10.31.04 dude, that's not my car

Before this particular page hits the archives, I thought I'd clarify that the car to the left is not mine. I spotted it in, of course, Berkeley and thought it had an eye-catching and rather clever license plate. An equally attention-grabbing one, seen this evening on the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge: "I BDSM."

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10.29.04 tick, tick, tick

"60 Minutes," have you been reading my diary? Last week, the venerable newsmagazine devoted a segment to heartthrob/fake news anchor Jon Stewart; and this coming Sunday... well, see for yourself:

"60 MINUTES" CAMERAS CAPTURE THE ASHLEE SIMPSON INCIDENT FROM BACKSTAGE AT "SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE" LAST WEEK FOR A REPORT THIS SUNDAY ON CBS

Ashlee was caught fakin' it... and Lesley Stahl was there, ready to catch "the reaction from show creator Lorne Michaels and other shocked staff members of the show"! Now that "60 Minutes" is so totally on my wavelength, I fully expect Andy Rooney to do a piece on the evils of Christmas movies that come out in October.

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10.28.04 turn it off

My building has a nice little exercise room, featuring two stationary bikes, an elliptical trainer, a treadmill, a weight machine, and various free weights. You'd think I'd use it more often, but I have come to fear and dread going down there, because of the room's other prominent feature: a TV set.

Probably because I am spoiled by my TiVo and hate commercials, I never watch TV while I exercise. I either read or listen to an audiobook. However, most other exercisers seem to love the TV; I am in a very small non-viewing minority. There's the elderly, somewhat dazed-seeming Chinese man who watches the news in Mandarin while he pedals very, very slowly on the recumbent bike; teenage girls who want their MTV; and worst of all, the treadmill joggers who need to turn the TV up very, very LOUDLY because otherwise they can't hear it over the sound of their feet hitting the belt.

Instead of suffering in silence, I could buy a TV-B-Gone, a handy-dandy product that's been featured in several newspapers and on NPR recently. The device is a universal remote that can turn off any television -- in a restaurant, bar, airport, and, yes, even a gym. "A TV that is powered on is like second-hand smoke," says the TV-B-Gone web site, which claims the devices have proven so popular that the entire initial batch sold out in just two days. "Why should you be exposed to TV just because someone else is addicted to it?"

Unlike a person turning off a TV in a crowded airport lounge, of course, I suspect I wouldn't be able to surreptitiously make my move in a gym that holds a maximum of six people. Still, I find the TV-B-Gone an interesting part of a new phenomenon that you could call "passive-aggressive technology" -- gadgets that allow you to be sneaky and have things "your way" without the messy business of having to interact with other people.

The other prime mover in this category is The Knee Defender, which slides onto your seatback tray on an airplane and prevents the person in front of you from reclining his or her seat. "Knee Defender offers you some control when confronted by a faceless, determined seat recliner who doesn't care how long your legs are or about anything else that might be 'back there,'" according to the promotional text on the product's web site.

The trouble, of course, is that the person in front of you is not "faceless" -- and I suspect you'll see that face once you activate your Knee Defender, and it might be angry. To reduce the chances of having to have an actual conversation with him or her, the web site offers a printable "courtesy card" that reminds me of those little "I am deaf" cards handed out by the hearing-impaired in order to raise money. "I realize that this may be an inconvenience," reads the card. "If so, I hope you will complain to the airline. Maybe working together we can convince the airlines to provide enough space between rows so that people can recline their seats without banging into other passengers."

There already is such a place -- it's called first class. Several airlines, including United and American, have tried offering coach class sections with more leg room, and they've proven to be miserable failures, because they're slightly more expensive than regular coach and most people just want to get from point A to point B in the cheapest possible way. As someone who invariably gets stuck behind aggressive recliners, I can sympathize with users of the Knee Defender, but I can't help but feel that these furtive devices are not going to make the skies any friendlier.

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10.27.04 peel r.i.p.

When I was a teenager, a British pen pal used to send me cassette tapes of John Peel's radio show. The fidelity wasn't great, but the music came through; I particularly remember hearing Peel debut the new single from The Smiths, "How Soon Is Now?" I just sat there in awe, thinking it was the most beautiful thing I'd ever heard in my life.

I really admire the fact that Peel, who died Monday at the age of 65, managed to retain his enthusiasm for new music into his senior years. You've got to love the story about Peel being so overcome when he heard the Undertones' "Teenage Kicks" for the first time -- he was listening to their demo tape in his car -- that he pulled off the road and cried. That, my friend, is a real music lover.

