Ravings of a BiPolar Gothic Witch
     Occasional commentary, observations and tidbits as well as other random thoughts

It’s Denver. It’s supposed to be cold here in the winter. I know that. But it isn’t supposed to be so cold you freeze in your own condo on the bloody second floor! I work a job online at home. Because of that I am tied to the computer for hours at a time, sitting on my butt. I love being at home, the job is ok, but I FREEZE. If someone looked in my window they’d think there was a bag lady in my house.

I wear at least 2 heavy shirts, sometimes with a sweater, flannel pants, socks and slippers, a blanket in my lap, and gloves with the fingers cut out so I can type. Not to mention since I’m not going into an office and there is no one peeking in to my window (and if they are they deserve to see the lovely vision I am like this anyway) so I don’t “dress” for the occasion. Meaning if I’ve got an early shift (say, oh half past the crack of dawn) then I usually haven’t brushed my hair or teeth before stumbling to the keyboard, coffee in hand (or sometimes tea).

Of course, in the summer I complained because the windows were open and it was noisy.

Guess a girl just is never satisfied…

Ok,

While I was out reading stuff about the McCain legislation, there was a tiny reference regarding this very serious (and very strange) hobby that some people engage in. Not dangerous, nothing in order to make it something to even write about (well except the juicy little bit about them helping the CIA which of course is why I found it in the first place) but to me the whole thing is just, well, a little strange.

Planespotters go out for a day of watching airplanes at the airport. When they see one they haven’t seen before they dutifully write it’s serial number down in their little grey notebooks (ok, so maybe someone has pink - I’ve never been to a planespotter’s party before), and some even take a picture. I found myself imagining walking into the home of some planespotter. You know, you walk into someone’s house, and they have something they collect highlighted in their living room, or pictures of something they like hanging on the walls - people who walk into my house know I love wolves (well duh!) and that I was in theatre. Anyway, you walk into a planespotter’s living room, and there are like 100 pictures of the same plane on the wall, and well you think to yourself, scratching your head… what the hell? So being the oaf you are you actually ask the host, “gee, Joe, how come you’ve got like a hundred pictures of that same jet on the wall?”. At which point Joe looks at you like you are dumber than dirt, and says “Those aren’t the same plane. Can’t you see? The serial numbers are all different!” And finally, still scratching your head you think (planes have serial numbers? that you can see?!?).

Yeah so anyway, that is my weird entry for the week.

And just in case any of you readers think I’m making things up (yeah I do do that on a regular basis) here is a link. And no I didn’t spend my time working on a bogus website to fool everyone. Do a search on google… Gee if I could do that though - maybe the government would hire me… (slaps self across the face)

I’ve been doing reading over the past few days. Today’s started with Mark Morford’s column on Torture. First off, let me say that I find the notion that we actually have to put into LEGISLATION that as a country we won’t torture people is past understanding. I mean, people think I’m really out there, a total flake, one nut short (and yeah well I probably am), but I think partially it has to do with the fact that sometimes I just don’t even get other people or their thoughts and actions. Why is it necessary that we would have to make a law to keep our government from torturing people?

There are really 2 ironies to this whole bit. The first is that (at least to me) it is fairly obvious that any person with any kind of morals, scrupples, ethics, any belief system at all, should see that torturing another living breathing being (I’m pagan - I’m outraged by the treatment of animals as well, but understand that not everyone holds that belief even if it is wrong) is absolutely abhorent on any scale.

You’d have to be a rat to think that torture ever leads to anything useful, but beyond that, what kind of monster could ever bring themselves to do those types of things to another person? I guess the same ones that blow up villages during war, shoot unarmed civilians, and generally do horrible things. That is what war does to people. Soldiers are brainwashed into killing machines and disconnect from their centers of morality. Please do not take this wrong. I totally respect the individuals of the military. Some of my best friends have put their life on the line, and I am truly admiring of their self sacrifice and the choices that they made. But in order to be able to do the required things as a soldier, there has to be a disconnect somewhere that turns off your sensitivity to the nature of another’s plight.

In a recent article in UU World (a magazine for Unitarian Universalist church members) there was an article about the death of a quiet member, who unbeknownst to most of his congregation had written a book on WWII, and what happened in the death camps when the German soldiers guarding the inmates were interogated and released. There was a section in his book that talked about a General speaking to our troops and working them into a frenzy to be killing machines. I’m sure that is part of the whole disconnect process and that the whole “kill, kill, kill thing” is pretty much necessary. But if we were simply defending ourselves, that sort of rev up would be unnecessary. I’m anything but a pacifist. Trust me. If someone were to hurt one of my kids, they would have a hard time leaving with their head still on their shoulders. But going to another country, and going after people who have never done anything personally to you must be really hard to do unless you’ve been put through a few “praise jesus and pass the amunition” sessions. But I digress.

Beat me with a stupid stick if you want, but why is it we are trying to pass a bill in congress that says that we shouldn’t do something that any one who went through kindergarten with sharing cookies and nap time should know is wrong???

And here’s the second irony. What on earth makes Senator McCain think that the evil people doing the torture (with the blessings of our fearful money grubbing leaders) will even look at that law? Oh sure, it’ll probably make conversation around the water cooler a bit more fun for them but give me a break. The fact is, the nature of what they do is kept secret for a reason. They aren’t worried about tipping off the enemy. Face it, the rest of the world is already pretty aware of the horrors the US does in the name of “world safety”. It is the American public these shadowy figures fear. If Joe American hears that those people in W’s pocket have been pulling fingernails and using the rack on 17 and 18 year old kids because they happen to live in the Middle East and were in the wrong place at the wrong time (”oops - oh, so sorry about that, let me pick up your fingernails, here - we got a surgeon over here in Texas who can put those back on just like new and we’ll even pay a cool mil, oh and btw, say anything about this and die!”) they might be out of a job, or worse, maybe even have to stop doing such evil horrible shadowy things. His neighbors might look at him funny, or his car might get egged. God Forbid, someone might actually arrest him for doing his god given duty to W and country, or then again maybe just W. And Cheney, oh and Condaleeeeza baby.

How have we gotten so low on the food chain to think that not only do we have to put into writing something we should have learned with our mother’s milk, but that we think that the scum who do this sort of thing with the blessing of our government will even listen? Those folks are the “ciggarette smoking man” from the X Files. Plausible deniability man… plausible deniability. You’d have to be something other than human to be able to do or condone those things… oh right. That would be the problem I guess.

And after all that, I am apparently the unpatriotic, crazy bitch from hell who wishes every day for a terrorist blast to kill off half the nation? Well, ok, yeah I kind of do, if they are the stupid people who actually want to ignore this sort of thing… but that is beside the point!

Thanks Mark for yet another wonderful topic -

McCain’s Torture Legislation commentary by Mark Morford

Rant off