Paintings On Velvet: Idiots Playing Poker

"I see the 20 billion and raise another 10 billion!"

My ethics teacher in grade 4, Soeur Sourire, had a way with words. She would say that busy weapons are the devil's workshop. Idle weapons make happy people. And this was all a transform on "idle hands...etc.". At the time, we used to look at each other in amazement, not sure whether to laugh or go blind. So we smiled. And this was our way of being mysterious right back at Sister "Smile".

Now getting right into Weaponry, the great minds in Washington are giving $20 billion worth to various countries around the Persian Gulf- to guard against Iran-and $30 billion to Israel to guard against the guys they've just given the $20 billion weaponry to. All clear? The best and brightest have philosophical reasons why no money can be spent here on families and health care and what have you. However, they can spend $ 20 billion dollars to provide weapons to Middle Eastern states. Why? To defend against the super power Iran. Yes, Iran has become so powerful that it is even more powerful than the old USSR ever dreamed of being. So more weapons for the Middle East. And the supporters of the Israel War Faction will see to it that they receive more than enough to counter balance.

Nice game of chess. Thank goodness we have such brilliant minds on our side. In case you haven't noticed so far, we are now spending $20 billion on this deal which will supply arms to Sunni Islam governments. The purpose is to defend them against the Shi'a Islam Iran. I do not think it takes the intellect of a governor of Texas to see the obvious: that we wish Islam to engage in a fratricidal war within its own home.
It is Iraq written large. And we do not bat an eyelash. It does not even matter that it is apparent to the government of Iraq, a Shi'a majority government. It is apparent that we do not trust Shi'a. It is apparent we wish a civil war to continue, but even on a larger scale, a region wide Sunni vs. Shi'a blood bath. If the government of Iraq feels that no matter what happens now in Iraq, the US will fund civil war through out the world of Islam, why not just call out all the Shi'a militia right now?! (To me, it seems as if Moqtada As-Sadr is the one intelligent person now in this whole mess. )

Furthermore, what is the record of dependability of these weapons? You can look into how often things go wrong. The chances of large scale mistakes eventuating in catasrophes are escalating exponentially. These weapons are not 100% sure. There is still a fog of war, even in a period of no war. There is a large literature on glitches in these highly technical systems. It is getting easier and easier to destroy people, if not the entire world. This is a government for the history books!

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Fast Day 8 07/27/2007

From my other hang-out: http://peace-weaving.blogspot.com/2007/07/fast-day-8-july-27-2007.html Poem for Fast Day 8 When the City came to destroy the vegetation along Adams Road. every growing stick has a face wild flowers grow…like wild, you know. diverse populations… they piss people off. some people. the legs of my pants smell like mallow and stem juice white. men come to spread death’s carpet. wet lands with cats tails eight feet tall… looking down on our heads… they beat them down. broken. my shoes are muddy and smell like poison and raccoon breath at 3 a.m. If I care, I feel so sad; so why care? why should I care…or connect. a gas powered weed whacker comes, mighty roar of fossil fuel. my shirt fruity with sweat and hot memories of Adonis. who cries for Adonis? am I his keeper? there are weed control laws. you are a weed, too, if you piss us off! you forget your clothes… you walk nakedly trees… the forest remembers you!

End Of Times

Contrary to what the Right Reverend John Hagee thinks, I do not believe End of Time to be anywhere in the immediate neighborhood. I do not definitely say it isn't, either. If you think I am waffling about it, I would point out that this is the type of thing Blaise Pascal would have said 300 years ago....and it turned out to be correct. I do not wallow in myths of destruction, for God is not the product of Fear, just as God is not the product of Love. (1)As we stand and watch a beautiful sunset and say such beauty proves that God exists, I say humbug. No such thing. (2)As we watch horrors, some people say such things prove God does not exist. I say nonsense again. (3)As we anticipate horrors and fearful times, some say that such fears prove that God exists; i.e., He will fulfill an interpretation of scripture. Nonsense again. This is what I mean by the sub-title of this Blog: If you go embrace Fear and Loathing, you will wake up with the biggest hang-over ever seen. If, that is, if you ever do wake up. Fear leads to Flight, not Coming-together. Fear is a Going-apart. The only reason mad men worship their Berserker Jehovah in Apocalyptic Jerusalem is because they have run away to the ends of the Earth and discovered that the love of their imaginary god is no different from the hate of their devil. So they come back to worship in their despair, despairing of the love of God. All this happens soon, for the world of small minds is Now and the important figures are They Themselves. They have not the wit to be humble, even though their God tells them to be. Their God has told them they will not know the time of His coming, and like Dr. Faust they nod in agreement then go to their laboratory of arcane knowledge and prove God wrong again - for such men as we, we know the mind of God. It's a hard rain that will fall, but it won't be on an all Christian Jerusalem.

Are There Any Vegans Here?

Of course, I answered yes and embarrassed myself. I thought they meant "Vegan" as in "from the system of planets around Vega", Vega being a star in the constellation of Lyra and many parasangs from here. The very odd interplay went something like this: "Are there any Vegans here?" Raising my arm and waving it, "Here..." "Ah. You will want the Vegan menu..." Perplexed now, I wondered, "Will they actually be serving Dulcet Ambrosnag on Schlumpf?" There's more of this, but I shall spare you. It turned out that Vegan means being picky about your food, not having any reference at all to the star Vega, all of which makes me wonder what shall we do when relations between Earth ( system of Sol) and good old Vega are finally established? What shall we call Vegans, since the name "Vegan" has already been co-opted for culinary purposes? Perhaps we shall call them Strict Vegetarians from the system Vegetaria...it makes as much sense as anything else we do around here. WHICH brings me to the point. I have been reading about NASA, specifically about the outside taskforce looking into astronaut mental health. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6920282.stm "Investigations into both of Nasa's fatal shuttle accidents determined that workers were often discouraged, even ostracised, for raising safety concerns or voicing objections. That led managers to ignore evidence of fuel leaks on the shuttle booster rockets before Challenger was lost in 1986, and to gloss over warnings that a debris impact suspected during shuttle Columbia's climb to orbit in 2003 could have critically damaged the ship's heat shield. " "...two cases where panel members were told of astronauts boarding spaceships and training jets for flight, despite concerns by doctors and other crewmembers that he or she was drunk. "Instances were described where major crew medical or behaviour problems were identified to astronaut leadership, and the medical advice was disregarded," read the report, which was released on Friday. "The individuals were still permitted to fly... "This disregard was described as 'demoralising' to the point where they said they are less likely to report concerns of performance decrement." " "Addressing the alleged problem of widespread alcohol abuse among astronauts would take more time, said deputy administrator Shana Dale. " It all sounds rather like the Space program was based in some Siberian city where people had nothing better to do for six months of the year than drink vodka and drive to Irkutsk wearing diapers. We still have the ability to change. I think that is the hallmark of a good people. Our pretensions that we are better than other people is manifestly nonsense. We may be the most powerful country in the history of the world, but we stumble around like a drunken behemoth, upchucking our indigestion upon the rest of the world. BUT, we still have the wisdom to see our mistakes and we have the resolve to rectify them. I think that's the best anyone can do.