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10.26.04 pieces of ashlee

I will admit to being totally obsessed with l'affaire Ashlee. I'm not sure why the lip-synching of a manufactured pop star fascinates me so; perhaps it's been seized upon by the media because it's a nice respite from pre-election "Candidates clash over [insert issue here]" coverage. If you go to Google News and search on "ashlee simpson," you'll get 657 articles about her "Saturday Night Live" foul-up, including coverage by the Daily Times of Pakistan, the Melbourne Herald Sun and Canada's Edmonton Sun.

It would be nice to think that this may presage a backlash against prefabricated teen pop, and even Ashlee's young fans seem to be upset. An article from MSNBC reprinted in the China Daily (they care about this in China?) says: "'I am throwing out your CD and deleting you from my computer,' ex-fan Carly wrote on the 'Community Board' of Simpson's Web site. 'Do you think we are stupid?... I never felt this strongly about something and I am not the only one. Ashley (sic) you are a fake and you lost fans because you lied and cheated them.'

"Let's not confuse this whole episode with the Milli Vanilli scandal. At least those two guys could dance," sneers gossipeuse Jeannette Walls.

At the very least, perhaps "Saturday Night Live" will book some decent bands again; in the past year, they've featured notorious lip-synchers Janet Jackson, Britney Spears and Ashlee's older sis Jessica. Let's face it, Ashlee was just the one who got caught. Those of us who are elderly enough to remember the days when the B-52's, Devo and the Go-Go's made breakthrough performances on "SNL" can only hope that from now on, Lorne Michaels will leave the teenybopping fakers to MTV's "Total Request Live."

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10.25.04 dear jon letter

Dear Diary,

I am soooo jealous. I got a call today from my friend Aaron, and you'll never guess where he was!!! He was in New York at "The Daily Show" studio, working on a story!!! I totally hate him right now. I asked him to give Jon a kiss from me but I'll bet he won't. Jon is so dreamy. I wonder if Stephen Colbert was there? He is, like, sooo cool and funny. Aaron doesn't even have time to watch "The Daily Show" every day because he says since he's a TV critic, he has to watch, like, a whole bunch of different shows. I never miss an episode!!! I even watched it when that yucky Craig Kilborn was the host but it has been a million times better since Jon took over. I know he's married and I'm married and he has a kid and stuff, but still, I love you Jon!!!

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10.24.04 thank you, america

I don't have a lot of respect for the American moviegoing public. This is the country, after all, where "Superbabies: Baby Geniuses 2" outgrossed "American Splendor" by a total of $3 million. However, this weekend I'm very grateful that people largely just said no to a Christmas movie opening in October. According to Boxofficeguru.com, "Surviving Christmas" took in $4,500,000 -- OK, that's still way too much money, but the per-screen average was an incredibly weak $1,636. By contrast, number one movie "The Grudge" -- a horror movie coming out the week before Halloween; imagine that! -- hauled in $12,327 per screen. Just say yes to seasonally appropriate films!

Had a "what the hell just happened?" moment last night during "Saturday Night Live," when Ashlee Simpson walked offstage shortly after her band began playing her second number. Apparently, East Coasters saw something quite different than those of us on the West Coast. According to this article and posters on the TVBarn2 mailing list, during the actual live broadcast, Ashlee's lip-synch track started playing before she opened her mouth. I checked my TiVo'd recording a couple of times, and we definitely didn't hear the prerecorded vocal. At the end of the show, Ashlee blamed her band for "playing the wrong song." I will state for the record that during her first number (which I actually thought was not that bad), I told Joe that I thought she was lip-synching.

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10.22.04 guilt

I feel guilty. I have let things slide. I'm not doing all the things I promised people I'd do. My conscience is not clear.

Therefore, I am declaring the next seven days Guilt Absolution Week. I have completely cleared the decks -- I have no appointments, no events, no meetings -- and am going to devote myself to doing everything I should have done a long time ago.

Like what, you ask? Well...

I feel guilty because I owe letters to my beloved grandmother & aunt. I also feel guilty that I haven't visited them since this past May and 2001, respectively, but since my grandmother lives in Michigan and my aunt lives in Sweden, I'm not going to be able to remedy that in the coming week.

