Too Much TV

I read a column this morning where the end of civilization was announced because we own too many televisions. We have gone from a nation where the family gathered around the TV in the evening to view a couple of programs to a society where every room is wired into the outside world with monitors in not only the family room but bedrooms, kitchens, and (in my fondest dreams) bathrooms. There are now more TVs in houses than people.

That's certainly true in my house. We have three people. We have five TVs. And that's not including the computers that can be used as TVs. And at least one is on at all times.

Why is that ok? Mainly because we're not really watching. I'm the only one home right now and there are two TVs playing. One is on in the den because Brick never turns it off. I have one on in the bedroom and, other than hearing Regis and Kelly banter in the background, I'm paying it no attention at all. It's noise, not something that requires active participation.

I remember the old days of gathering around the family set. Back then you actually watched the TV. You sat down and watched a program from beginning to end.

There are very few things I do that with. Usually is just noise. I'll look up and pay attention to the bits that interest me.

Of course, I do think of Winston Smith occasionally. Always wired, what's going out when it's all coming in?

Wag The Finger

Wag the finger
By Kathleen Parker
Wednesday, September 27, 2006

Did you just see what I just saw? That old comedy line has new meaning in the context of Bill Clinton's now-famous interview with Chris Wallace.

The answer is quintessentially Clintonian: It depends. In this case, what one saw depends on where one sits on the political fence.

Republicans saw a guilty, purple-faced ex-president desperately trying to deflect attention from his administration's failings. Democrats saw an overdue smack down of a partisan hack by a brilliant statesmen fed up with slanderous disinformation.

So who's right? Perhaps both by degrees.

Clinton was clearly angry when Wallace asked him why he hadn't connected the dots before 9/1l and done more to eliminate Osama bin Laden.

In response, Clinton leaned into Wallace's space, wagged his finger, poked Wallace's notepad and went off on a "tear," as Wallace later put it.

Clinton said that he did more than "some" to try to get bin Laden and urged everyone to read Richard Clarke's book, "Against All Enemies," for confirmation of the Clinton version of history. Clarke, a Republican, was a counterterrorism official for three presidents, including Clinton and George W. Bush.

Toss out an assertion like that in today's political environment and the blogosphere will shift into hyper-warp speed. Within hours, several reputable bloggers had dissected Clinton's claims as inaccurate (if true-ish), and the Republican National Committee had issued a point-by-point refutation with names, dates and sources.

Whatever Clinton did or didn't do as president, it's interesting to ponder what he's doing now.

Why would he lash out at the amiable and (BEG ITAL)un(END ITAL)-partisan Wallace? Was it a strategic strike, as Democrats claim? Or did Clinton show more of his legendary temper than he intended?

As I've written before, Clinton has a right to be angry about distortions of his record as recently portrayed in the ABC docudrama "The Path to 9/11." There's no benefit to massaging the historical record for dramatic effect. Clinton's response to Wallace clearly was prompted in part by that recent episode of partly fictionalized history.

But Clinton's demeanor with Wallace betrayed something more than mere annoyance. His face assumed what the Irish called a ``warp-spasm,'' a transformative anger that revealed a repressed rage and the kind of sneer that gets schoolboys punched in the nose.

Before answering the question, Clinton attacked Wallace's journalistic credibility, saying: "You did Fox's bidding," and calling it a "nice little conservative hit job."

"You've got that little smirk on your face," Clinton said, "and you think you're so clever."
Clinton's hostility was surprising because it was so disproportionate to the query. Obviously, al-Qaeda and bin Laden were forces to be reckoned with during the Clinton administration. Why we didn't dispatch him before 9/11 seems a reasonable question. That said, Clarke is highly critical in his book of the Bush administration's failure to take al-Qaeda seriously.

There's nothing wrong with getting angry if you're right, as Chris Matthews put it. But when Clinton went after Wallace, he inadvertently allowed his mask to slip. America got a glimpse not just of a former president who feels mischaracterized, but of a man filled with contempt for the lesser mortals who would seek to undo him.

His inner Gollum was visible beneath a roiling rage.

Clinton, we are constantly told, is immensely charming and charismatic. Narcissists usually are. Their social and political success is owing to their ability to project what people want to see. Friends and foe agree that few are better at this than Clinton.

