Burning Bush

I'm sick of this campaign. I'm sick of the mud slinging, the buzzwords, the soundbites, the misrepresentation and the outright lies. I'm sick at the fact that the Kerry campaign has shifted its focus in the wake of the GOP convention and has allowed this election to be about the [sic] "War on Terror," exactly what the Bush campaign wanted it to be about.

In case it isn't obvious (and apparently it isn't...), you can't really fight a war against an abstract concept. We can have a war in Iraq; we can have a war in Afghanistan; we can (and, if Bush gets another term, we quite possibly WILL) have wars in any number of countries. But we CANNOT have a war in Terrorismland. Except, of course, in Bush's rhetoric.

I'm insulted by the whole War on Terror(ism) routine. I can't even begin to detail the flaws in reason. But here's a recent favorite:
Blindly Idiotic Bush Supporter: "I feel safer because George W. Bush is President."
Me: "Why, and how, exactly?"
B.I.B.S: "We haven't had a terrorist attack since 9/11."
Me: "Well, according to that logic, we should be safer without Bush as president."
B.I.B.S: "Huh?"
Me: "The worst terrorist attack to ever occur on American soil, one of the most devistating single terrorist attacks ever, occurred while Bush was President. Shouldn't that scare you?"
B.I.B.S.: "Huh? That's ridiculous..."
Me: "Granted. Yes, it is ridiculous. It's also following the same post hoc ergo propter hoc reasoning you're using when you give Bush some sort of credit for having kept us safe."
B.I.B.S.: "You think he hasn't made us safer?"
Me: "Not really, no. In truth, I feel less safe because of Bush. In terms of my human rights and American freedoms, I feel more threatened by the Patriot Act than by any possible terrorist actions."

I just can't figure out how -- much less why -- anyone would think this man ought to be in office for another four years.

and here I was supposed to be posting movie reviews...

Fortunately for me, I just read Rob's blog comments on Team America: World Police.
http://robstaeger.blogspot.com/
Now, I HAD been thinking of catching a matinee of this between dimmer checks at work tomorrow, but now I think I'll pass.
I'll probably still catch a movie (I haven't seen anything in I don't know how long), but I'll likely drive the extra twenty minutes and see Sky Captain.

Even a man who is pure of heart...

It’s not a full moon, but…

I’ve just come out of the WORST guest designer experience I’ve yet had at PLTC. Evil, evil man. And I think his lighting design looks like crap, too, which only makes things worse. Bleh. :-P

We’re talking working 19 days straight without a day off. A number of them were 12+ hour days. I’ve done nothing in weeks. I need too see movies -- hell, I need to see people! – I need to read comics, books, roadsigns I haven’t seen daily for the past three weeks, I need to listen to CDs somewhere other than in the car while commuting to work.

Oddly enough, in the midst of all this I’ve actually been following a new TV show. On network, no less. On, believe it or not, ABC. It’s LOST, and I’ve been taping and time-shifting the episodes thus far. (“Taping” refers to the use of my VHS video cassette recorder, for those of you who’ve been sucked into the clutches of TiVo.) I know I should be watching Smallville, but this show had me curious and now has me hooked. I’ll probably praise it more at some point, if it manages to keep impressing me.


On a completely different note, may I refer to Rob’s question about Favorite Universal Monsters. I used to throw this out in conversation in a similar way to the Which Peanut? question. I think my FUM would still be the Wolfman. Gillman’s a close, close second.


On yet another completely different note, I find myself strangely unable to change the channel on the TV right now. I stumbled upon the Philly edition of MTV’s Real World, and I can’t look away. They’re a bunch of jerks, from what I can tell, but I like spotting Philly in the background. But, damn, they’re a houseful of jerks.