Andare, Partire, Tornare

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Mood up, mood down, shake it all around

I was nearly killed by peace protesters yesterday.

I'll wait while you process the irony.

Actually, what happened was that while I was wending my way back to work after hitting up the Subway for lunch, I got caught up in a smallish peace protest that was marching towards the White House. It was pouring rain and I had my meatball sub clutched in one hand, my purse tucked protectively against my body, and my large umbrella doing absolutely nothing to protect me from the rain. The wind was kicking up, and that's why the two people holding either end of a banner from a Methodist church lost control of it and nearly took my head off. Imagine the reaction of police, protesters, and pedestrians if a decapatation by peace banner had occured. I bet that would have made the news, boy-ee. I ducked under the banner and yelled something unintelligible, but I don't think they noticed because they had their rain hoods pulled down over their eyes, so part of the banner still smacked me in the face. They trotted on down the street, carrying their Peace Banner of Decaptitation, and I made my way back to work and ate the sub. And all was right with the world again.

smartypants linked to this article, which gave me the cauld grues. It ties in with some things sherry-darlin has mentioned - that while she's unsure about the timing of the war, she does think that Saddam is a monster of pretty goddamn large proportions. Her stepfather has recently been working with Iraqi exiles who have stories to tell about the regime they fled. It's pretty horrific. Of course, friends of mine like persia2 point out that our "allies" like Saudi Arabia actually have pretty miserable track records when it comes to human rights and basic treatment of women.

There's no clarity in the world, I think. All you can do is stumble through as best you can, try to learn your history to get a better perspective on the future, and hope you're lucky. There aren't any guarantees. Rome had been an empire that spanned the world, and a few hundred years later was being set aflame by the people they had been so busily conquering earlier. Justinian held onto his imperial power by killing 30,000 faction members in the Hippodrome during the Nika riots. Human beings are capable of such wonderful things, and such terrible things.

Wow, now I've gone and depressed myself. Here's a lighter topic. The Bemo and I went to see Chicago, and we really loved it. That's one for the DVD collection, I think. Even Richard Gere was great - but then, playing a sleezy lawyer is right up his alley. The dance sequence in the prison with all the murderesses was really excellent (I loved the use of the red scarves), as was Mamma's song - Bemo was chortling happily the whole way through it. I'll have to find a way to drag Boop to see it before it goes out of theaters, because I think the big screen gives it a lot of ooomph. Two thumbs up.

Ok, the whole office just erupted in bouts of hysterical laughter upon discovering that, although we have no food or water or plastic sheeting stored in the closet of our "safe room," we do have ONE FRICKING MONDO HUGE BAG OF TAMPONS. Like, enough to supply the whole building, should every woman decide to simultaneously start bleeding. I don't think I need to add to this - just form a mental picture in your own minds. One. Big. Sack. Of. Attractive. Pastel-packaged. Tampons.

9:17 a.m. - 2003-03-21

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