MALIKI DEFIES US: In several ways, M has signalled that he will no longer be US poodle--latest sign was his order (tamely complied with) that US tear down checkpoints paralyzing Sadr City (Sadr controls the party offering the main political support for M.) He also denounced US pretence that the Shiite 'death-sqads' were more dangerous than Sunni insurgents ! (who, after all, killed 103GIs in Oct..this means about 800 wounded, 400 seriously.) It's not clear what game US has been playing with this pretence, but you can bet it's a dumb game. MercuryNews

It looks like Maliki knows the US is ready to bugout, and he has decided to save his skin by a divorce from them (the only alternative would be to bug out of the country with them.)
-----------------------------
Lyons has been ill. But I'm getting better; for good or ill, the blogging will resume.

 
I'm back, but with a bad case of flu. I'll be off-dutyfor a few days.
GET ALL OUR FRIENDS OUT TO VOTE !

 
OUT OF TOWN TILL 30 OCT, visiting grandchildren !

 
OVER 100 GIs KILLED IN IRAQ IN OCTOBER! That means about 25 a day wounded, half of them seriously. SeattlePI
I don't know what those nasty insurgents are trying to prove--but they're proving it.

 
GAMBLING WITH ANOTHER'S RESOURCES:
Suppose a person had access to your money. He informs you that he has spent it (unrecoverably, with no authority from you !)on some gamble which [he SAID he thought]a)would benefit you andb) prevent some disaster for the world at large.

Suppressing your rage, you ask what evidence he had at the time of decision for this alleged benefit and prevention?

[Suppose he responded thusly: "My critics can't prove this gamble WON'T pay off--so it's OK."
Absurd: the presumption that he must not steal money from you STANDS UNTIL IT'S DEFEATED BY (at the very least!) showing that very probably his project is necessary and workable to prevent some evil clearly worse than the evil constituted by the stealing ! ]

It turns out he had no real evidence--[tho he said at the time that he did,either lying or grossly self-deceiving]
----------
moreover,common-sense [ plus warnings from qualified experts]should have told him that
(a) the funded move would do considerable net harm to your family;

and (b1) the alleged world disaster did not NEED preventing;

moreover (b2) the world at large would likely be left WORSE OFF for this involuntarily-funded move.
--------------------------
After the fact, it happened that
a) the funded move DID CONSIDERABLE NET HARM TO YOU(just as he should have foreseen);

AND (b) it did in fact leave the world WORSE OFF !(as he should have foreseen).

Now you would be right to vent your rage at this goofy criminal !
=================
NOW: The Bushies, invading, took a gamble with many Iraqi lives, unauthorized by Iraqis !.(Actually they killed these Iraqis nonrecoverably--but the gamble was about the results of this killing.)

[Suppose when asked for evidence that this bloody gamble would 'pay off' in net-human-welfare terms--suppose then the Bushies had responded: "Our critics can't prove it WON'T pay off; so our killing is OK." Absurd; the presumption that you're not supposed to kill innocents STANDS UNTIL IT'S DEFEATED by highly probable evidence that the killilng is necessary and workable to prevent far more evil than the awful evil of mass-killing constitutes ! ]

Bushies said they had evidence for the net benefit (preventing evils) predictably resulting from this killing, both for Iraqis and for world at large.

It turned out they HAD NO such reliable evidence
----either that toppling Saddam would leave Iraqis better off,
OR--that Saddam had WMDs that must be destroyed to save the world.
--------
These facts about evidence missing they should have known.
(They should have known that we had no reliable intelligence about the situation in Iraq.)

They should have known beforehand that the invasion would NOT be greeted as welcome
by the Iraqis.

After all, we had been bombing them for months previously (the 'no-fly-zones, with no enforcible restrictions; Saddam said that these sorties were killing innocent civilians, as were the US-imposed sanctions--and there was little reason the Sunnis wouldn't believe him.)

Also, State dept. experts warned of this, from experience of previous Brit invasion. And the worldly-wise Vatican (with local agents everywhere) had warned Bushies urgently that this invasion would be (net) disastrous.
=============
After the fact, it turned out that the invasion WAS in fact (in the net) 'disastrous'--as State Dept. experts and the worldly-wise Vatican had predicted.

And so on: this unauthorized gamble with Iraqi lives is closely parallel to the imagined gamble with someone's money sketched above.

The Bushies are exposed as goofy (and lying) mass murderers.
------------------
And the huge proportion of American Congressmen and citizens who approved of the invasion at the time--
even then they should have known --I knew then, and said so again & again in writing (e.g., in printed letters to editors)!
--that there was no good evidence to justify such an audacious (outrageous) gamble with Iraqi lives (let alone GI lives).

Yet another example of the arrogance of American ignorance.

 
80 GIs killed so far in Oct; that means SIX HUNDRED FORTY wounded, half of them seriously. SeattlePI

 
A WORKABLE NEW 'HOBBESIST' STRATEGY FOR IRAQ:
Let Iraq split into 3 ministates: Kurdland (needing no intervention--except to guarantee their control of oil-soaked Kirkuk region.) / Sunni-Arab land in middle/ Shialand in South.
('Hobbesist'= based on assumption that bloody,endless anarchy is worse than almost any tyranny.)

Use GIs ONLY to protect more millions moving to be with their own kind in full ethnic cleansing /. Houses can be traded, as they now are to some degree.

Forget chatter about democracy. Dump the parliament, & Maliki.
Set up Baathist strongman in S/A region: the 'Saddam-lite' option; Saddamites without Saddam. Help them eliminate their erstwhile allies, the jihadists. (Perhaps enlist Sunni Syria in this project.)

In the South, possible war between Sadrites & Badrites--both Shia, both aligned with Iran.
Along with Iran, choose the party most likely to win (likely, Sadrites) and help them squash the rival party. (This is special Hobbesist touch.)

SunniArabs have no reason to make peace; they'll get only sand, no oil.Give them a reason: fear.
Kurds already have effective border guards; help surviving Shia regime set up one. Shia &Kurds should be able to defend borders vs. Sunni: together they outnumber Sunni FOUR TO ONE !
If necessary, they could decimate Sunnis.

This may be 'new tactics' Bushies prate about. But this would mean no more growling at Iran, so probably we won't be so lucky.

Half-billion dollar US embassy will squat embarrassingly in Green Zone, embassy to almost-fictional central govt. of confederation. It can be used for other purposes, just like Saddam's obsolete palaces.

Some of the one million middle-class Iranians now fled to neighboring countries might finally come back to their own ministate.

 
IRRELEVANT MACHISMO:
M.Koenig writes [DenverPost]of the new fad of wax-removal of male hair , insisting on '6-pack abs' and huge biceps and even pectoral implants! He also discusses silly fads for women, but I'm concentrating on male follies.(Just as huge breasts became desirable as women quit using breasts for nursing, so huge muscles are no longer in demand functionally, only visually.)
Clint Eastwood is no longer the male icon; instead it's steroid-loaded Arnold Schwarzenegger !

