Monday, September 17, 2001

More links:

An ex-CIA man's candid thoughts on why we wouldn't nab bin Laden

British call-in show goes anti-American

Shoot first and ask questions later? Bush issues edict to shoot down commercial airliners.

A gut-wrenching essay by Dave Barry

Noam Chomsky weighs in on the crisis

The U.S. gave the Taliban $41 million only a few months ago!

Racism and vengeance in action. An Indian shot dead at a gas station.

[06:13 PM] [link] [No Comments]

For those looking for a little more perspective, read this article. Among some of the U.S.'s involvement with the Taliban:

"[The Taliban] has allowed the training camps near the Pakistani border--originally established by the CIA and Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate (ISI)--to be reopened to give guerrilla training to fundamentalist volunteers."

"In the words of Richard Murphy, the Assistant Secretary of State for the Near East and South Asia during the two Reagan administrations, 'We did spawn a monster in Afghanistan.' The 'monster' of violent Islamic fundamentalism has now grown tentacles that extend from western China to Algeria to the east coast of America, and its reach is not likely to diminish without a great deal of the United States' money, time and patience, along with the full cooperation of foreign governments."

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The T Word is starting to be tossed around towards some of the more critical voices in this affair. And I fear that we will see this extend further.

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I don't have a lot of time right now to reply to a lot of the comments. But please remember that no matter how disparate we all feel about the events, this does not mean that we're incapable of laughing. One of the things I hope to start is SOYLHA (Stressed Out Yankees for a Level-Headed America), given the current circumstances. If anyone has any ideas on a logo for this, please drop me a line.

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One frustrating side effect I'm feeling right now is the inablity to obtain a reasonable amount of plausibility within the events as I work on this script. Rather unfortunately, the script deals with the military and fighter planes. And I'm desperately trying to maintain believability as the script continues. I'm used to making phone calls, tracking down experts and asking them all-important questions about how things work, how people react and thereby maintaining a world that the audience can believe in. But when your questions involve the inner workings of a Harrier jet or what type of people are inclined to become fighter pilots, you can't, rather predictably, get the answers you want. This frustrates me to no end, not because I can't get the answers to the questions, but because I have to ask them as a deadline ensues. The people at the other end are genuinely frightened, even when I identify myself by name and location, even giving them my address in the U.S. in an event to appease them. And it hurts me like you couldn't possibly believe. Why did this have to be an action movie? Why did any of this have to happen? I suppose I'm serving some kind of punishment for past crimes committed, trying to maintain a cool head while the scions of an evil act unfold around us.

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The Hamburg Peace Demonstration: Yesterday (Sunday), I attended a peace demonstration in Hamburg. The major difference between American demonstrations and German demonstrations is that, while American lefties are content to march, Germans are content to stroll. Then again, with events of this enormity, I really didn't have a solid gauge to go by.

The demonstration started very quiet. All German flags around me were at half-mast. I noticed several placards and signs in German and one in English reading, "Imagine...Life in Peace." One placard that particularly disturbed me was directly translatable into "Freedom is No Skyscraper." The "Nein" was underlined. And I'm not sure if this meant something differently in German or if this was an attack on the current New York preoccupation with rebuilding the World Trade Center. It did disturb me, despite some of the anti-capitalistic feelings inside me largely concerning economic inequality, I still feel that rebuilding the WTC is of utmost importance to our nation. And yet there it was, one of the largest signs at the event. I still have no idea what it meant. And I still feel a sense of emotional horror, wondering if there was something of a dull blade being twisted into the spirit of the American people, a blow that failed to take into account the difference between "government" and "people," or, for that matter, tagging all Americans as jingoistic warmongerers.

That sign really hurt me. I had come there because, as I wrote in a previous entry here, I wanted to show that there are some Americans who would like to see peace as a result of this and who do not thirst for blood. I was afraid to ask the two guys holding the sign precisely what it meant, although the American expatriate I've seen around here did, not getting a clear answer.

In fact, I still feel an ominous feeling over precisely what the intentions of this rally were. I attended the demonstration with about six people whom I had breakfast with. And one of them turned to me, asking me, "Are you sure you want to go to this?" He asked me this question even after I had relayed my peaceful position to him and the others when they questioned me about it.

