Visitor 13,000

Welcome, visitor number 13,000. I wish I could send you a complimentary gift, but you live in Thailand. It was 2:00 Friday afternoon (your time) when you chose to visit here after viewing the naughty nuns at Dr. Omed's place. I hope you weren't disappointed that there aren't salacious pictures here. You might have been disappointed that I don't discuss my love-life in detail. But since I barely have even an imaginary love-life, there's not that much to tell.

Why did I name this web-log "Love During Wartime"? Well, I did start it as our Fearless Leader was making plans to invade Iraq. But I mainly gave it this name because of a song by the Talking Heads, "Life During Wartime". I love the Talking Heads. Somehow, I misplaced Fear of Music, the album on which this song appears; but I remember how liberating that album was for me.

That song, "Life During Wartime", doesn't repeat the title anywhere in the song (as I recall). The chorus is something like "This ain’t no party, this ain’t no disco, / This ain’t no fooling around / This ain’t no mudd club, or c. b. g. b., / I ain’t got time for that now..." David Bryne, the lead singer sounds particularly desperate and manic on this song - desperate and manic is pretty much his specialty- but even more so here.

The song describes a life in desperation, that feels under attack. That's how things feel these days, when our national legislature has lengthened and strengthened the Patriot Act. When our young men and women are dying in two foreign countries (lest we forget Afganistan).

I didn't agree with the attack on Afganistan, but at least I understood the desire for vengence. I still don't understand why GWB invaded Iraq, though I have a host of suspicions.

I live in a society that has wonderful and high ideals, and lately has been subverting each last one. "Freedom of Speech" so long as you agree with the President's follies. "States' rights" unless the state wants to make medical use of marijuana legal, or wants to allow a person the right to a good death, a death with a degree of dignity. This notion of rights may seem foreign to you, since you live in Thailand, but we Americans pretty much take these freedoms for granted. So much so, that many of us think we can afford to lose one or two, or dillute them somewhat.

So sometimes, visitor number 13,000 from Thailand, I feel like Jonah in the Whale. You may not know that story. It's a prophecy in the Jewish holy writings, which we Christians presumptiously call the Old Testament. It's one of the funniest stories in the Bible. Have your favorite missionary tell it to you. That person should especially enjoy the irony.

You were not here long, according to SiteMeter: 0 min, 0 seconds. I'm not sure that time is always accurate (Visitor 12,996 was here over 9 min, which seems extreme). But, if you took time to scroll down the page, you got a good idea of the sort of stuff I do here:

• Poetry
• Regilious reflections
• Personal essays
• Altered photos
• And, always, persistent pictures of my lovely feline companion.

Thanks for dropping by, visitor 13,000. Feel free to come back any time!