These fads show widespread self-perceptions of weakness among US men. Once women wanted to be admired for their looks, men for their competence and achievement, perhaps as lathe-operators. Now typical men know they don't have competence in the mental lines that count. So they must go also for 'beauty'. (Years ago in Glasgow, rising unemployment was matched by rising body-building.)

Things will get worse; though tough marines are now in demand, war is itself becoming robotized; soon macho men will NOT be valued even as cannon-fodder ! Good for their survival; bad for their vanity--and affronts to their vanity make domestic aggression increase.

Time was, the office-bound clerk could spend every weekend tinkering with his car. Current hittech cars are beyond the understanding of almost all males; in fact there is a shortage of competent car mechanics! If a manufacturer came out with a cheap car as simple as they used to be (with replaceable computer cards controlling necessary safety innovations) and guaranteed no major changes for five years, such cars might sell like hotcakes, providing one nonaggressive expression for masculine self-esteem.

 
40% of 2 MILLION 'cluster' BOMBLETS dropped (incredibly) by Israel haven't yet exploded--but they will..certainly killing innocent people.They were made in US, dropped, from sheer spite at Israel's defeat, after the war was basically over.LATimes
----------------
The filthy swine--on both sides of ocean.

 
"I WON'T CHANGE STRATEGY !" trumpets Bush, while admitting he would vary the tactics in his loony wars.

"I won't change direction, but I will vary the menus and seating arrangements at meals !" trumpeted the captain of the Titanic.

 
IRAQ & VIETNAM: John Keegan, prominent Brit hawk, has made explicit what Bush was hinting at. [LondonTELEGRAPH,20OCT ]
The tale goes thusly: The Tet offensive, a US victory, was twisted by US media into a defeat,and pushed Americans into demanding a bugout--so also the present horrors in Iraq will be used by the perfidious media to trigger a bugout demand again--so that once again we will grab defeat from the jaws of victory.

Of course Keegan says Iraq is NOT Vietnam! If Americans could tolerate ten years of pointless Viet conflict, with a quarter-million wasted US casualties, why can't they tolerate a much smaller rate of wasted casualties now? (He doesn't mention the usual Hawk mantra about highway deaths far outnumbering GI deaths in Iraq ! )

He never mentions 3 relevant points:--
First: In both cases, our people suddenly realized they had been lied to egregiously by the Pentagon. In Vietnam, the 'body-count' led us to believe there were no VC left alive--but suddenly they attacked 40 cities ! Now, we've been lied to constantly: from the WMD lies to the constant alleged turning-points that all turned out to be turning down, not up.That's why even right-wingers here are finally exasperated by this winless war.

--That's the next parallel. Many Americans DON'T really care that much about foreign deaths, or even for US deaths--especially now that the wretched GIs are merely low-class enlistees. BUT,like most spectator-sportsmen, THEY CAN'T STAND NOT WINNING!

--Thirdly, Americans over 50 (especially the media pundits) have not forgotten the lies and the frauds involved in Vietnam. Now they recognize the same Pentagon frauds involved in Iraq, and turn away in disgust.

The parallels Keegan sees are false; the parallels he ignores are valid.
------------
SIGNIFICANCE: The fact that hawks are now looking for excuses for another Pentagon defeat shows at least that they're aware that the Iraq war is LOST. In fact, Pentaon hasn't won a real war in SIXTY YEARS. That's OK, they're not a real war-machine at all--but a financial device for shovelling trillions to war-corporations and their political bedmates.

 
JUST STAND THERE !
During a power outage, in total darkness, a woman I know insisted restlessly on moving around, and fell down a flight of stairs.This illustrates my maxim (paradoxical in action-mad America):
UNLESS YOU HAVE REAL REASON TO THINK YOU KNOW WHAT YOU'RE DOING:

DON'T JUST DO SOMETHING; STAND THERE!

US has basically no functioning intelligence service. We can't recruit enough youths fluent in foreign-languages, knowledgeable about alien cultures, to staff a competent service. Yet our government feels free to meddle blindly in foreign affairs, with predictably disastrous results.

The Vatican, by contrast, is super-knowledgeable about foreign affairs; it has native-speaking agents, understanding intimately the native culture, in every country on earth--namely, its local clergy!

When revered Pope JohnPaul II heard that the Bushies were going to invade Iraq (having already got entangled with the octopus of Afghanistan!) he warned Bush that the invasion would be unjust, illegal, and DISASTROUS !

Even Bushies rejecting thePope's moral authority should have listened to that prediction of 'disastrous', which turned out to be a gross understatement.

But ignorance is the disease that conceals its symptoms. The blinded Pentagon bull-elephant insisted on lunging around self-confidently, and fell over yet ANOTHER cliff !

And this will continue, since the falls are enough to wound, but not to kill him. He'll never learn.

 
BRITS STAND DOWN, SADRITES STEP UP ! Recently Brits withdrew from Southern city of Amara, saying it was so peaceful that Iraqi forces could manage by themselves. But now the Shia Sadrite militia has OPENLY (if temporarily) TAKEN CONTROL OF Amara. In other words, the Brits declared 'victory' and then BUGGED OUT ! GUARDIAN
-------------
INSURGENTS TRYING TO DISCREDIT GOVT. BY ATTACKING IN AREAS SUPPOSED TO BE PACIFIED BY US--the sneaky bastards ! MideastTimes
Right, except drop the word 'trying'. They have completely discredited Malaki's govt--AND ALSO THE US OCCUPIERS. While US is trying to focus on Shiite violence, US casualties spike (more than 3 GIs killed each day in Oct, plus 8 times that many wounded, 12 seriously wounded each DAY !) , and these are admitted to be mainly in SUNNI AREAS !
----------------
What earlier seemed a temporary spike in GIs wounded now seems to be a steady increase.
UnitedPress

-----------------
2 TOP GENERALS COMING FROM IRAQ TO D.C. TO DISCUSS WAR WITH BUSH:
"George, what part of LOST !!! don't you understand?"

 
BAKER REPORT LEAKED: 'CUT, CUT & RUN,RUN !' The Age cited by Google.

What did Bush mean by parallel with Tet Offensive ? The Pentagon myth says that, although WE WON Tet battle, it scared our populace so much that the govt. had to bug out.
In other words, "Ignorant civilians are about to force us to pull out again while we're winning, to grab defeat from the jaws of victory. "

(Actually, the VC Tet attack revealed to AMericans that theyhad been lied to--Pentagon body-count said all guerillas were dead! That made Americans demand a bugout.)

On the other hand, the Baker commission were right-wing experts. So when they say "Cut & Run", it's not a bunch of terrified, ignorant civilians ! But Bushies didn't care, as that report was to be held secret until after election. BUT OF COURSE IT WAS LEAKED !

God bless US blabbermouths.

Too bad Soviets didn't have public opinion to blame when they were driven out of Afghanistan (as we will soon be.)