Despite the sign, I was still very much moved by the 1,000 people or so who showed up. An impressive collection of drums beat the same rhythmic beat over and over. And at one point, the assembly stopped at Hamburg's busiest intersection, singing "Amazing Grace" in German and "We Shall Overcome" in English.

But that sign still lingers in my memory. I only wish that I understood German. What is Europe really thinking about our actions?

[04:00 PM] [link] [No Comments]

Segue from the Pro-Peace Ranting: In Hamburg, Germany, in the year of our Shrub, September 17, 2001, Writer-Director-Producer Steve Lem and Writer-Kooky Bastard Edward Champion shook hands in an apartment living room, with the droning sounds of CNN blaring loudly from the other room and far too much coffee in their respective systems and agreed upon the following:

(a) The Kooky Bastard would begin writing a minimum of 12 pages starting at 7 PM German time and adopt the mannerisms of a typing chimpanzee in his quest to complete a screenplay come hell or high water. He would go to bed at an unhealthy time and be beaten awake if he didn't arise out of bed before 1 PM the next day. Practical jokes would be initiated at no earlier than 12:55 PM in order to get the sad, sleep-deprived bastard out of any desperate dream world he might find himself clinging to like a teddy bear.

(b) The two chimpanzees, blessed with the common language of English, would begin talking about the future direction of this script, promising not to strangle each other in the process, at precisely 1 PM every single day, come hell or high water (a term that the Writer-Director-Producer became quite fond of when the Writer-Kooky Bastard introduced it to his native German tongue). The two would talk about these things and would stop at 6 PM every day, breaking for one hour to impersonate hamster sounds and whatever crazy savagery entered their creatively bankrupt heads to prepare the Kooky Bastard for a night of deranged diligence.

(c) Visiting hours for these two animals would be posted shortly after the assent of both gentleman over the questionable terms set forth in this agreement. The outside world, if brave enough, would visit these two men between 1800 and 1900 or on any hour on Sundays, where the two would be strangely lactose intolerant and deficient of any basic math skills or the ability to remember the lyrics of Neil Diamond songs.

The Writer-Kooky Bastard promised to offer his firstborn, should he break the terms of this agreement The Writer-Director-Producer promised to offer nothing if he violated any of the terms. Strangely, the Writer-Kooky Bastard assented to this, despite the clearly unfair consequences, the jet lag that he was suffering and the crazed e-mails he received from America that he could not respond to. But the agreement was entered into with the purpose of getting this damned thing done. More reports will follow as the days pass by and the sanity of Kooky Bastard gradually whittles away to that of a plumber singing the praises of Napoleon Bonaparte.

[03:33 PM] [link] [No Comments]

For anyone interested in the European perspective on Bush and his actions, here's the cover of the September 15/16, 2001 edition of The Hamburg Morning Post. Translated from German, the headline under Bush reads: "Please, act in a level-headed way!"

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Saturday, September 15, 2001

For those still convinced that a war in Afghanistan will be a cakewalk, here's an overview of the Russian-Afghan War authored by the U.S. Army Foreign Military Studies Office. Approximately 40,000 Soviet soldiers lost their lives while losing this war.

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After careful delibertion, Tom and I have decided that William Shatner is the answer to world peace. I'll offer a full explanation behind this when I get the chance.

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(Note: This was slightly revised in the morning, namely in reference to the people of Afghanistan and the Taliban, which I mixed up in a bleary-eyed state of vague, sleep-deprived consciousness.)

Perhaps I'm developing my desire for peace simply because I am 5,500 miles away from my homeland. But I'm pretty damned certain that I'd probably feel the same way if I was in San Francisco right now, drowning my sorrows for this nation in a hastily made White Russian and trying to desperately cheer my spirits by watching The Big Lebowski, what is unquestionably one of the funniest films of the past five years.

Certainly the people here in Hamburg are scared, including an American expatriate I met today for the first time in over a year. Rather ironically, the last time I was here in Germany, the two of us went for some beers in a Turkish bar. And I experienced one of the most foreign sensations of my entire life. Because we were two Americans, the Turks began to become really raucous, singing nationalistic songs in the loudest voices possible and trying to drive us out of "their" establishment with their sheer vociferous nature. And part of me wonders just what would happen if I went to the same bar today. Would I still be condemned because of the actions of my government (an important distinction to be had is this major difference between government and people, particularly when you have a government that uses such phrases as "representative democracy" and "will of the people" on an everday basis in speeches)?

