on de plane

Its Time...

Impeach George Bush!

Cheers to New Orleans

New York Times editorialist David Brooks gets a little taste of New Orleans, and it makes him rethink his value system.

Saturday Night Lite

It happens to the best of us.

10 C's

Christopher Hitchens on the Immorality of The Ten Commandments

If the Supreme Court allows the 10 Commandments to be placed in any courthouse, then I will push to have a large Oak tree placed in the middle of the court as well, festooned with runes, so that we can have sacrifices and worship the tree gods and goddesses just as our Celtic ancestors did about the same time that the 10 C's were handed down. How can they deny me? Once you allow religion to be supported by the government, how can you then say one is O.K. but not the other? Or maybe I will push, instead to have a statue of Yoda put in every courtroom, because I and many others are true Jedi's and worship the force. There are a lot of Star Wars fans out there. Or maybe now the Mormon Church, (that's a "real" religion right?), will now want golden statues of Moroni in every courtroom. Or at least Utah, where there is overwhelming precedence, and the majority wishes it. Who are we to say no? A Baptist or Catholic in Utah, much less an agnostic? Too damn bad. Those in favor of the 10 C's posted everywhere: Put the shoe on the other foot and see if it feels a little tight.
And as Hitchens argues, they're not all that great anyway.

I'm no student of prophesy but...

I'm no student of prophesy but I pay attention to what those that are have to say. I was tuned in to the Christian Broadcast Network the other day and a heavy deep-voiced man with silver-white and impeccably combed hair said that according to Deuteronomy, verse something or other, and the whole of the book of God-Destroyed-Some-Shit, the end of the earth was nigh. Now I wasn't exactly and completely, totally straight when I heard that shit, so you can imagine. I took a step back and thought...shit man! Does that dude take himself seriously. I mean shit, he's on non-cable TV, beamed all across fucking Southern California and shit, yelling the world is about to end. What the fuck!? Now what the Hell man. If you really thought the world was about to end (because there have been ominous signs that biblicaly predicted events in the middle-east have transpired to produce a war between the Russians and the United States)wouldn't you be calling the president and Condi Rice? I mean the guy asked for donations for his starving African childrens charity, and offered advice on how God can help you achieve financial success. If the god-damned world was ending it should be a big fucking deal...riight!? Maybe the charity stuff could wait. Maybe its too late to save the children!?

Yes, I got a bit miffed at the guy but, you know, its shit like that, that keeps me tuned in to the Christian Network. If you want drama, destruction and singing, you can't beat it.

New Orleans Bathrooms

In New Orleans, sometimes it is interesting to see which is more interesting- the décor of the restaurant or bar- or the bathrooms. Since many of them are located in old, retrofitted buildings, who knows if you will have to walk through the kitchen to get to the bathrooms, or another small building on the other side of a courtyard? Will it be the size of a closet? Will it be shared-sex? Will it have little antique knickknacks and look like your grandmother’s bathroom? Will it be a collage of 70’s era Playboy centerfolds? Will a little old man be there to hand you a towel and cologne for a small tip? It will be guaranteed that it will not look like the bathroom stalls of your Applebees-Olive Garden. At worst it could be a French Quarter dive, or Tulane college student dive, with those awful metal trowels. God knows what the women’s bathrooms would be like in such places such as “The Boot”. A poem inscribed upon the wall at Fat Harry’s:

“I’ve shat in Spain
I’ve shat in France
But before I shit at Fat Harry’s
I’ll shit in my pants.”

I took a look around and found that I had to concur. At the other end of the trowel there was a disgusting little metal toilet without even a stall to block anyone’s view!

But many New Orleans bathrooms are very cool and make you want to do your bathroom up like them, a lot of art and stuff. Someone should do a coffee table book (or one to sit on the back of the throne) of just photographs of New Orleans bathrooms.

A visitor has landed

In early February a visitor came to LA. While meditating on the existential nature of the day she beheld the sea. "A la mer" she said while staring out into the endless horizon. And then she knew in silent epiphany, she would be the queen of medical emergency.