 
ASTOUNDING PESSIMISM ! The proportion of bigshot CEOs (presumably savvy) who are optimistic about our economy DROPPED IN last 2 YRS FROM 73% to 30% ! [usatoday, 19Oct, 1st page of 'money' section.'

UNHAPPY DATA SIGNAL POSSIBLE FED.RATE-CUT, US HARD LANDING.FinTimes

Another indication: I just surveyed local banks. High CD rates for short-term CDs, lower rates for long-term CDs--or NO LONG-TERM CDs offered !
True for weeks--First time in recent history!

Only one explanation: savvy banks don't want to guarantee a rate for you for 5 years because they expect rates to drop, i.e., they expect deflation within 5 years.

All the more reason to grab best rates you can get for longest term you can get. And put money in CDs not stocks (true they just spiked up; but day-traders ask only what stock will sell for next day, not 4 years from now.)

 
NEW POLLS DEVASTATING FOR GOP, encouraging for all the rest of us. NBC,19Oct.
52% want DEMS to control Congress, vs. 37% GOP.
More one-sided than the year GOP grabbed Congress from Dems.
Bush just slipped another point, down to 38%.

FOLEY incident, not big in itself, was apparently the last straw.

 
BEFROCKED BAPTIST: Denver's Archbishop Chaput has let the cat out of the bag.

In a recent expensive leaflet sent (unsolicited) to every nominal Catholic in his region--just before election-- Chaput distinguishes between issues where Catholics can ignore the previous Pope and 'form their own conscience' (e.g., starting a war !)--vs. issues such as gay rights where they must tamely let a bunch of often-corrupt bishops decide for them.

Many of these bishops are declaring bankruptcy because they have lost so many lawsuits alleging that they covered up for priestly pederasts molesting underage boys!
Apparently the episcopal-consecration ceremony includes a vaccination against shame.

Chaput has revealed himself as a Baptist preacher in fancy robes, a minor functionary of the GOP.
----------------
Previous Pope said Iraq invasion would be 'unjust, illegal, and disastrous!" (the last point was understatement.) It's no surprise that the present Holy Father (who distinguished himself recently by risking the lives of millions of Catholics in Muslim-dominated regions by crudely insulting the Prophet himself ! ) has NOT CONDEMNED Bush's wars.

He was, after all (involuntarily) in Hitler Youth. Then he should have realized the unparallelled evil of Hitlerian ideology ; but instead of fleeing Germany (as others did) he let himself be drafted into Hitler's army. He says he deserted; but he somehow ended up in an allied POW camp.

A worthy successor to the Peter who said prudently "I know not the man !"--but not to the later heroic Peter.

 
SIXTEEN CARLOADS OF SHIA KIDNAPPED on Monday, by gunmen in IRAQI POLICE UNIFORMS. US media--for some strange reason--try to hint that all such gangs in police uniforms are SHIA--but these thugs were clearly SUNNI ! LATimes

US troops rushed away from one crisis to ward off another crisis somewhere else.
A futile policy!
------------------------------
About four GIs killed each day this month. (That augurs about 32each day wounded, half of them wounded seriously). About a dozen GIs killed 18Oct..!

 
HOPE FOR A WISE JUNTA!
We hear that many Americans approve of the Republic-destroying GOP law allowing torture of detainees and revoking the ancient right of habeas corpus.

These people may feel that a suspected terrorist is one kind of terrorist.

US seems to be no longer ready for democracy. That's OK, because we also seem likely to lose it. Unless a large majority of citizens object strongly to a dictatorship, an attractive StrongLeader will surely show up. (Brutus' mistake was not realizing this.)

We can hope that the bemedaled leader of our coming junta will be wiser and less corrupt than our elected one-party GOP regime. That shouldn't be a formidable standard.

The takeover will be backed by an army of infantry robots. Black Humor will come when our intrepid gun-fans try to defend our freedom with their handguns against the tyrant's impassive, disposable robots.
--------------------------------
SHOULD THE IGNORANT VOTE ?
I thought they should, as long as ignorant white Southerners, ignorant blacks, and ignorant Catholics all--for some reason--voted Democrat. But lately, it's become obvious that ignorant people can be recruited to vote for war and pols looking out only for the wealthy.

WHAT WAY OUT? The only good outcome I can foresee, (needing a miracle):
the Pentagon takes over openly, using robots to put down American rebels. After a while, (here comes the miracle!) a wise dictator realizes, as Gorbachev did, as rulers of Korea & Taiwan did, that you can't force technicians to be productive, as you could field-slaves.

So he gradually hands over govt, part by part, to elected officials, making sure this time that only the politically-literate can vote (they have adequate reading comprehension, and know the basic facts of political life--like who their representative is.)

Then we might have a chance for a functioning govt. in 21st century.

 
BRITS WANT OUT OF IRAQ!
Top military honcho said Brit troops are making things worse (this was echoed by Sunni & Shia leaders in South Iraq), should bug out soon.

Then, fearing perhaps for his career, he backed down a little, said "I said'soon',not now."
If they're making things worse, why delay bugout?

At any rate, 74% of Brits say they agree with him--one would guess 'now,not soon'. !
REUTERS
================
TWENTY-SEVEN GIs KILLED EACH WEEK IN OCT, SO FAR--plus eight times as many wounded--if they count, (plus hundreds of Iraqi casualties, if they count). IrelandOnline
==============
LANCET/JOHNS HOPKINS POLL (ridiculed by Bush) says they're 95% sure that the number of EXTRA Iraqis dead since we took over is between 393k and 943k.

Almost 2 million Iraqis have fled their homes, either to run out of country, or to go to region dominated by 'their own kind'.

Maliki's proposed 'national unity conference' was cancelled indefinitely; they can't agree on a time OR even a Place ! SeattlePI

 
RAGE VS. FEAR:
The comic-strip Doonesbury recently portrayed the GOP as recruiting 'FEAR ITSELF' in their campaigns. This portrayal of right-wing hawks as motivated by ignoble fear may make good Dem propaganda. But nevertheless it confuses fear with rage.

The Islamists who kill themselves while slaughtering women & children are not motivated by fear of 'crusaders'; they feel rage against their humiliation by technically superior Westerners, against bombing campaigns that treat their people as insects to be squashed. (A Vietnamese once told me, "You're killing my people like ants.")

And indeed, people who post in US message boards sometimes refer to Muslims (as similar Americans used to refer to Korean 'gooks' and Vietnamese 'slants') as subhuman beasts.
"What do you get when you mate a gook with an ape? " asked some witty GIs in 1952--
"a retarded ape !"

Israelis were understandably enraged when Saddam openly and insultingly paid thousands to the families of suicide bombers who blew up Israeli buses. And Israel responded to'the greatest military humiliation in their history' with the incredibly stupid/spiteful scattering in Southern Lebanon of one million diabolical cluster bomblets !