But back to the American expatriate. He declared CNN "nationalistic" and "jingoistic," but failed to have a proper understanding of the Taliban (whom I have been staying up researching on sleepless nights, desperately trying to avoid more nightmares) or even the history of Afghanistan. And I found this blind emotional pursuit to be quite distasteful, even if it was almost the complete opposite of the blind emotional pursuit of jingoism. I was fascinated by this and I began to examine my own beliefs. Here were the questions that flurried in my noggin:

1. Has the United States attempted any kind of peaceful resolution towards nabbing Osama bin Laden?

My Answer: No. At least none that I've seen.

2. Is a peaceful resolution possible, given that Pakistan, the biggest ally of the Taliban, has decided to offer its help to the U.S.?

My Answer: Probably. I'd rather see a peaceful coordinated effort with Pakistan involving Afghanistan to nab bin Laden rather than thousands more U.S. GIs or suffering Afghanistanians shot down in a ground war.

3. Is it morally right to take the lives of any civilians in time of peace or war?

My Answer: No.

4. Is it right to bomb Afghanistan "back to the Stone Age" when they are clearly already existing there?

My Answer: No

5. Do I like the Taliban's restrictions on women, films, music, television, etc.?

My Answer: No

6. Is the Taliban's threat to others who aid in U.S. retaliation towards them largely out of self-interest?

My Answer: Absolutely, just like any other country faced with the same predicament. But see answer to Question No. 5.

7. Are there any specific ties between Osama bin Laden and the people of Afghanistan?

My Answer: Nothing concrete or established. The question here is whether the people of Afghanistan truly "harbor" him. The Taliban continue to hold onto the man, for what reason we do not know. (Note: This question was previously phrased differently, but I implied something here that I did not intend. I have now revised this.)

And in answering these questions, I find myself drawn towards a peaceful attempt to negotiate with the Taliban for the release of Osama bin Laden. Certainly, the immediate assumptions we are drawing (By virtue of the Taliban's rule of Afghanistan, the people of Afghanistan are evil; we must kill kill kill) about the situation in Afghanistan wouldn't be accepted in any logical debate, given that there is no relationship yet proven. And yet the people of Afghanistan are being tagged as the great masterminds behind the WTC crisis simply because no one is using a cool head right now, whether Taliban or American. Instead, it's a matter of jumping the gun and immediately tying the people of Afghanistan to Osama, despite their efforts to flee across Iran and get the hell out of the country without success. And because all of the facts about the bin Laden-Afghan connection are not in, I cannot advocate the systematic slaughter of a people, however much I disagree with their customs.

I sincerely hope that the Taliban will change their minds and hand over bin Laden. To severely understate the crisis at hand, it is in their best interests to do so. They are already losing allies firm and fast. But the U.S. government is systematically polarizing the Taliban against us with its typical arrogance and an immediate jump to conclusions.

Who's to say that a fringe element (like Osama's group) within the Taliban won't broaden its base because of this ongoing clash of anger on both sides? By actively polarizing the Taliban against us in the name of emotionally justifiable retribution without deliberation and action without consideration of all factors, we will create more slaughter and more terrorism. And that seems to me just as savage as the crashes in New York and Washington.

Osama was suspected in the 1998 World Trade Center bombings. Why was he allowed to sit and plan another attack for so long?

These are some of the many reasons why I will be participating in a peace rally in Hamburg tomorrow. I will go there and demonstrate that I am an American who, despite the overwhelming sense of loss and suffering, is willing to use his head after listening to his heart. I have chosen this path because the thousands of deaths have deeply affected me and I do not want to see anybody else die as a result of this warmongering.

I can only hope that more Americans are willing to do the same.

As for the Taliban, I still ponder the insanity of holding onto a man and destroying a mass of innocent people in the process. Someone must negotiate now.

For some reason, this whole situation reminds me of Israel.

[05:42 PM] [link] [2 comments]

Balls and logic on Capitol Hill? It's quite possible. One Democrat voted against the use of force.

[04:37 AM] [link] [33 comments]

Friday, September 14, 2001

This just in. Falwell retracts his comments. Apparently, I'm not the only one retracting crazed ideas that I've foolishly spouted off in public. At least I didn't say anything as outrageous or as hateful, citing a horrible tragedy as a "punishment" to people I disagree with. Apparently, Tom has found a new enemy in our beloved Jerry.

