Some Boredom, Some Ranting, Some Palm Fronds
Well, I'm bored. It's Sunday night, I haven't left my apartment all day except for taking Simon out twice, and it's almost 9:00 p.m., and I'm just now getting bored and antsy. Making up for yesterday, I suppose.
So I met Eric Alterman and Tucker Carlson after the debate at UC Santa Barbara yesterday. Alterman acted bored, like he couldn't wait to leave, and Tucker had a giant crowd around him (despite the fact that 99% of the audience was liberal) asking questions, signing autographs, telling stories, and having pictures taken. Super cool guy, believe it or not. Alterman had his latest book there for sale, "When Presidents Lie," which I purchased because it looks really interesting. He said at the end of the debate that he'd be happy to sign anyone's copy, and Tucker said, "Well, I don't have a book, but I'll sign Eric's." So both signed my book...and I'm such a dork that I found the entire experience exhilerating, including the drive through the mountains and up the coast. California is so beautiful as to be awe-inspiring...
The debate itself was very good. They addressed media bias. Tucker started on abortion pretty early which is one of the two topics never to bring up with me if you're a conservative because I feel your views should immediately be squelched before I blow a gasket - I try to keep my cool, but I end up getting really bent out of shape really quickly. So off he goes, talking about abortion: several years ago he was interviewing someone that edited a newspaper in Arkansas, and the editor described the differing viewpoints, of course, as pro-life and pro-choice. Tucker took issue with this because he said both positions are still framed as a "right" even though the pro-life camp does not recognize it as a right at all. He said the language had gotten so skewed that there was no question by anyone in the media that challenged that language, and when he asked the guy that, he just looked at him like he was nuts because he had never heard that question before. This set me off because I'm constantly hearing the RIGHT WING MEDIA (there, I said it!) terming pro-choicers as "pro-abortion." No. We're not "pro-abortion." We're PRO-CHOICE. We're just as pro-abortion as we are pro-life. It's about the choice, and the right to a private decision...oh, argh. Enough of that.
The second thing that stood out was Alterman defending the Democratic senators in their vote authorizing Bush to go to war with Iraq (or on Iraq, I should say). Alterman (whom I had been agreeing with up until this time) says this about the senators' votes: "If they had known then what they know now about this president, they would never have voted to authorize Bush to declare war! They were lied to by the President of the United States!" Half of the audience cheered, half of the audience booed (I booed, big time) and Tucker goes apeshit and almost jumps out of his chair and yells, "That is such a COP OUT! I admit the war is wrong, that it was the wrong thing to do, why can't they admit they made a mistake too without blaming someone else?" And I agree with him and I'll tell you why: my family, myself, and most of my friends ALL KNEW THE WAR WAS BOGUS while those idiot Democratic senators were voting to authorize it. If we knew, they knew. And they let their constuitents down. Again. They were lied to. Give me a damn break. You know what they did? They checked their damn spines at the door, which is problem no. 1 with the Democratic party, and instead of standing up and saying no and getting thrown out of Washington on account of it and having the morals to do so, they didn't. They turned into chickenshit jellyfish and I have no faith in them, and no respect, nor they do deserve it.
So there's that!
And can I just say here that I did not expect Tucker to be tall? I called my dad on the way home and told him about it and he said, "so you do have a little crush on him, don't you?" How embarrassing...so he's tall and has nice hands...big deal! A girl can appreciate these things, even if they're attached to a conservative that wears dorky bow-ties...so now that I've met the guy I'll quit calling him a dick. But I was having so much fun...
And then I saw "Hostel." E put it this way: it was gore for the sake of gore. And yes, I second that opinion. The only good thing about it, we concluded, was that the good guy got revenge. There was one scene that was so beyond predictable...well, let's just say this: it was a disappointment.
A friend of mine has this great outlook on boredom: he told me he hates people that say they're bored. He said, "Do you know what I say to people that say they're bored? I want to tell them to fuck off - I don't ever want to talk to them again. You're bored. What? You think life has to hand you everything? C'mon, you're in (insert location)..." And perhaps it's a bit extreme, but if you find yourself pacing the floor and climbing the walls of your abode and feeling bored, think about that...
I have tomorrow off. This makes me very, very happy indeed! The weather sucks though. When it's windy here, it is windy. And a little scary. The palm fronds fly off the trees and start littering the roads and the sidewalks and falling on cars, and these fronds are huge, and the end that connects to the tree is really stiff and hard (oooo!) and they fall from way the hell up there in the sky, and I just know I'll be out there, walking to the store, walking somewhere, and one of those damn things is going to break loose and fall on my damn head...
http://www.fotosearch.com/DVA001/001-0292/
...and I'll be that chick that got knocked out on the sidewalk by the falling palm frond. Sorry. Palm trees fascinate me because I've never lived on the coast before...anyway, this particular plam is the "California Sun Palm" and it grows to 60 feet tall with the palms spreading 15 feet. Now that's impressive. As long as it doesn't drop its dead fronds on your head.
