Bill's Notes

15,000 Saudi students are coming to this country?

I can't think of a better way for our federal government to spit in the faces of hardworking, loyal Americans who fund the War on Terror than to do this. It seems our government simply takes for granted that we'll put up with any amount of insult, as long as the Saudis are appeased.

If even ONE of these Saudi fuckheads commits a terrorist attack, the entire administration should resign in disgrace. And be tried for treason.

Victor Davis Hanson has some more moderate thoughts here. I'm so angry I can hardly speak.

Does the state department even think about Americans? Do they even care?

I give up. This administration gets whatever's coming to it. You can't tell me even the Demcrats would have been this stupid.

Fuckheads.

UPDATE: Perhaps it's not clear. I think this is a horrible breach of security, and sends a pathetic message, and counts as a complete sell-out of the American people, and at best, is foolishly naive.

So last night on Survivor, all the stereotypes came out in fore:

The Hispanics sat on the beach and enjoyed the sun, saying they'd build the camp tomorrow. That lasted three days. Finally, desperate, one stole a car and they all moved in it.

The black men each proposed to one of the black women, then immediately abandoned her, coming back every once in a while to ask for money, and insisting "he was back for good this time."

The Asians not only built a fire, but had electricity and a sushi bar by nightfall. Everything was going fine until one said to the other, "My kung fu better than your karate. We fight now." The house was trashed and all were bloodied by the morning.

The whites intuitively organized without any fuss. They built a fire, then used it to power a methamphematine lab. They spent the rest of the time moving home appliances onto their front lawn and giving each other jailhouse tattooes.

The most beautiful woman the world has ever seen, Oriana Fallaci, has died at age 77.

I first learned about her during her Nov 1981 Playboy interview, and was deeply impressed. An extraordinary person who had an extraordinary career. Of course, in our absurd age, she was of course tried for thought crimes for speaking the truth about Islam. RIP, Oriana.

I am shocked (!) to learn that a Christian pastor would offer an open invitation to convert to Christianity. Oh ... but he offered it to Muslims. So it's bigotry. I see.

What's the world coming to? With Christian churches offering conversion ... it's just such a shock. I have to sit down.

Anyone who thinks the Neanderthals died out have never been to Bayonne.

:)

Believe it or not, I was in a fraternity in college. In fact, I was pledgemaster for a year. Most of that time I barely remember, lost to the mists of time and a general alcoholic haze. It was a weird time. Most of what stands out was a pledge named Percy.

He was giving me a hard time, showing me a lot of disrespect ... and I'd had enough experience at that point to know that escalating was going to cause me problems, not him. I am who I am, and some people will take shit from other people that they won't tolerate from me. That's all there is to it. Short of alpha-rolling him -- which I might not be able to do -- there was nothing I could do with this guy. But I couldn't let him undermine my authority as pledgemaster.

So one night, acting intuitively, I took him out for some private hazing in front of the science building. But I reversed things. It was a freezing December night, and he was out in a t-shirt. I gave him my winter coat. I didn't ask him to do pushups; I did them. I explained that I wasn't asking him to do anything that I wouldn't do myself, and that I'd prove it. Here I was, out in the freezing weather, giving him my coat, doing the pushups, so he'd know that. I explained to him what the fraternity was about, friendship at its core, and a kind of initiation, and that I was not trying to humiliate him or degrade him. Did he understand?

He looked really uncomfortable. He knew mind games, and that's why he was so good at pledging -- he'd take our mind games and fold them back on us. He knew when to keep quiet and when he could get away with telling me to fuck off. We sent him into the city to get a few pictures -- he led a crew out all night and got an album full of photos, including a photo of all the pledges surrounding a real, New York bum, passed out on the sidewalk. Every pledge acted like he was passed out around the bum, except for Percy, who was grinning in the middle of the photo, as if to say, is that all you got? He knew he was willing to go way further than we were, and that the joke was on us.

But that one night he didn't know if this was mind game or if it was real ... and when he realized that I was being real with him, then, that was different. Being real made him uncomfortable. The disrespect stopped after that. But of course Percy kept being Percy, except he no longer gave me problems. After going through all the shit of pledging, he didn't bother to show up for hell night. There were various rumors, but the reasons were never made clear. He never became a brother. Less than a year later, he died under even more mysterious circumstances, behind the wheel, possibly drug-related, but who knows? As I said, he was willing to go further than we were. Some of us sing, "Hope I die before I get old" and we're just fronting. Others, they aren't playing.