[05:55 PM] [link] [5 comments]

I've been informed by a friend that apparently a boss has cracked down for surfing during company time this week, sending a heartless memo to said friend about wasting valuable company time looking at such minutaie as the fate of this nation. Quite frankly, I'm shocked that people can behave this coldly in a time in which everyone needs each other.

[05:51 PM] [link] [1 Comment]

While I'm unable to respond to e-mail until I get back (due to the request of my German associate "not to install any programs" -- even a simple mail server program like Argosoft -- that I must heed out of respect), I am at least able to read it. And I recently received an e-mail from someone regarding my post apologizing for other things I've written here -- specifically, mocking the A-listers. The e-mail stated that I had nothing to really apologize for, that some people were probably deserving of this kind of online pugilism by dint of treating the rest of the weblog community like dirt.

While I can concede that my visceral reactions here were initially driven by this unfair castigation of people who didn't make this most ridiculous form of popularity contest and that these articulations may have been, in their initial forms, driven by an emotional honesty that I felt compelled to express here, I still feel that these emotions grew quite out of control. I began to make ad hominen attacks on people I knew only for their blogs, people whom I had not met, or, in a few ignoble cases, people whom I had not even corresponded with. I began to let myself become driven by my emotions and logic flew completely out of the window. And, most disturbing, I began to demonize them without any sense of a complete portrait.

Understand that I am still very much against inequality, that I will still write here honestly and without compromise on injustices that I observe, on events that are given the blind eye, on things that personally affect me. It is sometimes quite important to remain silent upon things that most people fail to realize. We can see this in the current media (well, at least CNN, which is the only real indicator I can go on from where I'm at right now) with the relative silence over the fact that Osama Bin Laden got his training in the CIA.

But if one is to point something out, one must do it with at least a minor sense of journalistic credibility. This is not to suggest that one should remain objective. An essay or a blog entry is driven by a very subjective theme. And I think it's safe to say that any journalist who claims to be objective is only fooling himself. Because the journalist will make the decision to talk to specific people and cover events in a very specific way, completely ignoring others in the process. He makes decisions, pure and simple. And the best journalists (not that I'm really claiming to be one here) are the ones who cover events in a non-traditional way.

The kind of writing I do is very personal in nature and the trick is to write pieces that convey the feelings and cite a few facts to put it in perspective and to explain why the feeling inside me exists. But lately, I've been slipping in the facts department and, in so doing, I haven't been completely fair to some of the subjects I've castigated here. This is the very thing that troubled me.

My goal now is to slip out of these bad habits and start being fair both to my subjects and to myself. Because, as 9/11 has shown us, it's all too easy to become complacent. And it's all too easy to take things for granted.

I have erred big time in the past month or so and, again, I offer my apologies for doing so. I will try not to do so again.

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I woke up from a nightmare involving Jish not too long ago. It was a horrid landscape that involved Jish being beaten up because he was declared "Palestenian." Several young twentysomethings, a Hitler Youth for our modern age, were beating the hell out of him, chanting "USA! USA!" as they kicked him repeatedly in the ribs and spat at him as he lay clutching his gut on the ground. I tried desperately to help him, but two guys held me back. Despite all of my strength trying to help Jish, I couldn't get past these two guys. Then they finally let go and I ran to Jish, managing to push three of these bastards away from him. Then they began to beat the hell out of me. That was about when I woke up.

I've never dreamed about a blogger before. But that a good guy like Jish would pop into my subconsciousness through the most diablolical of pretexts is a clear example of just what is on my mind lately.

Note to Self: A steady diet of work and CNN, without so much as a moment to breathe in the German environs, is not a very helpful way to approach things right now.

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Sometimes I don't know whether to laugh at Falwell or give into my worst impulses and damn him for being such an intolerant man.

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If World War III is started over this, I cannot possibly serve as a soldier. If civilians who do not support Osama are to be butchered because they happen to live a few blocks away from terrorists, if a senseless bloodbath occurs simply because the balance must be equal in the eyes of our government, I cannot condone or partake in this bloodshed. If I receive a draft notice, the plan is to run to Canada. This decision will be made not out of cowardice, but for the love of humanity and decency. Because I have firm faith that, contrary to certain polls on MSNBC, we are not a nation of maniacs. That Bush is continuing to fuel the anger, shockingly at one moment during a national prayer service, in the name of this irrational juvenilia is both disturbing and frightening. That he is exploiting America's pain to further whittle down our nerves to the point of madness will be something for the history books to pick up. Bush has failed to offer anything in the way of a peaceful solution. And, right now, it's up to us to look upon this situation with cool heads.

