Miles/Pru

Oh, two things I forgot to post yesterday. They fall under the category of Christians Going Crazy!!!

Defenders of Christianity Rebut 'The Da Vinci Code' All I have to say about this one is, it's fiction - just like the Bible. It's just as much a manipulation of fact and truth and reality as "The Good Book" itself. The best part is that The Da Vinci Code states that it is fiction both in the credits page and in a statement within the book itself. Imagine where we'd be if all these "true" religious texts had to state that they are works of fiction, and that all representations of any one living or dead are purely coincidental.

Which would be true. These texts are all drawn up as a means of control and political power consolidation. If - and this statement will assume that these religious symbols actually existed as real people whose lives could be followed and written about - these books reflect correctly upon the life of any single person who lived at that time it is nothing but coincidence. The fact that the majority of the people living at the time of Jesus and Moses were illiterate, uneducated farmers or fisherman, should probably key people in on the fact that there wasn't a scribe wandering along behind these people taking short hand so that the pearls of religious and post-life wisdom would not be missed. Even if there were this stenographer of Jesus scribbling away on his pad, licking the pencil lead intermittently, how exactly would all of the books be printed, let along disseminated about the populace.

It took hundreds and hundreds of years - actually about 1600 years before copies of the bible were in the hands of anyone other than the many different orders of monks. And of all those orders of monks each one had a separate version of the bible, some more conservative, some less. Not only that, but there is very clear evidence that a large scale internal political battle took place in the foundling church regarding what to include and what not to include in this book about "Hey-Suess" and his posse. Some scholars point to the possibility that the bible was manipulated to fit the situation and the people who were the targets of conversion at the time. Pagans in Europe - their winter solstice holidays were combined into Christmas. Spring solstice is strangely at the same time as the "rebirth miracle" of the walking-dead Christ, no?

The cold fact is that Peter, the "rock upon which I build my church" wanted it to be the way that it is. That's how he set up the church, and you beeyatches better like it or step off. Equality of women? It was cast aside in favor of patriarchy. Marriage and procreation? Jesus' marriage to Mary M., which the preponderance of historical evidence shows to be true (Jesus was a rabbi, and rabbis were married), is negated - as are his children, which are speculation, but are what this whole freakin' hubbub is about. Knights of Templar guarding the bloodline of Jesus, ever heard that one?

It's not that out of line to think that if the founder of Islam and his bloodlines are still alive and well, then Jesus' brood might be pitter-pattering around the globe still. Knowing how heirs act these days, might we be seeing a Holy Night Vision Camera Porno Video of Jesus' Cousin. It'd be an interesting PR campaign that the Catholic Church would have to run to deal with that one. Releasing a porno video of yourself to the internet in the first place is a PR campaign in itself. Maybe it'll be a new recruitment tool for the Church.

Priest Is Arraigned in Killing of Nun

I grew up in Toledo, and the town must be going apeshit over this one. For as small a city as Toledo is, they have a large and powerful local media. 3 or 4 local news stations and a loudmouthed, opinionated paper, which has the title, apt for some of the knife in the gut political attack stories that it has run in the past, The Blade.

I'm in the middle of finals right now (corporate finance on Friday and Operations management on Saturday), so my righteous indignation is set to a low, lackadaisical simmer. It's tiring, you know. I think that I mentioned it before in an earlier post, how the ridiculousness just keeps rolling along - article after article, day after day. It's like running an endless wiffle ball bat gauntlet, in which after a while, the thwack against your skin, the sting of the molded plastic, stings not as much, the humiliation not as great, and your duck-and-cover self preservation routine is set to auto pilot.

Two things that did break through my mental blockade:

Bush acting the pompous privileged asshole on Letterman.

Bush acting the pompous privileged asshole at an American Association of Community Colleges convention in Minneapolis.

