Looking back at yesterday’s post, I had a thought - I do have a list of cool adults that I respect and look up to. Now, I’m getting ever closer to thirty and I still have a hard time internally classifying myself as an adult/grownup.

I don’t think it’s a protracted adolescence/fear of responsibility thing. I hold a steady job, I’m in a long term, committed relationship, I pay all my bills on time, I always have a bit of a safety net in the bank just in case. I can even have a conversation with my mother as two equals. By this and all the other criteria that I know of, I am a responsible adult - so why do I feel as if it’s a category that is still “other”? Still something I am looking at from the outside?

What is a grown up supposed to feel like? Inside myself I still see the kid who would wake up early on a summer morning to pick raspberries for breakfast. Will I ever really feel grown up? Do I want to?

Today the US government is willing to strip constitutional protection away from a suspected terrorist who happens (inconveniently) to be an american citizen. What is the next crime or suspicion of crime where we will cheerfully throw away due process?

Someday, when they have run out of suspicious men with bombs, what happens then? Will all the suspicion and paranoia just get packed neatly in the boxes we took it out of? Or will the powerful look for someone else? Some other danger/threat that must be guarded against?

How dangerous will it become in the future to ask questions and hold opinions the government considers “un-american”? Our most powerful politicians have been claiming for months that those asking questions and voicing different opinions are, at best, unwitting stooges of “the terrorists” - letting divisive ideas grow and fester - harming our ability to defend our country. At worst, they are aiding the enemy - muddying the waters so more evil plots can be laid.

I look to the future these days, and I shudder. Out of fear, the american people are placing a great deal of power in the hands of a very few. They are crying out “protect us!” and they don’t seem to worry just now if an innocent is caught in the crossfire - because there are no innocents. The merest breath of suspicion is condemnation, and condemnation equals guilt.

It seems that some soon to be college graduates don’t think that Mr. Rodgers is “elite” enough to give the commencement address at Dartmouth. Are you kidding? I can’t even *remember* who gave my commencement address, (though I got to listen to Geraldine Ferraro at my sister’s graduation, and that was a kicker.) but I’d have paid money to hear Mr. Rodgers speak. Really. He’s up there on my list of officially cool adults.

And he’s not *good enough* for these nose in the air soon to be grads? Ugh.

For those of you who remember the evil overlord list, User Friendly just put up the “How Can I Serve An Evil Genius Flowchart“.

I’ve seen a few episodes of this show, but I never saw the first episode until tonight and all I can think is “wow, these folks are completely coming apart”. (Yeah, like I’d handle a close family death any better) And that got me thinking - maybe so many of the cable drama series show such completely fucked up people is so the majority of viewers can look at the screen and figure that their own fucked up lives aren’t really that bad. Kind of the reverse of the “grass is greener” mode of thought.

This from the idiot of the month club: Open source invites terrorism

And this from the “globalization ain’t easy” department: Translating technical manuals.

You know why? ‘Cause even though I still have to drag my unhappy about being awake self out of bed and into the too bright light of day, I can do it happy in the knowledge that *tomorrow*, I get to sleep in.

Hey, we all need something to get us through the day.

… And some folks even have cute things to say about it. Like Mark at InfiniteBabble… If I were Obi-Wan, I’d probably have spent the entire movie glaring at Anakin and snarling “You. Utter. Moron.”

My thoughts on the movie? Hmmm…. it actually made some of episode 1 make sense, the Jar Jar time was limited but still too much, seeing Yoda surrounded by proto-stormtroopers was creepy, seeing him commanding them was even creepier, and the music at the end should have stuck with the proto-imperial march. Going from all that foreshadowed gloom to the happy-hopefull theme on the end credits was not right. Things are bad and they are only going to get worse and. We. Know. It. Happy music and a cute secret wedding don’t change the fact that just about everyone is screwed.

I wanted to see Bail Organa get more lines.

And Mr. Lucas? You’re a great director, but you are not god’s gift to screenwriters. Give someone else a crack at the dialogue next time, eh? Please?

And now - it’s a frelling beautiful day outside, so I am running away from the computer for a while and out into the sun. It might not be as good as a walk in the country, but I’m going to find something nice to do outside that doesn’t involve much driving. Well, ok - so I went to the zoo last week and I took a five mile walk yesterday and *nothing* is open on sundays around here (stupid blue laws…) but I’m still gonna find something. Bye bye!