Similarly, childish US responses to terrorist threats like 'NUKE'EM !'' stem from thoughtless rage, not thoughtful fear. Most Americans at first supported our goofy, misdirected invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq from rage after the INSULTING injury to our proud phallic towers from the 9/11 attack.
Rage, strangely, responds to humiliating insult more violently than to injury. [Aristotle]

"Enraged hatred," said one philosopher [Bishop Butler], "is as unselfish as love."
That is, rage is by its nature thoughtless, uncaring about consequences to self. Whereas real fear is carefully thoughtful, anxious to avoid future harms to self. [Hobbes]

While fear is a humiliating feeling, rage is an even more humiliating sign of brutal stupidity--so the enraged person pretends that he acts out of rational fear.

A favorite US mantra, repeated again and again in a thoughtful tone of voice, is this:
"The best defense is a good offense". What is really meant is that threats of attack should be
met with any counter-attack, effectual or not for self-defense, against 'Someone'.

This is a biological response: it's said that a when a caged rat is subjected to electrical shock, the rat promptly bites a nearby rat. So also, when attacked by 19 men mostly from Saudi Arabia, most Americans thought it sensible to attack Iraq, which had nothing to do with the 9/11 attack. (To justify this blunder, millions of Americans STILL choose to believe that Saddam was behind this attack, even though this claim has been denied by Pres. Bush himself !)

Why do so many Americans (luckily fewer every month) trust the GOPs on the 'security ' issue? even though this regime has underfunded Homeland Security shamelessly? Because these Americans interpret security as our power to smash-back at 'Someone'--and this irrelevant bombing power is amply funded by the GOP ! That's why so few object to shovelling to the Pentagon $1200 MILLION each DAY !--even though its billion-dollar-bombers are useful only against nations, not against the terrorist INDIVIDUALS who constitute the unique threat facing us now.

One is reminded of the dumb leopard: vain about his awesome teeth and claws,
he perished relying on them against a huge roused horde of individual hornets.

 
LIBERTARIANS offer us the same pieties, again and again: small government, low taxes, minimal coercion,etc.

You'd think (wrongly) that they'd be the greatest opponents of the Pentagon: one million CIVILIAN employees, a budget equal to the federal deficit (it's as though other departments are held to budgets, with only the Pentagon allowed to run amok--we should refer, not the federal deficit, but to the Pentagon deficit.)

Minimal coercion? With our troops allowed to torture suspects?

Truth is, this is the core of all libertarian dogmas: don't tax the rich to help the poor.
(They seem to feel, not just unconcern over the sufferings of the poor, but an ANGER, DISGUST at the very existence of the poor !--perhaps because this existence refutes the myth of benevolent capitalism.)

It's OK to tax ordinary people (with sales tax, Fica tax,income tax, etc.) to shovel trillions to the war corporations.

 
STRANGE, SAD TRUTH:

Two-shot vaccine for avian flu ? MedicalNews

Before a vaccine can be effective, you must diagnose the germ immediately so you can recognize an impending pandemic. US is the only industrial country with lousy public health programs in impoverished areas.

If the flu hit first in one of these deprived areas, it would spread before diagnosis and quarantine could be brought into play. (Smart terrorists would deliberately start a pandemic there !)

Why did the Brits spread sanitary plumbing to all areas? Because, in the 19th century, they discovered--through nasty experience-- that pandemics among the poor spread quickly to the well-to-do ! Unintelligently selfish US well-to-do have somehow unlearned that lesson.

Five years after 9/11, GOP government control all 3 branches of federal government, (try as they will to blame every disaster on Clinton !) They have made almost no moves to relieve our already-crucial shortage of nurses, through an emergency drive to recruit and train the scarce nurse-trainers.

They have only just, 5 years late, made beginning moves to inspect the thousands of huge ship-containers entering our ports each day--each could contain a completed nuke, or many shoulder-missiles to shoot down our airliners.

Can't afford more? For each dollar in this skimpy inspection-allocation, they shovel $127 to the Pentagon, whose billion-dollar-bombers are useless vs. terrorist individuals.

The sad and strange truth is that the GOP don't seem to care much about Homeland Protection, except as an excuse for spying on Americans and torturing suspects.

 
TOP BRIT GENERAL IN IRAQ says that Brit troops are making things in Iraq worse; that if they don't get out quickly, harm will come to Iraq AND TO BRITAIN. He says Blair's Iraq policy--and of course Bush's--is just wrong. ABC worldnews on TV. Also click on FinTimes
=================
Leak from prestigious Baker Committee (official report held back till after election): "US can't win in Iraq!"
[NY Sun/no link ]
It's axiomatic in guerilla-war theory that if the invading conventional army doesn't win quickly and decisively, then in the long run it loses; if the guerilla native defenders don't lose quickly and decisively, then in the long run they win. (They have more patience !)

 
BUSHIES RETREAT FROM PUSHING MUSLIM DEMOCRACY, after belatedly realizing that US foes comprise SUPERMAJORITIES in every 'Muslim' nation. Back to backing dictators.
REUTERS

Say neocons: "We didn't mean real rule by majorities, for Jesus' sake ! We meant FREE ENTERPRISE !"

 
BOMB LONDON !
Some Brit just pleaded guilty to planning a sacrilegious attack on our Stock Exchange !

It gets ever more clear that Britain is a 'nation harboring terrorists'.

As an Irishman, I say Bomb the Hell out of the dirty Brits !
-----------
Someone objected to this proposal, claiming that Britain is our strongest ally!
Yeah, well most Brits OPPOSE this alliance.

Also, Pakistan & SaudiArabia are said to be our stalwart allies. Enough said.

Truth is, Bush's America HAS NO REAL ALLIES.

BOMB LONDON !
---------------
Wait ! Some say that formidable Brit 2d-strike retaliatory nuclear force, once aimed at crazy Soviet, is now aimed at crazy America. That's even more likely true of FRANCE'S nuke force.
Hmmmm.

 
The army is planning ('not predicting') to keep the same number of troops in Iraq till 2010, i.e,. 4 years more.

And A.Cordsman, respected independent expert, says the Iraq forces will NOT be able to take over alone before '08. probably not before '10. UnitedPress



Are they planning for more than double the present number of GI casualties there? (that would be 6300 killed, 25,200 seriously wounded, untold thousands with shell-shock, one in four returning vets claiming disability?)

We'd better plan (not predict!) to double the Vet hospital facilities But I'll bet the
GOP-run govt. 'can't afford' that.

 
3 or 4 GIs killed EACH DAY this month. SeattlePI
Number of Iraqis killed in Baghdad has SPIKED SHARPLY since GIs came back into Baghdad to STOP that. Two dozen gunmen, some in uniform, shot up TV station last night.
Increased GI casualties have been FOR NOTHING.
----------------------
8 TO 1, RATIO OF GIs WOUNDED TO KILLED. Seriously wounded, 4 to 1.
Wounded in last 5 weeks: 1100. WashPost

These are Pentagon figures, probably grossly understated.

