Christopher Hitchens: Who Cares

http://www.slate.com/id/2144578/

Aside from his ripe, self-satisfied snideness, this man's words and ideas are done, over, obsolete, flaccid, immature and useless ramblings of an intellectual with the heart and soul of a disaffected 12 year old.
He carries some kind of name recognition, built on some kind of legacy that I'm sure is some kind of legitimate. But he needn't be published anymore. Slate shouldn't publish him, because his drunken tirades contribute nothing meaningful to the public discussion, nothing in the way of original ideas or convincing argument. He's a waste of time. All he does is continue the ugly volley of partisan, inside, name-dropping, self-inclusive innuendo, and sure, he does it with gusto, with some fancy turns of phrase, turns that most certainly elicit a snicker or two, because he's THAT GUY, that everyone loves to snicker at, but all in all, you read his stuff and you realize that if you ran into him at a bar, you'd run the fuck away or die of instant melancholy.
Like so many of his copycats, he poisons any real dialogue with all this writerly self importance that is rife with insult, sarcasm, written with not a hint of humility, and certainly not a hint of respect for his readers, and no apparent desire to do his fucking job.
We are in a war. We are making war. And while his partisan haranguing and acerbic shit-flinging is oh-so-clever, it doesn't help me figure out how we can make our situation better. It just depresses me. What a waste of intellect. Land mines? (you want us to say they are bad? ok. thanks for the tip, DICK.) Human shields? Sanctions? What the hell are you talking about? You are bringing up these individual issues to mock and ridicule anti war activists at a time when there's already an Atom Bomb of an issue at hand: That this war is one that much of the world believes WE'VE LOST ALREADY. Things are out of control, people say. Of course, few in the United States appear to believe this, but that's the point: they/we don't know what to think, they are scared and want their government's protection and they don't want anymore troops, civilians, Iraqis or Americans to die anymore. We are divided, and we are lost and we don't want to read about it anymore because we don't know what's true and what's not and we don't know who to trust. We feel helpless. What are you doing to make this situation better? To enlighten, to clarify, to illuminate, to provide context, to INFORM? What are you doing, Christopher? Are you doing your job?
People are dying and you, you journalist, commentator, intellectual prick, one-time hero to many, you're advising "rightous anti-war types" to pick up the slack so as not to be hypocrites, to stay true to their misguided, progressive convictions? Why spend your time on this, when you know it's mockery? Is this really how you want to live out your days? Do you even care about what's happening?
Perhaps you once did. Now, though, it appears your chief concern is to happily shit on your intellectual inferiors (i.e. everyone). Perhaps you once used your powers as a force against fascism, but now it appears to have been channeled into a galactically out of control egomania aimed at anyone who disagrees with you. Your work now only tangentially addresses what we should really be concerned with: getting out of Iraq, addressing terrorism in all its many-fold manifestations and, in your case, maybe, just maybe, illumination of important ideas with that clever brain of yours.
Either write something that helps me -- you know, me, who is perhaps a bit skeptical about our foreign policy and therefore your terribly unworthy reader-- or shut your useless mouth.

Pancakes for Dinner and Other Shocking Revelations

Porcupine's Big Central American Tour: Numero Uno.

Xela, June 14-- Pancakes for dinner: An earth-is-round, metal-birds-can-hurtle-through-space, debilitatingly wonderful and obvious phenomenon. Why had I never heard of such a thing? What other wonderful secrets has the world yet to show me?
Just asked the Internet cafe guy, in Spanish, what the cafe's schedule was. Either my Spanish is off, or I am brutally hot or possibly-- likely-- both: "The cafe's schedule," he said with a significant pause, "Or my schedule?" I am, clearly, a love magnet.
As part of organized activity, went salsa dancing with my classmate, a 21-year-old male, 6-foot-5, cheerleader junior at Penn State who resembles the blond-haired guy from Blue Lagoon. We play ping-pong during school breaks. Super nice guy. Unfortunately, feel only maternally for the little tyke.

Anyway, our salsa teacher had massive cleavage, which I found intimidating during our lessons. The cheerleader found it distracting for different reasons. But she was a very nice lady. I am a natural salsa dancer and feel a bit like I am amazing, wonderful and enchanting at everything I do.

Lots of firecrackers going off in celebration of a Catholic holiday. Scaring the pants off of me regularly. Clouds over mountains make my eyes water, they are so pretty. Vertically sloped farms do the same.
But the highlight so far is that I have an awesome, patient and wonderful Spanish teacher named Yessica, who rivals my previous awesome teacher, Carla. In between lessons we have long conversations about our lives all in Spanish. She works three jobs, makes 80 American dollars a week, and lives in a small town outside of Xela. She is absolutely amazing. She told me I was her favorite student. Of course, I prompted the compliment by asking, "Am I your favorite student, ever, Yessica?" She said yes, then went on to list all the reasons why. But she didn´t have to go into such detail, so there, my worth is proved.

