Asides and Quick Thoughts

Perfect weather, days of it. It's hard not to think of them as gifts. I haven't been up to much in Chicago, but it's the calm in the storm these days.

The Cubs need this day off, it comes at a good time, rare that happens - but they were winding down and playing listlessly the last couple games, good pitching can do that, but Yesmeiro Petit is not exactly good pitching. I mean, from a major league standpoint. I'm sure he could put me back on the bench with a few pitches. Sometimes I think about that when I'm getting down on a player, these guys are pretty amazing at what they do, the least competent of them is more competent than anybody in the current administration at the job they do. I would take Caesar Izzzturis at his job over Mr. Bush at his job.

That's another thing that's been bothering me actually, this respect for office that's everywhere. I was reading this story about some Administration slob who was at a cook-out with Dick "Dick" Cheney, and Cheney approached him and said "Happy Birthday, how you feeling?" And the guy responded with something along the lines of "well, my hangover finally cleared up" or the like. And Cheney just kind of walked away and the guy worried about this for two days, thinking "I just told the Vice President I have a hangover, how stupid!"

Why?

Who the fuck is he? And I would ask the same question if I liked the man. And I despise him. But he's just another citizen, an equal. If he can't handle hearing about hangovers because he's too high up, then that goes against everything. There is no higher up. Not in this country. We needed a real revolution, a French one. I know that a lot has been argued about how radical the American Revolution really was, with Gordon Wood and others arguing it was really, really radical, and others like Zinn pointing out that the Revolution was co-opted pretty quickly by the wealth in this country who limited its growth. I used to side more with the Woods argument, but I've been coming over to this Zinn argument more and more as I watch and think about how slavish some people are about rank in this country. I think it's one of the reasons that calls for social justice in this country, for instance in New Orleans, end up being so muted. We might hear them, but there's no threat underneath them, there's no sense that anybody should fear those at the bottom. I think government has to first, respect the people it represents, and second, fear them. This administration, and I think no administration in a long time has feared the people and the last few, going back to Reagan, have not respected the people either.

I wonder if people really suffer that other people suffer? Clearly the bastards don't, and they were elected twice.

I read the final Harry Potter, finished it around six in the morning on Sunday. There were some intense moments - at a few junctures I had to walk around while I read it, and a couple times I had to put it down for a few minutes. There's a lot of talking about J.K. Rowlings prose style being a bit of a weakness. I think that might have been true in a few spots here and there earlier, but has been less and less the case going forward. And who cares anyway? If I want style, should I suffer through the boredom and lack of life that is Henry James? Style can be a crutch and a weakness just as easily as the reverse. And who draws more perfect characters right now, outside of Murakami? She traced archetypes out of archetypes, and that's not a small accomplishment. I'm going to re-read some Murakami and then go back to the Rowlings books. Maybe after a Graham Greene novel that I've been meaning to read as well. Graham Greene has become one of my favorites over the last couple years: there was a soul.

It's afternoon now, the cats are sprawled out on window sills and the couch; there's a breeze that falls about the room and the sun traces shapes through the curtains which rise and fall occasionally, like breath.