I feel guilty because I keep cooking the same old things for Joe: fried rice, spaghetti with red sauce (often sauce from a jar), baked chicken. It's important to note here that he never complains, but I will try out a couple of new recipes, and maybe some old favorites I haven't made in a while.

I feel guilty because there are a couple of pro bono web sites I need to finish up. Even if I'm not being paid, I made promises to do them and I have to keep those promises.

What else? I need to do some more promotion for the Statuesque CD. I will get back to exercising, which I've been extremely lax about lately. I'll read the entire newspaper every day, not just the comics and advice columns while tossing the "A" section aside "for later." I shall finish researching the state propositions and mail in my absentee ballot. I'll go through my e-mail inbox and respond to messages I have ignored or forgotten about, and file the ones I'm through with.

At least there is one part of my life I don't feel guilty about: the dog. He has to be one of the most pampered, loved and well-cared-for animals on the planet. I probably spend more "quality time" with that dog than most parents do with their kids.

Next Friday, the 29th, is the Emily Bezar concert at the Berkeley City Club, and that will mark the end of my experiment. Check back here then and I'll let you know how I did.

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10.20.04 product placement

An enormous Target store recently opened near my home. Yes, it's just another enormous chain store, but the good news is that Target carries loads of Method products, and at very reasonable prices. For the uninitiated, Method's home care products are environmentally friendly and stylishly packaged, and they smell great. They are even fun to use. It's weird to be this enthusiastic about a line of cleaning products, but I suspect that Method could be the first brand of sprays, wipes, detergents, etc. to develop a cultlike following.

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10.19.04 surviving affleck

Getting the freebie Christmas cards in the mail yesterday was one thing; now, we have to deal with something which is much more frightening, perhaps even a sign that the Apocalypse is nigh: a Christmas movie is being released in October.

That's right -- before the jack-o'-lanterns on the front porches of American homes have begun getting even slightly mushy, a Ben Affleck vehicle (does the awfulness never stop?) called "Surviving Christmas" is due to open in hundreds, if not thousands, of theaters on Friday. James forwarded me this Associated Press review, which calls the movie "atrocious... [a] cinematic lump of coal... Performing CPR on a drunken Santa stricken on the sidewalk after he ate a chili dog would be more fun."

But even if "Surviving Christmas" was the second coming of "Citizen Kane," I maintain that its very existence in October -- October! -- is wrong and bad. I implore Americans to avoid this film, lest we be faced with more holiday-themed flicks next fall, probably starting sometime around Labor Day.

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10.18.04 prog needs women

I spent a few hours over at my friend Emily's house today, helping her with a promotional mailing for her newest CD, Angels' Abacus (she runs her own independent label, DemiVox). You should buy it, because it's really good, and prog rock needs more female artistes!

Does the Christmas shopping season begin too early? Answer: yes. I received a free package of animal-themed Christmas cards in the mail today from the Humane Society. Perhaps I'll mail them out this week just to get it over with, and then go into hibernation until Dec. 26. Bah, humbug.

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10.17.04 mrs. federline

Like most women, sometimes I get depressed about the way I look. However, now that I've seen this photo, I have a better idea of the incredible amount of work it takes to turn that into this.

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10.15.04 we recommend

The interbridge.com Food Corner recommends products from Koeze's, which has a store near my parents' house in Grand Rapids, Mich. I always buy a canister of their mixed nuts when I'm in G.R., and they are so good that I have been spoiled and cannot eat any other brand of mixed nuts now. I was lucky enough to receive a couple of their caramel apples as a Columbus Day gift. Unfortunately, they are not sold via the web site, but it's probably worth driving or flying from wherever you are to Grand Rapids just to buy some. Oh, and try the pecan puddles.

The interbridge.com Comedy Corner suggests you go see Alonzo Bodden, who is one of the funniest comedians around. Not only does he have great jokes and observations, but he can be funny on the spot and interact with members of the audience in a hilarious fashion -- the sign of a genuine talent. And he never laughs at his own jokes (one of my comedian pet peeves).

The interbridge.com Drama Corner gives thumbs up to "The Secret in the Wings," a creepy-funny retelling of several fairy tales. If you had the experience I did as a child -- picking up a real book of fairy tales after you'd only experienced the sanitized Disney versions -- this will bring back memories of the ensuing freak-out. (The two that gave me nightmares were "The Rose Tree" and "The Little Match Girl" -- can you believe that the latter is listed under the category of "Holiday Fun" on a children's web site?) Luckily, I am now old enough that I can be amused by magical tales of enchantments, beheadings and beasts. The cannibalism still gets to me, though.

