There is still much shuttling to and from various physicians' offices, leaving little time for spewing and viewing. What tidbits I gleaned of today's news came over the car radio via NPR and the BBC, from which I learned 1) The king of Nepal has apparently booted out the rest of the government and declared a state of emergency in what some people are calling a coup... a king staging a takeover of his own country seems a bit odd to me, but there you are; and 2) it is truly astounding how NPR and the BBC can offer up heaping earfuls of phoned-in commentary by various experts about the release of the UN's report on the atrocities in Sudan without a single mention of the Sudanese government's seat on the UN Human Rights Commission.
Of course, it was mentioned that this report will most certainly test the United State's commitment to human rights. Never mind the blue-helmeted rapists running amok in Africa or the fact that the Commission is well-populated with such champions of human rights as Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Nigeria, and Cuba. Nope. It's all about America's commitment, even though the Sudan report might not even be made available to the UN's own human rights commission for debate because of back-room finagling between the EU and various African delegations.
Yes but Abu Ghraib car battery testicle water torture and so forth. I'd like to say that it's one of the consequences of the media age that people no longer perceive historical trends and only remember the most recent headlines, but I think that's just making an excuse for the willfully persistent negative view of America that certain people feel duty-bound to promulgate and others feel morally obligated to accept. It's a kind of ideological affirmative action plan, in which it becomes the solemn duty of the insignificant journalist to place corrective emphasis on his or reporting, just to make sure that people don't get the wrong idea and toddle about with improper thoughts in their heads. We wouldn't want anyone believing that America expends blood and treasure to topple dictators, then facilitates elections and repeatedly declares its intention to leave immediately upon the request of the new government, would we? Can't have people thinking that enlightened self-interest is still enlightened, no, that just wouldn't do. That's not the real story... just ask the experts. They'll set you straight.
Do you think some artful member of the concerned popperati will turn the ink-stained fingers of Iraqi voters into an iPod ad?
Somehow, I doubt it. That just wouldn't speak the truth to power. Nothing says "Truth" like the juxtaposition of American technological consumerism with a humiliated third-world victim of American imperialism. That's heavy. Reminds me of when I used to do things like snip pics from gay porno mags and stick them onto crosses. Get it? Dicks and God, man, that's deep.
Then I grew up, a bit, and while I can still appreciate the whole dick/God thing, it's a little banal, and certainly not something that I'd want to try and build a career on, entertaining though the effort might be *cough*Sullivan*cough*.
Thus, another winter day draws to a close with a brief burst of unwarranted snark, and I'm still not appreciably smarter than I was yesterday. I have, however, succeeded in resisting the temptation to whack the long icicle that's sprouting from the front corner of the gutter. It's a good five feet long now, and I'm hoping for an ice column of some kind. Did I mention banality recently? I think I might've.
They may be commonplace, but icicles in the sun are attractive and sparkly, and the fact that my house is growing a big 'un means I've got a big sparkly thing on my domicile, and who doesn't want that?
Admit it: you want a big sparkly thing.
But you can't have mine.
I mean it. I've got guns.