Today in the Wall Street Journal:

"Halliburton, which has won business in the Gulf country since the war, did tens of millions of dollars of business with Iraq in the late 1990s, when it was still led by the current U.S. vice president, Dick Cheney. Much of that business was done through French units.

Halliburton won more than $30 million worth of deals with Mr. Hussein's Iraq in the 1990s, U.N. documents show.

The largest part came when Mr. Cheney led the company from 1996 to 2000. Mr. Cheney said during the 2000 election campaign that Halliburton had a policy against trading with Iraq. The Halliburton contracts mentioned in the U.N. documents involved units and joint ventures that came with the purchase of Dresser Inc. in 1998. Those units were sold from December 1999 to April 2001. "Contracts were initiated prior to the merger," a spokeswoman for Halliburton said.

But at least one French unit, Dresser-Rand SA, part of a joint venture in which Halliburton had a 51% stake, registered $6 million of oil spare-parts sales with the U.N. oil-for-food program between 1998 and 2000, after Halliburton acquired Dresser, U.N. documents show.

Ingersoll Dresser Pump Co., the French unit of another joint venture, signed about $25 million of Iraqi contracts at a time when Halliburton owned 49%, documents show."

Sometimes I feel so tired, beaten down from the relentless pounding of just flabbergasting stuff, buried deep in the bodies of articles. You would think that the supreme irony of Cheney being "in a fever" (to quote Woodward) to go after Hussein after doing nearly $100 million in business with him would be a larger issue than it is. Just like Rummy's meeting with the dictator in the early 80's - that was the trip, as far as I know, where the U.S. sold him the WMDs.

What exactly needs to be turned up in order to reveal the corruption and the ulterior motives of this administration? The GOP spin and attack machine puts the celebrated "War Room" of the Clinton campaign and administration to shame. Carville, the Ragin' Cajun, is small potatoes versus some of the world domination politics taking place in the corporate backrooms. Media companies need to be pit-bulling these stories into bloody rags, but it's the opposite that's happening. It's the papers and the TV news that are the meat for the pooches. Clinton engaged in shenanigans on such a small level and yet the column inches multiplied like rabbits in heat. Bush puts us to war, proves himself to be totally and completely asleep at the helm, egregiously participates and encourages his administration to make themselves rich via business interests while in office (ex. Cheney's deferred compensation - doesn't that just make it a huge lump sum once he leaves office - and doesn't that just make it compensation?), and yet the press down nothing but fawn.

The best example is the new attack ad against Kerry by "the Bush Campaign" (I have that in quotes because it's part of the unofficial organization of soft money groups that are supporting Bush via ads at this time (so I quoted a liberal soft money group (ah, the contrast))) regarding Kerry's service in Vietnam. Basically the ad intimates that Kerry did not deserve one of his medals, a purple heart, as he wasn't hurt badly enough to merit one.

I know very little about the military, my grandfather was a WWII veteran so I know some stories, but to the extent that my knowledge allows me to know, you get a purple heart if you hurt yourself in a war zone. Foot gets run over by a jeep when you're rough housing outside the barracks? Purple heart. Kerry was hurt in battle. Not sniffing coke of a stripper's bob's - which was most likely what Bush was up to at the time, that is unless he was driving drunk, or dereliction his duty as a member of the armed forces.

But the issue of medal validity aside, the fact that Bush, a man who is known to have had a not so proud military service in the guard, and who refused to volunteer himself to be ordered to Vietnam, would directly attack the military service of someone who had significant military service, demonstrates the brazenness of him and his campaign. They are brazen about the fact that no one in the press core or the press as a whole would push on the major discrepancy between the two men's services. It would seem to be an obvious point to push on. Bush - you silver spoon, knickers wearing, spoiled brat, you didn't even finish up your service and relied upon the good graces of Pa to make sure you weren't sent someplace where the champagne didn't come chilled. That's what the press should be saying - though without all the embellishment. Something needs to be done, and me complaining about it on my blog does no good.

