Ok, I don't know why I do this...I guess because I like to torture myself...but I watched Politically Incorrect last night. For anybody who's never seen it, it is a show where four (sometimes qualified) guests join sarcastic and (sometimes) informed Bill Maher for a half hour of debate about politics and current affairs. Though I hadn't seen the show in a long time, it has stayed true to format, usually devolving into a (s)he-who-shouts-the-loudest competition, with the unimaginative audience going along with whoever that loud person might turn out to be. Last night, David Crosby (musician now billing himself as "political activist"), and Kennedy (former MTV V-Jay now billing herself as "author") joined a really smart female author from England and some republican strategist who was going bald WAY too early (you decide if the two descriptions of him are in any way related). Now, it's a shame that I didn't catch the English woman's name, because she was by far the most educated, most articulate, and most sensible person on the show (in my book). Anyway, there were a few debates that ensued that I wanted to comment on.

First, the topic for the majority of the show was nuclear (or, "nucular," if you're the president) power and what we can do to keep Pakistan and India from acting on their threats to use nuclear power against each other and, in the process, blowing us all to smithereens (Don't you just love that phrase? What does it MEAN?!). Anyway, at first I thought that Crosby was gonna be cool, not only because he made really good music once upon a time, but because, after all these years, he still hadn't cut his hippy hair (sound like anybody you know?). When the subject was transporting America's nuclear waste from the 130 separate sites where it is presently housed to the middle of one big mountain (which I think is in Nevada), he had the sensible answer...he and the British woman both thought it ridiculous, given the accident rate of any moving vehicles on America's roads, and considering the little matter of the mountain resting on, like, 23 different fault lines. Ok, points there Davy.

Things got horrible, however, when the British woman brought up the idea of peace, and started questioning why the hell we have to go around KILLING each other, in that silly way that women do. She brought up the 5,000 civilian casualties that we caused in Afghanistan when we decided to flex our muscles and show the Taliban who was boss. She was troubled by the fact that nobody was talking about this, and hinting at the idea that the U.S. Army was, perhaps, a bit hasty. My thought, as she was saying this, is that 5,000 is MORE than died in the World Trade Center. I mean, you can't compare numbers, really, when it comes to innocent human lives lost, but it is shocking to me that it is easy for so many Americans to just blow it off, because, hey, they killed our people FIRST. Kennedy chimed in with, "oh don't worry, those 5,000 were just orphans and old ladies." It would have been funny, if it weren't so fucking unfunny.

Of course, in response to the woman's comments, Bill Maher made fun of her and accused her of being idealistic, not to mention unrealistic and, dammit, British. To my shock and dismay, Crosby was right there with Bill. He was laughing at the lady and when Bill said, "People say that violence doesn't solve anything, while I'd say that violence solves just about EVERYthing," (with an annoying little smirk on his face), Crosby joined in with, "Yeah, and there is a good kind of violence, which is the kind that we use." Yeah, I'm sure that's not EXACTLY what those terrorists were thinking when they flew planes into buildings in the name of their faith. Can't they SEE that it's all violence, no matter what side of the line you're born on and what religion you practice and what you look like and blah blah blah??!!!

At one point, I just got really, really mad. I thought...men (and I am referring to men, specifically) just keep dreaming up new and more efficient ways of killing each other, and WHY???!!! Now we not only have our own "enemies" to worry about, but we have to worry about Pakistan and India and their conflicts and the fact that they both have absolutely NO problem dropping the first bomb/launching the first missile, anything you can imagine. But you know what, as mad as I got, I didn't want to go out and KILL anybody. I'm going to sound like a male-basher, but that's not it...goodness knows I love men. I'm not saying that all men are violent and want to solve problems by killing people. But honestly, how often to women go around harming each other, relatively? And would we ever dream of developing the most deadly weapons that human beings are capable of creating, in order to ensure our place at the head of the proverbial table? I don't think so. So what I say to all you weapon-developing men out there is...you got us into this, now you get us out. Some advice might be needed from the women's camp, so I'm offering this...why don't you try TALKING to each other. I know you'll say I'm also idealistic. And I am.

Mmm, and the Lakers are going to the Championships again. Knowing this helps me get over the fact that it seems Rick Fox will never grow his beautiful curls back :( Oh well.

