Hey there, Georgy Girl.

Last night Alex asked me how we got so lucky. I'm not sure how. Right-place-right-time, I guess.

Anyway, we really do like each other, and it's fun, and normal, and completely, fantastically functional, and he has become one of my actual best friends (even though I say everyone is my best friend) in the space of two weeks. Remarkable!

Today I rode my bike to school and I listened to old British invasion on my way there and back. The sun warmed my face and I sang out loud, and people looked at me funny, but I don't care because it was a completely beautiful moment. I love fall, but I am really going to miss summer.

Today in Media Literacy, we discussed a New Yorker article we were all supposed to have read about "24" creator Joel Surnow. He's a self-proclaimed "right wing nutjob," and counts various members of the Bush administration (Karl Rove, Dick Cheney plus wife and daughter, and Tony Snow among the ranks), as well as Rush Limbaugh, Barbara Streisand and Bill Clinton, as avid fans and supporters. The article specifically highlights the grotesque amount of torture depicted on the show--a total of 64 torture scenes in the first five seasons alone. The article talks more about American soldiers, and how they are so conditioned to use physical and psychological force as a means to an end coming into the armed forces--before they've even begun training--that trainers are having a difficult time reconditioning them. And guess what? They all cite "24" as one of their favorite shows.

The thing that really startled me about the conversation in class was how a) people were in major disagreement about whether the show has a liberal or conservative slant (for the record, it is intensively conservative, as proved by Surnow's intense right-wing views), and b) the fact that most people in that class would say "Torture is wrong and unethical," yet they watch and support a show that upholds the opposite. I think most Americans in general would say they disagree with torture, which has been proven ineffective time and time again, yet their actions repeatedly discredit this view. As for the confusion surrounding the show's political slant, it only proves that most people have no idea what values and ideas either political party really upholds. No surprise there, considering we watched a clip of John Stewart the other day in class which pitted an interview of Rumsfeld denying he knew where the weapons of mass destruction in Iraq were with an interview of Rumsfeld saying he knew exactly where they were--so even though there was concrete evidence right in front of these kids' faces, they still refused to believe Rummy's a liar.

My soapbox ends here.