thoughts on the wiretapping thing

I've been spending most of the day reading up on the wiretapping thing. As near as I can tell, and this is after about five solid hours of reading news articles and interviews, the argument goes something like this:

The Law: You cannot wiretap a US citizen without a written court order.

Nixon: Well, that's only for the FBI. I hereby empower a new branch of government to do the exact same thing as the old branches, but without all those messy legal complications.

The Law: Nice try, but you still can't tap a citizen's phone without an expressly written warrant stating who, why, when, and for how long.

Reagan: Well, what if I try to buy you off?

The Law: Then I'm just going to have to nominate a subcommittee to watch both of us and make sure we don't become corrupt.

Clinton: But it'd be really nice if we could.

The Law: See, there's this little thing called "due process." We kind of founded an entire country based on the fact that we didn't have it before.

George W: Fuck that noise. I'm just going to write a law that says I can.

The Law: You can't do that. You're not the Legislative Branch.

George W: ....and then I'm going to create another FBI-like group to watch over the FBI and the NSA and do all the things that my shiny new law lets them do.

The Law: No, you don't understand. You can't do that. That's an impeachable offense. It says so, right here.

George W: Nonsense, you get impeached for blowjobs, not crimes against the country. Hey, guys, look! I made a law!

Telecoms: Ooooooh. Pretty.


Pardon me if that version seems a little biased to you.

Friendster?

I just got an email saying one of my Friendsters updated their profile This surprised me because I was unaware of having a Friendster profile. But there it is, with my photos and everything.

So, uh, if you're on friendster, I guess I am too, and we should be friends. Or something.

http://www.friendster.com/profiles/amulkumar

To Do

I'm thinking about switching to iCal's ToDo Lists, since I'm already using the calendar function, but then I wouldn't be able to keep my daily to do's down to six things, which has proved such a boon for me.

I'll probably use the iCal to make a master list of ToDos, and pick and choose on to my LJ.

Does anyone even care about me posting my ToDo onto my LJ? Do people read it?

( To Do )

The past comes to visit

Apple Martini called me today, the first audio contact we've had since...Windy Con? September or so, when she stopped by Chicago briefly and we almost hung out, had it not been for my killer hangover. She and her man were fighting, and she needed the kind of advice that you can only get from someone you've been intimate with. In typical AM-style, she was calling me while driving between work and some other appointment.

I confess, there was a part of me wondering if we would hook up again if they broke up. There's a part of me that wants to chastize myself for such egocentric thinking while a friend is hurting, and another part that wonders if maybe that's just a human response, that this is yet another time when I'm being too hard on myself.

That's a question that I've been struggling a lot with, the line between Too Hard On Yourself and trying to give your all to improving.

I also got an email from Not A Hooker, which is the first time I've heard from her since she moved....gods, I don't even know WHEN that was. Spring? Summer? A lifetime ago.

I felt a buoyancy of spirit after these calls, and on analyzing, have realized that much of my social frustrations these days are the same problems I've been complaining about for years. The obvious conclusion is that this must be some internal problem, but I am unable to identify it. ( Read more... )