So I met Eric Alterman and Tucker Carlson after the debate at UC Santa Barbara yesterday. Alterman acted bored, like he couldn't wait to leave, and Tucker had a giant crowd around him (despite the fact that 99% of the audience was liberal) asking questions, signing autographs, telling stories, and having pictures taken. Super cool guy, believe it or not. Alterman had his latest book there for sale, "When Presidents Lie," which I purchased because it looks really interesting. He said at the end of the debate that he'd be happy to sign anyone's copy, and Tucker said, "Well, I don't have a book, but I'll sign Eric's." So both signed my book...and I'm such a dork that I found the entire experience exhilerating, including the drive through the mountains and up the coast. California is so beautiful as to be awe-inspiring...
The debate itself was very good. They addressed media bias. Tucker started on abortion pretty early which is one of the two topics never to bring up with me if you're a conservative because I feel your views should immediately be squelched before I blow a gasket - I try to keep my cool, but I end up getting really bent out of shape really quickly. So off he goes, talking about abortion: several years ago he was interviewing someone that edited a newspaper in Arkansas, and the editor described the differing viewpoints, of course, as pro-life and pro-choice. Tucker took issue with this because he said both positions are still framed as a "right" even though the pro-life camp does not recognize it as a right at all. He said the language had gotten so skewed that there was no question by anyone in the media that challenged that language, and when he asked the guy that, he just looked at him like he was nuts because he had never heard that question before. This set me off because I'm constantly hearing the RIGHT WING MEDIA (there, I said it!) terming pro-choicers as "pro-abortion." No. We're not "pro-abortion." We're PRO-CHOICE. We're just as pro-abortion as we are pro-life. It's about the choice, and the right to a private decision...oh, argh. Enough of that.
The second thing that stood out was Alterman defending the Democratic senators in their vote authorizing Bush to go to war with Iraq (or on Iraq, I should say). Alterman (whom I had been agreeing with up until this time) says this about the senators' votes: "If they had known then what they know now about this president, they would never have voted to authorize Bush to declare war! They were lied to by the President of the United States!" Half of the audience cheered, half of the audience booed (I booed, big time) and Tucker goes apeshit and almost jumps out of his chair and yells, "That is such a COP OUT! I admit the war is wrong, that it was the wrong thing to do, why can't they admit they made a mistake too without blaming someone else?" And I agree with him and I'll tell you why: my family, myself, and most of my friends ALL KNEW THE WAR WAS BOGUS while those idiot Democratic senators were voting to authorize it. If we knew, they knew. And they let their constuitents down. Again. They were lied to. Give me a damn break. You know what they did? They checked their damn spines at the door, which is problem no. 1 with the Democratic party, and instead of standing up and saying no and getting thrown out of Washington on account of it and having the morals to do so, they didn't. They turned into chickenshit jellyfish and I have no faith in them, and no respect, nor they do deserve it.
So there's that!
And can I just say here that I did not expect Tucker to be tall? I called my dad on the way home and told him about it and he said, "so you do have a little crush on him, don't you?" How embarrassing...so he's tall and has nice hands...big deal! A girl can appreciate these things, even if they're attached to a conservative that wears dorky bow-ties...so now that I've met the guy I'll quit calling him a dick. But I was having so much fun...
And then I saw "Hostel." E put it this way: it was gore for the sake of gore. And yes, I second that opinion. The only good thing about it, we concluded, was that the good guy got revenge. There was one scene that was so beyond predictable...well, let's just say this: it was a disappointment.
A friend of mine has this great outlook on boredom: he told me he hates people that say they're bored. He said, "Do you know what I say to people that say they're bored? I want to tell them to fuck off - I don't ever want to talk to them again. You're bored. What? You think life has to hand you everything? C'mon, you're in (insert location)..." And perhaps it's a bit extreme, but if you find yourself pacing the floor and climbing the walls of your abode and feeling bored, think about that...
I have tomorrow off. This makes me very, very happy indeed! The weather sucks though. When it's windy here, it is windy. And a little scary. The palm fronds fly off the trees and start littering the roads and the sidewalks and falling on cars, and these fronds are huge, and the end that connects to the tree is really stiff and hard (oooo!) and they fall from way the hell up there in the sky, and I just know I'll be out there, walking to the store, walking somewhere, and one of those damn things is going to break loose and fall on my damn head...
http://www.fotosearch.com/DVA001/001-0292/
...and I'll be that chick that got knocked out on the sidewalk by the falling palm frond. Sorry. Palm trees fascinate me because I've never lived on the coast before...anyway, this particular plam is the "California Sun Palm" and it grows to 60 feet tall with the palms spreading 15 feet. Now that's impressive. As long as it doesn't drop its dead fronds on your head.
1 Comments:
nice debate recap. i would have loved to be there.
i bailed on hostle this weekend - glad i didn't miss anything. i guess i'll rent it instead. saw match point instead...rent it.
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