Pissing into the ocean with hopes of changing the tide. I wish I were the editor of a major paper. I'd be happy to lose my job over mad-dogging the president over these issues. I'd love my phones to be tapped, and to get threatening phone calls from the Rovian dirty tricksters. But alas, I am not.

Bush Says World Owes Israel's Sharon a 'Thank You'

Now the question here for me would be, would that be the whole world in unison? I'd really like to hear the Lebanese and Palestinians get together to say, "Thanks, man. You've really done a great service. If it were not against the bound of nature my children would climb out of their graves to shake your hand. My cousin would be happy to limp his scarred body over to the podium and applaud like the deaf mute that he is now after being nearly killed by a tank round exploding his house."

Zombie style, if all the people that Sharon has killed over his blood drenched reign(this includes his earlier non-presidential, smaller fiefdom reigns as well(a summary reign)), stood up, shaking the dirt off, and shambling up to Sharon to pat him on the back for a job well done, do you think that Sharon would accept the congratulations, or relish having the opportunity of killing them all again?

Secondly, is Bush going out of his way to enrage the Arab world? What lunacy pills is he taking? I'd like to know, because I'd be a millionaire selling that stuff as a party drug.

Reconstructing reality, one small lie at a time.

Pentagon Deleted Rumsfeld Comment

Chuck Hagel, Republican Senator from Nebraska, revealed the long term strategy of the US today. Either June 30th is a complete and total lie, certainly not a magical date as Wolfowitz so delicately put it yesterday, or there is going to be a true Vietnam-like war of attrition for the ultimate control of Iraq.

While the link to the NY Post article above does it some justice, it's actually Al-Jazeera that covers the comments in more depth:

""Why shouldn't we ask all of our citizens to bear some responsibility and pay some price?" Hagel said, even if that price meant death.

The senator also argued that restoring compulsory military service would force "our citizens to understand the intensity and depth of challenges we face"."

"The Nebraska Republican added that a draft, which was ended in the early 1970s, would spread the burden of military service in Iraq more equitably among various social strata.

"Those who are serving today and dying today are the middle class and lower middle class.""

Hegel served in Vietnam, yet I have been unable to confirm if he was drafted or if he volunteered. My gut tells me that he was drafted and would like the rest of the country to understand the trauma of that event on the most visceral of levels. That aside, why would the staunchest of Republicans, in an election year where the Republican president is fighting for his office, put forth such an inflammatory statement, a statement that would lead the nation to believe that the conflict is escalating rather than coming to a quick end as has been said from the beginning of the war? Is he trying to lose the election? Does he think we live in a country where people will celebrate being forced into military service? Am I the one who is deluded thinking that I live in a country where people don't support conscription?

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED, sound familiar? What makes it more frightening is that the president and his top advisors have been speaking of the fact that the conflict will be ending soon. The June 30 date is being drilled into our heads to the point where we will all be expecting the end to take place at that time. Is Bush or Rumsfeld going to fly to Iraq and present the key to the city of Baghdad to Chalabi?

To set up a conscription would take a good deal of time, well beyond June 30th. Possibly into next year or the year after that. Then we start actually training conscripts. That is one big window. Two or three years from now, we start sending off the conscripts? Grist for the mill. What does Congress and the Hill insiders know that we don't? What are we not being told about the real situation over there? Our media certainly does not have unrestricted access. Reporters that get too close end up dead. Who is in any position to tell us anything?

We are left parsing at the fortune cookie comments from Congressmen and Presidents. We have to piece it together ourselves. Reality reconstructed by the people who need to know, the people who might be conscripted, who have to vote on these despicable, vile, power hungry, world renting, civilian killing maniacs.

How deep does this go? It looks like we might hit hell before we hit bottom.

The Magic Number

"Pressed on how Iraq would assume sovereignty amid weeks of spiraling violence, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz called June 30th "just one step in a process," and not "a magical date" in which the U.S.-led occupation will shift responsibilities to a new Iraqi government."