The interbridge.com Literary Corner endorses the work of Lemony Snicket, the latest of which is The Grim Grotto. As with the fairy tales, this is ostensibly a work aimed at children, but exquisitely sensitive youngsters (as I myself was) should wait until they are well into their 30s before reading the sad story of the Baudelaires, three orphans who are trying to escape the clutches of the evil Count Olaf. These books are all terribly clever, and if you're pressed for time, the audio versions are read by the marvelous Tim Curry. A movie adaptation with Jim Carrey as Olaf will be out this winter, but I will do my best to ignore it.

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10.13.04 tv and comics

There are seismic changes going on in the comics world. Ralph, the perpetually out-of-touch boss in Sally Forth, has been fired, and longtime Luann crush object Aaron Hill is moving to Hawaii. What's next -- the Lockhorns getting a divorce?

I am delighted to report that I seem to have broken my addiction to "Survivor" and "The Bachelor," as both are merrily chugging along without me. I've also given up on "Desperate Housewives" after 1 1/2 episodes -- too soapy, and the narration is corny as all get-out.

So what's left? There's my all-time favorite program, "The Daily Show," and I remain hopelessly hooked on those slobs-get-their-homes-redesigned shows like "Clean Sweep," "Mission Organization" and, to a lesser extent, "How Clean Is Your House?" (the latter is often just too gross -- no one should have to endure the sight of two proper English ladies remarking over the "pee-pee and poo-poo" stains on a toilet).

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10.11.04 it's a mad, mad, mad, maddin world

Imagine the dream that you might have if you fall asleep while watching "The Late Late Show" on a slightly snowy VHF channel that you can just barely tune in on an ancient TV's set-top rabbit-ears, just after you've eaten a jalapeño-pineapple pizza and downed half a bottle of absinthe. The weirdness that may ensue in your head could perhaps approximate the experience of watching a Guy Maddin film.

The Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley is in the middle of a complete Maddin retrospective, and the amiable Canadian filmmaker was in attendance this weekend to introduce several of his works and answer audience questions. I was captivated by "The Saddest Music in the World," so far the only Maddin film to win a commercial release in the U.S., when I saw it several months ago; I went into it having no idea what the words a Guy Maddin film entailed, and at first I was confused, then curious, and finally enchanted.

On Friday, Maddin's first feature-length film, "Tales from the Gimli Hospital," was screened, along with his first short, "The Dead Father." "Tales" is Maddin's salute to the sagas of his Icelandic forebears, set during the days of a terrible plague. The film is frequently hilarious and surreal, but its slow pace makes it seem much longer than its 70-minute running time; the auteur was just finding his voice.

Saturday brought two much more polished Maddin pictures: "The Heart of the World," a kinetic five-minute short made for the Toronto Film Festival, and his latest release, "Cowards Bend the Knee," which was presented as his autobiography. The lead character is, in fact, named Guy Maddin, but the alert viewer will quickly realize that there is perhaps some embellishment going on. For instance, the movie-Maddin's mom dies, but we the audience know that his mother is, in fact, very much alive -- she even appears in the film! Then there's Maddin's girlfriend Veronica, who dies shortly after an abortion but comes back as a ghost and eventually marries his dad. And Guy's new girlfriend, Meta, who wants him to avenge her dead father by having an operation that will attach Dad's severed hands to Guy's body, then killing her mom and mom's new lover. Questions abound -- did he truly command a bunch of wax figures in a hockey museum to come back to life? What about the end of the film, where Guy's hands are chopped off at Meta's behest? When he was up at the podium, I could clearly see that he still has hands! I smell artistic license.

In a post-"Cowards" Q&A, Maddin revealed that he'd started out with a script, then thrown it away "because I was just filming my life." If his native Winnipeg, Manitoba, develops a reputation as a place where weird, magical and slightly lurid things happen, I'm sure the increasing popularity of Maddin's films will have a lot to do with it.

Obviously, these movies are so incredibly off-kilter (though I personally find them deeply intriguing and hypnotically beautiful) that they will never capture the mainstream audience that goes to see stuff like "Taxi" or "Alien vs. Predator." The local multiplex is currently home to one of the more offbeat major-studio releases of recent times, though: "I Huckabees," which is a sort of cross between "Waking Life" and "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind."

