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I Protest

I’ve been filled with a rather seething rage for the past week or so and haven’t really had the time nor the attention span to write about it. I’m not thrilled about this war thing, which should be rather obvious. No sane person gets all gushy and excited about the prospect of war; it’s a dirty — if sometimes necessary — business. But my opinion on the war is irrelevant; my beef is with the protesters who are hell-bent on taking San Francisco hostage by deciding that their “right” to “free speech” supercedes the rights of thousands of others to live their lives and support their families…

And I’m outraged that very few local commentators seem to recognize the precedent we’re setting by allowing this to happen. Sure, there are plenty of tepid condemnations (“While I understand their frustration, I don’t wholeheartedly endorse their actions, even though I sympathize with them.”) and occasional outbursts by overgrown frat boys who have no more understanding of law and order than the protesters they condemn, but disturbingly few powerful voices in San Francisco have had the courage to point out that the terrorist acts committed here last week are unaccpetable, period. I don’t give a good goddamn about whatever “good intentions” the protesters (and their wimpy defenders) may think they have. It bothers me greatly that Willie Brown seems to be the most sensible politician in town this week…

The day before the protests last week, I wrote this rant, and I’m just getting around to posting it today. I still think it holds up pretty well. If you don’t want the long version, a synopsis would include the following:

  • Current protest theory seems to center around inconveniencing as many people as possible. This strategy is doomed to backfire.
  • Anti-war protesters (specifically “civil disobedients”) in San Francisco seem to believe that their right to break the law supercedes the rights of others not to.
  • Facets of the peace movement are pushing an entire “bill of goods”, most of which has nothing to do with the current situation in Iraq.
  • Those who use tactics involving force, violence, or destruction of property are terrorists and should be treated as such. Period.

On the lighter side, the DVD releases of “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” and the first season of “Futurama” (released yesterday) are quite wonderful and are highly recommended. A sense of humor is a good thing…

Idiots du Jour

This morning, I received an emailed form letter from some idiot taking me to task for supporting the protests in San Francisco and “giving comfort to the enemy” or some such claptrap. It was pretty much the last thing I expected since I made a pretty loud statement AGAINST the protesters earlier this week. It’s proof, I guess, that there are lunkheads on all sides of this issue…

I ain’t leaving the house today, what with Hypocritical Mess being joined by Bikes Not Bombs (I’ve decided to join forces with the guy next door who fixes timepieces and start a group called “Clocks Not Clichés”), the Giants season-opener, and a whole lot of ill-timed construction starting all at once…

Anyone interested in starting a “help David and Mark escape San Francisco” fund?

Who’s Guarding the Henhouse?

So funny I may burst into tears: AT&T, which is probably responsible for more annoying, unsolicited telemarketing calls than any other company in the US, has been selected to manage the FTC’s new nationwide “do not call” list, designed to REDUCE the number of telemarketing calls. Government in action, I guess…

By the way, I forgot to point you toward Mark’s essay on domestic terrorism in San Francisco. It’s a good read; of course, I got to hear it in person, with musical accompaniment…

Water

Oh good God. Fortunately, none of the restaurants I frequent have the audacity to ask me “what kind” of water I want with my meal. I’ve also been very good about not patronizing coffee shops which prefer to argue that they don’t have a “large” size rather than just sell me a fucking cup of coffee…

In my annual review at work this week, my boss commented that I seem much less bitter and cynical than I used to lately. Just thought I’d throw that in…

Snow in the Sierra

Going up into the Sierra for the weekend to watch it snow and stuff. Lest anyone get the wrong idea here, though, the closest we’ll be getting to “roughing it” is the fact that we’ll have a VCR but no DVD player…

I do not camp…

OK, Maybe No Snow…

Home again. We didn’t actually see any snow, but there was lots of rain. So we played Monopoly and watched movies and cooked out (there’s something wonderfully unwholesome about cooking out when it’s 25 degrees and pouring down rain outside) and it was a good weekend all in all…

Unrelated (I think): why have I been starving all day?

Updates

I’ve disappeared for so long this time that people are starting to ask if I’m alive or dead. Since convincing them otherwise would require actually answering email (something I seem wholly incapable of doing lately), I’ve decided it’s time to set the record straight here. Today, I feel somewhere in between…

No, don’t worry. There’s nothing wrong. I’ve just been horribly busy this week, commuting to San Mateo by day and working on a major site redesign for a client by night. Both should be done this week — just in time for me to go on jury duty. Woo hoo…

By the way, penis anyone?

By way of updates:

  • Had a brief stop by Berkeley last weekend to hit the assorted used media stores. It’s good to visit Berkeley once in a while; it makes San Francisco seem so — how shall I say it — rational and sensible by comparison. Which ain’t easy. By the way, is there any truth to that rumor that Berkeley is considering setting aside 20% of its street parking for cars which are valued at less than $3500? No, of course not, but you believed it for a second, didn’t you?
  • On Sunday, we watched some of the dismantling of the Central Freeway overpass crossing Market Street. I may drive up and see if it’s completely gone this afternoon. My computer and I need some quality time apart…
  • Self-indulgence dilemma of the week: deciding whether to unwind with a selection from the new Family Guy box set or the recently-acquired New York box set…
  • Mark’s been visiting the parents all weekend, but I have no naughty little secrets to share; I spent the entire weekend curled up with Dreamweaver and ImageReady, and my biggest extravagances were dinner at IHOP with Jamie last night and a trip to Target, where I bought one two-dollar bag of cookies…
  • Things I hate this month: the IRS, the Superior Court of San Francisco, and the Department of Parking and Traffic…
  • Entertaining website of the week: The History of San Francisco Bay Area Freeway Development…
  • The newest beta of Safari is addressing most of my concerns nicely. Of course, all you Windoze sufferers can’t use it. Too bad…

I’ll try to make the updates a little more frequent soon. Or at least a little more entertaining…

Randomly Tuesday

So my jury duty report date is tomorrow, and now I’m pissed because the location has been changed from the Hall of Justice (just around the corner, lunch at home, etc.) to the courthouse in Civic Center (farther than I want to walk but too close to bother taking transit). I imagine that if I make it as far as jury selection, I’ll have some interesting comments about the whole process in a day or two. But I’d rather skip it…

Random:

  • Calling out to me from the fridge: leftover Manwich (actually the lackluster generic version), Olallieberry cheesecake (courtesy of Mark‘s mom and dad), and aerosol whipped cream. No, I’m not pregnant…
  • Just a thought: has anyone ever seen one of those ever so environmentally-correct Keep Tahoe Blue stickers on any vehicle which wasn’t a really huge SUV or monster truck? Just curious…
  • Jeez, is it really only Tuesday?

Jury-Rigged

One of my fellow jurors today adopted a rather dejected look and whined about how none of us seemed to want to go to lunch together because, he presumed, we wouldn’t have anything to talk about but the case, which was off-limits…

Well, duh. This is not a team-building exercise. We DON’T have anything in common but the case. I’m sure all my fellow jurors are very nice people, but the idea that I should have lunch with one or two of them never once crossed my mind. I don’t know these people. And I don’t particularly want to know any more about them than the situation requires…

Are there really individuals who are so socially dependent that they feel slighted if they have to complete the simplest task — say, going somewhere to get a sandwich — all alone? Jeez…

Completely unrelated Fran Lebovitz quote du jour: “Any child who cannot do long division by himself does not deserve to smoke”…