posted: October 7, 2001
I'm afraid that, at the moment, I don't have a lot to say that's really amusing or light. The current situation in which my nation finds itself is pretty upsetting. Not merely because of the recent tragedy, but because of our response to it. At first, most people pulled together well, but then came some rather disturbing events. It was bad enough that people outside the US said unpleasant things about us and made stupid, thoughtless statements of the caliber of "it's a tragedy and an outrage but, well, they deserved it". What sort of asshole can take a view that morally congested?
And then Americans act stupid and attack other Americans for wearing headgear they don't understand. Ignorance is about the ugliest thing I can imagine and here it was, thrust into our faces on top of so much other ugliness as would choke a troll.
Then our government decides that it would be a good thing to undermine the principals for which we supposedly stand and attack the rights of everyone within our borders. As if we had stepped back into the age of McCarthyism. It is never acceptable to suspend a people's rights or dignity. Not even in the course of a war. In our own past, which is quite short, we have done things of which we should be ashamed, but from which we should have learned and don't seem to have. If you have a rule of law, stick to it, otherwise you become a nation of outlaws. Those who have brought this horror to us are outlaws and we degrade ourselves by dropping to their level.
I am an American by birth, but also by choice. I have read our famous documents and thought about them, discussed them, even argued with more knowledgeable people than I about them. The concepts of freedom, dignity and equality which we accept as their underlying tenets are noble and good and I am disgusted at the current assault on them from within.
In the face of adversity, a noble man should not become a tyrant, yet that is what some people seem to be proposing; that the United States become a tyrant to its own people, that we turn our back on our most precious principals. And that we treat outsiders with contempt.
This disgusts me.
And this morning I wake to find we have begun bombing a foreign country. Selectively, at this point, but still.... I do not think this is the best course we could have chosen. Can we restrict ourselves to purely military targets and combatants? If not, we drop to the level of the underhanded monsters who precipitated this mess.
I don't want to be like them. I don't want to see my government conduct themselves so poorly toward Americans or anyone else, simply because they are afraid or their pride has been pricked. So, call me arrogant, but I've always thought that Americans, as a generality, were better than this. That we would not simply abandon our principals out of fear. I know that this is all still very much up in the air at this point, but I don't have a good feeling.
I hope that, in the heat of the moment, we don't forget what we supposedly stand for.
posted: October 25, 2001
It comes by night, and even by day, to fang my socks and my unsuspecting feet.
It is like the legendary bigfoot: everyone who has never seen it claims it does not exist, is a hoax or a figment of my too-active imagination. But those who have been victim to its evil bite, its lightning-fast appearance and swift dissolve into darkness, know the truth.
The Nos-Ferretu is out there. No foot is safe, no untended shoe, no rubber or leather item left a moment unwatched.
I have proof: my rain boots leak from the fangings they have suffered. Alas, I laid them to rest in the dumpster. They adorn the feet of the homeless now, I have no doubt, but they shall suffer. The mark of Nos-Ferretu will never be erased. The holes in the toes will ever leak Seattle rain upon the tootsies of the victim.
The stuffed toys leak fluff from fabric wounds. They know not why they have been attacked. Their glazed plastic eyes speak volumes of the horrors which their thread-stitched mouths cannot scream.
When the scrambling sound of its clawed feet is heard upon the deck above, the cat flattens his scarred ears and hides. He knows the terror of Nos-Ferretu.
Fruit can be found with gouges taken from its sweet flesh. None are safe from the predations of the fiend, not young, smooth skinned grapes, nor old and wrinkled raisins. They bear the mark of the fang.
The bed may hold such horrors that only the bravest dare slip between the chilly sheets without a glance in search of firey eyes which glare their malevolence, glowing with the unhealthy desire for tender tarsals.
They know no fear. Their strike is swift. None but the righteous boot may stand before the fiend. And we know their fate. Pity the boot which gives such stalwart service, then is reduced to rubbish in the battle against Nos-Ferretu.
Vampire Weasel, I hunt thee with nail clipper and toothbrush. Someday, fiend, I shall be victorious. I hear you chuckling, wicked-one. Laugh now, for tomorrow, you may be vaccinated....
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