2003-02-21 - 4:00 p.m.
Not to make fun of the dead or anything, but can you imagine how embarrassing it must be to get stuck in the afterlife wearing a Great White T-shirt? I'm just saying.
Seriously, these recent nightclub tragedies have me more freaked out than any Code Oranges we've had. I tend toward a Joe Bob Briggs "Anyone Can Die at Any Time" approach to life, and what are any one person's actual numeric chances of dying in a terrorist attack on U.S. soil, anyway? You're more likely to get killed on the freeway--and I work at home so my daily commute doesn't involve freeway travel. I do, however, spend more time than the average person in dark, crowded, low-ceilinged firetraps filled with ear-splittingly overamplified music, so I've imagined scenarios on more than one occasion much like what happened last night in Rhode Island. That local TV news footage is just plain creepy.
I'm still going to see Pere Ubu next week, but I suspect I'll be keeping a closer-than-usual eye on the fire exits.
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Changing the subject entirely, what does everyone think of this whole "Human Shield" movement? On the one hand, I can appreciate that level of commitment to peace--it's a far cry from the weasely "War is Bad, mmkay?" pseudo-pacifism espoused by large segments of the antiwar crowd--and being willing to place yourself in harm's way for your beliefs shows a lot more balls than the chickenhawks in the administration have.
But on the other hand, yeesh. "Jenny Norton, a 53-year-old self-employed jeweler and elder-care worker, decided to become a human shield on Jan. 23, the day a friend told her about the movement. 'It was an immediate yes,' she says. 'It resonated through me. I didn't feel as if I chose it myself. It's almost as if it chose me.'" Um, "resonated"? "It chose me"? What kind of cheap, skanky ditch-weed have you been smoking, hon? If you need to self-actualize that badly, take up yoga, or scrapbooking. As for that O'Keefe dude, I can't decide if he's another Charles Manson or a Tim McVeigh of the left.
People. Sometimes they make me think I'm just watching Natural Selection as it happens.
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Not much on the agenda for this weekend. Most of my friends are either busy or out of town, so I think I might do some more catching up on movies. I still haven't seen Adaptation, and I'm told The Quiet American is good, too. Or maybe I'll get baked in front of the TV again. The possibilities are endless.
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