News and music to depress the hell out of you

It's hit-and-run time again. I'm finally gathering the pieces for my essays. I've been putting them off, not sure about writing them for two reasons. One, with the anniversary of 9/11 approaching, everyone and his hamster is writing remembrance pieces so it's hard to be original or not to be drowned out. Two, I feel like I'm just screaming into the wind. The U.S. lost so much international goodwill since 9/11. Nations around the globe came America's aid after the attacks and, like the commentator on NPR said this morning, we pissed that away by going it alone on treaties, policies and military action. We Americans almost had the epiphany of what it was like for other nations to live with terrorism. We almost understood how interconnected we all were. We almost grasped the fundamentals of terrorism...why the disenfranchised strap bombs to themselves and blow themselves up. Instead, we tore down the bridges, boarded up the windows and went into a full-blown, paranoid siege mode Under God.

So, I was pondering that today at work while listening to the new Carissa's Wierd album, an exercise in melancholy that, according to my wife, was never supposed to be. The band that started out in a Seattle burrito joint got huge here in Seattle a couple years ago. Apparently, fame didn't settle well and the band freaked out, moved away and then disintegrated, depending how you hear the story. This new album, "Songs About Leaving," supposed to be just a rumor, I guess. Imagine Mazzy Star on downers and you get a general idea of the sound. Not exactly rave fodder. In concert, the band was looking down at the ground, apologizing before, after and sometimes during songs. After the set, they'd skitter off stage, dragging their beat-up guitars with them. Always on this side of not scampering off like a jittery squirrel, you wanted to give them hug. They couldn't stand a spotlight stronger than a 40-watt bulb. Good rainy-day, I'm-a-freshman-in-college-and-just broke-up-with-someone music.

And not exactly the best music to listen to when reading discouraging news items.

Item One: What's worse than being infected with HIV? Being infected again with a different strain.

Item Two: Someone, still at large as of this writing, penetrated a U.S. chemical weapons center in Utah.

Just curious: What makes us (as in America) morally superior to have so many chemical weapons on hand, or nuclear weapons, for that matter? I mean, we nuked Japan twice. Yet, we don't see countries around the world calling for a "regime change" in the U.S.

Another thing I'm curious about: Just what happens after the U.S. deposes Saddam Hussein? Honestly. Who is going to take over? Will there be democracy for the citizens? How will the democracy be modeled? How about a new constitution? Okay...I'll make it easier. Name three people that could take the place of Hussein. Go ahead, name three successors.

Last item: Just who the hell does Dick Cheney think he is talking up war with Saddam Hussein, when Cheney and Iraq (read: Hussein) used to do business with each other after the Gulf War?

My dark little guess: Cheney probably has some sweet deal set up to make a lot of cash when a war-ravaged Iraq needs rebuilding.

Reminds me of Montgomery Burns: "I'd give it all up...just for a little more."

French Word of the Day

deprime (day pree may): depressed; discouraged; low; flat