But narcissists also become enraged when things don't go their way, when the attention they covet is diverted. Experience tells us, too, that manipulators are always contemptuous of those they manipulate.

To be fair, Clinton deserves much credit for raising billions to fund his charitable work in the world's dirtiest trenches, from tsunami reconstruction to the fight against AIDS.

Understandably, he wanted to talk about those issues, which comprise the legacy he is working so hard to create. His "precious," as Gollum would put it.

But his legacy also includes an iconic gesture -- the wagging finger. Clinton's marmish scolding of Wallace was a telling moment, much like another time he wagged his finger on television.
He did not have sex with that woman, Miss Lewinsky. And he did not fail to connect the dots concerning that man, Mr. bin Laden.

PostSecret of the Week

If we knew how much we were going to miss people when they were gone would we let them go? Wouldn't we give more of ourselves, love more, care more, cherish more?

Inertia

There are so many things I have to do and I'm so freaked out about them that I just stay in place, putting it off as long as possible, hoping that a miracle or fatal heart attack will make it all unecessary.

Brick is a saint.

Loved One Alert!

Someone please feed her

No Big Gay Al?

Being of the SNL generation when things happen during the summer I still think 'I can't wait to see what SNL does with this when they come back in the fall'. This summer I was looking forward to the skit of Star and Al Reynolds post-View, post-Payless.

Guess I won't be seeing that one.

The Best Choice

I don't care what the 'real' relationship is: NY and Flav are good TV. If he picks her I'm so in for the series on their life together. He picks someone else he's a bigger idiot than he appears to be.

Bringing Sexy Back

I'm Switching Back

I stopped watching the Today show awhile back. It seemed to have a political agenda that was too much to deal with that early in the morning. Good Morning America seemed to be the best alternative but the corporate tie-ins were almost as irritating.

So this morning I check out the Today show and it was fun and informative again. I switched to GMA and they were plugging a Disney magazine.

I'm going to stick with the Today show for awhile.

Us? Violent?!

So the Pope discusses some obscure 14th century writings in a dry, scholarly speech. In the writings the religion of Islam is referred to as violent. Muslims get offended, riot, firebomb a couple of churches, and kill a nun by shooting her in the back three times. Whyever would anyone consider Muslims violent?

The reaction in the Muslim world is so out of porportion to any real or assumed offense that how can it be viewed as anything but violent?

Man of the Year

Bart has always been a good husband, father, son, brother, friend, neighbor and employer and we love him.

Until he killed his wife and left her body for their young children to find.

The above quote is from a Friends of Bart Corbin website. Amazing but it hasn't been updated since he confessed to murdering his wife and his college girlfriend.

The situation raises three questions for me: what do you do when someone you love does the unthinkable, what kind of parent kills a child's mother and leaves her for the child to find, and if you get away with murder once what makes you think you can do it twice?

5 Mile High Club

Get Your Motor Running

So your husband of thirty-five years points out a motorcycle and says "I want to get that"

Your husband of thirty-five years that's never ridden a motorcycle.

What were you thinking to say "You can't have that. We have to renovate the kitchen!" This is not what you say to a husband who has always put everyone else first, has an eight year old cell phone, a ten year old car, and the last kid is grown. Let him spend some money on himself for once.

But could you ask him nicely to not spend it on something that will get his butt killed?

Desperation forced a horrific decision

Desperation forced a horrific decision
By Dennis Cauchon and Martha Moore,
USA TODAY

At first, it seemed like debris. Large objects were falling from the top of the World Trade Center's north tower, just a few minutes after American Airlines Flight 11 hit.
The sight of people plunging from the north tower compelled hundreds in the south tower to flee before the second jet struck the building.

"It took three or four to realize: They were people," says James Logozzo, who had gathered with co-workers in a Morgan Stanley boardroom on the 72nd floor of the south tower, just 120 feet away from the north tower. "Then this one woman fell."

She fell closer to the south tower, he recalls. Logozzo saw her face. She had dark hair and olive skin, a white blouse and black skirt. She fell with her back to the ground, flat, staring up.

"The look on her face was shock. She wasn't screaming. It was slow motion. When she hit, there was nothing left," Logozzo says.

Logozzo cried, "Oh my God!" and raced for the stairs. When he got to the street 45 minutes later, he looked up. By then, his building had been struck by United Airlines Flight 175. From the ground, he saw two more people jump. This time, they were from his building.

