Petty Piper's blog

USA PATRIOT Act.

Just so you know, it's an acronym.

Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Stools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism.

That aside, a quick ponderance on the nature of this particular act.

First, it doesn't fall in any specific categories. Conservatives, expecially hardcore conservatives, should be (in theory) against big government. They should not desire to have the government be allowed to (DO ANYTHING THEY WANT) monitor our lives in such an unrestricted fashion. Likewise, liberals, especially hardcore liberals, should be against the restriction of human rights.

In a larger sense, addiction is a vice and should be eradicated from our lives. Indulgence is one thing; it is a controlled allotment of a specific activity. No so for addiction, which worms it slimy way into all sorts of corridors in one's life, without the victim being aware. So that when they try to stop indulging, they find addiction staring back at them with it's creepy jaws and pulsing eyes, ready to swallow self-control and virtue into it's gluttonous belly.

This is a debate that can be taken in two ways. If both are nouns, it is one against the other, pitted in a bloody fight. We all want archaeology to win, since it is the good guy and is fighting the evil looters. There is no question in that debate, only a battle between justice and wrongdoing.

But the less admitted question becomes clear when we transform both the words to adjectives. Archaeology vs. Looting. How can we define what is what? Why do we know that 'archaeology' is not just a form of looting? And vice versa?

In recent years, there has been a resurgence in the sale of LP's. For those unaware, LP's are also called vinyl or records; they're old-school CD's. In the music shops I've been in, I've seen a substantial increase in the sale of old -- and new -- records. Indeed, statistics show that between '95 and '97, the sale of LP's doubled. To what can we attribute such a rise? Certainly, records are no more convenient than tapes or CD's. Records scratch easily, can only be played at home, and must have a special record-player to work. Record-players are not cheap or easy to come by, and often must be bought seperately from sterio systems.

I was digging in my garden earlier today and the thought came to me that the life and perspective of a radical is both bright and disheartening. They are idealists, all radicals: be they radical left liberals that believe all animals should be free, or radical right conservatives who believe no woman should work outside the home. A radical is the most piteous of creatures; someone so caught up in their idealism, so confounded by the ways of the world that they retreat to a mindset that potentially smooths everything out. A radical always has someone to blame, always has an enemy, and is always working for a just and rightous cause.

Blackbooking. An atrocious act of our history, a part of the Red Scare. If they's be communiss', we don' wannem on our rajios, right? A blind and hateful act of American past, one that we swore never to again repeat. With McCarthy's death supposedly came the death of  that strain of leadership.

Supposedly.

But, hot damn. Here it is again. We're denying visas to pop singers who might have ties to past terrorist activities. Granted, we may not have the proof necessary to show that they are or ever were terrorists, but hey. Don't question the USA PATRIOT followers. This is undoubtedly, unquestionably, unflinchingly necessary for the survival of our country through such difficult times.

I've long heard suspicious rumors that alcohol might have positive effects on longivity. But this is the first actual case study I've seen of it. According to a study of Danes, "Over nearly six years, men who drank every day cut their risk of heart disease by 41 percent. Women who drank at least once a week cut their risk of heart disease by 36 percent or more." With men, the findings indicate that constant but small doses of alcohol are good for the heart. With women, large consumption seems to be the key.

X3 came out yesterday, and already I've seen it twice. Am I a little obsessed with our favorite gang of mutant-freaks? Sure. But, in my defense, the X-universe symbolises for so much more than just super powered battles and ladies with big boobs (though it's a perk). It is a social critique of the modern world, a metaphor for past and current societal issues.

First, the basics. Homo Sapien has branched into a genetic strain known as Homo Superior, or mutants. Regular humans see this as a wonderful or terrible development, depending on their perspective. This is the X-men's plotline: the schism through society that runs when a minority demands rights. What makes the metaphor even more brilliant is it's stark inclusion of human fear, and what people are willing to do to keep their positions of power.