Bush said 30,000 Iraqis killed; LANCET story says 665,000 altogether.

 
Just this year, four years after 9/11, Bushies started a program to encourage learning foreign languages in school.

FBI has almost no agents who can really understand Arabic; they have to hire (and trust) contractors who have a staff of Arabic speakers. WashPost

"Americans don't value multilingual abilities." Exactly.
That's why Bushies are like a blinded bull elephant lunging around self-confidently near cliffs.

When you don't know what you doing: don't just do something--stand there !

 
HUGE US AMMO EXPLOSION TRIGGERED BY INSURGENT MORTARS !
Series of explosions sounded all night in Baghdad. US said no GI casualties.
M&Cnews

By the way: I don't rejoice at insurgent success; I hope that DRAMATIC insurgent success might make clear to dim-witted Bushies that we have ALREADY FAILED in Iraq !

Some army honcho just said we'd stay in Iraq till 2010 !
One wonders if he's serious, or if he's really for a quick bugout, and wants Dems to take Congress so they can cut off funds for the war, as Congress forced Ford Pentagon to bugout of Vietnam.
==========
Same story says that Iraq Parliament passed 'federalism' bill (authorizing defacto secession of Shia South, like the already-ccomplishedKurdsecession in North. Formal secession won't take place for 18 months--but you can bet real steps will be taken immediately.

Of course Shialand will be allied with our hated foe IRAN--which will be, as often noted, the REAL WINNER of Bush's goofy war.
==============
What worries me about this insurgent-mortar success is the possiblity of our bases being under mortar-shells filled with VX gas /kills by touching skin/ gas-masks useless.

The 'space-suits ' worn by troops back during invasion were just costumes. GIs would never wear them regularly in that heat ! So vulnerability and risk of a horrible death are the price we'll pay for Bush's determination to Stay the Course 'even if only my dog and wife support me."
We'd hope the dog would have more sense.

 
"US WILL NOT BEND TO N.KOREAN BULLYING !" say Bushies. That is, plucky sabre-tooth tiger will NOT be intimidated by new horns on the ferocious goat.

Bushies count on Americans being too dumb to understand second-strike deterrent: a power to retaliate (massively or significantly) after US attack--hoping that Bushies are sane enough to be deterred by threat of retaliation. (So Bushies can instill an absurd, but useful, fear among dumb Americans of a N.K. FIRST STRIKE at our Homeland.)

Couple of years ago, Bushies (esp.frothing Bolton) seemed to be trying to get Kim to strike at US first (to excuse our nuking N.K.) Bush actually--a diplomatic first !-hurled personal insults at fellow Head-of-state Kim !Never mind, that would mean sacrificing Seoul, So.Korea and tens of thousands of GIs stationed in S.K., whose role is now that of HOSTAGES--(if we strike at N.K., they slaughter our GIs). They DON'T NEED NUKES for this! All So. K. is in range of their non-nuke artillery and missiles.

But Kim was not stupid enough to commit natl. suicide, and S.Korea warned US that their alliance would shatter if they kept this up. So suddenly Bushies shut up about N.K.

But historians will remember that they invaded Iraq, prattling about non-existent nukes--while N.K. busily developed actual nukes ! Once again Superman ignored kryptonite lying around, negating his hyper-powers.

 
Over one million Iraqis have fled since US took over:
either to another country, or to the region dominated by 'their own kind'. GUARDIAN

Didn't they know that Iraqis are' better off with Saddam gone'?

 
'CONSTANTLY ADJUSTING IRAQ POLICY' say Bushies. Sure--just as the deck chairs were constatly rearranged on the Titanic.

 
DEVASTATING POLL: [NYtimes]
"BUSH OK ON TERRROR" 54% DOWN TO FORTY-SIX % IN TWO WEEKS! (after (because of?) his terror-speeches)

'B aware of attack-warnings BEFORE 9/11" FIFTY-SEVEN % up from 41% (esp. devastating)

83% say he lied or misled us on Iraq.
B approval down to 34%.
---------------------------
Now, for 1st time, as many think Dems would handle terror better, as think GOP would. (Dems up 8% since LaborDay !)
USATODAY POLL: 46% SAY DEMS WOULD HANDLE TERROR BETTER, vs. GOP 40% !! wow.

"IRAQ WAR GOING WELL?" only three percent say yes !
-----------
Domestic issues:MORALS:
MORE (incl. women & conservatives) say DEMS share their moral values, NOT GOP.
(New & startling--apparently Foley has made them FINALLYforget Clinton's follies.)

"GOP House leaders cared more for their pol.standing than for pages' safety." 79%
-------------
"Who will spend $ in ways we want?" Dems 52%, GOP only twenty-nine % !
New and WOW !

"HOW WILL I VOTE?" DEM 49%, GOP 35%
-----------
However, as usual, 60% approve of their own incumbent Congressmen !
GOP $ might backfire--people might turn off too-numerous TV ads.
(If sound gets turned off, Paccioni's great big eyes will trump Musgrave's tiny eyes.)
---------------------------------------
But GOP is famous for 'getting out their vote'.
People show up to vote with a list issued by their Churches ! That's legal !

So the only way the Dems could lose is if they lazily DON'T get out their voters!

 
THIRTY-THREE GIs KILLED in 9 days of Oct--4 in last 24 hours.REUTERS
------------------------
WHAT WILL BAKER'S prestigious commission recommend about Iraq?...
after election, of course!

Rumor has it that Baker will go for PARTITION: 3 ministates: Kurdland in the North, Sunni/ArabLand, and Shialand in the South. TheAGE

(Oil-soaked Kirkuk area will be ceded to Kurds--allies of US & Israel. US base will be welcomed in Kurdland, to ward off snarling anti-Kurd Turks. All or part of Baghdad will be ceded to Shia. Snarling S/ Arabs will inherit mostly sand. Who will weep?)

Kurd & Shia ministates should be able to ward off S/Arab invaders--after expelling all potential Sunni terrorists.. After all, together they outnumber S/Arabs by FOUR TO ONE! And Iran will be backing Shialand, while US will back Kurdland.

I've been predicting this outcome for two years--and regretfully approving of it as the least horrible solution.

Why the delay in this obvious move? Bushies were horrified to realize--BELATEDLY !--that Shialand (with most oil, most Iraqis, and the only seaport) would be allied with, protected by our hated foe IRAN--which of course will be the main winner of Bush's crusade.

 
IRAQIS BETTER OFF WITHOUT SADDAM? NOT THE WOMEN !
Over half of Iraqis are women. And they are clearly worse off now than under Saddam.
He allowed women to work in professions and to swim & pray with men !

Now the fanatic militias (Sunni & Shia!) use rape and murder to punish any ambitious woman. Often when a woman is raped, then her family kills her to erase the family disgrace ! OBSERVER

One remark shows why anarchy is more dangerous than most tyrannies. "A few women got raped by Saddam's sons ; now every woman is at risk."

