Beautiful

I couldn't stop snickering last month about that whole Trump beauty queen thing. I mean she got caught clubbing, drinking, drugging and screwing boys and girls? And such a demure young lady.

What is the point of a beauty contest? Is it the ideal woman? For what exactly?

Well I think that a woman's woman would measure herself by her accomplishments rather than her looks and probably wouldn't have any interest in a beauty contest as a means of self-validation. A guy who likes that type of woman isn't going to be spending a lot of time watching a beauty contest.

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But a beauty contest is pretty clearly designed for woman to measure their value by, for and through men.

There isn't much doubt that guys like to look at hot chicks in bikinis and heels. And it's doubtful that those guys (who by the way are some of the same guys as in the above paragraph) aren't going to be secretly hoping that the same girls like to get drunk, go clubbing and have three-ways. It seems to me if we are being honest with ourselves, that is the type of behavior that should be encouraged in our pageant winners. And then made available on DVD.

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A while ago I worked for a Village's Planning and Development Department. They tried to draft an ordinance to keep all adult uses out of the village. Being from the big city, I laughed. They told me no one in the Village wanted adult stores and that only truckers used them. What bullshit. I'm sure the adult industry has remained a multi-billion dollar industry precisely because no one wants those stores. I hate to invoke the free market on this one, but people are voting with their dollars. Their punchballot votes, to me, are overvotes and can be ignored.

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But we try to cling on to values that we don't believe in behind closed doors, pretending that we have nothing but disdain for the adult industry and that our beauty pageant winners should remain chaste, wholesome virgins until marriage. (And hopefully after they marry us, realize what tramps they are). How backwards is that?

Camping

Sometimes simple pleasures are the most important. The other night, my four year old son and I camped out in the living room. It's been quite a tradition, originally started to watch a little late night post-season baseball after his bedtime. I roll out my sleeping bag and he has a cot roll. Then we get the warmest covers we can scrounge and roll up on the floor, watch a little TV, talk a little and pass out.

Some of the time I wake up and discover he is long gone. It is a fun change of pace though. One of these days we will have to get a tent and head out for real. I miss camping from time to time. And canoeing. There was a park and a river I used to know like the back of my hand, but that was a long time ago. These days I wonder whether anyone (besides a small dedicated cadre of the outdoorsy) really camps or canoes.

When I was younger I remember people talking about not locking their front doors or their cars. I haven't heard that kind of talk in a long time. And try living with that mindset of safety and sleeping in a tent. It doesn't work. But, for me, its hard to feel more alive than I feel in the woods. Unless of course its in the woods in a rainstorm. For now though, I'll have to settle with nostalgic feelings.

Becks

Thank goodness, in the midst of if all, there is a little bit of good news. I guess if nothing else, I can have my bread and circus.

David Beckham is coming to the MLS. Now, I know he's lost a step or two, but it is still good news. Beckham is a spectacular dead ball player. He can still compete and is a level above most of the athletes in the league. Perhaps he will generate some added revenue for the league. I can say certainly that the MLS is more likely to see some of my money with Beckham in the league, I've already paid money once, only in the misguided hope of seeing him, when Manchester United came to the US to face Bayern Munchen. If nothing else, I did get to yell Khan in my most Shatneresque toward the Munich goal.

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I had a fairly stong feeling that Beckham was on his way here, but I had a feeling it would take a few more years. It is fairly clear that Posh would love to spend some time shopping in LA. And the US is as good a place to play as any for a player on the back stretch of his career. You get the love of the fans and stay competitive a few years after you would be run out of any European league on a rail. Mattheus did precicely the same thing, and if I recall correctly his wife was looking forward to shopping in NY.

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I just hope the move doesn't repeat what happened to major league soccer with Pele. In its first few years the MLS came perilously close to building an unstoppable juggernaut in DC a la the Cosmos. So I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the US can market itself as the optimal pre-retirement destination and share the love.

Hangman

I watched the execution of Saddam Hussain today. I guess I was more concerned about the lack of picture quality than anything else. I read at a bunch of sites that the footage was disturbing and brought home the depth of man's inhumanity to man. Maybe I've been practicing law for too long. I just didn't see that. I could barely see what was happening at all.

In almost every scenario I am opposed to the death penalty. Justice requires a length appellate process for such a final penalty, and often the cost of that process outweighs the cost of lifetime incarceration. I also don't like the government in the business of execution, except I guess when there is a war to fight - I don't believe pacifism is a real world solution to those with murderous intent. Perhaps even the biblical parable to turn the other cheek, presumes there is a cheek at all to turn after an initial encounter.

Where I really start having a problem is with people who commit genocide, or something I will dub ecocide. The deliberate singling out and extermination of a group of people, or the destruction of the environment on a massive scale. Saddam fails on both counts. My only hesitancy in applying the death penalty in such a situation is that it is precisely the people who can wield such power that by failing to examine them, we may condemn ourselves to re-live the experience with their successors.

So I'm relieved that he is dead. Only its unfortunate that it had to happen as it did. My first choice would have been trial at The Hague. I think that would have been a much more fitting end for Saddam, but with the US rejection of international law, I'm not sure that was ever a possibility. And I still can't stop myself from wondering, why didn't we just kill Saddam a long time ago? I mean you don't have to invade an entire country to assassinate its leader. Not my first choice, but on the off chance it would have spared the lives of thousands or tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands, I'd be willing to live with that solution. I'm fairly confident that the assassination of foreign leaders is already in our repetoire. And even if it isn't, the only compelling reason against it (aside from that pesky executive order) is because it would clearly open the possibility of a quid pro quo. Even with some of our best presidents I think that might be a better than fair trade. We don't have a king to give you see.