Resistance is Futile

OK, so I just can't resist cute babies.

















Wouldn't you love to know what they're listening to?

Note to Self:

Because ya just gotta laugh (or wince, or groan) once in a while.

Barking Man Bites Mail Carrier

And am I the only one who thinks these food-eating contests are obscene? One minute it's starving children in Niger, the next it's some guy stuffing hot dogs down his face. Talk about cognitive dissonance.

Compassion, Iraq Down the Tubes:

Posted straight from Daily Kos:

Getting On With His Life

There's nothing more to say.

Things Fall Apart

Chip Ward writes about global warming and the intricate links between climate and species that are starting to come apart. Today it's marmots and hummingbirds; sooner or later, it'll be the rest of us.

Migrant hummingbirds never made it to Moab this summer. It's not just about polar bears or melting tundra or Eskimos in bikinis. It's everything, everywhere.

Hellish Encounter

Abandon all hope ye who enter here.

There's a pretty devastating article in the current Rolling Stone about how laws are passed--or not--in Congress these days. Warning: it's not for the faint of heart.

(I did appreciate the description of Judiciary Committee chairman James Sensenbrenner as a "Fat Evil Prick", however.)

Giant Sucking Sound

Professionals flee the New Iraq to avoid becoming a statistic:

Iraq is losing the educated elite of doctors, lawyers, academics and businessmen who are vital to securing a stable future. There is also fear that their departure will leave a vacuum to be filled by religious extremists.

Sounds to me like the new Iraq is becoming a lot like the new Iran. This is what our troops are getting killed for??

But we have our permanent military bases, so it's all worth it, right?

Case in Point

An article in the current New Republic describes how attacking Iran could trigger a wider war and why it might do just that.

Dark Mirror

Today is the 60th anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bomb on Nagasaki, three days after Hiroshima. "Anniversary" seems such a strange word here, implying something worth celebrating. But then I don't what words could possibly be appropriate to describe such an obscene event. An article in last Friday's LA Times caught my eye belatedly today, "The Myths of Hiroshima":

The bomb was dropped, as J. Robert Oppenheimer, scientific director of the Manhattan Project, said in November 1945, on "an essentially defeated enemy." President Truman and his closest advisor, Secretary of State James Byrnes, quite plainly used it primarily to prevent the Soviets from sharing in the occupation of Japan. And they used it on Aug. 6 even though they had agreed among themselves as they returned home from the Potsdam Conference on Aug. 3 that the Japanese were looking for peace.

Oppenheimer warned of a "sleazy sense of omnipotence". What a perfect description of the men (and women) who are, even as we speak, leading us toward another war, this time in Iran, with "bunker-busting" nukes as part of their intended arsenal.

The myths of Hiroshima keep us from acknowledging the enormity of the crime that was committed on August 6 & 9, 1945. They keep us believing that destruction on such a massive, random, heartless scale can be justified, even efficacious. They keep us believing that we are by definition the good guys, and that the rest of the world would realize that if they just woke up. In fact none of that is true.

Acknowledging our own capacity for evil might rid us of some of that "sleazy sense of omnipotence". It might even engender some humility. Unfortunately, at the highest levels of this government, humility is non-existent. And the mask of innocence that we hold up to the world isn't fooling anyone anymore, only ourselves.

Texas Chainsaw Massacre

• 49 - the number of vacations that Bush has taken since he was inaugurated in 2001


• 5 - the number of weeks that Bush will spend on vacation, starting yesterday Tuesday; it is the longest presidential vacation in at least 36 years
  


• 319 - August 3, 2005 was the 319th day Bush has spent on vacation since his 2001 inauguration
  


• 20% - the fraction of Bush's presidency that he has spent on vacation*

*Reposted from here.

I know that with modern communications technology one can as easily make a call to, say, the president of Uzbekistan from a ranch in Texas as anywhere--and one can certainly ignore the news of the day as easily from there as anywhere else--but doesn't Bush keep reminding us that he is a "wartime president"? He is either completely blind to the impression that he (correctly) gives of someone who has only a superficial interest in the consequences of his actions--for others--or he doesn't give a damn.

That is, he doesn't give a damn that he doesn't give a damn, and that we all know it.

Conclusion: When the going gets tough, the tough go on vacation.

The troops he has placed in harm's way for the sake of his bullshit crusade don't get a vacation so neither does he, sez I. He wants to clear brush? Let him do it in Baghdad.

Faith-Based Wedgie

George Bush thinks that so-called "intelligent design" should be taught in schools. What a surprise.

Sez he:

“I think that part of education is to expose people to different schools of thought,” Bush said. “You’re asking me whether or not people ought to be exposed to different ideas, the answer is yes.”

I mean, give me a break. George Bush wouldn't recognize a "different idea" if it crept up his shorts.