me they are different sides to the same coin; excess.
they both prey upon the fears of people and use these fears to justify what they are doing. and they`re both profiting greatly as well. i posted The Boondocks comic earlier this week because i believe that we should never become so blinded by what we believe is right that we`re willing to do the wrong thing to support it. two wrongs have never and will never make a right.
do i agree with any neo-[insert evil of choice here]? not necessarily but that doesn`t mean they don`t have the right to speak. they do and more often than not it will do you good to listen, it will help you learn something; if not about them, about yourself. Sun Tsu said “Know thine enemy as thyself.”
there are things i believe strongly in, politics is not one of them there are too many grey areas and the basic principle of politics; trying to please everyone; is flawed. i believe in the right on consenting adults to do what their hearts desire in the privacy of their home. i believe in the freedom of the press to investigate and present the absolute truth. i believe religion should have no part of governance. i believe we have a personal responsibility to ourselves and our children to do what is right.
and what is right you ask? i think it boils down to one simple rule; Don`t take what isn`t yours.
enjoy your weekend whatever you do and for the US residents and citizens, it might be a good time to reflect that the freedoms that being fought for all over the globe on a daily basis are willingly being sacrificed right here at home.
when i was in Trinidad i was one the disenfranchised. i mean, i had the ability to vote, but i didn`t think it was worth it, it was six of one and half dozen of the other. but i did go to the polls, because if i didn`t i had no right to complain about the people that were supposed to represent me. since 1990, i voted in every local and general election that was held, the last couple of times i put `none of the above` on the ballot making it useless.
where is the irony in that you ask? here i am and worried, almost to the point of paranoia that i don`t have a voice. i can`t vote, i can`t affect change. i don`t have the right. by this time next week, i`ll be employed and a tax payer, but i`m not a citizen and i have no voting rights.
during the week of July 12 the senate is voting on the Federal Marriage Amendment, which states: “Marriage in the United States shall consist only of the union of a man and a woman. Neither this Constitution, nor the constitution of any state, shall be construed to require that marriage or the legal incidents thereof be conferred upon any union other than the union of a man and a woman”
according to my mother in law, i should pick the fights i know i can win, but that`s never been my MO. i know that the world isn`t black and white, there are things i`m willing to let slide, because i know no matter how had i try there`s never going to be a change, but there are some things that are so fundamentally wrong, that silence just compounds it. i felt that way about what was going on here on journalspace, so i spoke up, i feel the same way about gay marriage.
i do have an axe to grind, no i`m not gay, but the same arguments that are being used to oppose gay marriage; up until quite recently in some states; are the same arguments that would have made my marriage to vic illegal. that`s right, think on that for a moment, if i`m not mistaken the miscegenation statues were not removed from the state law of MS until 2000. i have gay friends, i`ve been to a commitment ceremony, what makes their dedication to each other and their desire to have it recognised any different from any of us?
this act is just one of the many pieces of legislation that scare me and the thing that scares me most is i have no recourse. i have to live with it for the sake of my love and my overall happiness.
what i`m really trying to do is encourage those who have the power to do something. now. in November. whenever you can. do something!
when that idiot was making his case about adult content i posted about COPA/CIPA and the fights in the courts, well there`s been a new development.
yesterday the Supreme Court; including Clarence Thomas; voted 5-4, to bar enforcement of COPA/CIPA because it violates constitutional free speech rights.
“The 5-4 ruling, however, does not resolve the constitutional question in a case pitting free-speech rights against efforts by the U.S. Congress to protect minors from online pornography.”
read the rest of the story
before someone misconstrues my joy; this decision makes me happy because it tries to put the responsibility for what`s accessible for children online, in the hands of parents; where it should be.
today i started the process to get involved with a clinical trial. i feel rather strongly about it. i`m not a great taker of medication and don`t particularly love visits to the doctors, so the concept of being poked and prodded for the next 15 months is a great leap for me.
in light of my cynical and conspiracy theorist nature doing this is also a great leap of faith for me but there are times when something feels so right that you just have to go with it. this is one of those times, from the time i saw the posted asking to volunteers to the initial interview this morning, i feel good about it on a gut level.
vic needed some reassurance and i think the consent forms and information packet has mostly sold her on this. there is also a small fee for participating the programme, but vic and i decided to donate the money to a worthy cause.
firstly, happy father`s day to all the parents on js; the fathers that are there for their children; physically, emotionally, however they can, the mothers doing the job of both parents, because they have to or they want to. happy father`s day to you all.
in news of parenting, it appears that our resident morality maven has taken leave of us; either fed up of our wanton and debauched nature or licking his wounds and planning for another course of attack; whatever the result, his journal in it`s last form is no more. i`m not celebrating, i`m not gloating, because that was never my intention, i`m just relieved.
