22 May 2007

Through the Looking Glass, or how a new passport tells so much

On my morning stroll through the blogosphere I ran across this at We, Like Sheep (where curmudgeonly snark is served, somewhat obliquely on a regular basis).

The issue of the new passports really, really infuriates me. My first passport (issued in 1985) was a standard, international type passport -- a perfectly acceptable, useful, document. The renewal in '97 saw a distinctly more colorful version, but still altogether acceptable. This, this travesty of a new passport looks like a fast trip to the bottom of the design barrel.

A passport is meant to facilitate the quick and secure negotiation of a national board, either alone or in conjunction with a visa. It should not be a tool for agitprop. What, you're gonna convince a North Korean border officer of the virtues of "democracy" when he flips through your passport on the way out of the Pyongyang airport? I don't think so.

You want a secure, non-tamperable passport? Establish a global standard for identifying an individual, then install a write-once ROM chip with suitable encryption in the passport, and write the individual's identity to the ROM when the passport is issued. End of story.

I'll save my rant on United States' currency for another time.

20 May 2007

Jesus Christ, Larry Flynt, Jerry Falwell

Jerry Falwell's death brought a maddening, chattering crowd of thoughts and emotions to me. Regardless of how you feel about a person's life, how can you honor and respect the pain their family and friends suffer with death?

Since Falwell's life was devoted to presenting a view of religion and spirituality that I found morally empty and repugnant, and that his conflation of religion and politics was fundamentally wrong, how could I act in a way consistent with my beliefs.

Enter Larry Flynt. Yes, that Larry Flynt.

I've never felt compelled to utter the words "what would Jesus do?" And Flynt never does. But his eulogy, and the relationship that developed between Falwell and Flynt that Flynt writes about is exactly what Christ preached -- and lived.

It should be an example to everyone on how to let grace move one's relationships.

18 May 2007

Weather apocalypse and fashion meltdown, or from our recent correspondence

email like this does remind one that correspondence is indeed a good thing. Once upon a time we wrote letters. Now, this


R --

the latest, in this year's series of weather apocalypses:

http://www.erh.noaa.gov/wwamap/wwatxtget.php?cwa=lwx&wwa=severe%20thunderstorm%20watch

Is it not possible just to have bad weather anymore? Or is this one more way in which 9/11 changed every f*ckin' thing?

As you can tell, I'm in a cheery mood.

Ta,

S

You said it. Just in the last 15 minutes, it started to look like Mordor here.
The rain hasn't started yet, but I'll be surprised if there ISN'T a tornado.

Actually 9-11 allowed the WH to descend so far ethically that John Ashcroft
became a man of principal by comparison. Wonderful.

R

I'd love to say I'm shocked by Comey's disclosure, but nothing that's happened is worse that what I imagined would happen after Bushco stole the 2000 election and strongarmed the Supreme Court.

On a much cheery note, remind me to tell you why I will never wear white pants and a blue blazer. Hint: Gilligan's Island.

Ta,

S

S,

Unless you're also wearing a striped tie and boater (Perrin Tellock flashback -- woah), it's something best avoided.


R --

Add boat shoes, too.

Suffice it to say I felt I looked like Thurston Howell III. When fashion becomes costume, run.

I couldn't stop laughing at the image of myself I saw in the mirror. Hell, I've felt more comfortable in drag than I did in those linen pants and blazer.

S,

When pray tell did you wear this? #$%? Brunch with G's parents? The Eagle? Even more than Thurston Howell, I'm having dueling visions of the British olympians in Chariots of Fire vs. Ted Knight in Caddyshack. My brain hurts.

R -- the ensemble never left the dressing room of _-_, so there is no photographic evidence, of which I'm grateful. Meant as cruise wear, it served to provide much humour for me.

I decamped to ___s, and promptly bought a much more reasonable Hugo Boss brown, black and grey tropical wool blazer, chocolate brown pants, and black linen pants, and a Dolce and Gabana (!) shirt. None of which feels at all like costume, and all of which will be worn in multiple venues outside of the cruise.

I did abandon the tissue thin, white D&G shirt, the wearing of which fetishized my nipples and abs more than a snakebite kit and a leather harness. A lovely piece of clothing for the underwear model set.

S,

Those D&G bits of kleenex will do that. By the way, snakebite kit and leather harness is a phrase and image that will be with me for a while. thank you for that.

Speaking of perky nips, must we go through this every spring? May sucks. During the week it is blazingly hot as if it were July -- super fun in wool dress trousers and just in time to leave town for the weekend, the temperature dives 20 or 30 degrees. As far back as my first summer here, it's been the same thing every year. I still remember freezing in the rain coming home from rowing practices seemingly each weekend up to and through graduation.

On a funner note, you could make some really great party invitations by going back to _-_, recreating the look and taking pictures in the dressing room mirror with a camera phone. I'm just saying.