The Al Qaida Of Democracy

My Title service ( "Purveyors of fine titles to the Queen since 1964") of D.J.Ramesbotham and Sons seems to have taken leave of their senses, supplying me incredulously with the incredible example of their wares above. What, one might ask, can one make of Al Qaida and Democracy? No faint heart I- for faint heart ne'er won fair maiden-I shall pick up the gauntlet thrown down by "Digger" Ramesbotham and supply a posting worthy of being read by fine people everywhere, as well as the Queen, were she to take a notion to do so. Ahem. First, we must take note that the word Qaida is actually Qai'ida, the ' being used to indicate the Arabic letter " 'ain ". Since the 'ain is a consonant, there are actually 3 syllables in the word, not just 2. If I had to give an example of the sound of this letter, I would suggest you think of the sound of "r" in the word "bower": it occurs way back in the throat and the throat does not close entirely. It is somewhat like the "r" in "bower" pronounced while vigorously yawning. The meaning of Qai'ida is "base" in the sense of something upon which something else is established, built, or situated. Thus, it means "foundation" ( for a house), "undercarriage" (for a car or truck), "principle" (of a conceptual system), "groundwork" (for ensuing work), and so on. Second, the growing divide between the rich and the poor in this country leads us to remember that the class conflict in ancient Greece was the impetus that led to ancient Democracy. I can assure you that ancient Democracy was not bestowed upon Athens by the privileged class because they thought it would be a good and just thing to do! We conclude that the Foundation of Ancient Democracy was the divide between the rich and the poor AND the creative way that Athens found to remedy this social schism. And we may put special emphasis upon the second part of the conjunction above: the creative way of remedy.

Jimmy Breslin And Impeachment

Jimmy Breslin wrote a piece on July 22, 2007 on impeachment. It just seems to me we have better things to do than impeach a President who started a war based on a pack of lies and then proceeded to wage it in an outrageously incompetent manner. I mean, we still have the Justice Scalia thing to deal with....( his stupidity, in case you're wondering. It never fails to amaze me that Supreme Court Justices are lionized as geniuses even when they are political hacks or legal scholars with all the acumen of Mr. Thomas Sowell, the columnist.) If you must, then here: http://www.newsday.com/search/ny-nybres225303032jul22,0,1796819.story Impeach George Bush to stop war lies, deaths "...The other day, Bush said he couldn't understand why in the world would some people say that millions of Americans have no health insurance. "Why, all they have to do is go to the emergency room," he said. [He] Said this with the smirk, the insolent smug, contemptuous way he speaks to citizens."

Things Seen Yet Hardly Believed...

I saw a reference to: The National Security and Homeland Security Presidential Directive, signed on May 9, 2007 declares that in the event of a “catastrophic event”, George W. Bush can become what is best described as "a dictator": where the last phrase was transformed into: "...George W. Bush can become a Dick Tater." Dick Tater? Richard Tater? Now what in the name of goodness is that? What am I missing here? Things like that make me feel as if I am not awake and am still within the embrace of Morpheus (Morpheus as an allegory for sleep...not Lawrence Fishburne as Morpheus in "The Matrix" !!)

A View From Afar

I know someone who was at dinner with some people from a foreign land.

During the calamari, the foreign numbers asked my friend whether Americans were aware that the USA's Foreign Policy is controlled by Jewish people. At which time, the male foreign number with the booming bass voice began the litany of shame: Wolfowitz, Feithe, Kristol, and so on. (Libera nos, Domine!)

Well............the question had been heard before.
It is decidedly rare, however, for one to hear the litany of shame publicly recited anywhere.

 Our paths intersected some hours later. We recalled that there is a peace movement in Israel, that a large number of Israelis are opposed to settlements on Palestinian lands, that Norman Finkelstein is as Jewish as Alan Dershowitz...or Meir Kahane was, for that matter. Rabbi Akiva was Jewish as well as Sabbati Zevi Nor do all Americans support Bush.
All Britons did not support Tony Blair, who, by the way, in his new incarnation as Middle East envoy extraordinaire seems as if he should actually be on American Idol doing a nice Brit-bad Brit routine with Simon. There is good and there is bad. Because the Neoconservatives are Jewish scholars who will go down in history as the worst type of charlatans does not reflect upon other Jewish folk.
I hope that the Bush does not reflect on me. When one hears that most foreigners presently dislike Americans, it means they dislike the Bush in us, not us as human beings. There are good Frenchmen and bad, De Gaulle and Petain. There are good Iraqis and bad. A really, really bad guy did not reflect on the "majority of law abiding Eye-raqis!" Besides this, there are neoconservative goyim. They may not be the big thinkers- "It'll cost a billion....tops!" - like Wolfowitz, but they do their nasty part by capering on cable for the energy-saving dim bulbs who make up their audience.

Bad Taste

Even I am capable of horrendous bad taste. Yet, frail human being that I am, I find myself obsessing over the amusing bit of bad taste, surreptitiously giggling. So, keeping in mind the general tenor of this Blog and Whose name is on the marque, so to speak, I submit a picture.

You will just have to think of what has been in the news over the past 4 days and the number five.

I take some solace in the realization that God created man in His image, and thereby I conclude even God must find amusement in allegorical bad taste.

Spring Will Return

The book of short stories by Zakaria Tamir that I am reading is titled Rabee' fi Ramaad, or Spring ( the season of the year) in the ashes. This brings to mind a rebirth from the ashes of destruction, such as a phoenix. It also indicates the possibility that the Spring will come, but it will be in the midst of the ashes of destruction with no relief in sight. I guess the exact meaning is up to each individual. Having noted Dr. C's blog in my previous post and noting that his archives go back to 2004, it made me wonder how many people felt compelled to write because of their disgust at the war in Iraq (more like the war against Iraq).