Saddam was also known for his toleration of Christians. Now Iraqi Christians are fleeing the county.

So 'Iraqis' are clearly worse off for our meddling invasion !

And they see this; they want US forces OUT !

 
"SIX MONTHS, OR LOSE AFGHANS" says NATO commander. If we don't win the fighting and get a real start rebuilding in six months, SEVENTY PER CENT of Afghans (over whole country, presumably) will prefer rigid Taliban rule to 'endless fighting'. SeattlePI

Along with GOP honcho Fristsaying we CAN'T beat the Taliban militarily (and realizing that they'll block our rebuilding if we DON'T prevail militarily), one can say that the country WILL revert to Taliban--but not, thank God, before Nov. election.

 
OIL FUTURES were in 'free-fall', down from $78 a barrel down to $60 a barrel, UNTIL:
----Nigerian strife (underestimated earlier). Though it's said that these trouble-makers are just a group wanting a bigger cut of oil $, we should remember that shrewd binLaden encouraged all true Islamists WORLDWIDE to attack US & allies by disrupting oil market !

--higher possibility of severe sanctions on IRAN, or even Bushie/Israel bombing/ which would spike oil incredibly.

--OPEC countries don't want oil to sink lower. They meet soon in Nigeria. Apparently SaudiArabia (the leader) has already started to cut production. [ PhilInquirer ]
(OPEC's President has called openly for an IMMEDIATE cut of one million barrels a day !)
(6OPEC countries immediately cut output; oil went up $1 in a single day. /8Sept)

--------Incredible fact, now forgotten: Venezuela's Chavez says that IF oil were stabilized above $50, his oil (expensive to process) would outweigh Saudi Arabia's ! He also has huge reserves of natural gas. At high price, Canadian oil-sands are now marketable.

It looks again as if world will run out of livable atmosphere before it runs out of oil !

Bushies would have to decide which to attack, Iran or Venezuela.(Chavez has said he would 'go on strike' if we attack Iran.)
============================
When gas prices drop just before election (with no real worldwide explanation), then we know that GOP oil-buddies can control gas-prices. Then we can infer:
a) previous high prices were probably caused by finagling;
and
b) when election is over, we can expect gas prices to SPIKE UP !

 
GITMO GUARDS BRAGGED ABOUT BEATING INMATES REGULARLY, says sworn statment by Marine. HoustonChron.
This issue is not very important--the suffering of a few compared to the horror facing tens of thousands of Iraqis, brought on ultimately by our meddling. However, a commenter here says that the inmates are treated with perhaps too much consideration. This story questions this theory.

 
The Army and Marines are issuing directives for a NEW APPROACH TO COUNTER-INSURGENCY: it involves being gentle with civilians,etc.
Well ! We'll need a slight adjustment of present policy . K.CityStar

All we'd need is a million or so troops in each occupied country, fluent in foreign languages, learned about alien cultures, with heavy sensitivity training.
Wait for it--we'll control the world--not by conquest ! but by unleashing our niceness !
PROBLEMS:
--with our new approach, we'll have to cut out the bombers and missiles; they annoy our subjects.

Well, then, what will Lockheed and the others have to sell? Perhaps really high-quality training films, e.g., 'How to Inoffensively Criticize Clitoridectomy'..or "Stoning adulteresses: Isn't that a bit presumptuous?"
--------------
Indeed, our very trade-name might have to go. 'Insurgency'and 'insurrection'comes from the Latin SURGERE, to rise up--(as does, embarrassingly, 'Resurrection')..So counter-insurgency is literally 'holding the buggers down'. That's not a friendly turn of phrase.

What about 'Grab 'em by the balls; their hearts and minds will follow !' ?
No, we tried that slogan in Vietnam; the sneaky little judo-loving slants flipped us and threw us out on our ass.

We want to convey the idea that we're actually pushing them down so they can rise up in the right way--how do we sloganize that succinctly ?
Lots of conceptual reworking needed !
=========
Some have said this new approach should be implemented NOT by the Pentagon--it's a little like asking a sumo wrestler to take on the task of delicate needlework.

Perhaps it should be handed over (along with the Pentagon's half-trillion-dollar annual funding) to the effeminate striped-trouser cooky-cutters in the State Department.

Death first !--theirs.
=============
This proposal sounds like they've read COLOSSUS by right-wing, intelligent historian Niall Ferguson. He advocates US 'liberal empire' in theory [liberal here means 'globalist free enterprise' ] .
But he notes accurately that goofy US populace couldn't staff such an empire, analagous to fairly benevolent Brit Empire. We couldn't staff a competent 'Colonial Office'.

Apparently Rummy neocons think THEY could manage such an empire.
They're stark, raving mad.

 
ONE IgNOBEL PRIZE (they're real !) went to inventor of 'teenager repellant' (a nasty sound audible only to teens). alJAZEERA

Animal-rights defenders will object.

 
BUSH POLLS NOW BETWEEN 33% & 39% [ CNN ]
--------------------------
NAVY NAMES NEW CARRIER AFTER DADDY BUSH:
I don't know--USS SEMI-SHITHEAD sounds just wrong !

 
PARTITION COMING; KURDS EDGING TOWARD SECESSION:
Right after Rice called on them, they showed new affirmation of their right to secede.WashPost

Either this was to defy Rice's public emphasis on preserving Iraqi unity;

--OR Rice secretly approved their secession. After all:
-----Turkey won't invade; all of new Kurdistan's oil has to be exported thru Turkey--so Ks won't encourage Turkish Kurds in their rebellion. In fact, Turkey might like it if all their dissidents migrated to K.Iraq !
-----US will want to erect a huge base in friendly Iraq/Kurdistan.

HOWEVER, there will then be no way now that the Shia can't secede.
defactoSecession is permitted under the present constitution / amending the constitution would require absolute majority in Parliament/ Shia plus Kurds far outnumber Sunnis in Parliament.

Sunnis will get rooked, with no oil. Who'll weep for them ? Let money-stuffed Sunni Saudi Arabia support them !
Both Kurdland & Shialand will set up tough border-guards, after expelling all Sunni Arabs.
If necessary--together outnumbering Sunni/Arabs FOUR TO ONE-- they'll wipe Sunnis out.

Shialand will have most Iraqis, most oil, the only seaport AND IRANIAN BACKING ! The winner of Bush's crusade will be US-hated IRAN.

The only plausible explanation of Bushies' crazy endorsement of majoritarian democracy in Iraq is that THEY DIDN'T KNOW SHIA WERE SUPER-MAJORITY !
----------------
SMARMY !
'Terrrorists [struck], desperate to derail Iraq's progress toward freedom and prosperity !"
said US general. Actually, insurgents are EASILY ABLE to derail ANY ILLUSION OF IRAQ PROGRESS !

 
US HEADLINE: TENSIONS RISE OVER N.KOREA THREAT. (of N-test).
You can bet the real tensions in So.Korea are over BUSHIE threats.If Bushies make a real thrust at N.Korea, N.K. will remove Seoul from the map in a day, and slaughter tens of thousands of GIs stationed in So.Korea.

