Four years old

http://www.newyorker.com/talk/content/articles/061030ta_talk_packer

So, the four year-old war is lost. And the words "sectarian violence" -- a poor and overused euphemism for a full-fledged civil war several months old-- can be jettisoned. The rest of the world sees it plainly while we, and our noosed media, are just getting here.

As George Packer says in the latest New Yorker:
"The President’s Iraq war is lost. Plan A—a unified and democratic Iraq that will be a model in the region—is no longer achievable. The civil war for which the Administration will not consider new responses is already at hand. Because no one in power can admit any of this, the United States is in the position of trying to hold still while the ground shifts violently underfoot. The resistance to thinking about Plans B, C, and D means not only that this country remains stuck while Americans and Iraqis die but that its ability to affect events six or twelve months away is rapidly diminishing."

And here, a desperate plea cloaked in detached commentary. It could almost provide a reader hope, if only Packer was running the country.

"Every one of the proposals coming from outside the real Administration starts from the assumption that its policy has failed. Plans B, C, and D are also admissions of defeat. They are an acknowledgment that our highest interests in Iraq no longer involve the welfare of Iraqis. For anyone who had hoped that the overthrow of Saddam Hussein would bring a better life to Iraq’s people, these are hard truths to accept. But they also suggest that between the President’s resolve to persist in folly and the public’s instinct to be rid of Iraq there is a range of choices that could prevent the disaster from inflicting permanent damage on American interests. This kind of clear, rational thought is less heartless—even, in the end, less defeatist—than willful blindness."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/10/AR2006101000859.html?nav=hcmodule

A touching tribute and an infuriating tale. A woman, a journalist who, at the age of 48, was in her prime, is brutally murdered because she wrote about things a whole lot of other people are too scared to write about. And the Russian government is silent, insultingly cursory in response.
I can only hope that the people seize on the clarity of this moment and that it fuels their rage against Putin's Russia, a gangland he operates with near impunity. The country -- a founding member of the United Nations

In the scary place between sleep and wake

It was early this morning when I heard the news on the radio about what I like to call the Nanny-Nanny-Boo-Boo regime of the DPRK announcing the success of their underground nuclear testing.
In my fragile post-REM state, I hallucinated that I was in the nation's capital during a nuclear holocaust. There was lots of white-grey ash and I was alone. I have been jumpy all day.
So I state for the record to future Porcupettes: I know, I know, I soo know, that it was a miscalculation on the part of your Porcupgrandpa to move to this town.
D.C. pride aside, there's the whole nucleus of evil target sign situation to contend with.

Speaking of, was Kim Jong Il ever so eager to dangle-wag his missiles before President Bush's famous axis of evil speech? I am hardly relinquishing the North Korean government of blame, but I just don't recall Korea being much of a situation before then. Then again, I wasn't paying attention.

And in other news, I hope this gets more press. This is tragic and frightening and Vladmir Putin seems like one tidal wave of unaccountability, based on all news reports I've read. And, apparently, all suspicions point in some way back to Moscow, the most likely culprit being the Kremlin backed Chechen government. They were pissed that she was writing stories about mass executions and tortures of Chechen civilians (that's the real torture, not at all like our sanctioned warm and fuzzy kind.). Whomever was behind this contract killing, at least it brings to light what human rights groups have been screaming about for years. The Kremlin is going, or has gone, to the dark side.

Finally, Netflix: An investment to hang your hat on. Excellent movies, documentaries, anime, things I'd never pick up at the video store.
The latest: "The Weather Underground" about America's homegrown terrorists. (Again, keep in mind I scour video stores for romantic comedies, never this shit. This is purely a function of direct mail.)
The Weathermen were educated white kids who had given up on civil disobedience and were impatient to end Vietnam. About 20 or 30 of them decided that all Americans were worthy targets for violence because the populace, in their silence, were culpable in killing and massacres in Southeast Asia -- particularly since they weren't actively and violently resisting the government. The Weathermen were ready to kill lots of innocent people until a bomb accidentally went off in a rowhouse, killing three of their own. This glitch in fate led them to rethink things. They decided not to kill innocent people. Such dumbasses. Apparently they hadn't thought through the emotional ramifications of killing people.
How do you have empathy for people millions of miles away and not for the people whose land you share? How do you have selective humanity? Dickheads.

Anyhow, all in all, I was humbled at how little I knew about the sixties and it begs the question: why is this stuff not taught in school? Or was it just my school?

But one thing: they got me on the culpability thing. I concede that point.

Finally, finally: curse all the sugar traders, profiteers, dealers and deliverers. I am sick of offices with chocolate at the ready. Enough already. That shit is poison.

Good good good night.

"Get Your War On"

This guys was in New York in 2001 and 2002. Now he's got a deal with Rolling stone, his strip is being adapted into a play at Woolly Mammoth and he's trying his stand up. It's funny.

http://www.mnftiu.cc/mnftiu.cc/war.html