Nothing too ground-breaking has happened to me today. I haven't started looking for a job, and I didn't even take a bath until about noon. I probably wouldn't have gotten dressed at all if it weren't for the fact that I went out to dinner with my parents and an acquaintance of theirs. Yes yes, I know it's summer and all, but the whole point of me being out here is so that I can make some money and pay of some bills. Somehow, though, time spent with my Ma sitting on the couch and talking about boys seems so much more important for the time being. I promise I'll start looking tomorrow.

I was noticing something horrible at dinner. We went to this restaurant that serves a hunk of bread to each table of people while they're waiting for food. They serve it with this yummy cinnamon butter that is just awesome but I'm sure you can guess that I haven't gotten to the horrible part yet. I noticed that all these people were leaving and there was a ton of bread left on the table just waiting to be thrown away. My friend was mentioning the other day how important bread is in Russia, and how having bread at a meal (or just bread as a meal) is a mark of survival. I'm sure this is true in many parts of the world. And then here we go, in typical American fashion, just throwing it away. I know I sound like a Mom..."Starving children in China" and the whole bit. But you know what? Sometimes our Moms are just right.

Whew, I've just spent my first day in Colorado after exactly 40 hours on the train...and I am happy. A few words to the wise about the train...
1) Don't take the train if you feel you have a schedule to keep. The train will NEVER arrive ANYWHERE on time. It is not for people who want to hurry up and get there so they can start having fun. I don't know anybody like that, so I think we're in good shape, but just a precautionary note.
2) Don't take the train if you like paying less than $15 dollars for a meal. Or just bring your own food, because you will be broke whenever you get to wherever you'e going if you eat on the train.
3) Don't take the train if you have a problem seeing other peoples' asses. There is some kind of nation-wide mooning ritual known as the "Amtrak Salute," and the land-bound just LOVE to introduce us unsuspecting passengers to it.
4) Don't take the train if you are scared of meeting people. They will put you at a table in the dining car with a bunch of strangers and you will be expected to deal. Now, I LOVED this, but some are horrified at stuff like that, so that's just another warning.

Okay, so all that out of the way, let me just say that I had so much fun!!!!!!!!! For anybody who's never been on the train, there are three basic places you can go. You can stay at your seat like a nerd (but there are people to meet there too, so that's cool), you can go to the observation car where the seats face the windows and you can watch the world go by, or you can go to the dining car. You can also go to the bathroom, of course, or the smoking car, or the snack bar/lounge downstairs from the observation car, but those are kind of secondary thoughts. Going any combination of these places will undoubtedly allow you to meet a whole bunch of cool people who you will most likely never see again, but it's an awesome way to spend the time. Actually, I take that back because I met a woman on the train that had met her husband (of nine years) on the train, so how's that?

Just a few things I have to mention in case any readers happen to ever take the train as far as Reno (from the Bay Area). In Sacramento the train picks up a couple of volunteers from the train museum there. These volunteers do narration all the way through the Sierras. They tell a lot of interesting stories and, overall, it's pretty cool (though kind of refreshing, too, when they get off the train in Reno and leave you to formulate your own thoughts about what you're seeing). I was a little concerned, I have to say, when I heard the narrator say that the Chinese workers that helped to build the railroads were paid as much as the white workers. This was a total lie! It is well known that there was a white wage, a black wage, a Mexican wage, and a Chinese wage, and you can all guess who got the most. He DID mention that the Chinese workers bought their own food, but it was made to sound like they did this by choice because surviving on rice alone improved their efficiency or something like that. The other weird thing was, when we went through Donner Pass, he was telling the story of the Donner Party. At the end of the tale, he said, "in the end, of the 89 people who started out, only 47 survived the winter." He cunningly left out any mention of a little thing know as cannibalism, which I was admittedly impressed with. The glossing-over was unmatched. Do they think that we just couldn't handle it if we knew what really went on? I mean, it's not like these things are secrets, and it just works to ruin their credibility. This would be a great time to recommend James Loewen's Lies My Teacher Told Me and Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States, both great myth-dispelling reads, and user-friendly to boot.

So, now that I'm back on unmoving ground, I have to start thinking about a job and the fact of it is incredibly depressing to me. How I would LOVE to just relax and talk to my parents and my dog and write and read and lie around in the sun. Oh well, que sera sera.

Just one last note, cuz my pops wants to use the computer now...I read my horoscope today in the Denver weekly publication that's like San Jose's "Metro." These were the first couple of lines: "I think it's high time you dreamed up a few new vices. The old ones barely tweak your guilty conscience any more, and they certainly don't pack the educational punch they once had." So don't blame me when I take up crack-smoking and whatever else you can let your mind imagine. :)