Dr. C's Blog

Dr. C from Maryland has a good posting named The Rot at the Center for July 22, 2007. http://doctorc.blogspot.com/ An excerpt being a portion of a discussion between Jim Lehrer and David Brooks: "... so they're going to have their civil war, so let's let them have it..." Maybe if we learn to take responsibility for what we do, we will not do such horrors as Iraq in the future. We have never learned to accept responsibility for the atrocities we commit. We only own up to misdemeanors. And don't mention My Lai or Haditha. For every Haditha there are 20 more hidden atrocities. Atrocity is part of the nature of war. Only America of 2002 and 2003 could be so phenomenally stupid as to believe that war was a cakewalk, a picnic, a day at the beach.

Our Lives In The Bush Of Ghosts 1

The Three Neocon Sisters

left to right: William Kristol, Paul Wolfowitz, Douglas Feithe

The President passed power to the Vice President for about 6 minutes over the week-end. Within seconds, the Secret Service found the VP dishevelled and wandering about like Lady MacBeth, muttering about smart bombs he saw before his eyes, and washing blood from his hands, blood which stuck like the dye used at an Iraqi voting precinct.

Greener Grass

The grass is actually greener when one looks at it from an angle, say about 10 meters distant and over the split rail fence separating my yard from my neighbors. This is all to the good. It is also important, not to say synchronistic. For the Decalogue mentioneth not that I might not covet my neighbor's grass, nor the greenness thereof. Thus, we see that the nastiest critics of Islam are those born to the religion. The worst critics of Christianity are those kids who were brought up in it. The crabbiest Buddhists are in Nepal where they went to government schools and had Dharma beaten into them. We who are born into a religion know intimately its dark side. We know where all the religious skeletons are buried. We know where the salami is, where the fan is, and when to have said salami hit said fan. I shall only say that the grass is greener for grass. God cannot be seen through the same eyes that you use to build the world, just as God cannot be praised by the same mouth you use to speak and curse. All life experiences God. This is a real mitzvah!

American Buddhism: Nirvana EZ

"Earlier this year Tricycle, the Buddhist magazine, ran an article portraying Philip Marlowe as a "true American bodhisattva,", a "Zen Peacemaker seeing through the emptiness of surfaces - California, a perfect image for what the Buddhists might call samsara - one who, holding to no creed, ventures out into the dark to banish illusion...(one American Zen student I know wrote his master's thesis on Chandler's vision);"  
The Mystery of Influence
by Pico Iyer
from The Misread City,
Red Hen Press,2003 (Philip Marlowe is the character created by Raymond Chandler in his great stories) 
 

Recently there have been articles about Zen for the rich and how to become a bodhisattva in your spare time. I have seen pictures of Ch'an or Zen for the elite. I have not seen articles on Zen for the poor, but upon reflection, I never see any articles about the poor, excepting those articles which deal with them as being without money, without means, and without medical insurance.

The poor are of no interest other than as emblems of poverty.
The rich, however, are quite another thing.

If the Lord Buddha could have combined his family's wealth with his own path, he would still be boffo in India today. I recall a review of Sam Harris' recent rant againt religion. The review was in KtB ( Killing the Buddha) I think. The reviewer actually said that Mr. Harris said he held no religious opinions, but he did meditate...a la Buddha. And the review went on name dropping one name...Buddha, Buddha, Buddha.

Then the reviewer seemed to fawn over Mr. Harris, if not actually endorsing him. Since people say that Buddhism has no concept of the soul nor of God, it must be a form of Atheism, hence right up old Mr. Harris' decidedly dark alley. Consider these things. I offer no comment.
Dr. D. Suzuki ( The "D" is not for "David"), were he here, would be smacking students upside the head.

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The Wet Spot Machine

I believe this is the industrial artifact used on the TV series CSI : Clapham-Woking to investigate the bed sheets in sleazy motel rooms. I was referred to it by AnnaMR http://futureofmypast.blogspot.com/ and mention her name under duress. It is presently on view at http://smallexperiences.blogspot.com/ posted on July 17, 2007.

My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts

...is the name of a novel by Amos Tutuola. I picked it up one sunny day in Quebec on the shores of Lake Achegan. For philosophical reasons, President Bush (1) started a war based on his illusions, (2) wants to spend all possible money on this war, and (3) wishes to deny benefits to any of the rest of us flunkies. The cost in lives of the Bush Administration will be in the millions. We have a good head start with the 4,000 ( soon ) American military deaths and the 300,000 to 600,000 Iraqi deaths. This is the real Bush of Ghosts.

Thrifty George W. Bush

A posting in Jewschool:
http://jewschool.com/
July 19, 2007 Screw the poor, philosophically speaking by Y-Love · 

Thursday, July 19th, 2007 "The Washington Post yesterday let us know about how Bush really feels about the poor, poor children in particular: screw ‘em and let ‘em die. Quoting “philosophical reasons”, W voiced his opposition to the legislation which would have renewed and expanded the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, put forth by Senate Finance Committee chair Max Baucus. The State Children’s Health Insurance Program currently costs the federal government $5 billion a year (a far cry from the near-half-trillion we’ve spent on the Iraq War, or the $1-2 trillion we will have spent by 2016) and “helps provide health coverage to 6.6 million low-income children whose families do not qualify for Medicaid but cannot afford private insurance on their own.” "...And like blogger Ari Berman writes for The Nation, this is not the only “successful government program” benefiting the poor that Bush opposes: “I believe government cannot provide affordable health care,” Bush said at a recent healthcare roundtable. (Bush also opposed the expansion of Medicare and Medicaid, even “trimming” the programs until 2011, in legislation bundled with an $11.9 billion cut to student loan subsidies.)" "...And if you can’t afford it, then, like Ari Berman said in The Nation, just “drop dead”.

Philosophical reasons? Is this what Elitist Dingoes say when they are about to kill your children? I believe it is. They do not wish to appear to be anti-children, so they say that they are compelled by philosophical reasons. Wish those same type of philosophical reasons had forced them to use better judgement 4 years ago.

Why Not Hold The Presidential Campaign In Vegas?

Well, why not?
The candidates certainly would fit in just fine.
The Press: "Media Matters"; 
by Jamison Foser
http://mediamatters.org/items/200707210002?f=h_top

"Last week, we noted that NBC senior correspondent Jim Miklaszewski took $30,000 from the Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce for a speech in which he reportedly called John Edwards a "loser" for defending his haircut. (Not that it really matters, but Edwards hasn't defended the haircut.)