"Huckabees" was directed and co-written by David O. Russell, who is one of my favorite filmmakers. However, he seems to have decided that what he really wants is to make movies just like Charlie Kaufman's (in fact, he had a cameo role in Kaufman's brilliant "Adaptation"). The "existential detective agency" in "Huckabees" reminded me of the memory-erasing Lacuna Inc. in "Eternal Sunshine." And like "Waking Life" (though it goes down a lot more easily than that animated snoozefest), this movie is fascinated by philosophy -- the characters meditate about the interconnectedness of all things, the nature of coincidence, and nihilism (represented in the person of French beauty Isabelle Huppert). I was sure it was all leading up to a grand finale that would tie everything together, but it ends with a big pffffffft instead.

Often, I would get excited by the ideas brought up in "Huckabees," especially those personified by Mark Wahlberg's character Tommy, a fireman who was lifted out of his complacency after 9/11. He has become so rabidly anti-petroleum that he even refuses to use Vaseline -- and he rides his bicycle to fires, often arriving before his comrades in the truck. He implores his wife to think about the fact that her shoes were probably made by Third World children. The titular Huckabees is a Target-like chain of superstores, the kind most Americans shop at on a regular basis. As Russell knows, if we spent more time thinking about the impact of our purchases on the world's resources and the working conditions of the people who sew our $10 pocket Ts, we would probably be afflicted by the sort of angst that plagues Tommy Corn.

Everything seems to be building towards a giant Huckabees rally, at which Shania Twain will perform and smooth exec Brad (Jude Law) will announce a new pro-environmental initiative that will be a big P.R. coup for the company. Twain does make a brief cameo, but we never get to see the rally. In fact, I sometimes wondered if Russell was hampered by a low budget (maybe all the money went to pay the talent); when one character's house burns down, for instance, it happens just offscreen. Heck, on the premiere of ABC's "Desperate Housewives," we were treated to a full-scale conflagration and its aftermath.

Too often, "Huckabees" just seems half-baked; it doesn't really go anywhere, and if it's supposed to be a comedy, it got precious few laughs in the showing I attended. I have to give Russell some props for trying to challenge his audience; I just hope that next time, he returns to the razor-sharp storytelling skills he displayed in "Flirting with Disaster" and "Three Kings."

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10.06.04 i'm mr. heat miser, i'm mr. sun

There are two kinds of people in the world: the kind who only add to their CD collections, never selling or getting rid of anything once they've purchased or received it; and those whose collections are forever being examined, evaluated and finally culled. I'm firmly in the latter camp, constantly revisiting my discs and every few months, taking the rejects to Amoeba to trade in. I'm unapologetic about this -- my tastes change; and occasionally, a band I really like puts out a dud album that I see no reason to keep. I mean, if I feel like listening to Apples in Stereo, I can guarantee you that it's never going to be Velocity of Sound.

On the other hand, there are CDs I've had for years that I still listen to regularly and get a tremendous amount of pleasure from. The more refined my collection gets, the larger the percentage of truly great albums. (I know Roger is getting the shakes right now, because my philosophy is so diametrically opposed to his.)

Heatmiser's Mic City Sons came out in 1996, and since then, it has been one of my most frequently-played albums. This is one CD I can guarantee that I will never, ever part with. Unfortunately, it's also an incredibly underrated, almost-unknown album, when it should be hailed as a masterpiece on the level of Nevermind. Luckily, it's still in print, so you can still snag a copy.

If Heatmiser is known at all, it's because Elliott Smith, the late singer-songwriter who received an Oscar nomination for "Miss Misery" from "Good Will Hunting," was in the band. However, the harder-rockin' sound of Heatmiser has been overshadowed by his more plaintive and acoustic solo work. While he was in the Portland-based band, he shared songwriting duties with Neil Gust; the credits in Mic City Sons read, "All songs written by Neil Gust or Elliott Smith." No indication of who wrote which songs, although it's immediately apparent when you hear them. Gust has a more conventional alternarock-singer voice, while Smith's vocals have that quiet, intimate, slightly broken quality familiar to fans of his solo work.

The thing is, though, all of the songs are fantastic. Gust's are just as brilliant as Smith's. I'm hard-pressed to name any other CDs where literally every song is a winner (well, there's my favorite album of all time, Roxy Music's Siren). While I love much of Smith's solo output, I must admit that I really enjoy hearing his voice & songs in this crunchier power-trio format. (Sam Coombes, later of Quasi, played bass and drums on the album.)

