Macho Mash

Susan Faludi had an interesting OP-ED piece on "America's Guardian Myths" in the New York Times this morning at this link. Relating the story of colonial women who survived the early Indian wars (and lived to write about it), and comparing those wars with the terrorist attack on 9/11, Faludi warns against the resulting mythology of strong white men and weak women which arose in both cases.

I read this following a mailing from "The Pen" alleging that the "mistaken" movement of warheads earlier this week is actually preparation for a preemptive nuclear strike against Iran. I confess, my immediate thought was there was no mistake involved, unless it was that the information got out, but then, I've had a level of paranoia since the Pretender arose to his throne which I hadn't felt since I was a child in panic from overhearing the adults talk about war with the U.S.S.R. Just because The Pen is paranoid doesn't mean that Bush and Cheney aren't out to cause Armageddon. Won't they be surprised when (a) there is no afterlife or (b) there is an afterlife and they aren't going to Heaven. Monsters.

Six years ago today, Len and I flew back from New York out of Newark Airport because I had to prepare for two depositions and filings in Harlan Ellison's case against AOL. Otherwise, we would have had tickets for September 11 or 12, to spend more time with family after the Philadelphia World Science Fiction Convention. While I would not have booked tickets on early morning flights, we would have been witnesses to the destruction in New York and our return home would have been delayed by many days--assuming I would get on a plane, which I have not since September 7, 2001. It isn't so much that I hate flying, it's that I don't want to die in a plane crash, and the best way to help that along is to not fly. Stupid, I know.

The moments of that trip I keep thinking about are (a) going to a play in the West Village and looking up at the lights of the World Trade Center after dark; (b) walking in my old neighborhood past the Empire State Building and thinking "I could go to the top in an elevator and not worry about an earthquake;" and (c) walking through Times Square with my niece, hearing and seeing an emergency vehicle working its way through traffic, and having Kristina say to me "I always wonder how fire engines will get through Manhattan in a real emergency." Five days later, she had her answer.

There are only 500 days until January 20, 2009. Will we actually see the Repugnantans leave office or will they destroy the government and us first?