Tidbits

I had a nice quiet weekend. I went to the hospital both days to visit with Lori. We haven’t had time to hang out for hours just chatting or being together for years now. There are usually other people around or we just meet at a restaurant or her house for lunch during our work week. While I would have preferred to spend time in a place other than a hospital, I was glad I was able to spend time with her as long as she had to be there. Hopefully, she will be released today.

A funny thing happened the other day. I was getting ready in the morning, showered, washed my hair, cleaned my ears with Q-tips, put on deodorant, installed teeth, went through my usual ritual. Before leaving the bathroom I tidied up, putting the towel to dry, wiping the sink, securing the toothpaste, tossing the q-tip into the trash, lighting a match. My usual routine. I thought I had used 2 q-tips but only one was consciously trashed, the other, I assumed, had been ‘unconsciously’ tossed in the trash.

I went into the bedroom and gathered my clothes. I sat on the bed and put my socks on and then my underwear. As I stood up to pull up my underwear, low and behold, a Q-tip head was peaking out of my navel. “Hmmmm,” I said to myself, “so that’s where it went!” It was then, like the previous Q-tip, consciously trashed.

I’ve been keeping up with the Dick Cheney “I-do/I-do-not-have” Executive Privilege regarding documents in the Vice President’s office and his assertion that the Office of the Vice-President “is/is-not-part” of the Executive Branch. This man is the most obnoxious, corrupt person that has ever been a heart-beat away from being called Mr. President. Why hasn't he been indicted for something? He has, in the past, claimed executive privilege when he didn’t want to turn over documents of activity in his office as relates to the Valerie Plane exposure, and also claims he is not part of the executive branch and therefore exempt from the order governing the handling of classified information. Make up your mind dip shit!

There is something bothering me. It is a partial deja vu experience I've been having. let me explain.

In the summer of 2001 the BIG news story of the day was the disappearance of Chandra Levy and her affair with Congressman Gary Condit. The media hammered this story during the summer of "no other pressing news" to death. Every news program had the latest news (which was nothing) about the case and every cable news channel had program after program of talking heads specualating on whether Gary Condit killed her, hid her, impregnated her, etc. This was like an incessant drum beat throughout the summer, through to September 11, 2001. It wasn't spoken about again after the terrorist attacks. When Chandra Levy's body was found a year after she disappeared, it did not receive front page headlines.

There was plenty of horror to report on for months and months after 9/11. Then came the wars, Afghanistan first and then Iraq. Then came the devastating tsunami in southern asia, killing hundreds of thousands in a moment. Then came Hurricane Katrina, the devastation, and the absolute apathy and ineptitude of FEMA. Then came the lull.

The news media thinks that Americans aren't interested in war talk so they rarely explore that reality extensively. The Bush administration is betting that without the visuals of flag-draped coffins returning to America, words alone aren't graphic enough to rile Americans to pay attention to the details of the war. So we have a small percentage of our TV news coverage devoted to the wars.

The deja vu eperience comes from the inordinate amount of time and media coverage given to the absolute bullshit life of Paris Hilton. If I was Osama bin Laden, I'd be thinking that America was not paying attention. Our president and vice-president are so absorbed in keeping their inadequate and illegal activities from becoming the new scandal. Paris Hilton is being treated as if she were an important part of our culture and we are held in rapt attention to her trials and tribulations. 20 people are running for an election that isn't even happening for another 17 months. What a great time to knock down another building or drop a dirty bomb on a Washington street. Will it take another terrorist attack on American soil to stun the media out of their tabloid mentally?