The story of the victims who jumped to their deaths is the most sensitive aspect of the Sept. 11 tragedy. Photographs of people falling to their deaths shocked the nation. Most newspapers and magazines ran only one or two photos, then published no more. USA TODAY ran one photo Nov. 16.

Still, the images resonate. Many who survived or witnessed the attack say the sight of victims jumping is their most haunting memory of that day.

It was worse than people realize.

USA TODAY estimates that at least 200 people jumped to their deaths that morning, far more than can be seen in the photographs taken that morning. Nearly all were from the north tower, which was hit first and collapsed last. Fewer than a dozen were from the south tower.

The jumping started shortly after the first jet hit at 8:46 a.m. People jumped continuously during the 102 minutes that the north tower stood. Two people jumped as the north tower began to fall at 10:28 a.m., witnesses said.

For those who jumped, the fall lasted 10 seconds. They struck the ground at just less than 150 miles per hour — not fast enough to cause unconsciousness while falling, but fast enough to ensure instant death on impact. People jumped from all four sides of the north tower. They jumped alone, in pairs and in groups.

Most came from the north tower's 101st to 105th floors, where the Cantor Fitzgerald bond firm had offices, and the 106th and 107th floors, where a conference was underway at the Windows on the World restaurant. Others leaped from the 93rd through 100th floor offices of Marsh & McLennan insurance company.

Intense smoke and heat, rather than flames, pushed people into this horrific choice. Flight 11 struck the 94th through 98th floors of the north tower, shooting heat and smoke up elevator shafts and stairways in the center of the building. Within minutes, it would have been very difficult to breathe. That drove people to the windows 1,100 to 1,300 feet above ground.

There were several reasons more people jumped from the north tower than from the south. The fire was more intense and compact in the north tower. The jet hit higher, so smoke was concentrated in 15 floors compared with 30 floors in the south tower, which was hit on the 78th through 84th floors. The north tower also stood longer: 102 minutes vs. 56 minutes. And twice as many people were trapped on the north tower's upper floors than in the south tower, where occupants had 161/2 minutes to evacuate before the second jet hit.

The New York medical examiner's office says it does not classify the people who fell to their deaths on Sept. 11 as "jumpers."

"A 'jumper' is somebody who goes to the office in the morning knowing that they will commit suicide," says Ellen Borakove, spokeswoman for the medical examiner's office. "These people were forced out by the smoke and flames or blown out."

She says the medical examiner's office couldn't determine who jumped because the injuries were similar to those suffered by the people killed in the collapse of the towers. The manner of death for all those who died was listed as homicide on death certificates.

To make its estimate of the number of people who plunged from the Trade Center, USA TODAY reviewed videos and photographs, interviewed witnesses and analyzed the time and location of the jumping. The newspaper discussed its conclusion with officials in the fire department and medical examiner's office who, while not making calculations of their own, deemed an estimate of 200 jumpers as accurate.

The New York Times counted 50 different jumpers in a review of photographs and videotapes. USA TODAY's estimate attempts to include people whose falls were not documented. Nearly all photos were of the north tower's north and east faces, which were more accessible to photographers coming from uptown Manhattan. But witnesses reported that numerous people leapt from the north tower's south and west sides as well.

On the south side, firefighters reported 30 to 40 bodies on the roof of the 22-floor Marriott Hotel, adjacent to the north tower.

On the west side, falling bodies crashed onto the awning covering the circular VIP driveway. The thudding of bodies at this entrance can be heard on a video taken near there by French cameraman Jules Naudet, whose footage was broadcast on CBS on March 11.

On the east side, people plummeted into the plaza, best known for its globe sculpture. Blood covered the glass walls and revolving doors that led to the plaza from the second-floor mezzanine in the north tower. People evacuating the north tower walked by this horrible sight.

"The windows were red ... and bits of bodies were outside. We were stunned and amazed," says Richard Moller, who escaped from the 78th floor.

After the first jet crash, Port Authority police Officer David Lim took an escalator from the lobby of the north tower to the plaza level, one floor above. He saw a disfigured body near a stage where musical groups performed on the plaza. "I said, oh my God! I've got to call this in. 'I've got a DOA on the plaza.' The desk officer said, 'Are you sure he's dead?' As I'm retransmitting, another body falls."