Anyway, our conversations are how I'm learning the most, I suspect. Not just about the language but about other stuff, like pancake dinners. It's a big world.

Much love to you all,

Porcupine

Some Good News

I'd like to report that due to Porcupinery's persuasive arguments for self education regarding the Iran/U.S. nuclear proliferation issue, world leaders at large, recognizing our powerful online community's grasp of all the relevant issues (in manner of fake it til you make it), and recognizing that they couldn't slither toward Armageddon on our watch, have managed to forge a preliminary agreement in a somewhat positive direction, although I still don't get why the United States is the arbiter of all things powerful.
The point, my friends, is that we have cornered them into diplomacy. Give yourselves a pat on the back.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/06/AR2006060600685.html

Proposal Would Let Iran Enrich Uranium
Tehran Must Meet U.N. Guidelines
By Karl Vick and Dafna LinzerWashington Post Foreign ServiceWednesday, June 7, 2006; Page A01
TEHRAN, June 6 -- The diplomatic package backed by Washington and formally presented to Iran on Tuesday leaves open the possibility that Tehran will be able to enrich uranium on its own soil, U.S. and European officials said.
That concession, along with a promise of U.S. assistance for an Iranian civilian nuclear energy program, is conditioned on Tehran suspending its current nuclear work until the U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency determines with confidence that the program is peaceful. U.S. officials said Iran would also need to satisfy the U.N. Security Council that it is not seeking a nuclear weapon, a benchmark that White House officials believe could take years, if not decades, to achieve.

OonieRay's Big Central American Tour

Isn't it a purty country?

From the German newsmagazine "Der Spiegel"

This article is crazy fascinating. Read on.

And a side note: I'm thinking, and this is just a wild stab at logic, that since this man and this country are currently the object of our government's most belligerent rhetoric, we oughtta read every goddamn thing we can to inform ourselves, arm ourselves, anti-Judith Millercize ourselves, Knight Riddify ourselves in preparation for where the wind is blowing, where the tide is, uh, tiding. No excuses. None of this "well, I'm just not veery political perrrson" bullshit.
Now, this interview talks some about Holocaust denial, but is much much more than that. It reveals the president of Iran's way of thinking and is possibly a window into an entire school of thought, I don't know. But I do know that this interview oughtta be the very tip of the iceberg.

Other side note: I LOVE the way European media engages its interviewees rather than stenographizes.

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2006/05/30/ahmadinejad_interview/

"We don't want to confirm or deny the Holocaust"
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad talks about Israel, his letter to Bush and Iran's nuclear ambitions.
Editor's note: Following is an interview with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad conducted by German newsmagazine Der Spiegel in Tehran, Iran.
By Stefan Aust, Gerhard Spörl and Dieter Bednarz

May 30, 2006 Spiegel: Mr. President, you are a soccer fan and you like to play soccer. Will you be sitting in the stadium in Nuremberg on June 11, when the Iranian national team plays against Mexico in Germany?
Ahmadinejad: It depends. Naturally, I'll be watching the game in any case. I don't know yet whether I'll be at home in front of the television set or somewhere else. My decision depends upon a number of things.
Spiegel: For example?
Ahmadinejad: How much time I have, how the state of various relationships are going, whether I feel like it and a number of other things.
Spiegel: There was great indignation in Germany when it became known that you might be coming to the soccer world championship. Did that surprise you?

To Continue:
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2006/05/30/ahmadinejad_interview/

One catch, and we all fell

For you non-O's fans out there, know this: October 9, 1996, lives on as the single worst day in my Oriole memory. It's Bruckneresque in its devastation. I've never recovered from the injustice of it. Say what you will, but the seedling of all current Yankees mojo and all current Orioles misfortune lies in the palm of this little motherfucker's hand.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/01/AR2006060101968.html
By Dave Sheinin
"This is a story about fate, a story about a curse -- if you care to believe in such things. It is a story about coming to grips with them, and maybe, just maybe, reversing them. It is a story about a 12-year-old boy in a black T-shirt who is now a polished 22-year-old man with a marketable talent. And it is a story about a beleaguered baseball team that may be preparing to take a wild stab at manipulating fate by confronting it head-on.
Jeffrey Maier, a future Baltimore Oriole? Oh, dear heaven. The blood of Orioles fandom boils at the very thought of the name, let alone the thought of such a traitorous alliance.

My brother comments, adding political context:
"the jeff maier thing confirms how low the orioles have sunk--kinda like the democrats"