london bridge is falling down, falling down...

a slightly different type of apathy. from the one i had before i left. why i came back. why i will leave again. why that is growing more difficult

i'm waiting for martial law; hemlines have dropped, etc. the times printed a really awful editorial about how the visa-waiver program needs to go, because god forbid, a naturalized european citizen of middle-eastern descent might escape from his sleeper cell and enter the united states without going through a consular interview and dropping 300 bucks on going to the embassy.

xenophobia has reached a point here where nobody is really thinking or worrying about the london bombings except for preventing them here. there is this attitude that europe is finally loosing the crusades, so we should build a wall, because god forbid, the sanctity of our consumptive consumerism be threatened. all of the japanese middle class i met makes do without airconditioning or central heating. and they love to talk about the four seasons. they know how to bicycle in the rain! their is a special device for holding umbrellas mounted. they don't have ovens or dishwashers (okay, maybe that last bit has more to do with oddly shaped dishes and the lack of women's lib than any adaptation to a less materialistic lifestyle). and they will never tell you THEY are having a bad day. it's cute, they shop all the time, but they never buy anything larger than will fit in a medium sized shopping bag. women carry their lunches in the prettiest ones for work. not that i really want to carry my lunch in a victoria's secret bag, i see peaches bruising now. but.

maxim printed a 69 reasons to love your country for july. the first reason was cheap gas. the second was nice roads. I don't even drive! i hate roads. then naked chix (okay) and cars and lawns (number one consumer of pesticides and chemical fertilizers in the country, all you super holy only whole foodsers in the suv's in virginia). budweiser. really. yes, santa says this war is being fought for your right to fly down asphalt arteries in your malarial metallic mosquito shell, the bigger and more blood-sucking the better. that's to say, apparently both the people and the media might as well be sniffing glue, and propaganda machine in full force, even before the bombings.

i don't want to get started on guantanamo. or the wierd deportations. or the denial of visas to interfaith advocates for conferences- literally knights in shining armor, who happen to have the wrong last name. or the airplane abductions of suspected in the knows.