A Good Cappuccino and Other Thoughts
Becky had to work all weekend. Both days. It’s inventory time at the KU Bookstores. She’s exhausted. Nevertheless, she found the energy to buy me a cappuccino maker after work today. She had wanted to get me one for Father’s Day, but didn’t get around to it. I thought my Father’s Day was plenty satisfactory with calls from the kids and new shirts and ties. Anyhow, with some trepidation I fired up the machine after supper and made a terrific “cap” first try! I was amazed. I mean, we’re talking Mr. Coffee and a two month old bag of ground Starbucks decaf house blend.
Sunday night after work we went to see Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. I’d say there were maybe 80 people there. I actually enjoyed myself. Naturally, despite the nearly deserted theater, long legged people decided to sit directly behind me. But, surprise of surprises, they managed to only kick my seat about a half dozen times. I didn’t even have to take any xanax!
Years ago I was already concerned about the loss of liberties in this country. I think I was still a prosecutor when the government came up with this neat idea about using property forfeiture in drug cases. On the one hand, who could argue against depriving drug traffickers of the yachts, fast cars and mansions purchased with dirty money? On the other hand, these laws permit the government to take your property away from you even if you’re found not guilty of any drug crimes. You see, in property forfeiture proceedings, that little technicality called “proof beyond a reasonable doubt” does not apply. All they need to do is convince a judge that some item of property was more likely than not used for something associated with illegal drugs. Better yet, it doesn’t even matter whether the owner knew about it. Anyway, as I said, it was several years ago I began to wonder if it was time to flee the country. Then came September 11 and the Patriot Act. This enabled the government to pick you up and detain you indefinitely with no right to counsel or open court, and without ever filing charges. I found this pretty amazing. Of course, we all know that our law enforcement officials wouldn’t do such a thing without darn good reasons. As we all know, truly innocent people don’t get arrested. Even if they’re not guilty of what the police nabbed them for, they’re probably guilty of something else. Yeah. And now we have the Bybee Memo that’s at least getting a certain amount of press coverage. Canada, anyone? It doesn’t look to me like there’s any chance in hell any of this will get rolled back. I was thinking the other day about the things “they” used to tell us about life in the Communist Soviet Union. It seems to me we’re getting a chance to experience it first hand. Except for one thing. When Dubya looks you in the eye and says, “Sure, I could do that stuff but, trust me, I wouldn’t”, well, gosh, you just gotta believe him, don’t you? :no:
Okay, so I’ve been looking at some other blogs and noticing that some people actually talk about socially relevant stuff.
Honestly, it was really good! The milk frothed up and everything!
p>. :jesors1:
kimberly says:
i know it’s a bit late, but i’m replying. i’ve been extremely outraged with the gov’t. i guess these days, who isn’t.
i did see an independent HBO film, “Strip Search” about such the thing you were talking about. ‘They’ capture and interrogate two seemingly innocent people and do not tell them of course why they are being questioned or held against their will and given a cavity search and all. pretty terrifying. it’s in response to 9/11, of course. it’s really well done, but i don’t think you guys have HBO any longer.
I also just saw Farenheit 9/11, which even though your political views are a tiny bit different than mine ;), it’s definitely a documentary that needs to be seen. I’m sure it will be playing in Lawrence, other parts of the midwest not so sure about.
But I’m feeling pretty strongly about getting involved politically out here in San Francisco it moved me that much. I was thinking about it before, but didn’t know how to go about getting involved. I’m going to try my hardest to not turn myself into one of those people that see a really moving film and say “i’m going to change the world” and then try for a week or less and then give up.
mmmmm, cappuchino!
John says:
I haven’t seen it yet, but from what I can find out, it’s not actually a documentary, but rather a point of view presented in documentary form. The more I find out about Moore, the less I am able to accept his persona as teller of truth in the face of government lies. He seems to be a guy chasing a buck, and not above presenting something for shock value rather than factual value, or any of the other techniques that “journalists” use to infuse supposedly objective reporting with a bias. Still, I think this movie is a good thing if it motivates people to pursue the facts as opposed to accepting the presentations that are spun by the government, or by filmmakers.
Jessica says:
Well, M Moore’s point of view aside, Fahrenheit 9/11 did present some facts and video footage that I was glad I finally got to see. In fact, I wanted to see a whole lot more of that. Sadly (to my way of thinking), M. Moore chose to spend a whole lotta time on a bereaved Iraq War mom bemoaning the loss of her son fighting in Iraq. Time that I wish had been spent on more of the video footage we didn’t see on the news at the time. I was glued to the TV at the time waiting and waiting for more facts, the exact facts some of which I finally got to see in Fahrenheit 9/11. But yeah, even for me, a dyed in the wool complete liberal commie pinko hippie, it seemed M Moore laid the emotional manipulation on a bit thick this time. Next time, Moore facts, Less stunts and weeping!