Barbarism and Barbarella

As we've seen before, some weeks there's no news. Other weeks, like this one, there's too much. Where do I begin? How do I thread it all together? Is there a common theme, Wes? I often talk to myself this way, to feel as though I have close friends in my head.

Speaking of close friends, George Bush, a Christian, has close friends in Saudi Arabia's government and royalty. He might want to speak to them about the little raid conducted on a "clandestine" church in suburban Riyadh that netted 40 illegally worshipping Christians. Since it is legal to practice Christianity in Saudi Arabia in the privacy of one's own home (it's like drinking 40-ouncers here!) you would think that it would be GOOD that it was a clandestine church. That means "private." But the Saudi's don't see it that way. To them it means "sneaky."

Speaking of oppression of lifestyles -- and I bet you think I'm headed for Washington State's non-passage of a law to stop discriminating against gays, but no! I'll do that later! – we see that a "study" in England has determined that office workers suffer a greater loss of IQ from reading email and text-messages and taking phone calls at work than from smoking pot. Email etc. takes 10 points off your IQ, smoking pot takes only 4 points off.

I have so many questions at this point. 1) Where can I sign up to participate in such a study? I would like to have my IQ lowered by the pot, thank you. 2) When they say "study," what exactly do they mean, anyway? Do they just pass out the joints, take up clipboards, and walk around stroking their chins? Or are there electrodes implanted in brains? 3) Only 4 points off for the pot!? So why is it illegal!?

Oh, never mind, I know the answer to that last one! It's illegal because there's a law against it, and we can't have lawbreakers can we? Golly, I don't know if there is any connection, but here in the news it says that even though violent crime is way down in this country we still have more people in prison than just about any other country in the universe.

OK, one more news story and then I'll shut up for another week: we're talking about oppression again, only this time it isn't oppression of a lifestyle, exactly. We're talking about the incident that occurred while Jane Fonda was in Kansas City on her book tour, and a Vietnam Veteran, Michael Smith, spit tobacco juice in her face for having been a traitor to America who had "spit in the faces of war veterans for years."

Since many of you readers are too young to remember the Vietnam War, I will summarize it for you. We picked up the war right about where the French had lost it. It was popular for a while, then it became unpopular. So a lot of people expressed their displeasure with it, including the star of the movie Barbarella. Most of those people have not been accused of having spit in the faces of war veterans for years, since actually not as much of that occurred as has been reported. Jane Fonda herself did not ever spit, literally, in anyone's face, as far as I know. But Jane Fonda was the star of the movie Barbarella.

Tom Hayden could protest the war to his heart's content, but Jane Fonda was a woman, and that's all this is about. It isn't really even about Vietnam. It certainly isn't about treason, because Jane Fonda just wanted what our president at the time eventually gave us, and called good.

It's all about oppression. Mind your superiors. Don't pray to Jesus in Riyadh. Don't smoke pot. Three strikes and we'll put you away for life. No uppity women, especially during wars. Oh, yes, and don't forget Rule #9: There's always a war.