While I was away . . . : Marriage; Fahrenheit 9/11; . . . and Wonkette

I have made my way back to blog-land, at least for now.  I have been well, just busy and with little to say that has been blog-worthy.
But during my absence, my Significant Other became my wife.  We married on June 21st, and now we have, for the moment, a rather strange sort of commuter marriage: we live in separate apartments in the same complex--literally across the commons from each other--and at the moment we can't afford to break our leases and move in together (hers ends in August, mine in September).  So, at night we take turns staying at the apartment of the other, and during the day we tour Wichita in search of a decent, affordable, and roomy 3-bedroom apartment.  3 bedrooms, because she is also a teacher (she teaches high school English) and so it would be nice for us to have our own studies.  Also, when my daughters come to visit, I'd like to be able to offer them their own room to stay in.  Nothing at all terribly cerebral in the above--just, you know, living.
In the meantime, my colleague Larry continues to loan me films, and my Significant Other has gotten into the act as well of late.  Movies seen: Topper, The Great Escape, The Quiet Man, Se7en, Fight Club, and Apt Pupil.  In the cinema my SO and I have also seen Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and, just last night, Fahrenheit 9/11.
She (after it ended and we were discussing it):  Why don't you get mad about things like this?Me:  I've been mad ever since the winter of 2002, when we compelled the UN to insist that the Iraqis permit weapons inspectors to enter their country again--which I supported--and then almost immediately claim that the inspections were a failure.
Whatever else one might say about Michael Moore--I personally find his self-promoting a bit offensive--the real message of his film for me was that there's plenty of blame to go around for the events of the past 4 years--all the way from voters who didn't vote in the 2000 election and various kinds of ineptitude and even, perhaps, fraud among elections officials to a Congress that, by its own belated admission (see the prison-abuse hearings), abrogated its role as a check and balance to the activities of the Executive Branch.  Fear and a natural tendency to want to be supportive of the President in times of crisis caused much of that abrogation, but Moore's film makes clear that those explanations no longer serve so well.  I kept hearing John Locke's Treatise on Civil Government as I watched: those who govern derive their power from the consent of the governed.  Or, Locke might have added, from their inaction.
Anyway.
For a lighter take on things Washington, I have discovered Wonkette. She serves as a combination news-digest service (with links to lots of news stories in the legitimate press) and gossip columnist (look in particular for her stories about "Washingtonienne").  As I wrote her in an admiring e-mail, after reading Howard Kurtz's "Media Notes" and Dan Froomkin's "White House Brief" columns in the Washington Post's online edition, her column's "fascination with things below the belt(way) provides me with a more, um, nuanced perspective on my government."  She's fun, and her only agendas are to deflate pomposity and reveal that politicos and their minions are every bit as much on the make as most of the rest of us are.  Whether one can take comfort in that or not, I (and she) leave it to you to decide.
Well.  More living, in the form of laundry in the dryers in the laundry room, calls.  I hope to post again later this week; then it's off to Austin with my SO to visit my mom.  Assuming anyone is still checking in to read this blog, thanks for doing so.

Those wishing to read the comments from the original LiveJournal post can go here.