This is a grossly unethical act on Miklaszewski's part -- taking tens of thousands of dollars from a special interest group for a speech, then attacking a candidate in that speech. Last year, NBC president Rick Kaplan said that company policy prevented anchors from taking speaking fees, and that anyone who violates that policy "would risk being fired." But this is worse than simply taking speaking fees: this is taking a speaking fee from a special interest group that has supported tax cuts for the wealthy -- and attacking a candidate who has proposed eliminating a tax break for the wealthy in order to pay for health care."  

What does one expect from a society like ours, however? Everyone is on the take. Consider the viciousness of the things being said. Why? Because the PAY-OFF is so huge. The present administration has made it very clear that they, the elite, are players at the big crap table and the rest of us run around getting them drinks and food, sometimes giving up our lives so they may continue to play.

And play they will, because the pile of money is so huge. In fact, the pile of money is so huge that they can do nothing but play anymore; they cannot even pretend to see the rest of us and our problems. The attacks made by the Ann Coulters and the Michael Savages are the snarls made by the junk yard dogs fighting over the remnants - the golden detritus and the rich dregs- of a civilization.

Fast Day 7 July 20, 2007

How many poems would there be had I started this fast back when this unending war began? Anyhow, my latest assault upon the coy Muses:
http://peace-weaving.blogspot.com/2007/07/fast-day-7-july-20-2007.html
Fast Day 7 July 20, 2007  
Ferlinghetti's Big Bang  
I didn’t get much sleep last night, thinking about dark matter.
I mean, what if it isn’t there after all?
suppose we have to back to square one and start all over?
sometimes I think that my cosmology should square one back to Apollo and his sister Artemis;
to Zeus and Hera enthroned upon heighty Olympus; where I would wear a long locked wig…
and rest upon my weighty book; a sybilline caricature of rest, captured in a toga net…
Sybil of mantic prose... Sybil of the Day... Peregrinus expectavi pedes meos in cymbalis weary from my writing, hung-over with heavy eyes… wine stains splashed upon my prophecy! Ahhh…what’s the use? let me see…where is that scrap? that thing foreseen? If I could only remember…or find the damned cocktail napkin of the gods where I chained my promethean thought in a wicket of adamantine inks!!

I’ll get a ticket to Cumaea and go by Greyhound bus to the dark matter casino and act like Apuleius’ ass bewitched by powers I cant resist!

I Knew God Was There For Something.

Ship of fools: Johann Hari sets sail with America's swashbuckling neocons http://www.opednews.com/maxwrite/linkframe.php?linkid=38652 "...everyone agrees the Muslims are devouring the French, and everyone agrees it's funny – the usual suspects are quickly rounded up. Jimmy Carter is "almost a traitor". John McCain is "crazy" because of "all that torture". One of the Park Avenue ladies declares that she gets on her knees every day to " thank God for Fox News". "...All the tropes that conservatives usually deny in public – that Iraq is another Vietnam, that Bush is fighting a class war on behalf of the rich – are embraced on this shining ship in the middle of the ocean. Yes, they concede, we are fighting another Vietnam; and this time we won't let the weak-kneed liberals lose it. "It's customary to say we lost the Vietnam war, but who's 'we'?" the writer Dinesh D'Souza asks angrily. "The left won by demanding America's humiliation." On this ship, there are no Viet Cong, no three million dead. There is only liberal treachery. Yes, D'Souza says, in a swift shift to domestic politics, "of course" Republican politics is "about class. " When did Conservatism become synonymous with ignorance, buffoonery, and a general low level of awareness? Remember, Ann Coulter is a "darling" of something. What a dark beast it is that has sat down in our front parlor!! (The beasts are correct about fighting another Vietnam. The poor swine will keep on fighting it over and over and over again. They will be condemned for their ongoing spilling of innocent blood on the garment of Jesus and be condemned to wander the universe forever, forever seeking and, when they think they have found, forever killing...never reaching, never attaining...a Narrenschiff ( ship of fools) sailing on a plaguey miasma.)

Anna And Her Sisters

I received a comment from AnnaMR the other day. It was very nice. I had not heard from anyone in quite a long time, so I had begun to feel as if I were a main character in a Alexandre Dumas story: a man in an iron mask or a count of Monte Cristo or the like.
I frequently hear from my audience of algorithms and bots. The Mechs took a fancy to my fancy some time ago, and they continue to deluge me with letters and texts and e-mails and other superior flights of fantasy.
Mango V. Baleful Porch, an Amazon Turk - or Turkette, so I am informed- sent me a snifter full of perfume samples from the Scratch N' Sniff company. She bade me have a nice day. So nice. The mechs are very polite in a subdued way.

The humans are a bit different.
Humans act in a very random manner.
For example, a large Christian fellow has set up shop in a disturbing proximity to the front door of the nearby grocery store. He is tall, wears a rather large chain with some sort of device heavily hanging from it ( probably a cross, but I do not dare look too closely). He is collecting money for a local Christian charity, all with the permission of the store owners who seem to mistakenly believe that setting various groups to prey upon its customers to be an enlightened form of capitalism.

His teeth seem to flash large, but they also seem to threateningly fill his mouth, spilling over across his lips. His beard is pronounced; a 5 o'clock shadow...or perhaps a skin condition that prohibits too close a shave. His clothes are subdued...but only just recently tamed and domesticated! They are redolent of the 80's and seem designed for another age...or planet...or, more to the point, species.

All in all, he has the appearance of a muscular mantis looking for a shady nook to hide in. In fact, his roost where his table and literature are situated is below a large overhang, and when he comes forth, he does jut threateningly into the sunlight, flashing that tooth-filled mouth, enticing us back to his cool parlor of Christendom. I have never passed close enough to determine whether he wears some sort of scent or not, but given his general demeanor, it's a sure bet that he does. The whole idea of a mixture of sweat, scent, and sanctimony is too much to bear.

It would be the general effect of being in the caves in the Malabar Hills in A Passage To India. When you pass by him, he bellows "Praise the Lord! Have a good day!" Boom-boom-boooom!!