To be sure, some who fell didn't jump. Witnesses say a few people seemed to have stumbled out of broken windows obscured by smoke. But most say those jumping appeared to make a conscious choice to die by falling rather than from smoke, heat or fire.

Ultimately, they were choosing not whether to die but how to die. Nobody survived on the floors from which people jumped.

Victims who jumped had a profound influence on the evacuation. Firefighters moved their command post away from the building to avoid them. A falling body killed a firefighter. Fire Commissioner Thomas Van Essen, rushing out of the north tower to meet Mayor Rudy Giuliani, was nearly killed when a body landed 15 feet away.

To safeguard people from falling bodies and debris, authorities blocked the main exits from the lobbies to the street. Instead, people escaping from both towers were sent through an underground shopping mall and under the outdoor plaza where bodies were falling.

The sight of people jumping saved lives, too. In the south tower, people had a close-up view of people plunging to their deaths from a building that was a mirror image of their own. "I looked at a couple of people jumping, and that was it. I'd seen enough. I said, 'We've got to get the hell out of here,' " says Jaede Barg, who worked for Aon on the south tower's 100th floor.

Many south tower survivors say the sight of people jumping created an urgency that caused them to leave immediately and ignore announcements that it was safe to return to their desks. About 1,400 people evacuated the upper floors before the second jet hit.

Eric Thompson, who worked on the 77th floor of the south tower, went to a conference room window after the first jet hit. He was shocked when a man came to a north tower window and leapt from a few floors above the fire. Thompson looked the man in the face. He saw his tie flapping in the wind. He watched the man's body strike the pavement below. "There was no human resemblance whatsoever," Thompson says.

PostSecret of the Week

Porn can be fun. It's the addiction that destroys relationships.

There are only so many nights a woman can spend in bed alone while her man is up with the computer before the relationship starts to wither

CuteOverload of the Day

Pretty is as Pretty Does

An acquaintance was married awhile back. It's not someone I like. It's someone I have no respect for. But I was still bothered when someone tracked down their wedding announcement and photo this week and posted it on the Internet for all to see and then mocked the bride and groom unmercifully.

What did the picture look like? It looked like a radiantly happy couple. The groom, who I hadn't seen before, was very handsome. I used to think the bride was pretty but I was raised that pretty is as pretty does and knowing what an ugly person she is inside makes it hard for me to see her clearly. Trying to be as unbiased as I can, she's not unattractive. No one who appears that happy is. If she were someone I liked I'd think she looked beautiful in her wedding photo.

So part of me wants to mount up and tilt at the windmill of how unacceptable it is to go off of a message board, track someone down in their private life, post personal information, and make cruel comments about peoples' appearance, weight, family members, and private lives.

Part of me knows that the target this time is one of the worst offenders of this sort of behavior and has done every single one of those things to other people and will do it again.

Karma? Who knows but I ain't saddling up the charger for this one. Not my problem. If anyone asks, I'll be honest about how I don't like that sort of thing no matter who does it, no matter who the target is but I'm not volunteering my opinion.

Democrat 2008

I'm sitting around before class starts yesterday and a rousing discussion starts about the 08 election and one of my favorite people says "I'm voting Democrat even if it's Hillary"

No one else was willing to go that far but the mood in the room was definitely pro-Democrat which is astonishing for Georgia. If the DNC just picks a decent candidate and runs a campaign well they can win the south back. People are ready for a change and they are ready to move away from the war and social conservatism.

Now if the Democrats can just manage to not snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

Bullshit!

So I'm reading in my Psych textbook and there's a little graphic about human sexuality and one of the things covered is infidelity.

15.1% of men and 2.7% of women have been unfaithful.

Bull. Shit.

There have been a lot of studies of over the years and I have never seen numbers that low. Did they ask the questions of respondents sitting in a room with their spouses, their parents and their spiritual advisors? Their attorneys maybe?

Back Off Already

Do papparazzi ever have trouble sleeping nights? Back off of these kids and give them some small zone of privacy to live their lives without every moment of pain or joy invaded. Ok, so maybe I'm contributing by putting this picture here but no one is reading this but me.

My kids are around the same age and I can't even imagine them being followed by the horde of jackals with telephoto lenses shooting up their skirts. Give these guys a break or when the inevitable breakdown comes, accept your share of the responsibility.

Oh Good Lord, No!!!

