Mmmmm... woke up this morning to the ever-pleasant (but ethically questionable) smell of Bacon (yes, Bacon is capitalized 'round these parts) wafting down from upstairs... mmmm. But being mindful of the quest for mother-of-the-bridehood (I am down to 207 this week, for those scoring at home) (and for those by yourselves), I thought about the caloric content of the bacon and opted for a healthy, allegedly cholesterol-reducing bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios (TM). The above picture of bacon, btw, is from an art gallery of things that = 200 calories. Check it out: enlightening, frightening and aesthetically pleasing all at once.Tuesday night (sorry for the bloglessness) we had dinner with Ali, Ben, "Christ"ophe and Sarah at the Mexican place, Canyon Cafe (after a failed attempt at eating Korean). Another A+ meal; I can't even remember the slew of hilarious jokes we rolled off and the vet talk was actually held to a minimum, much to the delight of the XYs in the crowd. Aside from a Diet Coke misunderstanding of a tall order and S/C's general inability to drive around the area where they grew up, everything went swimmingly. Good times as always with the party people.
I should throw out the media talk of the week that I find most hilarious, that the show 24 is a right-wing conspiracy to instill paranoia in the American public in order to insure that the drastic measures taken by our friends in office are felt necessary for our safety. Yes, that's right, 24 is a puppet of the presidential office - this would be the show that last year portrayed the president as a traitor to the U.S. Good call, folks. The reason that this is coming up now, in season 6, a time when you think the "24's portrayal of Islam is negative" type headlines would be old news, is that the (SPOILER ALERT) 4 episode season premiere showed an unprecedented amount of realistic bombings and attacks occurring all over the U.S., culminating in a nuclear weapon exploding outside of Los Angeles. The effect was jarring; I've seen all 5+ seasons, and I think this was the most terror-inducing dose of "this is what it would look like if this started happening all over in the U.S." that the show has ever pulled off. But even while it was freshly shocking, I think it was more of a logical extreme the show had to go to to stay fresh and less of a "let's make America paranoid" conspiracy than people are throwing out.
I think the easier thing to point out as a corrosive-to-society flaw in the show are its murkier-than-hell ethics. Jack Bauer is entitled as a CTU agent to commit any crime he sees fit in the vague guise of protecting America or ascertaining information that may or may not lead to that protection. Sure the show is ridiculous - you can play a drinking game involving the lines "trust me," "we're running out of time," or "this is our only lead" and quickly learn how basically formulaic and superficially twisty the show is. (Not to say that it's not exciting). But what is the show really saying by giving Jack utilitarian authority to decide what is and what is not for the greater good? And notice this utilitarian equation is really just a "for the greater good of America" equation, not "for the greater good." The show's hero is directly supporting a line of behavior and thought that utilizes suspending moral laws in the present in order to accomplish something in the future. Hmmm, a group uniformly aligned with the idea of committing atrocities to achieve a greater future, what does that sound like... Terrorists, Alex? In the name of "all that is good," Jack routinely commits atrocities with the same kinds of ends-justifying-means logic used by those who even on the show are portrayed as evil. This is what's dangerous about the show; that its hero and the admiration he instills in the viewer reflect an implicit acceptance of "anything goes" morality when it comes to our safety. Jack is in short a homicidal maniac - he has killed, maimed, and tortured countless people; some in defense, some in pure cold-blooded revenge, but most with this idea of overall utility. Jack "does what it takes," true, and any real human capable of such acts would have to have a serious amount of confidence that what he was doing was right and good. But the entire package consists of a one-man wrecking crew with seemingly untouchable moral authority to do what he pleases, deciding the risks and benefits entirely for himself. That's the undercurrent message that's dangerous, that the ethics of our country in areas like Guantanamo Bay and the other dubious decisions (communications monitoring, etc.) reflects a nationwide submittal and furthermore, praise of ethics which use only "perceived national security" as their guideline. The question, as always: whose perception?
So, terrorist killing fantasies aside, this week has been very long. A lot of my tutees are studying for midterms, both here in SG and at the 'Nut, so I've been up to my ears. I've also been writing tests and scrambling to get the last grades in, which has swallowed a large dose of time as well. The Beck, of course, is still on her ER shift PLUS she got sick this week, so it's been a bummer in the fun times zone. I went to bed at 9 on Wednesday and 9:45 on Thursday; the party has just been that hoppin'.
Today was the end of term exams - and in a flash of brilliance, one of my trouble makers, let's call him "Lazy Genius Who Frequently Sleeps Through Class and Doesn't Pay Attention," came up to me during the test and tried to get me to tell him something that I had explained in class at least 7 times. After I refused politely several times, he said something along the lines of "could you just tell me something that knowing the right answer entails?" And I had had it, so I said "Knowing the right answer entails having paid attention in class." Mean, I know. But it elicited an embarrassing chorus of "ohhhhhs" from the class; one of my hipster Koreans even said "Oh snap." This of course is a seventeen on the one to ten funny scale (and a solid ten years out of date, taboot). In the end I felt bad, but didn't cave, and I actually think that form of refusal may have gotten the point across better than anything else I could've said. Don't know, so i feel slightly bad - insulting teenagers not exactly a write-home moment - but maybe I woke the dude up a bit. Who knows.
So tonight, Jill, Kate et al are coming over from Springfield to say hey and go out to dinner. Should be awesome. And tomorrow there's a shindig of sorts in the works. We shall see.
In the meantime, enjoy the hilarious audio stylings of two hockey guys about to get into a fight. This is seriously priceless:
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