I'm not sure whether to be really scared by this video put out by Planned Parenthood Golden Gate or laugh because it's just that bad. I can't imagine what sort of logic would make someone decide to produce this. It doesn't seem like it would even be funny if you agreed with it. Any guesses?
It seems that everyone has death on the mind lately, what with Peter Jennings and... okay, maybe just Peter Jennings. And he's only really on the mind of Barbara Walters and Larry "Live" King, since he was younger than either of them. Anyway, this annoying radio program --that I am sometimes forced to listen to because I do not yet have an iPod adapter suitable for my new car and because I threw out most of my tapes long ago--was interviewing people about the new trends in burial, such as home body preparation and funerals and multimedia memorials meant to last forever. They did not talk about the hip mourning practices gaining popularity in my neck of the woods. The first is the memorial car sticker, telling everyone on the freeway who died and how old they were. It's like a tombstone, only made of metal and with better mileage. Although a little odd, I can sort of grasp the concept on this one. The other, newer up-and-coming funeral rite for the aggrieved is the memorial car wash. That's right. I am no longer made to feel guilty for not having my car washed by band students every weekend, now I feel like I am desecrating someone's memory when I drive around in my dusty jalopy. Dust to dust to soapy rag? Tears are good for the paint job? I am less clear on the concept for this one, but when I die, I expect my loved ones to offer interior vacuuming and paint detailing services, plus free mountain breeze scented spray for the first 200 customers in my memory.
Okay, I admit it, I've become addicted to a TV show. Although, if you really want to be picky about terms, it's not so much a "TV show" as it is a gripping space epic. So, those of you who were debating whether or not I have a TV can fire up the debate once again, now that I download and watch Battlestar Galactica every week. As for me, I am tryng to decide whether I should listen to executive producer Ron Moore's podcast commentary while I'm watching the episode for the first time, watch each episode twice, or just skip the podcast altogether?
I'm not sure whether this news made it out of California, but there was an accident out in the dessert this morning involving 20 illegal immigrants packed into a van.. No one was wearing seatbelts, 5 people were killed and 15 were injured when the van went off the road and rolled over. I heard a woman on the radio this afternoon villifying the driver of the van as a money-grubbing devil who cares more about making a buck than about safety. Now, I agree that this was a totally unsafe situation, and I would try to avoid putting people in that situation myself, but doesn't this woman realize that's how a lot of people travel in Central America? There just aren't that many cars, so when you have one, you share. I remember sharing the back of a family friend's pickup with my brother, the friend's three kids, and at least 3-4 other people we picked up on the way to wherever we were going. And we were probably the least crowded vehicle on the road. I think it's a lot more likely that this guy had a van and decided to share it. Yes, even with people he doesn't know. (Okay, so the van appears to have been stolen, but that's another issue. No one knows how stole it or how it came into the driver's hands.) This certainly doesn't decrease the tragedy of what happened, but jumping to conclusions about a dead man's motives for piling lots of people in his van certainly doesn't help.