Thursday, February 07, 2008

Of Waterboarding and Cat's Cradle

I'm not sure why, but a portion of my last post was prevented from being displayed, even though I can see it when I try to edit it. Odd. Here's the part that will not pass into sight.

"These are also most likely stereotypes, too,
so I have nobody to blame but myself. I'm ashamed. Oh, the shame!

Regarding the primary yesterday, I voted for Barack Obama, who lost in my town by about 200 votes. A friend tells me that Obama actually won in Cambridge. Well, the results one town over in Cambridge are interesting on many levels. Here they are..."

I'm rather emotional lately, perhaps even somewhat overwrought, and I can't find the thread that might lead to an explanation. Almost a crippling sentimentalism. Late last night I put down Sartre's The Wall and started into a re-read of Cat's Cradle by Vonnegut. After about twenty pages or so, I put the book down and listened to the voices in my head. One voice, actually, my own, but saying many different things. My gut was pierced with an overwhelming sense of regret, and I wept. So pathetic and impossibly soft-hearted.

Every day that you pass through is mostly just passing by, but a little sticks. Some of what sticks gives you pause, and a bit will change you. Change has a good reputation that is undeserved. It's just as likely to be a bad thing. Some of the things that changed me over time occasionally give me pause, and I wonder stupidly if anything of value was lost. Almost certainly not, but the sense of loss is impossible to deny.

You've had those moments, too. How did I get from there to here? It means mourning what is lost even if you weren't particularly fond of the thing that was lost to begin with. Sadness over loss itself.

Could I possibly be as awful a human being as I think I am? I think that is the question that causes my morning anxiety attacks. The ones that have me practically leaping from the bed every morning.

I want to say something about a verbal clash between Senator Ted Kennedy and Attorney General Michael Mukasey. I at least want to relate it. In a hearing about the legality of waterboarding, Kennedy asked Mukasey a simple question.

Kennedy asked. "Would waterboarding be torture if it was done to you?"

"I would feel that it was," Mukasey answered.

I'm of the opinion that this is the most important issue to be discussed in Washington DC in my lifetime. And do the other five hours of the hearing really matter in the face of an answer like this? Bravo Senator Kennedy.

1 comment:

GamerCow said...

FYI, if you look at the source of the previous comment, your missing information is there. Its an HTML error switching fonts or something like that. Cut the text, and paste it elsewhere.