That being said, let's review. Does this sound magical to you?

"Were the coalition to step back from the June 30th pledge, many Iraqis would question our intentions and feel their hopes betrayed. And those in Iraq who trade in hatred and conspiracy theories would find a larger audience and gain a stronger hand."

"On June 30th, Iraqi sovereignty will be placed in Iraqi hands."

"On June 30th, when the flag of a free Iraq is raised, Iraqi officials will assume full responsibility for the ministries of government. On that day, the transitional administrative law, including a bill of rights that is unprecedented in the Arab world, will take full effect."

-- George Bush, Prime Time Press Conference, 4/13/04

No?

What about this?

"One of the essential commitments we've made to the Iraqi people is this: They will control their own country. No citizen of America or Britain would want the government of their nation in the hands of others and neither do the Iraqis. This is why the June 30th date for the transfer of sovereignty will be kept."

Tony Blair, April 16, 2004

You know the reasoning behind why we're there, you also know that the reasoning was flawed and that we were manipulated and lied to, but now that the cost of our mistakes is revealed, how do you feel?

Wronged, enraged, sickened, surprised, wondrous, calculating, pained?

The press up to this point has been banned from taking pictures of coffins, of bodies arriving from overseas, of the wounded. George Bush does not go to the funerals for these soldiers. He visits the smiling wounded at Texas hospitals, but not the wounded who are not camera ready. You need all your limbs and no scarification about the face and neck for TV stardom.

Fresh graves are being opened today. Do you know where, or more importantly, why?

It was interesting to read the review of House of Bush, House of Saud this weekend in the NYT. Tepperman - the reviewer - begins by invoking the idea of conspiracy theories - and about 10 paragraphs in, guts the books main thesis - that the Bush family would act toward their own benefit, rather than the benefit of the US.

To think that the Bushes are so selfless in their Mother Teresa like devotion to the crippled Calcutta untouchable - in this case, average Americans who do not have relationships with Saudi royal families or access to vast resources so to influence the same - is ridiculous. Bush and Company are obviously bettering themselves and their corporate backers. Environmental regulations rollback? Check. Workers health and safety standards returned to pre-progressive Democrat levels? Check. Tax breaks for the extremely wealthy? Check. Tax breaks for massive corporations? Check. More tax breaks for the extremely wealthy? Check again. "Deferred compensation" from one of the major contractors in Iraq? Absolutely.

Tepperman finds the book relies "heavily on innuendo and circumstantial evidence" and that "this kind of conspiracymongering, which borders on self-parody at times . . . threatens to obscure the very real problems in the United States-Saudi relationship." Aren't the very real problems the close relationships between the Saudis and "oil baron" families in the first place. This criticism is wildly circular, it makes your head hurt to think such thinks. The problem itself is the problem itself and it obscures itself when held up for consideration. Philip K. Dick was more straightforward in his in his paranoid ravings about the government doing just what is being nullified in the Tepperman rhetorical contrivance.

But then, in the conservative rag that is The New York post ( which I must admit, I read every day ), I saw this: SAUDIS OIL BUSH RE-ELECTION BID: REPORT A quote:

"Journalist Bob Woodward, during an interview to promote his new book, "Plan of Attack," on CBS's "60 Minutes," said Ambassador Prince Bandar bin Sultan had pledged that the Saudis would try to fine-tune oil prices to prime the U.S. economy for the election, a move they understood would favor Bush's re-election."

Don't be surprised if Elle features new conspiracy-protection wear in its fall fashion issue. Tinfoil hats for all! Block those silly radio waves to your brain. And don't forget that the problems that seem to be problems, really aren't problems at all because those same problems are the problems that don't exist in the first place.

I've been in the Deep South this week, hence the lack of posts. The net connection, while offered by my historic hotel, was not actually working while I was there. While it was nice to be cut off from the flood of work emails for a few days, I could feel their electron waves smashing against the technological seawall. Instead of Google News and my regularly read series of blogs, I was subjected to the flow of CNN and CNBC and MSNBC for my flow of necessary information.

