September 23, 1999

Last night Keith and I watched this show "West Wing". It has Martin Sheen playing the President of the United States. I really liked it; I think they're not afraid to deal with actual issues, rather than just focusing on the dramatic lives of the characters, a la "Dave". For example, in one of my favorite scenes from last night's episode, a bunch of religious right wackos were harassing the President's aides and demanding all kinds of un-Constitutional crap like mandatory prayer in schools, when the President walked in. They all immediately straightened up and started smiling, and one of them said something to the effect of, "But Mr. President, don't you feel that having our children able to buy pornography for five dollars is too high a price to pay for freedom of speech?"

The President said "No." And the religious guy just looked totally dumbfounded. No pussyfooting around, no compromising, just "no", a silly thing like pornography is NOT too high a price to pay for freedom of speech, you ignorant fool, now get out of my office. At least, that was the unwritten dialogue that I heard.

It occurred to me, watching this show, that if the President actually behaved like that -- forceful decisions, no screwing around, dedicated to his principles -- then people would have a lot more respect for the Presidency. It also occurred to me that people will never actually be able to see the President in action like that. We see the President in carefully monitored, carefully planned situations. There are very few people in this country who ever get to see him actually make decisions and carry out the work of his day. If we could see that, maybe we could form a better opinion of him than we can simply by what the press reports and what we see in his programmed sound bites.

This is the same reason I like Tom Clancy books so much. In Tom Clancy books, you get to see a government that works efficiently and works well -- a government that WORKS, my God, what a concept. The governing officials in Clancy books really believe in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, they work to keep them from being infringed upon, and best of all, they're GOOD at what they do. There is no governmental incompetence in Tom Clancy books. In the Clancy universe, the President is intelligent, thoughtful, and would NEVER FREAKING EVER get sucked off in the Oval Office. And if he did, nobody would find out about it. And if they did, he'd admit that it happened and tell the press to get out of his face, he has work to do. He wouldn't be afraid to stand up to the press. He would care more about the integrity of his office than about getting re-elected.

That's what the President in Tom Clancy books would do. That's why I like Tom Clancy books.

In other news. We finished the jigsaw puzzle last night. I'm going to stop at lunch and pick up film for the camera so I can take a picture of it. It was really hard, and I'm not the type of person who likes to assemble a puzzle and then immediately disassemble it. I think I'm going to try to find some puzzle glue at a hobby shop so that we can keep it and maybe hang it on the wall.

It's raining in Seattle today. It's the first day that's really felt "Seattle-like" since I got here, I think. I like it as a change, after three or so months of perfectly sunny and cloudless days. Really, the weather has been nice, but after awhile I start wishing that there would just BE some weather; you know, a good storm, or a heat wave, or SOMETHING, anything at all to distinguish one day from the next. Sometimes I feel like I'm living in one of those biodomes.

I'm sure all that will change soon, though. Everybody keeps saying how much the weather usually sucks here. I'm prepared. I have an umbrella AND a raincoat. I also have a winter parka that's weather-rated to 50 degrees below zero, but I seriously doubt I'll be needing that here. It was really useful last winter in Chicago during the blizzard, though.

Later

I got this book at the library last week called "How to Write More Imaginatively" or something to that effect. It's full of these little writing exercises that it says will help make you a better writer. I've been thinking about doing them, and whether I should do them at home in a composition book (aesthetically pleasing) or whether I should post them to this journal (egotistically pleasing, and appealing in that I have to do less handwriting, which I hate). I'm still debating. Opinions? Let me know.

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