Tag Archives: Bush

The Most Fabulous Part of Bali is the Chinese Food

Posted on by Frank
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3:30 PM (still Day 2) Elisa goes for a 1 hour Indonesian massage. Fifteen Samoleans!!! In so many ways life here makes our American urban, oh so freaking fabulous existence less and less appealing.

 5(maybe) PM.  Back in room to shower and chill under the hum of the AC before getting myself wrapped up in the Gore-Bush debate on CNN World.  Vice President Al whupped George W. hands down, if one were to score that fucking mess. He won by actually answering the questions, albeit in a terribly dull fashion, while Bush smirked, ignored questions and spun twirly rhetoric about electrocuting retards and the root of the cosmos being in Houston. The sham was weakly moderated allowing Bush to re-rhetoricize everything, in turn forcing Gore to feel compelled to re-rebuttalize everything and I cannot fucking believe I am on one of the most beautiful islands the planet’s got, as far away from Boston as you can get, and was getting twisted up into shoe-polish issues being debated in my hometown. Anyhow… 

Roundabouts 7PM – Walk the streets towards Kuta center to find dinner. En route Elisa buys Band-Aids (“Hansaplasts™”) for feet blisters. Which brings us to a new rule: Don’t walk through sandy shorebreak in your flip flops if you intend to walk in them for the next 4 hours or 4 miles. Trapped granules will eventually tear the living fuck out of your foot skin. Another tropical holiday rule is Eat Marine Life as Though Personally Responsible for Depleting the Ocean. So we steered into Bali Seafood Restaurant. For Chinese seafood as it turned out, in the style of the province noted for deliciousness, whatever that may be. I’m  also hazy as to the type of crab* I ate.  While alive (I’d picked him from their crustacean tanks) it was this dark-green, stout Sherman tank looking motherfucker. It looked quite the same, upside down in a fiery bowl of soup except for being pink. It had claws as big and as fat as a lobster’s. Absolutely the sweetest – take that literally – shellfish I’ve ever stuck in my mouth.

   Our lessons in cultural confusion continued as E asked a waiter, a Balinese fella, for some chopsticks. He laughed, though not derisively, and said “Nooo, we do not have them.  We are not Chinese!”  She certainly didn’t want to challenge him on the nature of the menu so Elisa just asked what they use to eat here. 

   “Spoon. Maybe a fork. Sometimes fingers…”

   Hmmm. So much like actual people…there’s very little to differentiate these Bali folks from our own, apart from the pleasant dispositions and overall attractiveness. 

9 or something PM – In the room, faces rinsed and lying in bed watching Outbreak. Good movie selection from a hotel on a island noted for its populations of wild monkeys. Could cause a little anxiety among squeamier tourists.  I’ll just take it as a reminder to use caution around primates: No monkey loving for me. Fell asleep on & off.  I would bounce awake intermittently to find myself still smoking or to yell at Elisa, Don’t shut it off!! It’s the good part! This behavior continued way after the movie ended.

*turns out to be a “mud crab”

Tune in Next Time For:   Do Bidets fall under the protection of Vishnu of Shiva?

Baffled, Befuddled, Bemused

Posted on by Frank

I keep running into people who are genuinely pissed off over the results of this election and I’m having trouble understanding just exactly why.  Being a non-affiliated moderate the only thing I expect from politicians is to do the best they can in the best interest of this country (so I live w/o hope…), thus it’s always been difficult to relate to anyone chained to either end of the political spectrum.  And whether Liberal or Reactionary (Neoconservative, as the new euphemism goes) polarized folks aren’t very good at explaining their stances.  They only excel at shrieking about how dangerous and evil the other side is.

Right wingers belch out reiterated themes from right-wing platforms about how the Left will tax and spend until we’re poorer than Haiti then plunge us into a moral collapse that would make Rome look like it was run by Quakers.  Funny that during our most prosperous years, Clinton’s Administration, we weren’t taxed to death, the deficit was erased and some right-leaning friends were still blowing coke with me and trannies at nightclubs.

Liberals have a way of making every election include howling demands for whales, weed and rain forests. And their froth-mouthed, ear-splitting screaming about the war being about oil makes it difficult for rational people to suggest the same. When all you can do is shout without listening the people who hear you are going to sour on your position. And it’s hard for the average American to give a crap about the environment when they’re concerned about keeping their house or educating their kids.  It’s tough to worry about the rights of illegal immigrants when our own no longer seem to be guaranteed. They need to remember that we have to fix our home before we can expect to save the world.

Anyhow, nobody has been exactly clear about their displeasure. I didn’t walk around with a furrowed brow and gnashing teeth during the last two presidential elections (Of course, the Democrats had put up two uncharismatic, monotoned toads in a row; my expectations were low) And I didn’t mope in ’92 after voting for George H. W. Bush – things weren’t so bad and I thought he oughta have another turn. 

So why are some people so upset over the turn of events this year? I’ve heard the tax whines, even among people who don’t even approach a 250K income. But I keep hearing and reading about how this election has just set us on a path into Hell. A different Hell, I guess, from the rosy little Gehenna we’ve been frolicking in. The new regime hasn’t even moved in yet, so how can we know how wonderful or how awful it it will turn out?

If anybody would please explain why an Barack Obama administration will be as terrible as any, or even why it will bear out its promise, I’d greatly appreciate it – I don’t intend to argue or defend any position,  I’m just trying to understand.