Bushies might like that--giving an excuse to NUKE N.Korea.They talk now of pulling GIs out of So.Korea (50 years-long overdue!) Their only role now is as HOSTAGES.

Then N.K. retaliation would be restricted to attacks on our thousands of GIs in Okinawa.

 
GOP SEN.WARNER MORE PESSIMIST THAN EVER re IRAQ.
If situation doesn't improve soon,we must evaluate; no option is off the table (even bugout?)
But there's still hope, of course. WashPost
Sure there is.
I'm reminded of the scene in MontyPython movie where the plucky knight, with arms & legs whacked off, says "OK,let's call it a draw."
-----------------
It may seem absurd to talk of our super-war-machine being helpless and defeated.
But we need to try to stretch our minds around one fact:
We DON' T HAVE a SUPER-war-machine in this unique crisis!

Rather: our absurdly overpriced, obsolete war-machine is in no way really SUPER !

Our bombings--the only real talent the Pentagon has--are counter-productive, recruiting new terrorists.
-----------
Warner mentioned '3 weeks' as some kind of deadline...just before the election.
An October surprise?

 
GARRISON KEILOR HAS A WONDERFUL COLUMN IN rMTNnews (no link). He says he likes the peace of a small, beautiful town like Missoula, Mont--but he needs to stay angry, and for that he needs annoying city life. He ends with this revision of Frost's poem:

The woods are silent, dark and thick,
But I have many butts to kick
And some to poke, and just one stick.
------------------
On Keilor's radio show, he said that the campaign slogan for Rep.Foley was
TURNING OVER A NEW PAGE IN '06.

 
A WAR-STORY: In Korea, another Catholic kid & I were getting ready to go home. How could we get over our foul-mouths before we faced our virtuous mothers?

--first attempt: each paid the other a quarter whenever he caught the other foul-mouthing.
I made money, but this other guy couldn't tell foul-mouth from standard English--he couldn't catch me.

--second attempt: in a bar, I said, "What we need going home is a forceful expletive that is decent!"
A fellow said, "Well, 'mother's' clean and 'fucker' is forceful.."

Later I wanted to use this in logic class as an example of composition/division fallacy:
thinking that 2 items synergistically combined have same significance
as the same two items separately. But I didn't dare--so I went back to:
'NACL is nutritious; but both NA & CL separately are poisons.'

 
LIMPING METAPHOR: What can Dems do re:War?

A wonderful metaphor, but flawed:(from a letter to NYT:)

Imagine Siamese twins: one foolish/forceful, one sane/indecisive.The sane one lets his twin hurl them over the cliff. Falling, the crazy twin says, "FORGET PAST MISTAKES !What's your alternative NOW?"

The metaphor limps: the sane twin could grab a strong branch & stop the falling.

Sane Representatives stopped the Viet carnage simply by refusing to fund continued war.
A Democrat-controlled House could do that again.

 
CHRISTMAS DECORATIONS ARE OUT ALREADY !
TIME FOR MY ANNUAL CHRISTMAS PROPOSAL:

LET'S TAKE CHRIST OUT OF CHRISTMAS, FOR CHRIST'S SAKE--
LET BUDDHA TAKE THE CRAP FOR A WHILE.

 
MORE CLUSTER BOMBLETS THAN PEOPLE Bombs dropped without exploding BY ISRAEL, cute bomblets to be detonated in the hands of curious children--bombs provided to Israel by PENTAGON.One million bomblets, half-a-million people.

Three a day still get blown up by the bombs; this will continue for at least a year, says UN.[RockyMtnNews, 6oct,p.43a/no link ]
---------------
Two issues here:
1) Many of my critics say I am anti-semite because I roar with loathing over stories like this. I'm not--but I am anti-vampire, anti-baby-killer, anti-war-criminal, that is, anti-Pentagon and anti-Olmert.
---------------
2d issue: During Viet war, I skimmed ten major newspapers each day for war-news (papers rescued from university library leftovers. This activity cut into my time for publishing research, and so into my salary and resulting pension. )

What I found was that the papers DID print truth about the war--namely, that it was unwinnable--but only on p. 43a.

This compromise meant that the editors could tell themselves that they did print the truth, while in fact these stories were as unavailable to typical readers as if they were printed in Russian.

This tactic is less useful now that perspicuous readers--a minority as tiny as Polynesian US Baptists--can also search website for incendiary topics...but the tactic is still used. How many papers have featured prominently, NOT Frist's loony idea to admit 'Taliban into Kabul govt, but GOP honcho Frist's sensible remark that WE CAN'T BEAT TALIBAN MILITARILY ?

How many Americans are aware of this flat contradiction of Bushies' sunny war-claims--or of the letter found from alQuaeda-in-Iraq saying that our continuing the war will HELP these terrorists recruit and train new volunteers?

US is not ready for democracy. That's as well, as this strange institution is doomed here.

 
alQuaeda is BENEFITING BY PROLONGING BUSH'S WAR !
When our generals announce they've 'found' an insurgent letter telling how they're in desperate straits, you suspect the generals might have forged the letter.

But when an 'insurgent letter' is released by Pentagon as 'found' in Iraq, and when this letter says that our prolonging the war is HELPING alQuaeda, then you think it's probably genuine. What could Pentagon gain by forging such a letter? ChrSciMonitor

Hmm. Maybe Pentagon now sees the pig-headed folly of Bush's continued war, harming THEIR interests--so they release this letter making a complete liar out of Bush--rather, a deluded madman...so then the letter might be a forgery--or, more likely, they decided to release a genuine letter making this devastating point !

 
WIN IN BAGHDAD DOESN'T MEAN WE WIN IN IRAQ--BUT LOSE IN BAGHDAD MEANS WE LOSE ! said A.Cordesman, an objective expert.

Bushies dreamed they would hand over Baghdad to Maliki's troops, have GIs lie low, keep US casualties low, and thus mitigate Iraq influence on Nov. elections.

Instead, native forces proved either ineffective or worse, collaborators with murdering insurgents and militia ! GIs had to take over; they can pacify a neighborhood temporarily--but the day they move out, to next neighborhood--as they must because Bushies can't send in ENOUGH MEN !-- the 'hard men' take over again.

So now: 13 GIs dead JUST IN BAGHDAD in last 4 days, the highest toll ever--one month before election !
(UPI says FORTY GI's MAIMED OR WOUNDED each day in Iraq!)

Trouble is, residents won't squeal on local militia.
SeattlePI

We could end up with Shia second front, helping alQuaeda slaughter GIs !

 
GOOD NEWS: Dems have a good chance to pick up the 5 seats they need to control Senate.
BAD NEWS: Zionist hawk Liebarman is far ahead in Connecticut REUTERS

 
WHAT'RE THEY SMOKING ?
Congress is appropriating $20,000,000 to celebrate our expected Afghan and Iraq victories. USATODAY

GOP honcho Frist says GOP is confident of our ultimate victory--even though he just admitted that we can't beat Taliban militarily--(how else would we beat them? !) [see piece below.]

