Confessions

Somethings I feel like I need to get off my chest:

- I like vacuuming but I don’t like lugging the vacuum cleaner around. I also have a vacuum cleaner that is worth more than my computer.

- I have an unhealthy relationship with cheese and Coke w/ Lime and Hot Pockets.

- If someone got me reservations at Mesa or Per Se tomorrow night, I wouldn't blink about spending $500.

- I want to eat the offal meal at The French Laundry.

- I can and do use the word “mythos” in reference the superhero genre. With a straight face.

- I like television and I love my Tivo.

- I try to limit what shows I watch regularly but the list gets large quickly. Currently? Lost, Gilmore Girls, Project Runway, Battlestar Galactica, Rollergirls, The Office, 24, The Boondocks and Survivor. I will add The Amazing Race and The Venture Brothers when they start up again.

- I still believe that, in general, Buffy the Vampire Slayer was the best show that has ever been on television.

- I watch the Food Channel more than I cook.

- I applied to be on Survivor and got an interview. My audition tape was quite good, as was my interview. But there are only so many over 30 skinny white boy slots.

- I almost applied for the next cycle of Survivor. But the application was due on Feb. 3rd and I was going to film my tape at the Idiotarod and things got to hectic to thing about lugging around a camera.

- I cheated in a relationship once. And the sex was horrible. It was a drunkin' thing. Afterwards (right after the deed), I casually, because I could think of nothing else to say, mentioned that I had had never used a ribbed condom before. She thought I said "ripped condom" and panicked a bit until I cleared it up.

- I have a desire to do a podcast. Radio drama thing. I wrote a mini-script last night. But my computer is chugging a bit these days. But I may upgrade in March and get the new iLife and see what happens.

- The morning after I cheated, I had to go to a set strike with both women. Later that night (after ending it with both of them), I got drunk with ANOTHER gal that I dated the next semester.

- I chew paper.

- I don't go a day without coming up with an idea for a story. Not a day. Today's story was about a sock that goes to group therapy.

- My rewriting the novel is a huge pain. Not because it's boring and hard (which is true) but because I get distracted. Every time I cut out some element, I feel the need to think about how I can rework it into a new story.

- I really miss playing cards at 2 in the morning at the Hard Times Cafe in Minneapolis.

- More to come.

Wartime Executive Power Hearing

I've been at the computer listening the Senate Judiciary Committee hearings today.

It's not the wire tapping that bothers me. Well, it does. They keep fighting over whether it is "domestic" surveillance or not. Is it not domestic if only half the folks are located in the U.S.? If you are out of the U.S., are you suddenly not governed by our laws and ideals? (Okay, yes, apparently that is how we function.) Do I think that if they believe that there is an immediate risk, should they wire tap? Probably. But that is why we have these systems of checks and balances. That is why FISA is there. I have yet to hear a reason why the 72 hours FISA gives them to get a warrant is not enough time except that it is a pain in the ass.

My problems with the Bush administrations actions:
- The argument about executive power granted in a time of war. "In time of war." When do we decide that we are NOT in a time of war? Who decides? Will there be anytime that our country is so well loved in the world that no one will be plotting against us? If so, is there no time limit on wartime executive power?
-That the checks and balances are being placed in the hands of members of the NSA, with little or no oversight.
-If the administration thought the FISA was too restrictive, why did they not ask Congress for adjustments to FISA? They have done it before. They have changed FISA often. The argument has been that in a time of war, the executive branch just doesn't need to. The only reason I can come up with why they didn’t is that they knew Congress wouldn't do it. But we don't know because we don't know how big the program is and what type of information they are acting on.
-Gonzales keeps saying that he cannot comment on things the President hasn't yet confirmed. Huh? Perhaps it is just legalize and perhaps I am just feeling paranoid, but that seems to say to me that the President has only confirmed those things that have been exposed. Meaning that there are programs that have been exposed. Well of course that is true.
-That this argument is yet another step down the slippery slope. If this is allowed, with no oversight, what other powers can be conveyed? Torture? Assassinations? Camps? Tossing the First Amendment out the window? Canceling or manipulation of elections? Yes, I realize these are extreme, but it's a slope.

Why am I writing about this? I just feel this need to speak up. I listened to a program about the German theologian Dietrich_Bonhoeffer yesterday. It just got me thinking about adding one's voice.