"Praiiise thu Loooord!" A thunderous Jehovah bidding me to have a good day and daring me to find fault with it. I do not know whether he smiles when he does this. I affect to be deep in thought and pretend that this benediction from the blue has called me back to reality. I do not look. Someone once told me not to look the devil in the eye.
Now, I know this is a bit much: he's just a good old Christian trying to do some Christian charity and I should not act like this. But...he is wearing a golden chain! A thick golden chain. For all the world, a golden chain that is the last remnant of the adamantine chains that held him in the pit with all the other pals of Lucifer! I do not think that it is a cross that hangs from it. I distinctly glimpsed a jagged edge, a pagan continent, a diseased moon......

You think me to be mad! Ha! If I were to upset his table, the same table with the sign stating his purpose embellished with runes and mantic symbols about which he paces like a caged dog, overheated, perspiring from his tongue...if I were to knock that table over, I bet you'd see another side of him!

The foregoing was all an aside to the main topic of this posting: Anna and her sisters. I do not know whether Anna has any sisters. When I write or say "Anna" my mind pulls up "Anna", "Ann", "Anne", "Hannah", and even "Hanaan". For some unknown reason, "Hannah" lends it self to further text-ploitation shall we say, and I cannot write "Anna" alone, but must write "Anna and her sisters"...and this is because of Woody Allen's "Hannah and Her Sisters." That's all. The longer sentence just sounds better. It goes ' - ' - ' - or ' - - - ' - ( using ' for accented and - for unaccented syllables). In short, Anna and her sisters are Pure Poetry.

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Meet The New Czar...Same As The Old Czar.

Oft have I complained of "czars": energy czars, education czars, drug czars, homeland security czars, etc. There seems to be an infinite number of possible combinations of "czar" and problems of our society. This particular obtuseness seems to go hand in hand with declaring "War" on things usually not encompassed within a war: war on poverty, war on drugs, etc. An article about non-Clausewitzian wars: http://www.opednews.com/articles/1/opedne_robert_r_070715_tell_your_children_2c_.htm One thing to keep in mind: so far, all of the Czars dealing with our problems have acted out the history of Nicholas II .

A Label For Your Thoughts

 

A Label

If you would share your thoughts with me, then I shall apply a label, or stereotype, if you prefer, to you as well as your thoughts.

This label will let us ignore you.

There is infinite detail in the Universe. In fact, if we wished to make it clear what we meant by the universe, we might say it is infinite detail. Herein, "infinite" means without logical limit.
There is a practical limit: we can only handle so much information. We can only do so much. So we cut it short, apply a label, and end that particular segment of processing.
If we wished to make it clear what we mean by the Divine, we might say it is that which has the potential to process infinite detail...or infinite steps... We may play with the old paradox and ask: Does God have the ability to create a program which cannot be finished in eternity? Now, although God may possibly process a program with no limit, other than the time available in the universe, God is really not under any compulsion to do so.

We feel the obsession to compel God with our nonsense of "God knows all things." So we force God to keep running infinite programs that are random, so He might see how it all works out. We live in a mysterious Universe which will never be understood. There will never be a Grand Unified Theory of Everything in Science. This would be tantamount to slapping a label on all creation.

Absolute Certainty is nothing more than a habit of people with tidy and circumspect thoughts. You will never find your scientific theory of everything. You will never find your Moral Absolute. Not having a theory of everything does not entail that nothing is. Not having an absolute moral standard does not entail that morality is not...it only implies that your method of judging morality, i.e., using a "standard" to measure, is a faulty concept.

If and as you measure...so will it be measured to you. Therefore, do not measure.
Do not label.
Treat everything and everyone as a new mystery, for such they actually are.
Love God and your neighbor... if you dare!
Once that horse gets out of the barn, there's no telling what might happen.

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The Fast: 6th Week

http://peace-weaving.blogspot.com/2007/07/fast-day-6-july-13-2007.html Poiesis for the 6th week of the Fast Holy Poverty The bull who weeps the stars, says Antoine Oleyant, he has a rope of Kongo beads and chromo-lights. The triple horned bull resembles Guernica; the three-fold horns a triptych halo of Bon Jesús. So we go where the young men are, and desmoiselles: the House of Elegance, a great White Way of life! We only rent this dump; we have no medical: Our lives - installment payments, interest adds up. Our assets we cannot allocate; we have none. We are the poor and bear the vision of grandes personnes who look upon us down from haughty skyscrapers from black eye slits of windows, blind to all below. We see the good we cannot buy with credit cards; we see the loves we cannot touch, nor ever hold. So we go voguing: college students, Wall Street types- the kings and queens of dreams – and “Metropolitan”. A subway series madness; a subway flight from pain! No ticket, nor a respite, pity, nor reprieve. O Simbi of the horn, O Simbi of the sea; and like a bull of many horns he spins the night away, a pinwheel parlous turning. The bull who wears the starry sky is named Bosou, he has a rope of Kongo beads and chromo-lights.

Climate Change And Live Earth

Live Earth ended a couple of days ago. The perceptive right wing wits sniped at it and Al Gore. Well done, right wing wits! Meanwhile, the western USA is melting and burning. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6286484.stm Buenos Aires sees rare snowfall Argentina's capital, Buenos Aires, has seen snow for the first time in 89 years, as a cold snap continues to grip several South American nations. "Temperatures plunged to -22C (-8F) in parts of Argentina's province of Rio Negro, while snow fell on Buenos Aires for several hours on Monday. " And http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6287436.stm Canada 'to reclaim Arctic waters Canada has announced plans for six naval patrol vessels and a deep-water port in the north to assert its claim to territorial waters in the Arctic. "Since the end of the Cold War, Canada's modest military and coast guard have only rarely patrolled its northern coast line. Now Prime Minister Stephen Harper says the time has come to re-assert Canada's claim to the north...And then there is the North-West Passage - the northern shipping route between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans that European explorers sought for centuries. With a warming climate, the route may just become viable and lucrative. " It has been suggested that the Administration's recent court bow of the head in the direction of Global Warming was due to (1) Texas burning in 2006, and (2) Texas flooding in 2007. The boys in the backroom back at Crawford were getting hurt, so we saw a gesture. As far as proof, I have recently read some literature asserting that the case against cigarettes has not decisively been proven. Absolute Certainty is a goal that is rarely, if ever, attained. We shall change the name of Global Warming to something else, the righties will get on board, and we will do something, too late, but better late than never.

I Want Imus: MSNBC And Morning Joe...

...is crap. I drink tea, not coffee...or "joe" as the "wits" at MSNBC would have it. ( Now I understand why Imus used to complain about a number of people at MSNBC.)