So the gorgeous John Travolta of Saturday Night Fever and Urban Cowboy was long gone. People age. I can accept that. But this?!

It's called ACTing!

Re-Feathering My Nest

Zach got out of the military and moved back into his old room. We're going through a period of adjustment.

I love my kids I really do but I've come to appreciate them living about 40 miles from home, in their own place, and seeing them for lunch and a family dinner once a week with phone calls, IMs, and an excursion once or twice a month.

I like naked housecleaning and sex in the living room and privacy.

The good thing about him being back, along with the pleasure of his company, is that I'm cooking every day. I like cooking. It relaxes me at the end of a hard day and it really is cheaper, better, and healthier than anything you can get out in town.

Pageant Girls

Watching Little Miss Sunshine the second time (Zach wanted to see it) I realized that the obscenely displayed girls in the Little Miss Sunshine contest were real Pageant Girls. I'd seen those overly made up faces before!

Which raises the question: what were their mothers thinking?

Ok, so that's assuming their mothers can think and since they are pageant girls that's already a big stretch. But did they realize what the movie was about? Either they thought it was going to be a complimentary portrait of the pageant world, they weren't paying attention, or they were so consumed with getting exposure for their daughters (and the reflected glory for themselves) that they just didn't give much of a damn.

I've occasionally wondered what pageant girls grow up to be. It's like sexual abuse in more than one way. Some will grow up and repudiate their mothers, the abusers, and others will grow up to repeat the pattern, to think that this is acceptable. These girls will have a harder time escaping their pasts (if they so choose) because this is going to live on DVD forever.

Now part of me wants to excuse some of it away. To say 'Oh well all pageants don't reach the bleaching, teasing, hairspraying, body make upping pinacle that was portrayed in the movie. Some Moms just think it's a way to spend time as a family and teach their little girls poise in public.' but isn't that like saying some sexual abuse is ok because it was just fondling, and the abuser thought the child enjoyed it, and it's not like there was penetration or he got her pregnant or anything?

Flat Daddy

I'm not sure if this is a good thing for children or sad on too many levels to think about.

First, there are some military fathers that are a lot safer two-dimensional.

Second, though it helps to keep a father present in a child's mind, especially a young child's, a Flat Daddy isn't really helpful when it's time for hugs, kisses, and advice.

Third, wives are carrying these things around too which, when combined with BOBs is just too weird to think about.

And finally, what happens if 3D Daddy comes home and his family likes the other version better?

Stealth Doberman

cute...but can the costumes do anything about a pit bull's jaw strength?

Cute Overload of the Day

Foodie Heaven

The Dekalb Farmers Market is the most wonderful food shopping experience I've ever had. And it's going to provide some of the best eating experiences I've ever had for the next week.

I was impressed when I first saw a Whole Foods but now? Hah! Whole Foods was a little too Yuppie and way overpriced. The Dekalb Farmers Market has something for everyone and it's dirt cheap.

I saw things in that store yesterday that I never saw before: fava beans, lemongrass, varieties of fruits and vegetables for everyone. It not only had exotic stuff but food to make a southerner's taste buds drown. There were Tennessee tomatoes, Carolina half-runner beans, big thick yellow squash for frying, and potatoes so fresh the dirt was still damp. There was fresh produce being restocked all over the section (which takes up half of the warehouse size store). My buggy was half filled before I ever got out of Produce.

Once I had bagged enough produce to keep a vegan happy for a week, Zach and I moved to the other departments. There was a bakery section with organic pastries and breads, a dairy section with growth hormone free milk and free range eggs, a deli with meats and cheeses and salads to go, a meat section with things I could have done without seeing but I'm sure it made somebody happy (Lamb Kidneys?!), and a seafood section that was stunning. There was live fish swimming and you pick your fish and they'll scoop it out and clean it for you to take home. It doesn't get any fresher than that.

And the cost? The live fish cost about the same as frozen stuff at the local market. The produce was four times fresher at half the price. The Deli was reasonable. I haven't priced Lamb Kidneys so I couldn't tell you if they were priced well or not and we never did make it to the staples section (next trip!)

Almost better than the delicious food (ok, nothing comes close to that...) was the people. There were people from every culture that lives in the Atlanta area and everyone was incredibly friendly. Since we didn't all speak the same language we just smiled and nodded a lot.

Now how do I break it to Brick that we're going grocery shopping in Atlanta at least once a month?