They have a drug for everything now. There was a drug on Sixty Minutes not so long ago I describe as the "Jesus drug". If you go through some horrible trauma or embarrasment or personal hurt and can't "put it behind you" you just take the Jesus drug and it's the same thing as going to a tent revival and "getting saved". Perhaps some bright soul will give this drug to our vetterans, so they won't blab about their experiances. Perhaps Jesus could personally adminester the entire nation of Palestine this drug in 70 AD so they could all forget they were really Jews and they could get saved. You have to wonder whather George Bush is taking a drug like this. After all he's been "embarrassed" so much so that a person with a normal sense of shame wouldn't want to show his face. Jane Fonda said that if they had had Prozac now, her father would have been more “engaged with her” as a child. May I respectfully disagree. I heard- or more specifically I have read that Prozac drowns out all real feelings about human involvement and creates an overall numbing effect so that you just don’t feel anything. Others have said that sera-tonin is the “accomplishment” hormone. Your brain releases it when you do something decisive to give you the feeling you have accomplished something. [name withheld]’s problem is that he hasn’t accomplished anything in his marriage, but is given a drug to make him feel as though he had. I found the things he said at the [farce gathering] a little hard to take. I’m glad that Jane Fonda and her father were able to “act out the drama” on TV in the guise of a movie. I guess I didn’t entirely know how “personal” Golden Pond was.
I would now like to turn my attention to affairs of national importance that we haven’t been talking about, notably George Bush and the media. I have seen some disturbing signs. For one it was noted, and we all witnessed it, that the networks did not engage in their usual post mastication of the President’s remarks. Randy Rhodes thought the entire speech wasn’t live at all, like the President wasn’t even in condition to do the speech live. Of course there were the jokes about it being the first time Bush had even been in the Presidential library. Some say the speech was flat. I for myself was concentrating more on the actual words or “text” than the manner of delivery, but I will note there was a lack of passion or conviction. But I was surprised that the media signed off right away. Apparently it was more important to get back to “Deal or No Deal”. Well, that is a good question for us all. But the upshot of that is that we did not get to hear the democratic response. This is not twenty years ago. Back then Reagan has a real challenge on his hands. But they would never have done a puff movie on the Reagan administration like ABC did on 9 – 11 like they did four months ago. But turning to a key thesis of the President’s speech – mainly “This is not an open-ended commitment”. I would like to hold the President to his word on this one. He gave us his solemn pledge that he had worked out some deal of cooperation with Meliki and that from now on there would be no more siding with the Shiites and that Meliki would rein the wayward forces of his own government freeing up our troops to do their job. It was noted however that the President was never forthcoming with a Plan B. You always need a back-up plan to give the primary plan teeth. Stated another way as Dr. Phil might, “You have control over what you do but you don’t have control on what others do”. So if others let you down you need to take responsibility for your own actions, you need to “Own It” and proceed from there. The President had no Plan B. He never said what he would do if things “Didn’t work out”. Congelisa Rice’s remarks about “The way to insure success is to not think of the risks” just makes no sense. It is particularly important that you have a Plan B, if the odds for success of Plan A are tenuous to begin with. I would like to hear from the President’s lips just under what circumstances he will say the cause is lost. If you’re a Christian, however, thinking “What if God lets me down” is not an option, so perhaps that’s where the President is coming from. It doesn’t even need to be repeated how many times the people of
But the consequences of this war haven’t been brought home. We know that President Bush refuses to attend funerals of soldiers. We also know that the media is under a ban of showing coffins being loaded on to trucks. Recently the President visited a military base and reporters had it made clear to them that they were forbidden to interview any of the troops. The media should perhaps spend more time interviewing veterans in intensive care wards. Barbra Boxer today talked about burn victims. The nurses see soldiers so disfigured that they keep photos of them in uniform around to remind them that they are actually dealing with a human being. One doctor said that in a four month period he performed between one and two genital amputations every single day. You know there is talk about daughters losing their virginity too soon. But in reality the things that really happen “too soon” are bad things and not good. I would say the “appropriate” time to have your genitals removed is perhaps on a mortician’s slab after you’re dead. Then you won’t care. People have this out of sight out of mind feeling about this war because in rich Republican neighborhoods they aren’t seeing the number of “volunteers” as you see in poor, minority neighborhoods. Of course now they have changed the rules for National Guard and Reservists. You’re not just a “weekend warrier” when you sign up now. It used to be you only had to serve at maximum one year and now they’re saying you cam be made to serve up to four. At least in the
The 115th. Strawberry Revival
It’s hot in here. Today is Wednesday April 6, 2005, and the temperature creped up higher than expected. I see the grammar check is highlighted. I know that being in color means you can use them now and in black and white you have to wait. I went to the store after dinner for two cinnamon rolls and around the corner for coffee. I have been feeling drowsy this afternoon. There’s still stuff I might want to check in the last file. I anticipate this one being done at a much slower pace.
Oscar knocked on the door about five to ten and asked if I was going. I hauled myself down there. Valerie was in the front seat and right off it was evident she was more attentive than normal. She was looking at me outside, and then repeatedly turned around to make conversational coments like the same Philipinos that own this place own hers and also own “where Susan lives”. I guess we’re thinking of the same Susan. There was a new girl named Amanda, who lived with Valerie. I later found out she had only lived there two days. Amanda had a better singing voice than Valerie. She alluded to some posture surgery she needed but if they cut the wrong nerve she’d be paralyzed. On the patio I learned she had a boyfriend somewhere. Valerie told me she was the second longest tenant at nearly a year and only her roommate has been longer- at five years. She said two of the girls were hospitalized for depression, including the one who had attempted suicide. We didn’t take off right away because we had to wait for George. Valerie talked to the driver a lot. We made fantastic time there getting there before ten thirty. I was served coffee and a muffin. On the patio Valerie finally noticed I had new tennis shoes on after several weeks. Another time when I was out of smokes Valerie wanted me to come out with her. For a while nothing was going on in-side and attendance appeared to be way down. Larry remarked, “The wheels are coming off the wagon”. Larry had me sorting this big stack of crossword puzzles, most of which were already in order. Finally Larry gave us a puzzle to do. It was so hard that half of my answers, the ones I even guessed at, had to be wrong. I put it aside to pursue some-thing that was less mentally taxing- - a word search puzzle. I did the whole thing and it didn’t take that long. The word I had the most trouble with was “suitcase”. I went out for a smoke and returned and someone had taken my crossword. I asked Larry for an-other as he was about to give the answers, and he gave me the wrong puzzle. We had ham and cheese sandwiches and chips and a banana for lunch. I only won twice in Bingo and given the generosity today, this isn’t even par. There was a lot of dead time after-ward from 1:15 to 2:00 when we left. There was an-other sexy girl there I’d never seen before. An exotic looking one with light brown hair, but she appeared to be hovered over by this taller brunette. As we got in the van, Manfred told me he won five times. This isn’t unusual. Valerie announced that she was going to sit next to me. She was pro-active in engaging me in conversation the whole day, which is out of character for her. We got to talking about radio stations. Even
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