i don't even want one politic, let alone several
Mood:  caffeinated
bush is back for four more years, the war(s) go(es) on, same ol same ol. so, let's pretend everything's normal. let's join the mindless crowd, ignore the goings on of a couple thousand miles away in washington and several thousand miles more away in iraq and afghanistan and forget about the rest of the world. there is no big picture if you squint your eyes tight enough

in the early to mid nineties, like a lot of people, i watched the x-files. i'd had an interest in supernatural stuff before that, but suddenly there were tv shows and books all over the place, fuel for dreams that maybe there could actually be something more to this world than what our senses show us. all the religious folks have their god and devil, angels and demons, good and evil, but we atheists gotta take what we can get when it comes to the strange and unexplainable. i've been watching ghost hunters on the sci-fi channel of late and recently checked out the big book of the unexplained from paradox press from the library. and, it occurs to me that it's an interesting bit of timing, my renewed interest (not that it ever went away completely) in things supernatural, right when things natural (if political can be called "natural") turned so dour

realizing the nifty timing of it, i'm tempted to embrace it--i even looked up a local paranormal investigation organization, though they don't seem to have any paying gigs, just a bunch of volunteers--i'm tempted to give up on the world and fins something else to distract me...

except that would be wrong

there IS a big picture. hell, i tend to think i'm better at looking at it than a lot of people i know (not that antisocial little ol me knows a lot of people, of course). and, if we aren't careful, the events of that big picture WILL impact the smaller little pixels we call our individual lives before we have the chance to carve out something good enough to keep us from caring how many people our soldiers are killing in our name, keep us from caring how many of our soldiers are dying in that process, keep us from caring how politicians who actually believe in the idea of armageddon seem to be playing their hands right into it, promoting the end of the world... which wouldn't be so bad, if we could actually guarantee that christ would return and god would give us that wonderful world tomorrow of peace and joy and love and happiness, dwelling under his glorious wings forever and ever, amen

but, don't we all know that isn't gonna happen? i mean, can't even the staunchest christians get it yet? can't they see the folly of believing in the great magician in the sky who will make it all better? hell, even if you think a god will come to your rescue, does that negate your responsibility to do something yourself to fix the wrongness of the world? people dying, people starving, violence and bloodshed, lies and murder, day by day by bloody fucking day... and don't worry, god will fix it. how bout you take some responsibility for the state of things and, god or no god, do something about it. you want a "culture of life" you don't outlaw abortion and leave it at that. hell, you don't even outlaw murder, or outlaw war. you create a whole new cultural outlook that will make people not want to kill, whether it be the enemy or the unborn baby. you change people and their views, not pass new laws or declare new wars

or maybe you accept some parts of the way of things for what they are. people will kill each other sometimes. the best you can do is not add fuel to the fire. people will get pregnant when their lives are not ready for children. it doesn't matter if it's "right" or not, whether you want them to practice abstinence or not. it WILL happen. and, as long as you insist on forcing your will on other nations, even for the supposed "good", they will fight back. afterall, they've got a magic sky captain telling them their way of life is right just as much as you've got one. whose god is more powerful? or, better yet, whose god is more forgettable? whose god can be thrown into the trash heap of history more readily? and, if it's not yours, maybe it should be

watchlist for tonight:

• maybe a few more of the second disk extra from the stone reader
• the thing
• still haven't watched this week's the wire and it's on hbo on demand now, so tonight could be the night

reading: stripper lessons by john o'brien