reason # 3,765 not to start a land war in Asia

The authorities tend to be corrupt.  On a related note I am re-reading Charlie Wilson's War, it is a good book but at a second read it poses some interesting questions about the projection of American power. More on that later...

Gaza photo blog

see Sarah Palin pictures

see Sarah Palin pictures

see Sarah Palin pictures

robot menace update

Ezra Klein points out this NYT peice.

Robots have fared best, Dr. Teller said, in highly structured environments made just for them, and in the company of other robots. “If you took a welding bot from an assembly line and put it in your local body shop, it would end up killing somebody in about 30 seconds,” he said. “It would weld a person to a wall.”

It is almost go time folks.

remebrance day poem: dulce et decorum est

"Dulce et Decorum Est "

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of tired, outstripped Five-Nines that dropped behind.

Gas! GAS! Quick, boys! -- An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling
And flound'ring like a man in fire or lime . . .
Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light,
As under I green sea, I saw him drowning.

In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.

If in some smothering dreams you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues, --
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.

Wilfred Owen

Update: Here is a good article on Wilfred Owen.

what he said

Paul Campos at Lawyers, Guns and Money, is worth quoting at length.  His description of the "Cult of 9/11" nails it. 

If someone close to you died in the 9/11 terror attacks this isn't intended for you. For you, this is a day of legitimate mourning and real grief, and this is about phony mourning and simulated grief...

Consider that for every American murdered by terrorists on September 11, 2001, fifty have been murdered by ordinary everyday made-in-America violence in the seven years since.

Consider that for every American murdered by terrorists, somewhere between 200 and 600 Iraqis have died as a direct consequence of our invasion of that country: a country which had nothing to do with 9/11, although perhaps 100 million Americans still don’t understand this -- a fact which itself is a direct and intended consequence of the Bush administration’s calculated lies.

Consider that the money spent, so far, on the invasion of a country that had nothing to do with the 9/11 attacks would be more than enough to pay off the entire mortgage of every foreclosed home in the United States.

You will hear nothing like this from any national politician today, because the Cult of 9/11 considers any criticism of its central principle to be a horrible heresy.

Instead we will get phony mourning and simulated grief, from our leaders and our media, as they continue to pretend that the events of that terrible day justify the money, and the invasions, and the torture, and the lawbreaking, and all the other very real transformations of our national life that have been undertaken in the name of our dread of a threat that, in all truth, might as well be as imaginary as the killer in a horror film.

Read the whole thing.

Chaos, drama, death ctd.

The rest of the story is that apparently Hate took me serious when i said she was mad at the wrong person. Thumbs now has two black eyes and a fat lip. obviously this is a sensitive issue but HAHA and I have been laughing for like an hour. Not. Nice. People.

HC holds no grudge against me.(For once.)

Russia is done spanking Georgia.

Bernie Mac still dead.

Isaac Hates still dead.

its always Munich, its always 1938.

Of course the usual suspects are at their keyboards ginning up another war. John Cole covers the salient points.
Shorter Ygelsias: Bill Kristol is a warmongering nutjob with no ideas.