Monday, February 06, 2006

I am in my usual dichotomy of loving living in my house but disliking being here in America. A couple of weeks ago we drove to Waynedale, (I know, it's sounds like a made-up name) which is a surburb of Fort Wayne, to wash our car. It was a Friday morning, a fairly innocuous day and neither Keith nor I had any great expectations for the day. We pulled into the car wash and Jay and I waited in the car while Keith went to use the change machine. A few moments later he came back and asked to use my mobile with the words, "There's a guy out here who's just been mugged, he was hit over the head with a gun and is bleeding." As it turns out the guy was an elderly gentleman who had indeed been mugged and hit over the head with a pistol. Fortunately he was okay, or as okay as one can be when that sort of thing happens, and the ambulance arrived to check him out along with several police cars and their occupants to search the area as the crime had only just occurred. Not such an innocuous day after all. This kind of thing makes me so furious. You have to be one hell of a coward to mug an old man and feel it's acceptable to hit him over the head with a gun. It's pathetic. I'm still angry when I think about it. If you need money, GO AND GET A JOB! I hate the fact that this over-commercial society breeds such contempt and envy that people feel it's okay to committ such crimes. Then a few days later we watched Lord of War. An interesting film. I really like Nic Cage although I do feel that many of his last few roles have tended to be the same kind of character and haven't really explored his acting capabilities. But anyway...so the film essentially deals with the arms trade, legal and non, and all the vices and the like that go along with such a risky business. As the film is finishing the following caption comes up, (words to this effect) - the countries that most heavily trade arms are the United States, Britain, France, China and the Russian Federation. These are also the only five countries that are permanent members of the US Security Council. I shan't go into a diatribe on the political insinuations of this, I just thought it was interesting; a fact I had never given much thought to prior to seeing the film. On a lighter note we did go to a Superbowl Party last night and enjoyed greatly the half time performance of the Rolling Stones. Oh my God, are they old or what? Although if I look half as good and am half as energetic as Mick at his age, I'll be happy. However he needs to work on his bingo arms if he insists on flinging his hands in the air. There were several moments as well when it looked like Keith Richards was actually going to fall over his guitar. How he's still standing heaven knows. I made Jay sit through it telling him it was part of his heritage. He didn't seem convinced. I got the impression he might actually prefer being a Yank to a Roast Beef if the Rolling Stones were a testament of his being British. Signing off as one of my heroines is just about to discover the archeological site she's working on is to be thwarted by her estranged husband. The tension...it's killing me. Ciao caro, cara!

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