CNN has changed its standard caption from "America Under Attack" to "America's New War." The message is clear. It's time for us to collect our strength and say no before it's too late. Hunting down the butchers who did this with feral pangs of vengeance is not the answer. Working in cooperation with the nations to bring these men in front of a court is the right solution. If we are, in Bush's own words, a "peaceful" nation, then it's time for us to start acting like one. The spirit of cooperation in New York and in blood donation centers across the nation and online via Amazon and Paypal was done in the interests of solicitude for other people that came from the heart. If we can do this without any kind of guidance, what's to stop us from doing the right thing and remaining civilized towards an unquestionably uncivilized horror?

The world is uniting over this. Here in Germany, 200,000 people stood in front of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin. Why not cease the day in the name of positivism and unity?

[11:25 AM] [link] [4 comments]

Thursday, September 13, 2001

Things I've Learned So Far While Working On This Gig: The Air Force will only take the wings graduate who graduated first as a bomber pilot. The deepest point of the Atlantic is near Puerto Rico. It's difficult to write a character-oriented action movie under the circumstances, but it gets better as you go along.

[05:06 PM] [link] [3 comments]

Really weird. A few people, alleged terrorists, were arrested not far from where I'm sitting in Hamburg.

[04:59 PM] [link] [3 comments]

A CNN reporter got on television and announced that, contrary to popular belief, the bombings did shake them up. But if the folks at CNN had any real concern, they'd stop playing the collision footage over and over and over and over...

[04:03 PM] [link] [3 comments]

Wednesday, September 12, 2001

I am scared shitless to fly home.

[09:03 PM] [link] [6 comments]

This blog has been loaded with hate of late. It has been unnecessary. Deleted are some of the more foolish and hateful comments that I made before Germany. I don't know what possessed me to write them. I still don't know what compelled me to hate. It circulated in me like a terrible odor and I let it overwhelm me. I do not think that I can possibly contribute to Blog You again. The Flogger parody (the damned F you saw) was also a bad idea. And I am glad that I will never finish it. With recent events, things have now suddenly achieved a remarkable perspective. And I am compelled to grow up from this day forward. Gone is the petty bickering, gone is the anger, gone is a good deal of the negative energy that drove this blog. I do not feel like writing this kind of stuff again. I feel positively sick to my stomach with some of the words I have written. That they came from me, that I didn't feel compelled with my delusional wisdom to stop myself from making this posts: it all sickens me. I gave into my worst side, a very blind side that I let myself become overwhelmed by.

There are more important things in the world. There are broader strokes of nonsense that have more meaning than the indignant crap I have been posting here. The petty things that completely undermined the original purpose of writing. The broad strokes of rage that came across the page. I'm not sure if what you'll be seeing is a kinder, gentler blog. Or, for that matter, any blog at all. But if you have been led astray from your lives and you have wasted invaluable moments of your time reading my drivel, I apologize. This is not me at my best. And I should no better. This is me at my worst. I expressed misgivings about the blog form early on. Knowing myself, I expressed umbrage over the idea of short, snappy and hastily written entries. And yet like anyone else I became seduced. How little did I realize how prophetic this would be. How little did I realize that a tragedy would affect me in more ways than I expected. I am convinced that some fatalistic impulse designed this to happen. Let me travel to a foreign land, with a portion of my purpose involving finding a sense of myself that I lost, and let me be beholden to unspeakable horror, in which I cannot hug others and be there for others. This was a punishment to fit the crime. And I deserve everything I am meant to experience.

I have made many mistakes in my life and much of what I became obsessed with on this blog involve many of them. I hope to learn from these mistakes. I have made sweeping assertions driven by a bitter heart, blemished with horror well before any of the events of the last few few days. It is up to me to correct this heart and to stop the negativity before it is too late. Because life's too short for this kind of bullshit.

