This morning's CNN coverage of the toppling of Saddam's statue in Baghdad had me fixed in place. This was one of those scenes, like that of the Germans tearing down the Berlin Wall, that had history writ large upon it. Something momentus and important is happening and being caught up in it, being a part of it, transcends the act of witnessing to become something more akin to self-definition.

Herein lies a problem of interpretation. If you've been a stalwart opponent of the war, processing the images of cheering and joyous Iraqis demands one of three possible responses:

• Rejection,
  
• Transcendence, or
  
• Acknowledgement
  

Should you reject the rationale for the war but take an approving view of its outcomes, this could be termed a transcendent valuation—perceiving the proverbial dark cloud's silver lining. The cognitive dissonance arising from the tension between war and celebration should nudge more than a few in this direction. The action remains an evil, but its ends have somehow justified it. Summarizing this perspective is the reaction from the rest of the world: guarded and mixed.

The third option is to recognize what has taken place without rejecting its validity, but also without granting it any measure of approval. This might lead to a reassessment of one's original stance of opposition, but people tend to commit to a belief and then stick to it regardless of outcome. More likely, the overall perception from this angle is likely to be a sort of numbed shock, not unlike the sense one gets when a favorite sports team loses a critical game.

Watching the Watchers

You can't turn your back on these people for even a moment: Republicans Want Terror Law Made Permanent. According to this report, a group of Senate Republicans led by Senator Orrin Hatch [R-Utah] are taking aim at the proviso of the USA Patriot Act that will cause it to expire as law at the end of 2005.

The Senate Democratic leader, Tom Daschle of South Dakota, said today that without extensive review, he "would be very strongly opposed to any repeal" of the 2005 time limit. He predicted that Republicans lacked the votes to repeal the limits.

More Zombies

The Flintstones Movie, The Addams Family, The Partridge Family, Dragnet, Shaft, Scoobie Doo, and The Avengers. Hollywood screenwriters continue to exume the detritus of the past and remake it without any vestige of its orginal charm.

Next up for a re-animation of a buried corpse: Starsky and Hutch.

Here's the original Paul Glaser as Detective Dave Starsky and David Soul as Detective Ken "Hutch" Hutchinson. In the remake, we get Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson, the latter to be embroiled in some kind of bizarre relationship with Carmen Electra. It gets weirder. Word on the street is that the role of Huggy Bear is being reprised by "Girls Gone Wild" neo-impressario Snoop Doggy Dogg. We can expect that each time the rambunctious duo are stymied at a critical juncture, they'll head to some jive-ass strip club to meet up with Huggy who'll be more than happy to squeal out his underworld pals in exchange for...Oh fergawdsake, haven't these people figured out that this stuff just doesn't work anymore?

4:32:34 PM       

I'm going to break one of my own right now by blogging after midnight. Usually, there's no point to it. The only people up this late are meth addicts and fans of E! Channel's Wild On, and while that doesn't exactly describe me, I did have a cup of coffee after dinner and I'm down to my skivvies, if that counts.

Thought I might mention a few things I don't normally blog about.

I never talk about the movies I rent. a) Your video shop probably doesn't carry titles like, Monkey Fist Attacks Dragon Temple Warriors. Is the chop-socky genre repetitive? Sure it is. But the bad guy always keeps a simpering sycophant around who wears Clark Kent glasses and affects a cigarette holder while saying things like, "Master Chow says you'd better pay up—or you'll be sorry!" b) You don't care.

I never discuss the music I'm listening to, or the books I'm reading. And I wouldn't put a Weather Pixie on my page even if you had my nuts in a garlic press. But since we're "going outlaw" tonight, I'm listening to Kate Bush sing The Sensual World, and my nightstand has a copy of Dictionaries: The Art and Craft of Lexicography by Sidney Landau on it. I torture the Ravenatrix at night by leaning over and reading her particularly witty sections from this work, like, "Peradventure the editor shall endeavor to embark upon the construction of a dictionary of abbreviations. In all likelihood he shall please few with his efforts." This guy's a laugh riot, I tell ya.

I never talk about my referral log. It's been done. Nobody cares. And if you do it, it means you're out of material. Since we're playing "Devil Take Hindmost," however...

ribald lingerie
You know, maybe there is hope for the human race after all.

Blacks + Jews + Reparations
There's enough here to upset everybody .

porn with medieval theme
What, bad teeth, BO, and lice?

t-shirts with twister game on it
Right hand blue!

jet engine man survives through
Now that I'd like to see.

doomsayers jesus last days iraq
And you, you were talking about the end of the world.

Someday you'll realize that you haven't been so fare.
But you left a token of your affection.

Self Bondage Stories
"He shuddered with the effort of getting that last damned knot cinched down..." No, I don't get it, either.

The Los Angeles City Council will be voting tomorrow on whether to rename the South Central district.

Here's a file photo from 1992, but I doubt the place has changed much. Oh, the new name? South Los Angeles. Yep, that'll fix the place up all right.

"A name change isn't going to make all the problems go away and nobody thinks that," said Councilwoman Jan Perry, one of the supporters. "It's basically one way, albeit a small one, to give a community its identity back."

Everyday Heroes

I like this one: Suspect Is Told Bank Ran Out of Money. This is from Pine Bluff, Arkansas, where a guy went into the local Bank of America, and did the ususal, "This is a stickup!" bit.

"Put the money in the bag," he demanded.

Instead, one of the two tellers told him the bank was out of money, and the other teller laughed and offered the man deposit slips. She told police that made the intruder angry, and he left without any money in his bag.

1:33:41 AM