In the morning, I drink Assam and Green, maybe a Keemun. Teas such as Earl Grey or Lapsang Soochong, which have distinct flavors of a unsubtle nature, are for mid and late afternoon. Never in the morning.

Joe Scarborough's show "Scarborough Country" is a fine show on MSNBC. However, in the morning, Joe is not my cup of tea. His persona is geared for the evening or night. Many of his guests are matutinal horrors.

Imagine! Laura Ingraham at 7:00 A.M.! It is even worse than it sounds. I want ...

Imus In The Morning!

The Fast And A Change Of Diet

Stop me if you've heard this before. When I told She-who-must-be-obeyed about the Friday fast for peace, she scoffed then - it already being the Friday in question-decided to cook up a mess of bacon and make wonderful BLTs. Not nice. The next Friday it was delicious pasta, even though she has recently decried pasta as being too much with the carbohydrates. Is there a pattern emerging? So now I no longer eat refined sugar and items with corn syrup. And I love sweets. Ten cookies is an appetizer to dessert far as I am concerned. But SWMBO ( She-who-etc.) dislikes sugary sweets. When I'm diving in, she's wrinkling the nose at the old visions of sugar plums. And this has been the case for years and years. When we travel and stop at McDonald's, she may get a quarter pounder and I get a wonderful milk shake. In fact, the sweet comes first. If I am hungry after the shake is fully consumed, I might get a burger. You get the idea. So I tell her Friday no more sugar and high fructose corn syrup. So Sunday she buys ice cream and makes milk shakes at home!!!!!!!!!!!! Of course I had one. There were fresh raspberries in it. But that was my sole refined sugar experience. It's all very odd. (By the way, the sugar thing has nothing to do with fasts or dietary radicalism or green earth or anything at all. It's just time to do it. Like not drinking alcohol, not eating beef...it is time for me. There's no big universal plan to save the world. The only sweets I eat are the normally occurring fructose of fruits. Obviously I will have a milk shake if someone who has decried sugary sweets for years suddenly gets reverse-English religion from me and begins making shakes. I shall at least have the Numero Uno shake that marks the end of one era and the beginning of the next.)

SICKO

A young lady whom I esteem above all others was at a recent outing of the Maryland chapter of The Idle Dandies. The friends of her friend were talking about Michael Moore's latest documentary ( mockumentary?) Sicko. One of these people had recently returned from Europe, and she was praising the European system, or at least the system of the country she had visited, the name of which is not available now. She said that it was great that when a woman has a baby, she has time off, there are nurses who can coach her on breast-feeding, and there are people who come by to do any chores she may require for a certain period of time. Now, my esteemed young lady, being of a Conservative mind, thought it was nonsense that the government provide such services. Family members of the extended family should pull together and assist. When asked my opinion, I had to wonder if the government or the society had actually sat down and tried to analyze the costs. What is the cost of getting off to a good start in child rearing versus a bad start? Since there are instance of post-partem depression, might it not be advisable to have visits by trained people who might be able to spot it? If families are important, perhaps a great deal of money should be allotted to ensure the basis of new families be as safe and healthy and stress-free as possible.

As far as extended family members helping, what if they are useless dolts? ( I know that's hard to imagine.) What are the costs of families gone wrong? What are the costs if new mothers do not have proper information about nutrition? If they do not breast feed, what are the best alternatives? Furthermore, a little start of good diet might be in order...for both baby and mother. Governments can and sometimes do provide good and necessary services. We are only opposed to those services which are unnecessary for the good of the people. I personally am opposed to funding military run by Politicians and Generals that cannot fight. The soldiers fight and fight well. Their bosses are Suits. Desk Jobbers. Organization Men. The Politicians have no Policy and create Phoney War. The Generals have no idea how to win a fight without Massive Weaponry...and that's why Johnny not only cannot read, but Johnny is getting his butt kicked by every kid at school! 1 % of the Military Budget to New Families! We'd have better families. We'd still get our butts kicked!

The Red Mosque

Everyone knows the history of the founding of Pakistan; how Mr. Jinnah and Mr. Gandhi worked to bring about the independence of Pakistan and India. The likes of Mr. Gandhi and Mr. Jinnah have not been seen anywhere in the world for a long time.
At an extended meeting at Hanaan's diner, aka. Jenny's Coffee Clutch ( of all things!), Hank Jacubowski asked why Joey Nasser didn't condemn violence committed by Islamic radicals. There seems to have been a tacit belief that we all supported President - and General - Musharraf in the stand-off at the Mosque in Islamabad. Furthermore, both sides in that stand-off were Muslim, so it wasn't clear if Hank the J just wanted peace in our time or what. Hank seemed to be giving voice to something he had been chewing on for a while. So Joey says that of course he condemns violence, no matter who commits it. What did Hank think?

I mean, do you have to go about all the time condemning violence? So why doesn't Hank come into Hanaan's and wail and moan and pull out his hair, despairing at the latest deaths in Iraq? The ones of us who were out of range nodded sagely. So I added that I have heard Joey condemn violence committed by Muslims just as often as I have heard Hank condemn violence done by non-Muslims.
At this point, Hank became wide-eyed with a "wild surmise" that we were conspiring against him. He quoted the ramblings of a website devoted to the devilish aspects of Jihad, apparently fusing disparate observations and emotions into a white-hot nodule of exasperated terror and near-hate. Then Michael Chang says that Jihad was good when the Afghanis were fighting the Soviets. When we decided we could do it better in Afghanistan, Jihad became a bad thing.

Since I am the advocatus diaboli, I said " Jihad...Soviets...Goood! Jihad...USA...Baaaad!" , pretending to be the Frankenstein monster sitting in the alpine hut with his friend, the blind fiddler, discovering the joys of sliced bread and cigars.
Hank...I call him Hank...went ballistic. At this point Levine reminded us of the dangers of arguing politics, especially when (1) drinking booze, or (2) eating anything prepared by Hanaan. "Calm down, Jake," he said. He calls him Jake...from Jake-ubowski, I guess.
We quieted down somewhat. So Joey says that he just wanted to point out that all the time he hears why don't you Mooozlims condemn the violence. But the Muslim community does condemn the violence! Why don't you ever listen to what we say? I mean, everytime we condemn violence, your media has to choose between covering our statement and taking coverage away from Britney Spears.
So it doesn't get covered.
"...anyhow, I don't hear any Polish Americans condemning the slaughter in Iraq!" This almost set the spark to the tinder once more. Cooler heads prevailed.
Someone yelled "John Paul Two!" and this was enlarged by another "Adam Cardinal Maida!", two prominent sons of Poland, one Polish American, who filled the bill to a T. It turns out that just about everyone condemns violence. It also turns out that just about everyone ignores what the other guy says, unless you want the other guy to agree with what you've already said; then you pay attention: criticize him when he disagrees, praise him when he is enlightened enough to agree.

