Monday, October 18, 2004

the apocalyptic dreamworld of jeremy freese

I took a nap earlier this evening (I know, I know), and I had this dream that now has me completely freaked out. Especially because it may be the first Current Political Events dream I have ever had in my life. In my dream, it was maybe three to five days before the election, and these four photogenic Americans, three men and one woman, were taken hostage in Iraq. The threat was issued by the dark-hooded terrorists that the four would all be beheaded if Americans did not elect John Kerry President. Immediately, this was proclaimed as settling once and for all the question of which candidate was the one Officially Endorsed By The Terrorists. For another, it led to a spectacular amount of handwringing and speechgiving about how the United States cannot give in to terrorists, and yet, even so, many voters were expressing concern about how hard it would be to cast a vote that would be effectively sending these innocent people to their deaths. The day before the election, however, the electoral dilemma was solved, as the hostages were rescued by American soldiers in a daring nighttime raid. America rejoiced. The next day, Bush swept to a huge victory, carrying practically every state. But, then, in the dream, I alone had this information that it was actually Republican strategists who had staged the entire thing, and this was the October Surprise they had been planning to pull for months if needed. (This was, to my knowledge, the first time that Karl Rove has ever shown up in a dream of mine.) I was trying to make the information I had public, but everybody kept thinking I was just another unpatriotic conspiracy nut, and then these people were also after me to kill me for what I knew. I think this was about to result in one of those chase scenes that occur quite often in my darker dreams, but somewhere around here is when I woke up.

Weird, I know.

9 comments:

dorotha said...

my dad is going to saudi arabia on business sometime in the next couple of weeks. when i spoke to my sister today, she said that she spent the entire drive between houston and austin planning ways to save my dad if he was taken hostage. her best plan was to get together a bunch of her middle eastern friends to help her make a video to send to the hostage takers saying that she wasn't going to listen to our government and that she fully intended to do what they asked. her appeals were going to be based largely on the fact that, as the eldest daughter, she had intended to take care of our father in his old age.

perhaps you should email my sister and offer her some suggestions on what she should do for my pops in event of a kidnapping.

Anonymous said...

You know. I have often suspected that certain factions of the Republican arm--- I mean, Party, might pull something similar to scare US citizens into voting for GWB. Pretty f-ed up world we live in... All we need is to start having stuff like that happen here...
---jnsys

Anonymous said...

BF Skinner learned a long time ago that food entices the best. People in the middle east like honey - I would suggest that the promise of a 100 kilos of America's finest Clover honey go could a long ways in freeing hostages, especially anyone nabbed in Saudi Arabia.

Anonymous said...

The last respondent clearly knows a thing or two about human nature, economics, politics and animal husbandry. The evil-doers nab the loved one of a family - obviously they have been able to mysteriously assess the resources of the nabee - a deal is arranged through a broker who gets a fee for his efforts - the evil doers pat themselves on the back for not being truly evil, after all , they could have just knocked their hapless victim in the head - the family of the loved one gets to rejoice over being reunited and seeing their loved one fat and sassy despite being held by evil-doers, the evil doers get to enjoy the money, or honey, they obtained while providing employment to a broker- the nabee gets to write a book or at least is the center of attention for a long time, gets patted on the back and hugged by attractive members of the opposite sex - journalists get to write stories and earn their salt - it goes on and on

Anonymous said...

Well, dreams may become reality, unfortunately...
Head of CARE Kidnapped in Iraq"[Margaret] Hassan has lived in Iraq 30 years and started working for CARE soon after it started operations in Iraq after the Gulf War in 1991. She refused to leave before the invasion last year. At the time, she told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that 'strength comes from us supporting one another.'"
Hopeully, the terrorists will stop to think about what this woman has done for the Iraqi people over the last 13 years...
---jnsys

Anonymous said...

There's not much swag to be had from Humanitarians, that's for sure. Odds are she is confined to some hovel in some remote village being made to teach literacy classes to the progeny of the evil-doers. If they can't squeeze CARE then they will save on school enrollment fees for their children. Most likely CARE was paying protection fees to saddam's thugs, now one of their own is teaching for bowl of gruel or two a day in some hovel. It's a damn shame I tell you.

Anonymous said...

Well, I have to ask: how much and what kind of swag would it take to free Professor Freese if he were nabbed by evil-doers? Ask his students this - would they be willing to pony up more than stale beer and bacon rinds for his release?

jeremy said...

As if students here would even be willing to pony up the stale beer and bacon rinds on my behalf. I spend enough time living in fear that some student or another will go Evil-Doer on me sometime to consider the possibility that any would mobilize to achieve my liberation.

Anonymous said...

I don't know - I might have to do some ciphering on that statistics book you co-authored to see if it has stirred up too much controversy amongst the undergrads - could be