Got an email from the current brothers yesterday, and that's what dredged up these memories.

That's all. Have a good one.

When I get off the Blue Route and onto Baltimore Pike, there are about eight or nine traffic lights until my workplace. They are usually poorly staggered, and I end up missing about six of them.

Well, today ... drum roll ... I hit the jackpot. I made every single light. One green after another, gliding along the road, like Jesus in the sky. The lights would turn for me.

Very exciting. And I thought I'd share it with you.

Here.

The most optimistic take on the five-year anniversary of Sept. 11 is that we're still talking about Sept. 11. I initially thought our public lexicon was taking a dangerous turn when everyone referred to the terrorist attacks as Sept. 11 and the World Trade Center site as Ground Zero. Because I thought Sept. 11 would be quickly forgotten by something bigger, say the real use of what Ground Zero refers to -- a nuclear explosion.

But five years later, we're still discussing the attacks and we still have the WTC site as Ground Zero. Thank God, if you follow me. And let's hope in 50 years, we're still discussing Sept. 11 as the worst terrorist attack in U.S. history.

In the meantime, support your elected officials, suspend judgment about what you don't know/can't possibly know, tip your bartenders and hug a Muslim for Christ.

Passed the hat. And paid to rebuild the Twin Towers. And bought United and American two jets apiece. And paid for the Pentagon repairs.

Or at least tried. That would have made the point that they're interested in living in peace. Instead, they've complained about "Islamophobia," acted as a special interest group trying not to protect America but advance its own interests at the expense of others, acted as victims, and otherwise been silent or very quiet.

If Muslims want to be taken seriously by a majority of Americans, they need to put their money where their mouth is. Pay for the new Towers. Pay for the increased security measures their presence in our country requires. And beat down anyone in their community who fucks up, or even looks like they're about to fuck up.

And they'll be surprised by the generosity of the response by the rest of us.

Yeah, I've done the Zen thing. Three years worth, at least. Studied Hinduism pretty serious, if you can about 12 weeks of meditation lessons, 'about a year of practice, and reading Christopher Isherwood as taking it seriously. Took years to debaise my mind from Eastern religions, and every once in a while, I recognize that once again I'm pursuing ecstasy, not a relationship with God.

But I'm an addict, you know. And today is the 18th anniversary of my sobriety.

Goodbye love
Didn't know what time it was the lights were low oh how
I leaned back on my radio oh oh
Some cat was layin down some rock n roll lotta soul, he said
Then the loud sound did seem to fade a ade
Came back like a slow voice on a wave of phase ha hase
That werent no d.j. that was hazy cosmic jive

There's a straw man waiting in the sky
He'd like to come and meet us
But he thinks he'd blow our minds
There's a straw man waiting in the sky
Hes told us not to blow it
Cause he knows its all worthwhile
He told me:
Let the children lose it
Let the children use it
Let all the children boogie

I had to phone someone so I picked on you ho ho
Hey, thats far out so you heard him too! o o
Switch on the tv we may pick him up on channel two
Look out your window I can see his light a ight
If we can sparkle he may land tonight a ight
Dont tell your poppa or hell get us locked up in fright

Theres a straw man waiting in the sky
Hed like to come and meet us
But he thinks hed blow our minds
Theres a straw man waiting in the sky
Hes told us not to blow it
Cause he knows its all worthwhile
He told me:
Let the children lose it
Let the children use it
Let all the children boogie

La, la, la, la, la, la, la, la
La, la, la, la, la, la, la, la
La, la, la, la, la, la, la, la
La, la, la, la, la, la, la, la
La, la, la, la, la, la, la, la
La, la, la, la, la, la, la, la
La, la, la, la, la, la, la, la
La, la, la, la, la, la, la, la
La, la, la, la, la, la, la, la
La, la, la, la, la, la, la, la
La, la, la, la, la, la, la, la
La, la, la, la, la, la, la, la

;)

I'm getting some hits recently from people viewing the "La Mariposa" entry, which was my entry about visiting Cindy's grave last Spring. It came after two other entries, Sad and Snap Judgments.

I stopped posting about Cindy after those entries. Her death was of course a shock. Learning about her story and visiting her grave hit a surprisingly deep emotional core. I hope anyone who's visiting this site who knew Cindy will understand that my posts were an attempt to respect her memory and order my own thinking.