Yet Another Refugee from Livejournal

There's this funny little man who lives inside my head who's always asking me questions.  Recently, he asked me one which was tangentially related to my most recent journal entry.

Q: So, you've been having some trouble getting an appointment with a psychiatrist.  But why did your doctor refer you to one in the first place?

A: Because I asked him to.

Q: Uh-huh.  And why'd you do that, Tom?

A: I've been having some short-term memory issues  Like, I go upstairs to get something, and by the time I get there, I've forgotten what the “something” was.

… (That's not entirely a bad thing, of course.  I get more exercise that way.)

… But it's still, on the whole, a pain in the butt, given that it's been happening more and more often.

Q: You have my sympathy.  But you still haven't said why you wanted to see a psychiatrist.

A: Um, I sorta thought that was obvious.  I thought maybe a change of medication would help with the memory problems.

He didn't have any more questions, so I guess I'll post this, and go on to the next item on my to-do list.

If only I could remember what that was.

So far, I have watched not quite half of "Bohemian Rhapsody," the recent film with a central character named "Freddie Mercury."  The idea of finishing the thing fills me with revulsion, so I probably won't.

Yes, I am aware that "Freddie Mercury" is also the name of a real person, one with some biographical details similar to the one in the movie.  I don't know, however, whether this Freddie—the one played, here, by Rami Malek—actually resembles the real one, in any fundamental way.  And I don't care; the reactions I am expressing are to "movie Freddie" ("MF", for short.)

I think MF is a disgusting human being.

One might jump to the conclusion that I am being homophobic.  But I don't think I am.

How do I defend myself against this charge?  Like this:

The character of MF does, in some ways, match one stereotype of gay men.  But that's not a full description of his personality.  He has some additional traits that are not part of the stereotype.  Most notably, he's a malignant narcissist.

Think: one part flamboyantly gay, one part Donald Trump.  It's the combination of the two that I really don't like … or at least, I can't stand the idea of subjecting myself to any more of a movie centered on him.

Do remember, though, that I feel this way only about "movie Freddie," and not (so far as I know) about the real Freddie Mercury.  And not, I hope it goes without saying, about Rami Malek, either.

What to do next?  It's not that I don't have ideas; I have plenty of those.  But sometimes I get stuck in a seemingly endless loop, trying to choose among them.

So I should pick one, without worrying about whether it's the best possible choice, and just go with it.

Okay, I choose: "Figure out how we, the American people, can get Donald Trump out of office."  (Ruled ineligible as an answer, for obvious reasons: "Wait until his term expires.")

How about this, then: "Persuade him to resign."

I know, I know: the first thing you think is that this answer, also, should be thrown out at once.  Although for a different reason.  You agree that if he resigns, that counts as a way of getting him out of office.  But "getting him to resign" is, itself, simply not gonna happn.

You certainly could be right about that, but let's not give up so easily.  Let's give serious consideration to the question: "Is there a way that Donald Trump could be persuaded to resign?"  (And no, I'm not talking about threats.)

Instead, try this: draft an announcement of his resignation, designed for him to read on television.  Make it so that when he looks at the proposed wording, he says to himself:

You know, with this kind of wind behind my back, I'll really be going out on top!  Much better than hanging around the dingy old White House, and putting up with all the bullshit.

I'll whip up a first draft, and post it in my next journal entry.  Then y'all can let me know whether you think it might fly.

As you probably know, yesterday—Saturday, February 28—the United States and Israel commenced a war against Iran, with one of the stated objectives being to overthrow the government of that country.

And I posted something about it yesterday, too … but not here in my own journal; it's in the community journal called "talk politics".  It has the subject line "global mourning", and you can find it here:

I refer you back to my Dreamwidth journal entry of January 8, which has the subject line Should the USA invade Greenland?

Full credit for the humorous wording belongs to late night television host Stephen Colbert.  My quotation from one of his monologues ends with "They're insane!", where "they" appears to refer to the people of the United States.  Since Colbert is a US American himself, as am I, this statement may raise some eyebrows: does he, and do I, actually regard our own country, taken as a whole, as insane?

I don't.   It's a great line in the Late Show context, and I am not criticizing Colbert for using it, but if you take it seriously and literally …

Based strictly on newsworthy recent events in our country, I can think of one individual who is far more clearly qualified to be called insane than is the average American.  That would be our president.

I won't be able to leave the United States before Donald Trump is sworn in (groan, again) as president.  But I am taking concrete steps toward moving to some friendlier nation.

I have identified a top candidate destination, but I am not going to tell the world what it is, yet.  Better to wait until I know that I'll actually be able to go there.

It's a maddeningly slow process, the more so because I am also mildly under the weather.  I remain reasonably confident that I will be able to make it out before it's too late.

"How to Decide What to Do" is the title of a recently-added page
of my “site” at The Well, located
at

https://people.well.com/user/edelsont/philosophy/01-intro.html

All that's there, so far, is the “Introduction”
… which is full of promises of what is to come.

I have unexpectedly developed a case of writer's block: I
haven't written even a line, yet, of the (or any) following
segment.

I do have a possible inkling as to why.  I was operating
under an assumption about what writing this “book” would
entail.  To wit, that it would require me to be completely
“open” about my inner, emotional life: to be prepared to
lay bare any relevant detail about my fears, desires, or any sort
of feelings.

And I didn't feel able (or, perhaps more accurately, willing)
to do that.  I still don't.

However, this doesn't necessarily mean that the project is
doomed.  I have a faint glimmering of an approach that would
allow me to write the thing, without doing the [emotional] Full
Monty to quite that degree.

It would not be exactly the same book, but I think maybe I could
accomplish my central goal.  I guess you — and I!
— will have to wait and see whether this works out.

I apologize for any inconvenience that this may cause.