I have been a foolish man. And there are many apologies to be made, not that I really deserve to have them accepted. Ev, Kottke, Meg, Derek, Heather, Dave, Jish. And too many others. I've lost track. Because this has all been about condemning people with whom I have no right condemning. What right do I have to condemn these people? What right do I have to mock blogs in which it all really doesn't matter in the end? And what right do I have to even earn a "That's OK" after this apology or an understanding from the people whom I have mocked?

Now is the time in which I concede and I start to formulate everything that I say. I need to focus not on anger, but on living and passion. It's safe to say that the WTC/Pentagon crashes had some impact on this decision. But I know that this is the right decision. Like any American, the sores stick out madly. It's some kind of deranged reaction to this event. But it is the hate that bothers me. The hate that affects people like Jish based on the color of his skin. The hate that drives an event like this tragedy. And the hate that I willingly gave into.

No. No more hate. Questioning, probing and some transition of this slipshod "style" of mine. Exposing reality, exposing the human heart in conflict with itself, whether it be mine or that of a starving man in the streets who no one will look at or an individual who lost a loved one in these plane crashes. But no more hate. I'm very weary now. And perhaps it's good to put this blog to a rest when I come back.

If I come back.

[07:06 PM] [link] [9 comments]

[06:18 PM] [link] [1 Comment]

Ways to Deal With This Tragedy: Shout "Fuck!" real loudly into a pillow. If you're particularly outraged, call the pillow "Osama" and then tear it up into ten thousand pieces. Then take a deep breath until you need to do it again. Hug a random stranger, ideally someone who has been faced with ruthless castigation because of the color of his skin, and say, "I love you." Offer a shoulder to cry on. Stick out your tongue. Watch a funny movie. Put all of your aggressions onto paper and then tear it up. Find a way to smile. Take ten showers simultaneously. Eat toast naked. Call a friend and claim to be "Don of Pedro, Lover of Humanity and Marquis of Sade (The Singer, Not the Pervert). Listen to the wondrous sounds of Herb Alpert. Consider cotton candy. Realize that there is a tomorrow and that this world will go on.

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A summary of the press conference between White House Press Secretarz Ari Flesicher:

Reporter: So you're saying you're going to bomb the shit out of Arab countries, regardless of the fact that the civilians have nothing to do with this?

Fleischer: We have real and credible data that supports our vagueness. I think the President's words speak for themselves.

Reporter: We have reports that the President has been laughing like a little child over the Article 5 situation, done more as a courtesy by the European nations who have expressed solicitude as opposed to the President's Clint Eastwood-like warmongering. Is this true?

Fleischer: We have real and credible data that supports our vagueness. I think the President's words speak for themselves.

Reporter: We understand that you are a bureaucratese-speaking, weasly little man.

Fleischer: We have real and credible data that supports our vagueness. I think the President's words speak for themselves.

[02:36 PM] [link] [No Comments]

George Bush: "No difference between terrorists and civilians in country housing terrorists."

Yup, that's just the kind of self-righteous attitude that will keep terrorism against the United States alive and thriving and that will possibly catapault this nation into a needless war in which more lives will be lost. It is time to offer an open hand to everyone around the world and unite in an effort to prevent such a catastrophe like this from happening in the future.

Apologies to all: nothing that I write here is bound to make any logical sense in the next fifteen minutes.

[03:31 AM] [link] [No Comments]

More people died yesterday than all the people at Pearl Harbor. Here's the question: will a Jerry Bruckheimer type make a bloated cash cow of a movie about this fifty years from now?

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"Make no mistake about it, your armed forces are ready." -- George Bush.

Why thank you, you bastard! Thank you for not putting your heart on the line and polarizing the U.S. into a hotbed of hatred and blame. Your nation needs you, however limited you are, as a leader. Thank you for not acting like a mature leader and acting like a heartless businessman about the whole situation. And, most of all, thank you for your duplicity and your lack of honesty about how serious an event this was.

Compare this with the simple words of German PM Schroeder: "This day has changed the world." A more honest, to the point statement. Or even the words of Tony Blair, who expressed sorrow over the consequences that this will have on democracy.

But Bush? Business as usual. Wow. It's so refreshing to have an idiot as President.