today we cleaned the house top to bottom, including the boychick`s closet; he`s eight and his idea of organised and our ideas are radically divergent. we`re exhausted and we still have to tackle lunch and vic is planning on making bread and granola before the day is out. the boychick, a friend of his and vic`s mother are with us this coming week and operating on a limited budget, making what you can from scratch is always cheaper.
and finally my good news, on Friday i was supposed to trek out to Memphis in the wee hours of the morn to apply for a temporary employment authorisation because the USCIS hadn`t issued my employment authorisation after the prescribed 90 day period, however on Wednesday night, i came home to find and email stating that my application had been approved and mailed out to me. so no trek to Memphis and i`m soon to join the rank and file. that just leaves the somewhat miniscule task of finding a job. i`ve been sending out resumes since i got here, but i`ve been unable to follow up because i couldn`t work legally, well all that is over now, look out Nashvegas.
i`ve been a scrabble player since i can remember. my mother had that tiny travel scrabble that we used to take on the plane and she used to whoop my ass coming and going.
just after i got into high school we discovered a scrabble club in Port of Spain and thus began my experiences in competitive scrabble and my ability to beat my mother.
one of the keys to my skills was the two and three letter word list, the weekend after we received the list, i record all the words on a cassette and went to sleep one sunday afternoon, my young and impressionable mind retained it all.
since then i`m played with some regularity, not every friday like i used to tagging along with my mother to the scrabble club. i lost contact with the people in the club as i grew older and found less geeky past times, or so i thought.
i used to play occasionally, not with the skill and knowledge i used to as a younger man. scrabble is a game based on knowledge of language and like all language it`s ever evolving. i tried playing at a tournament last year and had my ass handed to me by a young man; who in a number of years will be in the same place i was sitting across the board from him, wondering what happened to all the skills he had. it was nice to see some of the faces i had grown up with.
scrabble i`ve come to realise holds a strange place in the geek hierarchy. there is no scrabble port for the mac, but i have a version i bought for the palm which i play with some regularity. and since i`ve been here, i`ve managed to get quite a few games in, i`ve kept my winning ways to some extent, but vic who shares my passion for words is a skilled player; not necessarily relying on the two and three letter words but her food vocabulary; and in recent days has managed not just beat me, but soundly trounce me on more than one occasion.
Word Wars is unflattering documentary on competitive scrabble, which is opening soon at the independent theatre here. i want to see this film. it may not be as charitable or understanding as Stephan Fastis` Word Freak but i feel an affinity to the people in this movie. i know who they are because they are the same people featured in the book, even though the book and movie are only related by their choice of subject matter. the other reason i want to see this movie is that i haven`t found a sanctioned scrabble club in Nashville, yet and i`m sure this movie is guaranteed to draw all of of us word freaks out of the woodwork.
it`s friday and foamy is god. enjoy some sick humour courtesy ill will press, particularly small, medium, large and non-holiday special and sitcom silliness.
this animations contain language frowned upon by most employers, so be advised.
i lost my virginity last night. well of a sort.
I`ve been Nashvegas for three months now and i attended my first live show at the Ryman auditorium.
For those of you unfamiliar with Nashvegas it is one of the premiere live music towns in the world. there at least four stadium venues; the Starwood amphitheatre, the Gaylord entertainment complex, the Ryman auditorium and of course the Grand Old Opry, plus a myriad of smaller venues and it`s not just country music. Nashville is a must stop on all tours, from OzzFest, Dave Matthews and Prince to Hillary Duff and Simon & Garfunkle. Plus there are all this up and coming indy bands playing at bars all over the place. This weekend, the $5 music series, Dancin in the District kicks off with Cake.
I had the great fortune to start my Nashville live music experience at the Ryman with Keb` Mo`. It rocked. From the opening act to the final encore, I can`t remember the last time i enjoyed a show so thoroughly. the lights, the sound engineering, the performances, the professionalism.
i`ve always said, if i had to take up a second career path it would be sound engineering and not in studio, but live. there were a couple of minor hiccups during the opening act; Shelby Lynn`s first couple of songs, but for the rest of the night, the sound was perfectly balanced.
professionalism at a stage show is something that i always admire, i mean you already have the patrons there, you could just play an hour and leave and we, the patrons would just have to live with it. Keb` Mo` played for close to two and a half hours, interacting with the crowd, trying to acquiesce to all the requests shouted at him. what was also interesting to see was everyone was taking care of their hearing, ear plugs all around, none of this getting older and not being able to hear because of too many loud gigs.
all in all i would i have been glad to spend the night doing anything with vic, but being at the concert was icing on the cake. and we got home to more good news, which precludes me having to drive to Memphis at some ridiculous hour tomorrow morning.
edited for subject change.