Someone asked Hanaan what she thought about the stand-off at the Red Mosque. She brought her cleaver down with audible force upon the heads of the onions she was cutting. Bang! Then someone asked about Iraq! Bang! Bang!......Bang! Bang! Then someone said "Osama bin Laden?" Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!......Bangity (!?)-bang-bang! There. Plenty of disapproval. You just have to keep your ears open...and try to understand the lingo.

The NAACP And The "N" Word

I believe it has been reported that the NAACP at their annual convention in Detroit is going to, or has already, bury the "N" word. Kill it. Bury it. A job well done. However, I do have a question. How is one supposed to talk about Flavor Flav's TV show? How does one describe Whitney Houston's and Bobby Brown's TV show? These are the only two that actually come to mind, but they are important examples of the modern age.

Blog Of Note

This Blog has not been chosen as a Blog of Note.
Well done. It is the 80th week in a row, and I am well disposed to all the events surrounding the honor; the hub-bub, the interviews, the dates with Paris and her sister.

I used to read a Blog of a fellow philosopher, one whose view of the world was extremely prosaic. He was world-weary and he mistook this accidie for knowledge gained by experience: a sort of graduate school of hard knocks, as it were. He has a bloody counter on his Blog. He had his eye on it. I know he did. He mentioned it. One day in a mood of pseudo-humility he said that the counter would soon be at 100,000...0r 500,000....or 1,000,000.

1,000,000 HITS, that is.

Hits? O.K. That is rather impressive, considering the humdrum contents. Hmmm...

I would not dare have a counter. If no one "hit", then I would be sad. On the other hand, if many people "hit", then I would be insufferable.

And...oh,well...keep blogging guys !

My counter is my left hand; there is my daughter...and Anna... and her sisters.

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Sun Tzu: The Art Of War 1

The Art of War by Sun Tzu was very popular at one time. Sun Tzu, or Sun Wu, composed the book sometime between 500 B.C. and 221 B.C. There is scholarly disagreement as to the exact date. The dates above pretty much correspond to the "Warring States" period, and that is enough of the book's provenance.  

Chapter 2 Waging War Sun Tzu said: ... (4) When the army engages in protracted campaigns, the resources of the state will not suffice.
Chang Yu [comments:] ...the campaigns of the emperor Wu of the Han dragged on with no result, and after the treasury was emptied, he issued a mournful edict.
(5) When weapons are dulled and ardor damped, your strength exhausted and treasure spent, neighboring rulers will take advantage of your distress to act. And even though you have wise counsellors, none will be able to lay good plans for the future.
(6) Thus, while we have heard of blundering swiftness in war, we have not yet seen a clever operation that was prolonged.
 

(7) For there has never been a protracted war from which a country has benefited.  
Li Ch'uan [comments:] The Spring and Autumn Annals say: 'War is like unto fire; those who will not put aside weapons are themselves consumed by them.'  
source: Sun Tzu: The Art of War, Samuel B. Griffith, Oxford University Press, 1963

 

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eXile envy

The Moscow based alt. newspaper " eXile" has written an editorial summing up what all of us feel about the Russian government's trashy way of dealing with international companies. http://www.exile.ru/2007-June-29/editorial.html Where Were You When TNK-BP Sold Kovytka At A Discount? "...Yet even considering Russia's rich catalogue of tragedies, no one could have prepared themselves for the events of last week. In what is now being called "6-22," the oil joint venture TNK-BP was forced to sell its stake in the lucrative Kovytka natural gas deposits for under $1 billion dollars, far below market price..."

My "Culpa" Runneth Over

I heard from AnnaMR. ( http://futureofmypast.blogspot.com/ ) Awfully nice. AnnaMR does not believe my whining plaints about my dearth of friends. Good. I remind myself of that "Everybody Loves Raymond" episode where Debra is imitating Raymond : "Wah, wah, wah. Whine, whine, whine!" Thus does life imitate ART.

Anyhow, AnnaMR seems to have a photographic inclination and has a blog filled with sweet pictures as well as good words. In going over my recent stuff, I see that I have been (1) redundant, and (2) boring, and (3) tedious. I seem to have been obsessed by something. Perhaps aliens have returned me finally to the land of my birth and I am acting as if I were a member of the "4400" Club (- or do I have the tv show 4400 mixed up witht the 400 Club?-and does it really matter?)

So now I'm back and I'm not (1) a firestarter, nor (2) a telepath, nor (3) ibhabhalazi ( "hung over" in isiZulu). I will go through it and cull some of the literary tares. I shall also make some friends. This time I shall not treat them as if they were door-stoppers. I think that is a wise course. Nor shall I be as abrupt as an overly taut screen door, such as that on my parents' back porch that slaps you silly when you try to finish stepping through it. That is abrupt.
Speaking of my parents, they seem to have developed a fascination with whirly-gigs. These are multi-colored wheels of fabric that turn and turn...and turn and turn and turn...in the wind. You may sit for a rest in an otherwise charming and bucolic spot and be driven batty by the frantic crescendo of a forest of whirly-gigs!

Of course, my mother, having stock in OCD or Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, buys any that she happens across, and this results in having some that are not of the best manufacture. The last time I was sitting with her looking at the river, it was a calm day; all was right with the world: the cat was esconced on the window ledge, sleeping,and the whirly-gig was sitting in my peripheral vision. It had the distinct appearance of having seen better days, however. It had shed some of its spinners, or wings, or leaves, or whatever...the fabric that caught the wind. So...she was talking to it; muttering things like one should spin a bit more cleanly for 8 dollars ( the purchase price...8 dollars!! No wonder China is booming!!) and things like a day's work for a day's pay, and even if it were windy, it would probably be taking the day off. I expostulated, "You talk to your whirly-gigs !!??" "Shhh!", my mother said. "There's no wind today. When it's windy...", she looked at the flaccid, crestfallen whirly,"...it's turning so fast, I can barely get a word in edgewise!"

The Quick And The Fast: Week 5

Puns abound and food is scarce; that sums it up.

