There are a few things I could sit here and complain about, like - wait, the point of that sentence was to not complain. In any case, what I mean to say is that the weather and general energy here in California make it hard to be too bummed about whatever it is I might have to be bummed about. Yes, my friends, spring is in the air: birds are singing happily again, a brilliant cascade of color is flooding back into the waking face of nature, and all of my favorite cooking blogs are inundated with infuriating rhubarb recipes. I say "infuriating" because I can never find rhubarb - there, complaining finished.
I haven't written anything here in a very long time, and even though I recently purchased a computer (it feels wonderful to be a part of the 21st century again), I'm going to go ahead and say it's unlikely that this will be a daily thing. I'm going to try and do it as often as I can because I enjoy it, but you know how it goes. Oh, before I forget, your song:
Caetano Veloso - Onde Andarás?
Speaking of things being in the air, I guess you heard about the toxic (maybe) volcanic ash making travel impossible in Europe until very recently. Obama and some other world leaders couldn't make it to Polish president Lech Kaczynski's funeral, thousands of people were stranded in airports, and here's a piece detailing a boatload of other potential woes down the road. Now that the mess is mostly over, here's a funny retrospective piece in the Guardian. It's downright insightful, actually. I recommend it.
I also caught wind (no pun intended) of a little nuclear gathering that happened here recently. In fact, I think it was the largest gathering of world leaders on US soil since the founding of the UN; even Goodluck Jonathan was there. Not surprisingly, Iran and their cute little selves had a nuclear summit of their own in which could be heard all of the usual "Great Satan" talking points, including some additional hilarious, outdated ways to describe the US. Take this, for example, from a piece in the LA Times:
Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, described the United States as the world's "only nuclear scofflaw."
Scofflaw? Is anybody monitoring the people translating these things for US papers? Is Mr. Burns writing Ali Khamenei's speeches?
Look at them, Smithers. Goldbrickers...layabouts...slug-a-beds!
Little do they realise their days of suckling at my teat are numbered.
Anyway, I think it's all kind of funny, really. The US is making a more or less admirable effort to raise the issue and show that they're committed to decreasing their absurdly huge arsenal, but Israel, who definitely has nuclear weapons but hasn't signed the NPT, has gotten off scot free (or maybe not?) not even sending their leader to the summit. Oh, and I don't have to mention (and not only because I already mentioned it here once before) that the US is the only power to have actually used a nuclear bomb on another country - twice - so unfortunately, the Iranian leaders have at least a shred of a point. There's all kinds of wacky news coming out of there these days; you may have heard that a high-ranking cleric there also recently blamed promiscuous women for an increase in earthquakes. Hm, I guess that joke writes itself. However, Feministing points out that spiritual leaders in the US have said similar nonsense. Good times all around!
Speaking of generally ridiculous things, the Arizona state House has passed a bill that will require presidential candidates to show their birth certificate to be eligible to appear on the ballot there. Yeah...there are actually six states pushing this kind of legislation right now. You probably won't be too surprised to learn that these are states in which Democratic candidates wouldn't dream of doing too well anyway, so I don't really think it deserves anymore of anyone's attention.
Arizona is actually on a roll this week; they've also passed a controversial immigration law that will make it a state misdemeanor to be unregistered and without papers in Arizona. It also requires police officers to inquire about someone's status if they are "reasonably suspicious" that the people may be there illegally. Another thing I probably don't have to say too much about, but still want to.
Lastly, I'm not usually a fan of catty pundit news drama, but it's always nice to see Jon Stewart call out Fox News:
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Bernie Goldberg Fires Back | ||||
| ||||
Hopefully both the quality and quantity of these posts will pick up in coming days.
0 comments:
Post a Comment