Cancer
It's bad for you.


AIDS too.


But TV is worse.

Static, I hate it
And here are two girls dragging there feet all over this little area in the student center where I'm at - purporsely trying to get "loaded up" on energy. Then they walk over to the doors and touch the metallic doorknob.

Who are these people? Why, why, why?

War in America
"He came at last to the saddest conclusion of them all for it went beyond the war in Vietnam. He had come to decide that the center of America might be insane. The country had been living with a controlled, even fiercely controlled, schizophrenia which had been deepening with the years. Perhaps the point had now been passed. Any man or woman who was devoutly Christian and worked for the American Corporation, had been caught in an unseen vise whose pressure could split their mind from their soul. For the center of Christianity was a mystery, a worship of technology. Nothing was more intrinsically opposed to technology than the bleeding heart of Christ. The average American, striving to do his duty, drove further every day in the opposite direction - into working for Christ, and drove equally further each day in the opposite direction - into working for the absolute computer of the corporation. Yes and no, 1 and 0. Every day the average American drove himself further into schizophrenia; the average American believed in two opposites more profoundly apart than any previous schism in the Christian soul. Christians had been able to keep some kind of sanity for centuries while countenancing against honor, desire versus duty, even charity opposed in the same heart to the lust for power - that was difficult to balance but not impossible. The love of the Mystery of Christ, however, and the love of no Mystery whatsoever, had brought the country to a state of suppressed schizophrenia so deep that the foul brutalities of the war in Vietnam were the only temporary cure possible for the condition - since the expression of brutality offers a definite if temporary relief to the schizophrenic. So the average good Christian American secretly loved the war in Vietnam. It opened his emotions. He felt compassion for the hardships and the sufferings of the American boys in Vietnam, even the Vietnamese orphans. And his vew of the war could shift a little daily as he read the paper, the war connected him to his newspaper again: connection to the outside world, and the small shift of opinions from day to day are the two nostrums of that apothecary where schizophrenia is treated. American needed the war. It would need a war so long as technology expanded on every road of communication, and the cities and corporations spread like cancer; the good Christian Americans needed the war or they would lose their Christ."

From Armies of the Night
by Normal Mailer

Boras and Beltran
In case you haven't heard, Carlos Beltran is the next Arod in terms of money (as for talent, it's a maybe, who knows). But anyway, he is the guy everyone wants this offseason and his agent, Scott Boras (who is trying to ruin the game) wants a 10 year deal. He will probably be seeking around 17-18 million per year. So that's a 170 million dollar contract. He says his client is worth it because he will bring his team additional revenue through ticket sales, marketing ventures, etc. We've heard all this before, but Boras even mentioned Arod as he was selling Beltran to the press. BIG MISTAKE. What happened to ARod? He was unhappy and barely got out of Texas since his contract was so bloated (they call these contracts albatrosses). You would think owners would learn the lesson. It seems the Yankees have all but wrapped him up. Which is great, I hope they do. Anyone demanding that much money deserves to be hated by me. The Yankees are like a theory I just read about Communism: you don't need to stop it (it's impossible anyway), all you have to do is let it do it's thing and it will eventually bring itself down.

Boras also wants to give Varitek a 5 year deal with a no trade clause. That would make Varitek, a catcher, 37 years old at the end of that contract. He also wants 10 million a year. But everyone loves Varitek...so that sucks.

Burn Boras

News
U.S. Forces Hold 70 Percent of Fallujah

By EDWARD HARRIS, Associated Press Writer

FALLUJAH, Iraq - U.S. forces bottled up insurgents in a narrow strip of Fallujah on Wednesday after a stunningly swift advance that seized control of 70 percent of the militant stronghold. Kidnappers abducted two members of Prime Minister Ayad Allawi's family in Baghdad.


THat's the first paragraph of an AP story. How did the word "stunningly" make it into the opening line of an AP news story? What does that mean? How fast is "swift"? I thought the news was supposed to just tell us what happened in an objective manner.

Idiots vote Bush
Like we didn't know already?

The Draft
I hope they do reinstate the draft, that'll show all those idiots that have blindly backed Bush (not all of them blindly backed him). Then we'll see how committed they are to thi fucking cause. Me? I'm Guatemalan man, see you later.

Sideways
Just saw that movie you've probably all heard of or at least seen the previews, "Sideways." Great great movie, I must recommend it. It's hilarious, the acting is fantastic, and the cinematography is top notch. Although Dana Mowatt does have a point in some of the flaws she found in it, she also agrees it's a good one. If you get a chance to go see it, please do, you won't regret it. It has quite a few moments akin to what I call the "Swingers Moment." You know the scene in Swingers when the guy is leaving all those messages on that girl's machine and you are screaming at him to hang up already - well this movie beats it. This guy's life is like that moment. I will say nothing further.

Same Sex Marriage
I'm sick of all this same sex marriage bullshit. Who cares? Both sides should just stop and think about it for a bit. Who really cares? As long as lesbians can still do their thing in front of the cameras I really don't care. If gay bashers really want to punish gay couples, then they should let them get married but outlaw same sex divorces, that'll teach them.

Stealing my mojo?
There is a Chevy commercial out there that scares me a bit, people may think I got my first novel from it. Then again, there was that movie the Sat Night Live guy was in - although that never hit. I never heard anything of it once it came out. So no, it isn't The Truman Show all over again, thank god.