From http://peace-weaving.blogspot.com/ the poem for week 5: I read a poem about Guantanamo yesterday. I did not take a fancy to it, so I wrote my own:  
Father Ghraib and Mother Gitmo

Behind the garage there is a garden,
in the wastelands. The builders
stole the soil; they sold it
to pay the landscapers crew!

Water channels dug into sand and stone,
through broken concrete and asphalt,
recycled crap from everywhere.
Experiment to see what will grow…

builders just throw trees into holes,
toss flowers into trenches…
no mindfulness, no husbandry
no botany, no lasting beauty…

trees…symbols on an architect’s sketch:
seen from above
pointillistic circles with bent branches
twisting around a circle
like swastikas deformed.

But something grows in this waste land!
A tree surrogate with leaves like elephant ears
of a wide florescent green on a stem
thinly veined in burgundy kermes;

a desert spike with compounded eyes
of saffron lids bepetalled;
walking sticks with purple crowns,
mille foil clouds, creeping parasols,
great pendant hearts, explosions of the briar,

Hemlocks where we hang our hearts;
covert agents of desire,
spies of reproduction,
texting with chromo-semaphores.

The fairies pippin, Mab’s nonpareil,
spanish pearmain, grizzly muscadine,
early Margaret and scarlet crofton;
all fruits of rich imagination!

In the midst of this, on the verge
of a small isle in the streams,
stands a vulgar hyssop unseen
among the vibrant pageantry.

United around its upper course
juvenile aphids clutch and huddle
in prison suits of blood-orange:
silently there and nowhere else…
and wait for the time of their fulfillment.

A denumerable crowd sits as if
in dreaming prayer, bidden to the masjid
of stinging nettle and menthol,
alone and stripped of their imam
whose sermon they cannot ken.

I watch in fatal fascination
this epithalamion symbiotic,
not knowing if we rise
as ladybirds to dry our wings…
or swarm to our demise.

Mad Dogs And Bloggers

I have received some very good comments. I have written some very obscure ones. I have read some atrocious ones in other Blogs. Do some people believe that an advanced state of inebriation is necessary for commentary? (Not my comment-writing public...they are all rather on the side of the angels.) I just love how they let it all hang out, as it were, with all their wrinkles and warts and vitiligo showing...secret things the varicolor of a chow dog's tongue......and so on. Of course, the Bloggers themselves are no slouches when it comes to rattling the chains of madness. I can just see them all, sitting at a festive party round table for tea, all sitting at their keyboards, briskly typing away, top hats on their noggins like mad hatters, watches in their hands like white rabbits, or unkempt whiskers drooping on their waistcoats like march hares...all blogging, blogging, blogging in the mid-day sun.

Peace Fasting 4th Week

There was an altercation at the Greybeards' Round Table last Friday. I was drinking tea and not eating because of the fast. Jakubowski said "So, you think you're better that everyone else?" So I said "Sure." Then he proceeded to tell me how many times he had been arrested in anti-Vietnam demonstrations. I do not think there had ever been as many as he recounted. He sort of out-Berriganed Berrigan, if you catch my drift. I was talking with my daughter and she said she had been at a party at the Bay. ( I asked whether games of chance had been played, hoping for a quick uptake on "Beach Blanket Bingo" . She did not "get it", so I had to explain. She did say that's why no one wants to talk with me, however, parroting her mother.) She said there had been many people who were talking about how many times they had been arrested for protesting the war, and that I would have liked it. So I asked which war? Spanish-American? No. It was the Iraq War. (Not properly a war. I call it Bush's Iraqi Attackee. So much for respecting the President.) It does seem that the Beltway Buffoons seem intent on a war every 25 or so...about a generation to illustrate how inept they are and giving the rest of us a good lesson in Morality and Civics. Hoooooray! anyhow....the poem - if you dare call it that - for the 4th week: http://peace-weaving.blogspot.com/2007/07/june-29-2007-4th-fast.html My creation this week is a mosh-mish, but it is the best I could think of.I call it "What Would the Anti-Christ Do?" ... or "W W A-C D?" Note: "Dajjal" is the Islamic name for the anti-christ, meaning "deceiver". W W A-C D? dajjal sits in falluja town drinking the wine-red blood, feeling down and desperate, betrayed, misunderstood. He’d won the Uruk lottery, a date with the queen of death. dolled up like a wedding bride within a veil of Meth. She bared her ugly fangs… he would not fall for that. he ran to dusty red Samarra where she then left him flat. And now he yearns for lovely death, no voice to fill his ear, no taut skinned bulemic body to orgone this time of year. Oh, allegory of appliance! bacteria of the mind! an iPhone for your thoughts, my dear! and what we’ve left behind! (thanx to Sir Padraic Spens!)

Vampire Economics 101

As the richer get inestimably richer and the poor are on a exponentially declining trip to hell, we are reminded of the elder Bush's phrase of "Voodoo Economics". A more appropriate description is the above: Vampire Economics. In this course, we shall investigate how the life blood is drained from the "things" which make up the mass of the population under the control of the "people who really matter", or PWRMs as we shall refer to them henceforth. (How can you tell who really matters? Well, for one, jail is more like an option rather than an inescapable necessity.) The question of Immigration is intimately linked to Vampire Economics. The PWRMs require an underclass laboring mightily to support them. It is not a bed of roses to be 5% of the population and have to absorb 95% of the wealth! The old underclass had been drained, as it were, and "new blood" is required. This process had originally been vetted on the East Coast in the latter part of the 20th century under the guise of nannies and maids from Gautemala, most of whom were here illegally. It was a smash hit. Another aspect of Vampire Economics will be to show that, wonderful as war is for industries creating armaments and the accoutrements of war, the real wealth comes after the war in the re-building phase. For example, it was the reconstruction of Europe after WW II that inspired the US economy, not the war itself - although the war itself was no slouch. But the long term, ongoing inspiration was due to the re-building. Hence, there is a need for war that destroy infrastructure of various countries in order to re-build them. After Iraq, I am sure we shall be able to find any number of benighted sovereign states that will fill the bill, preferably ones of an Islamic bent - if you catch my drift.

The Prez Does Support Habeas Corpus!

All this time I have been mistaken. President Bush obviously supports the right of Habeas Corpus. "Habeas Corpus" literally means "you may have the body", meaning the accused may not be kept in prison incommunicado. The body ( and by implication, the soul) of the accused may be delivered up from durance vile. By rendering Scooter Libby free from all jail time, President Bush has effectively liberated Scoot from being held for any time. Paris Hilton has served more time for having a Mojito. Habeas that corpus.