Launching on the intertubes

Ok, so after closet blogging on facebook for a minute or two, I have decided it is time to go live. It is with some trepidation that I step outside the closed pale blue sand box -- after all, once these posts get published, they become part of the record forever, or for at least as long as Google (Don't be Evil TM) keeps its cache. It reminds me of one of the best scenes from one my my favorite movies, "When Harry met Sally", a film incidentally that has a lot of truth buried in it. The scene goes as follows:

Harry: What? Can't a man say a woman is attractive without it being a come-on? All right, all right. Let's just say, just for the sake of argument, that it was a come-on. What do you want me to do about it? I take it back, OK? I take it back.
Sally: You can't take it back.
Harry: Why not?
Sally: Because it's already out there.
Harry: Oh jeez. What are we supposed to do? Call the cops? It's already out there!
Sally: Just let it lie, OK?
Harry: Great! Let it lie. That's my policy. (They get into the car.) That's what I always say. Let it lie. Want to spend the night in a motel? (She glares at him.) You see what I did? I didn't let it lie.

Below is the whole scene, which should you watch it will be the best 2 minutes you spend on my blog. Ever. Really, the danger is that that scene will be the funniest and most coherent thing I publish on this blog. So I guess it is all down hill from here.



The second danger is that, one day a long time from now, some words I write here will come back to cause me grief. I have often joked with friends that one day, when I am being confirmed for my new job as, say, Secretary of State, the following exchange will happen:

Unidentified Senator: Mr. Ableside, Fox News is reporting today that you were actually born Omar Abou-Sayed, and are indeed Muslim. Are these allegations true?
Oscar Ableside: Senator, I can neither confirm nor deny those allegations as I have no recollection of thsoe events. However, it would be fair to say that if they were true, I would be deeply sorry and apologetic.

I should have prefaced that I do have an ambition to serve my country in some executive or legislative capacity, and that whenever joking about it with friends we always assumed that I would have to run as, say, Oscar Ableside or Omri Ablestein rather than Omar Abou-Sayed. It would still be funny if it were not so eerily close to the mark, as evidenced by the potential election of Barack Obama. He is both dispelling the notion that someone with a funny name and international background can get elected to high office while at the same time the far right's response to his candidacy is reinforcing that, as an American Muslim, I have about as good a chance at ending up in Guantanamo as 1600 Pennsylvania.

Ahem.

Anyway, my sincere hope is that, through these posts, I have a chance to make someone think (and maybe cringe or at least groan a little) while voicing a little bit of social commentary.

Barring that, I will resort to piss and fart jokes for a cheap laugh.