The wheel it turns, it comes around

I have the ghost of an idea about radical activism. The person accused of shooting George Tiller complained to the Associated Press, "I haven't been convicted of anything, and I am being treated as a criminal."

And yet, a few days later, he told the AP, "I know there are many other similar events planned around the country as long as abortion remains legal."

The attitude feels odd, coming from a crusader. I've seen it elsewhere, with a few animal rights activists: knowingly engage in organized, illegal destruction and intimidation, then complain when crime control officials treat your organized criminal enterprise as, well, an organized criminal enterprise.

Then I remembered where else I've seen this attitude. Do you remember that variant of the children's game of tag, in which the runners can't be tagged out as long as they're touching a designated tree or swingset? "Safe!"

It's as if they're playing a game, and the righteousness they attribute to their cause is the "safe" tree. Sure, there's defense legal strategy in here, but these people seem genuinely outraged and confused that their actions would elicit serious prosecution and punishment.

On February 10 I went up to Los Angeles to observe the Project Chanology protests against the Church of Scientology. My photos are up on Flickr.

I don't live on campus with most other graduate students and I don't live in a sterile Orange County suburb. I live in an apartment complex. I'm glad. It occasionally brings me into contact with more of the world than under-30 drinking.

On a weekend night a couple of months ago, I kept hearing sporadic woman's screams from somewhere outside my apartment. I live next to the complex parking lot, so the occasional drunken hoots (especially around 1 to 3 am) aren't uncommon, but this sounded different. The screams sounded agitated, frustrated, frightened.

So I put on my slippers, grabbed a flashlight, and trekked out into the parking structure. No luck tracking down the source. After about 20 minutes searching, and on my way back to my apartment, I stumbled across the source: a man and a woman arguing in the apartment just below mine and one over. I must've passed it during a lull.

I went back to my apartment and listened from my balcony to try to figure out what was going on. She was crying and occasionally yelling. He was yelling, "You don't understand!" like a frustrated adolescent. Something or somebody was thumping against the wall.

At this point I dialed 9-11 and called in a potential domestic abuse incident, then got my voice recorder and waited for the police. The track says it was September 15. Once I heard the woman's voice yelling "Stoooop! Stop! Stop hurting me!" I dialed 9-11 again, reported what I'd heard (to which the operator replied that yes, the police are on their way), and waited.

It turned out that the violence seems to have been minimal. He hurled her purse out the (ground level) balcony door; she was crying and picking it up when the police arrived. From what I could make out afterward, she was a minor but determinedly did not want to go home; I think they handcuffed her and took her to the police station. The two officers spent some time questioning the boy, but I don't know to what result.

Tonight I heard a woman crying while walking nearby with an acquaintance; she was saying something about leaving, and he took a phone call long enough to say there'd been an incident and he'd have to call them back. Sometime later I heard the woman walking toward the street while being asked to stop by a loud, frustrated young man. She was saying that he didn't understand her mother, that her mother had a disease. I hope she didn't turn back.

"Doctor Who returns to the BBC for a Christmas special on Dec. 25 titled "Voyage of the Damned." The episode, set on the Titanic, will co-star singer and actress Kylie Minogue."

For the record, this was SOMEONE ELSE'S search that sent them to my blog.

Hmm, maybe I ought to just mirror my MySpace random absurdity here.