Fahrenheit 9/11 + CIA trouble

I thought I couldn't hate George W. any more. I was very wrong. Went with friends last night to see Mr. Moore's newest at the Loew's Theatre in Georgetown and left thoroughly disgusted. It's not that I didn't already know about the way that asshole Bush and his fat brother stole the election, how he swooped his bin Laden buds out of the country after 9-11, or how he and the über-evil trio (Rummy, Wolfowitz, and oil-tanker Rice) got us into an unmanageable, unnecessary, illegal, and totally stupid war in Iraq; but having it up there in all of its ten-foot, silver screen glory was infuriating in a whole new way.

What I can't figure out is this: Why is it that I, an admitted foreign-affairs junkie who watched the news almost every day, saw my first graphic image of charred, blown apart, and dead Iraqi children yesterday in this movie? Maybe if the "Christian" Bushies out there were forced to watch "compassionate conservatism" at work, they might change their minds about our current illegitimate regime. Other firsts: scenes of wounded and dead U.S. soldiers; out-takes of a glib, monkey-faced George W. cracking jokes about his golf game moments after taping an oh-so-concerned warning to the American people about the dangers of Al-Queda...er...Saddam; Congressmen literally RUNNING away from Moore on the streets of D.C. rather than having the guts to explain why THEIR sons and daughters are too valuable to send to the war they themselves voted for. It's disgusting. Go see it. If you're a Republican or a "swing" voter (god only knows what that means), DEFINITELY go see it.

Okay, enough ranting. Here's a funny/scary story. On our way home to McLean after the movie, already chock-full of anti-Bush hatred and paranoia, Jennifer accidentally takes a right hand turn 1/2 mile too early...straight into the CIA headquarters at Langley. Easy enough to do; it's really dark out there, and the road is not marked enough. No big deal, think I, and we pull up to the intercom to tell the guard that we just made a wrong turn and want to turn right around and go on our merry way, thanks a lot, God Bless America, and all that.

"Please pull forward to the barrier and the officer will assist you."

Uh-oh.

"Please turn off your lights and your car's engine."

Two squad cars swoop in behind us, blue lights going full bore. I'm now convinced that if these guys find out what movie we just went to see it's going to be "next stop: Guantanamo."

"Hi, officer, just wanted to turn around, made a wrong turn, sorry."

"This is a restricted government facility and property of the CIA. We must do a background check on every person who comes through the gate. What is your social security number?"

Thirty minutes later, after running both our license plates, SSN's, and DL numbers, they tell us to leave and not come back. Of course, according to the officer, we are now on file and will be charged with trespassing should we return. No chance of that, I assure him.

All this happened, because, as you all know, spies and terrorists usually pull up to the front gate in S-10 pickups and Hondas, announce themselves, and politely ask to turn around. What the f@#k? What are we coming to in this country?

On another note: Moving into the apartment today. Wish us luck that everything arrives, and in one piece!

Great news!

I hadn't written about this before, but my father has been having some serious medical issues. So much so, that he needed to come up to Johns Hopkins in Baltimore to get a second opinion on a pretty grave diagnosis. Well, after our appointment this morning in B'more, we are elated, since his oncologist told us that although he does have the disease, it is so early and the disease is so slow moving that he doesn't even require treatment and should only go in for blood work every three-to-five months. We are so excited. It's really great news!