[03:18 AM] [link] [No Comments]

Gratefully, I have been in touch with loved ones in America, although it has been difficult to get through the phone lines. The full impact of Bush's statement hit me right before I went to sleep last night. What he specifically called for was an act of war. Nothing eloquent even remotely, just a statement that called for something not that far off from a lynch mob mentality to be enacted in the name of justice. That disturbs me. While I too would like to see someone go after the monsters that did this for a war crime, offering the biggest trial since the trials of Nuremburg, my heart is with the victims. If there is anything we all need to do as a world because of this, it's to have a cool head.

[03:11 AM] [link] [No Comments]

Tuesday, September 11, 2001

Now I have more facts and I am even more angered. You see, I just stepped off a plane this afternoon. And this could have been me. Thousands of innocent lives were lost. And again, I can't possibly convey to you how saddened I am at the 50,000+ lives that were lost this morning (U.S. time) and this afternoon (my current time). I can't tell you of the shock that filled me that prevented me from crying, because I was too damned scared, and the terrible feeling I experienced when I couldn't get a hold of anyone I loved, simply to talk to another American about this. Fortunately, I did get a hold of my brother-in-law's mother. And this really helped me to calm down. The bastards who did this were cowardly. I've just seen Bush's statement on this and I couldn't believe my eyes as the man showed not one hint of remorse for this terrible tragedy. Instead, it's right-wing yahoos going after the vultures that did this. I am now deeply worried about my country. Because with threats of more security, we haven't seen the worst of this.

Make no mistake: this was an act of war. And while we will see unity as a nation, and possibly as a world, because of this, I shudder to think of the dark consequences. How many more lives will be lost? Will my friends and I be drafted for a war? These are the things I'm thinking about. And as I blog from Germany, I'm going to be glued to the screen as much as I can in between long days.

[10:24 AM] [link] [No Comments]

I got to Germany this afternoon and I don't know all of the facts. But if any of you out there can post what you know about the World Trade Center/Pentagon bombing in the comments section, I would greatly appreciate it. Talk about timing. Right now, I am shocked, angered and outraged over this. This is quite possibly one of the worst tragedies that the United States has ever experienced. And I shudder to think at the Orwellian response that our government will instigate. I am creeped out at how this will destroy our basic rights as citizens.

I ask any of you as fellow Americans to please keep another American informed. Please let me know what is being said on the underground media outlets. Please let me know ALL sides of the story.

[08:59 AM] [link] [No Comments]

Monday, September 10, 2001

My Last Post in the U.S. in Three Weeks: This is, without a doubt, the last post I will make in the United States of America for some time. This post, like many of the other posts here, is written in complete sentences. It is written just after my suitcase has been packed and right before my last meal in the United States. It does not have any specific purpose other than to inform the reader that the I will not be blogging in San Francisco. It also serves as an excuse to write several sentences for no apparent reason at all.

One reassuring quality about a post is that few people realize that it is an anagram for "stop." There's always a slim chance that a post can be about everything or nothing, but never both. And frequently a post is so parochial in scope that it forms a topic that is obscure or generally known. A post might be the result of many angry words, but the post itself is never angry. The post exists to relay the words. It is harmless. It is only the syntactic structure of the words and the feeling within them that makes a particular post seem as if it has an emotional quality to it.

A post is generally composed on the run. If there is some thought to it (which is rare), it is sometimes drafted in Notepad. But more frequently, a post is authored on a vague whim. Often, there is a complete lack of thought when starting a post. But soon thoughts form with the free association that comes with the union grunts turning the wheels within the noggin. But it should never be mistaken as literature. Nor should it be construed as important.

A post is, much like a lamp post that your back leans against in the street, simply a post. Again, it must be pointed out that a post is entirely unsubstantial. Therein lies the glee and excitement. With so many posts scattered across the web, one must be selective about the particular posts they read (and, as a corrollary, the particular posts they lean upon in the streets).

And with that in mind, auf Wiedersehen!

[11:46 AM] [link] [5 comments]

[09:28 AM] [link] [1 Comment]

You know you're a hard-core blogger when you see a list of links to other blogs on a site and they're all visited. And speaking of blogs, is it just or me or does Bluish Orange's new layout make her look like that Blair Witch chick?

[07:45 AM] [link] [No Comments]

Time passes and sometimes you fail to realize that a blogger you read is one of two people responsible for an alternative to the big boys in the blogging software department.

[01:08 AM] [link] [No Comments]

What a nifty little lilnk! (via sixdifferentways)

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