I'm reminded of Mark Twain's sunny revised memory of a fight he was in : "I thrust my nose firmly between his teeth, and threw him to the ground on top of me! "

 
RETRACTION: I've deleted my intemperate piece from yesterday about the fracas at CSU plaza over my sign. I'm apologizing for my remarks on this fellow's mentality..if indeed he is a returned vet, then his overexcitement is understandable.

In fact, I'm retiring for good from my yelling at the Plaza. My wife informed me that I should act my age. sigh.

 
'FEWER CASUALTIES PER ATTACK', says upbeat US general but--far more attacks !--so,regrettably, more casualties.
90 casualties from one bomb on Wednesday. REUTERS, cited in STAR

 
TOP GOP HONCHO ADMITS we can't beat Taliban in Afghanistan--not even after 5 years of bombing and shelling ! He says we'll have to compromise with them, admitting them into (fake) Kharzai govt. InternatlHeraldTribune
ALSO: HoustonChronicle

We can't beat them in a war; NOR,sadly, is it likely that we'll prevail in the cuddling-match.
Inviting them to join Kharzai's wobbly regime is like inviting a Bengal Tiger to have lunch with the lambs.
----------------
Frist later complained he'd been quoted out of context.
But he did not revoke his statement that 'we can't win militarily, because Taliban are too numerous and too well-connected to local population." That admission, while no news to knowledgeable observers, is a dynamite admission by an unreconstructed Bushie !

What he corrected was idea that we'd invite actual Taliban into govt. (That would be foolish !) He meant we should invited hangers-on who THINK they're Taliban.. But his travelling companion (another Bushie) said that a TREATY with Taliban is 'not out of question' (You don't sign treaties with passing peasants!) . And the Bushies have quit calling Taliban terrorists.

Busharref has shown that he's more scared of Taliban Islamists locally than he is of Bush bombs.

And apparently some Pak.govt.guy said that binLaden would NOT be arrested, if he stayed peaceful. Busharref denied that of course.
ChrSciMonitor
As I said a BOMBSHELL...though probably it will be downplayed in tame US media. Chicago SunTimes ran story as a tiny, negligible piece. No references to USmedia onfirst 2 pages of GOOGLE.
But on Yahoo.com,references to FortWorth paper & Philadelphia paper.
Still.....shocking but not surprising.
-----------------------
No previous President has lost THREE wars at once: in Iraq, in Afghanistan, and fabled War on Terror.

 
TABUS NEEDED:
Goofy males are not dissuaded from horrendous crime by 'It's wrong!'--only by fear of humiliation, and the fact that some acts are UNTHINKABLE!

A Chinese philosopher defined the unthinkable as this: "When you imagine telling your mother about it, it's NOT that she faints or curses you--it's that you CAN'T FINISH THE SCENE in your imagination ! "

No crime in US is so horrible nowadays--e.g. raping & shooting schoolgirls--that 'copycat' crimes won't follow, by nobody men who lust for notoriety. That's the price we pay for a 'free press'--media where 'if it bleeds, it leads'--not to mention computer games where warriors urinate on their dead foes. The First Amendment drives some of our youth mad--then the Second Amendment arms them !

We DON'T want a new constitution--imagine what would come from our present legislatures, our present citizenry ! We need Supreme Court judges who will restrict these amendments' excessive power--instead of worrying about gay marriage & abortion.

Also, the creeps who kill & then escape punishment by suicide--these creeps should be exposed ROTTING in cages. We now have cruel and usual punishments--e.g. a woman locked up away from her children for minor drug offenses--what we need is judges who will permit some cruelly humiliating and UNUSUALLY EFFECTIVE punishments.

 
O FRABJOUS DAY ! Besides having a VERY GOOD chance to take control of House, now it's said Dems are 'in striking distance' of taking the Senate ! MSNBC

They should remember: energizing hope,not lazy complacency !

Five weeks left; desperate GOP is capable of anything, including another terrorist threat !

 
BUSH HAS NOT BEEN LYING--TOO BAD!
Woodward's new book tells that his top aides knew all along that the Iraq project was failing. But they didn't waste time telling him--because he was too pig-headed to listen to any bad news [News.com.au ]
The problem is not just with Bush, nor with diabolic Rove, who got around 50% of voters to choose Bush TWICE . The problem is with those millions of Americans who were also too pig-headed to heed the many warnings.

 
LESS THAN NOTHING:

DenverPost printed my very short piece today--this one more grimly witty than profound--in their 'to the point' section.

(They shortened my letter. The '3000 GIs killed' referred to those in Iraq AND Afghanistan.)

As I say, I have to cackle about letters printed--with hundreds of thousands of potential readers-- because such a small percentage of my letters ARE printed.

But my pieces in Boston.com /message boards /News still attract hundreds of
(often hostile, illogical) readers.

 
PHILOSOPHERS & FAMILY:
Socrates was a lousy husband/father. He sent family away at his deathbed, preferring his cronies. Xenophon says he told his sons, "No matter how unpleasant is your mother Xanthippe--you must still treat her with respect." He was likely a lousy stonecutter also--but he was a war-hero. He was not like Jesus.

This set the fashion. Plato, Aristotle, Descartes, Kant, Hume, Hegel, Russell,Wittgenstein--and the medieval monk-philosophers..none had normal family lives. Hume died unmarried, though heterosexual: it's said he shared a mistress with French king. Maxim: If you must be stationed next to a philosopher in Hell, choose Hume for company.

LouisaMayAlcott's father aimed to be a farmer/philosopher. "As expected, father philosophized while mother farmed."

Bertrand Russell was fired from a NY university when they found out he had had 5 wives. "I fail to see how I could corrupt the youth teaching Symbolic Logic." He fell out of love with one wife while riding his bicycle.

Russell's daughter had to wait until grown up to find out she was smart. "At age 3, I wrote my name in the sand; father noted that it was misspelled. How did it feel? We had a dog that was so dumb that when you pointed East, it would gallop West. I felt like that dog."

I have a great family life--for a philosopher. NOW YOU TAKE MY WIFE--no,don't--you couldn't handle her. Mary is no Xanthippe, though she has crabby moments: "How many philosophers does it take to change a light-bulb? We don't know--no philosopher has ever changed a light-bulb."

One daughter in High-School told everyone that I was the most obnoxious father in the world. I asked her, "How could you verify such a sweeping claim?" Later, in college, she met a girl, both of whose parents were psychoanalysts. She backed down: "You're NOT the most obnoxious father--but you are a finalist."

I'm glad (luckily) to have family instead of fame. Thomas More was out riding with King Henry, trying to mitigate his insane hubris: "We,sire, are the 2 most famous men in England. See that peasant woman working in the field? How many minutes in her life, would you guess, that she spends thinking about us?"