what to make of wikileaks

I've been a tad behind on world events and am just catching up to the uproar about WikiLeaks and its publication of American diplomatic cables.

Oh, where to begin.

Should someone assassinate Julian Assange, WL's editor-in-chief, as suggested by that standard bearer of ethics, G. Gordon Liddy? I love how there is zero outrage over illegal killings in Kenya, questionable Guantanamo Bay procedures or toxic waste dumping in Africa (issues all documented by WikiLeaks) but people want to publicly flog Assange.

Then there's the other side. Isn't Assange threatening our national security and diplomatic relations by publicly leaking unclassified cables? Perhaps, but our enemies had their beef w/ us long before WikiLeaks ever launched.

The most ludicrous claim has been that Assange is guilty of treason, since he's Australian. Sorry mate!

Where to land on this issue?

I would say that the debate is not about whether Julian Assange is irresponsible; we have to assume he is, although perhaps not as irresponsible as those individuals who tortured war prisoners at Abu Gharaib. Shouldn't the debate focus more on the the issue of journalism and what makes for investigative journalism in this age of the Internet? I read an interview with Assange and he mentions that WikiLeaks has released more classified documents than the rest of the world press combined. Isn't that a sad comment, when we look to journalists to raise issues and uncover things that are suppressed by governments, banks, corporations?

Very curious to see how this plays out...

holidaze

For all the talk about Americans being pro-family, there sure is a lot of animosity among kinfolk during the holiday season.

My immediate family doesn't have too much of this issue, although every year there's a bidding war about who will host turkey day, who is welcome and who is deliberately uninvited. My father likes to ice out my in-laws and make the day just about the Mohseni Clan. That's all good and well but we grow sick of each other in about two hours.

My grandparents are the tribeless lot, each year bounced from one offspring's house to the next. They require extra special care, including being fed and led to their car to drive home before its dark, so very few family want to deal with that. It's been a few years since they've been at my parents and I'm sure others will soon notice.

My good friend hates her step father, so she arrives just a few minutes before the family eats and then makes up a story about not feeling well. I don't know why they haven't caught on that she uses the same excuse every year.

My other friend has to drive 40 minutes to be with her family, then two hours to her husband's family, because the families hate each other. She is emotionally drained for the rest of the week and swears she will never do this again.

So much for being grateful for family...

my mormon dilemma

I just finished watching a harrowing documentary called 8: The Mormon Proposition. It chronicles the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints' campaign to ban same-sex marriage in Calif through the passage of Prop 8. I haven't been this pissed off in a looooong time. The film does what any good investigative documentary does (uncovers classified church documents and exposes the church's nefarious attempts to conceal its funding of, and overall involvement, in Prop 8.) but laces it with stories about Mormons who were personally affected by the church's beliefs about gays. Some of them were forced into unconventional therapy, others were shunned by their families. Far too many committed suicide.

There is no love in my heart for the LDS organization or for its members who set out to hurt people who have done nothing to them. Now I'm in a bit of a pickle. I've been asked to work with a colleague on some projects and I found out recently he's a LDS member - the tie-wearing, proselytizing kind. He's getting married in a month at the Mormon temple and he exudes all the creepiness of a mindless religious person - the starry eyes, faux politeness, the kind of Jesus -is-my-auto-pilot sensibility. I don't know much else about him but I loathe him. This is wrong, I know it's wrong, and I'm the first person to preach about the need to be tolerant. But how can I when he belongs to an organization that is deceptive - blatantly lying to cover its tracks - and that has destroyed so many lives in its desire to impose its will upon others?

Gawd help me. (Sarcasm)

california dreamin

It's the day after the election and it's a bit like waking up in an alternative universe. Nationally the GOP trounced Democrats, but California emerged liberal and green. Barbara Boxer will retain her Senate seat, voters shot down Prop 23 and best of all, Jerry Brown walloped Meg Whitman. I couldn't fathom a billionaire businesswoman who didn't register to vote until 2002 and who voiced contempt for the legislature really working on a bipartisan level for the greater good.

Importantly, we don't have to hear those pre-recorded "get out the vote" messages on our answering machines anymore.

It's a good day, Calif!

two things need 'splaining:

1. People who post stick figures of their entire family (and pets) on their car's rear window

2. People who include quotes from famous philosophers in their e-mail signatures (Even better, the people who do this but don't actually follow what the philosophers suggest.)

seriously? just one penis?

Now that I've got your attention....

I am perplexed by people who marry their high school sweetheart. Not people who date someone in high school, break up and then find them years later. I mean people who date in high school, continue to date in college and then marry as soon as they graduate.

Amazingly, I have met three such couples in the past year. I am intrigued and slightly repelled by them. Especially the men. Simply put, I can't believe they don't crave more vajay-jay.

But the women are not off the hook, either. Sometimes, especially when I'm in conversation with this one couple who hooked up when they were 16 and are now 29, I have to fight my urge to take the wife by the shoulders, point to her husband and say, "You've only had sex with HIM??"

Okay, I know sex is not the only thing that keeps a couple together. But longterm attraction has got to be tough if you never dated other people, or dated a relative few. The world is a big fat amazing place, with lots of amazing people. How can you be sure at 22 that you have made the best decision for the rest of your life?

I asked my psychologist friend D to weigh in on the issue. He advised that I was trying to wedge people into my view of the world and hypothesizing. However, when pressed, he agreed that marrying one's high school boyfriend or girlfriend was weird. (Or, as he phrased it, "potentially limiting.")

D also pointed out that some people experience fear that they will never find another person if they break up, and that fear influences their decision to get married.

I shudder to think what would have happened if I married my high school/college b-friend. I recently blogged about running into him at a restaurant and being shocked by his bad taste in clothes. I definitely needed to have more life experience, and much better sex.

So in conclusion, I submit that it's better to date a lot and have life experience before taking the plunge into marriage. Or, to be blunt, have more than one penis before you settle into a life of just one penis.

can't help it

I just paid $200 for a lamp for Magnus's room. I know, I know.

But it's a sweet lamp!