Heatmiser released two other albums, Cop and Speeder and Dead Air, which are also both excellent ("Why Did I Decide To Stay?" from CaS is particularly fab), and an EP, Yellow No. 5. Sometimes I put all of them in the CD changer and just listen to hours of Heatmiser. But Mic City Sons is just special and magical, and affects me in a way that few albums have, before or since. It was the band's final release, and they went out on an incredible high note.

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10.05.04 take me out

Bottom of the ninth
Giants ahead, three-nothing
Dodgers still win? D'oh

Dodger victory
Breaks hearts in San Francisco
See you in April

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10.04.04 an open letter to my mom

Dear Ma,

In one month, you will be voting in your first U.S. presidential election. You know I hate it when people send me pro-GOP articles, so I am not going to stuff your mailbox with clipped Ellen Goodman and Molly Ivins columns. This is all I'm going to say on the matter; my first and last words on the subject.

Growing up, I was different from the rest of my schoolmates. They may have had Dutch or Irish or Polish heritage, but for the most part, their families had been in this country for generations; I never knew anyone who spent their summer vacation visiting their "ancestral homeland," probably because the ties had so long ago disappeared. That was not the case for me.

I grew up firmly rooted in two cultures. I was raised in America, but English is my second language; I spent summers in Sweden with non-English speaking relatives and friends, reading Swedish comic books and watching Swedish TV. The result of that upbringing (and my travel to other countries), I think, is that I've never had a parochial view of the world. The U.S. is a great country, but there's a lot outside our borders.

The reason you waited until you'd been in this country for over 30 years to apply for citizenship is because you didn't want to renounce your home country. You waited until dual citizenship was legalized so you would not have to toss away your Swedish passport. And in that spirit, I don't think you should vote for a man who believes the U.S. can and should "go it alone" in the world.

Three years ago, shortly after Sept. 11, I remember seeing a page on the Internet that collected photos taken at U.S. embassies worldwide. Bouquets of flowers abounded; Americans who were abroad then reported that people came up to them and hugged them and shed tears with them. We had the sympathy of the world. We had long been thought of as "the good guys," and that heartfelt international outpouring proved it.

Today, needless to say, things are quite different. That goodwill has been squandered. I haven't been abroad since shortly after Sept. 11, but from what I've heard and read, the U.S. isn't thought of very highly anymore. Our "coalition of the willing" is shrinking by the day -- the government of Costa Rica (!) wrote a letter to President Bush requesting that they take their country's name off the list of coalition partners. And remember Poland, mentioned numerous times by Bush in last week's debate? Over 80% of Poles want out of Iraq, and the country's defense minister is pushing for it. Australia's prime minister is locked in a fierce reelection battle where the country's small number of troops in Iraq has become a dominant campaign issue.

I realize that a lot of conservatives feel that everyone else in the world is simply wrong, and we're right. But it seems to me that President Bush has done more to harm the standing of the U.S. in the world than any president in modern times. During a campaign appearance yesterday, Bush told a crowd that if elected, John Kerry would let "countries like France" decide when to use American force. (Naturally, the audience booed.) Am I the only one who thinks Bush using America's oldest ally as an example of his opponent's alleged misguidedness is more than a little wrong?

No, I don't think that a Kerry election next month would mean that the world would automatically love us and send lots of troops to Iraq to finish the job and that all would be sunshine & lollipops. But I do think it would send a message that said, "Hey, we're all in this together. We're reaching out to our historic allies, not disparaging or mocking them." And perhaps Kerry will launch an investigation of some of the scandals of the Bush administration that have been driven off the front pages here but are still in the news elsewhere in the world, like the torture at Abu Ghraib prison. "To much of the world, America looks like a place where top officials condone and possibly order the torture of innocent people, and suffer no consequences," writes New York Times columnist Paul Krugman. "[T]he rest of the world has already lost faith in us."

As a citizen of two countries, you should think carefully what image you want the U.S. to project to the world before you cast your ballot. The hubris of the Bush administration is that it believes that America can act with impunity, without a care for what anybody else thinks. His defeat would send a message that being an arrogant superpower is not the right direction for America; perhaps it will be the first step to rejoining the global community. Ultimately, I believe that will make us safer and stronger.

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All content © 2004 by Sue Trowbridge