Lights Out! Cammila Radio!

"She explained...'I'm happy when I'm with him because he makes me like myself.' Jesus I thought. We've raised a generation of stone desperate cripples. She is twenty-two, a journalism grad from Boston University, and now--six months out of college--she talks so lonely and confused that she is eagerly looking forward to spending a few nights in a frozen chicken coop with some poor bastard who doesn't even know she's coming.

The importance of Liking Yourself is a notion that fell heavily out of favor during the coptic, anti-ego frenzy of the Acid Era--but nobody guessed, back then, that the experiment might churn up this kind of hangover: a whole subculture of frightened illiterates with no faith in anything." -Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72

Condoleezza Rice, in a recent Q&A session with Stanford students on the illegal use of torture during the Bush admin:

"...by definition, if it was authorized by the president, it did not violate our obligations under the Convention Against Torture."

I know it's a little passe for once busy denizens of the internet to keep right on guffawing about the Bush administration, stuck in a feedback loop of indignant bitching, like the zombies in Dawn of the Dead staggering back to the mall just because they don't know what else to do. But I swear, my aghastness here isn't self righteous -- my beef is rhetorical, and in a Realy!? With Seth and Amy kind of way, I'm actually sort of amazed.

She's well-schooled and experienced  in the realm of providing public statements, and she's proven to be more than proficient at excising content for those purposes. Plus, I don't know for certain, but I'm pretty sure she's not autistic, and has a reasonable level of awareness that when she speaks in front of audiences and cameras, her words are in turn, perceived by other humans. And you've gotta think she knew somebody was going to ask for her take on the legality of water boarding -- if not here, then somewhere else, tomorrow or probably yesterday.

I mean, she clearly had mentally prepped some ingredients for extemporaneous discussion on the matter, with reference to the Convention Against Torture, and yet it never occurred to her to make sure that, in all of this, she didn't end up kind of quoting Nixon? And not just something said by Nixon, but a fairly infamous sound byte -- one that had been been turned up to 11 on the drama-meter this very year in the most climactic moment of a critically acclaimed Oscar-heavyweight major motion picture?

Apparently, not too many agree with the extent of my amazement, since I don't exactly see this story getting bandied about by many outside the inflammatory douchebag set. I guess there have been people in the hot seat over enhanced interrogation for years now pleading "just following orders," so opening oneself up for a Nixon comparison is tame at this point.

scorseseisgod  linked me to the Women Film Critics Circle giving out an award for 2008's Most Offensive Male Characters. This concept is even worse in execution than it sounds in theory, with mentions going to guys like Aaron Eckhart in Towelhead and Sam Rockwell in Choke, where the inexcusable behavior enacted by these deeply flawed characters is the BASIS FOR THE CONFLICT IN THE STORY. What exactly are these women proposing? That screenwriters deal with the male/female power differential by never depicting it on screen?!

Few things alienate Gen X and Gen Y women like second-wave feminists construing the very word "feminism" with "misplaced semantic bitching."

Mother effin' Ruskies. You don't have to be savvy or well connected with Eastern European military intelligence to know who's being the bigger asshole here. It's not impossible that the South Ossetians really were shelling the fuck out of Georgian civilians, but even then it's pretty unlikely that the Georgians were actually committing genocide against the South Ossetians (though the Russians do know genocide amiright? heyoh!!) . And even if that were true, it obviously wouldn't explain Russia completely stomping the entire Georgian military infrastructure.

The thing is, with the separatist issue entering in, at first the whole thing reminded me a little bit of the Falklan Island war, I mean the South Ossetians don't identify as Georgian like in any way. But yeah, it basically ends there -- I mean it's not like they identify as Russian either. Even if the accusations against the Georgian forces were 100% true, that kind of systematic shitfucking don't make no kinda sense outside two things: 1. Gazprom interests (BORING!) and 2. the long-awaited resurgence in bombastic Russian political bitchiness (YESSS!!!!). They're totally steaming in there just because Georgia is inexplicably adored by the West and they want to piss us off. I'm getting warm and fuzzy already.

I love the resurgence in Russian nationalism. I love it so good. Rob and I could argue this into the ground, but nobody on Earth has made a better bad guy than Cold War Russia -- and that includes Nazis. I'm flying my nerd flag on this one (along with my "My Dad's a Historian!" flag, which is not to be confused with the My Dad Owns a Dealership!" flag -- though I'll admit they're in the same ballpark) and cop to the fact that the Cold War is my second favorite historical period, right behind the Tudor dynasty. Cold War intrigue is the best intrigue.

Unfortunately, it's also the reason that all that "this aggression will not stand" bullshit from Bush and Cheney and now Rice is so mind fuckingly counterproductive. At first, I figured they were probably just logging that shit for press before agreeing to the more lenient French referendum, but as the rhetoric has dragged on, I've become simultaneously excited about the spy secrets to come, and despondent about the flagrant shows of stupidity -- because the very act of publicly engaging in pissing contests with the Russians smacks so pungently of dumb. If there's one thing, and I mean one simplistic, conceptual idea that could be gleaned about Russian political relations from the entire 45 year history of the cold war, it's that tough talking with Russia Does. Not. Work. Those effing Ruskies will bluster and threaten and respond to every challenge or attempt to strong arm with greater piss and vinegar and infuriated shows of power and rage, totally regardless of whether they can back it up. Which is actually kind of shitty for a lot of people when they can.

Anyway, I'm in no way celebrating or advocating any of the actual hurt that Russia's putting down in Georgia or anywhere and I take no joy in other people's suffering. But that said, it's a good time for some covert delicious history to germinate. In the meantime, I'm rereading Hunt for Red October. Again.