I was in Birmingham, Alabama on Tuesday, lounging on the lumpy bed, watching the Bush press conference. Or speech and response. I attempted to be objective, to allow Bush to prove his point, to push his cause, relieve me of the burden of anger at his action, words, deeds and attitudes. But stumbling over his words while still in the first sentances of a 20 minute statement, Bush slowly began to deflate my balloon of hope, hope of a competent and solid leader. By the time he was equating "brown skin" with Muslims and terror, lack of freedom and democracy, my anger level returned to it's normal simmer. Shock and awe began to set in, 1 year later and 3000 miles away from its intended "brown skinned" victims.

Just to follow up on the A. Scalia note I posted yesterday, looks like it may be more than my own mental tempest in a teakettle

661 AD was the beginning of the end of the unified Islam. Sunnis elected the next leader, while the Shi'a believed that the leadership of Islam was passed down to Mohammed's son-in-law (and cousin). The two did not end up agreeing to disagree. The two ended up in an intellectual and actual war that extends to the present.

In Iraq, the Shi'a were oppressed by the iron fist of the Stalin-worshiping (and Sunni) Saddam Hussein. Hussein, head of the Baath party, and representing the Sunni minority (Sunni are only about 15% of the population in Iraq) used any means possible to retain power - secret police, rape rooms, car batteries attached to Shi'a testicles, absolute control of the media, coups, execution squads, mustard gas, wars of attrition against the Shi'a in Iran.

But in less than one year, the United States has found a way to bring together the two disparate ends of Islam and tie them into a knot of brother and sisterhood. GDub has truly proven himself to be a "uniter and not a divider." I'm certain that Sharon and Arafat will be having romantic candlelight dinners together, caressing each others hands, lip-locking before the temple walls, once Bush works his magic. Obviously he's been holding off these past few years, saving it up for the election.

I can see the platform now. "Uniting Sunni and Shi'a One Oil Rich Despotic Country At A Time! - Bush/Cheney '04" (Copy and paste that slogan here to see what I mean.) It's got such a nice ring.

Imagine what Bush's plan for race relations in the US, or Pakistani/Indian tensions, or bridging the Taiwanese / Chinese gap, could bring. As we lead up to the election, Bush will begin to indiscriminately bomb, shoot and cannon women and children, old men, hospitals, churches, houses, pets, farm fields and orchards, on both sides of these years long divides. US soldiers will be moving through both the gutted urban hell of downtown Detroit killing at random, while at the same time, firebombing the mansions in Grosse Point. Bush's message, "It's for your own good, you stupid, third rate, squalling baby of a people," will raise the people up on high and sew them together as they always should have been. One people.

This strategy of indiscriminate killing "for the good of a united Iraq" is a brilliant one. Nixon was not able to completely carry it out in Laos, Cambodia and North Vietnam in the 1970's, but that is obviously from lack of brains and skill - things that Bush, Cheney, Rice and Rumsfeld just exude. The single minded concentration that the top administration has shown in it's drive to bridge the 1,343 year divide between Shi'a and Sunni was so deep and focused that they could just ignore and shrug off the terrorist attack warnings of 9/11 that we're flashing on radar screens through the summer of 2001.

I'm proud of Bush and his minions. They've done something that no one else has ever been able to do. Those pesky, ridiculous ideological differences between people are nothing to this crack team.

On the horizon, Greeks and Turks, Turks and Armenians, Irish and English, Catholic and Protestant, Orthodox and Catholic, Koreans and Japanese, Chechens and Russians, Serbs and Croats, all embracing, in a street littered with the dead of George Bush's brilliant plan of religious, cultural, national and social unification.

9 AM.

9/11 commission begins its questioning of Condi Rice.

Also, I'm not sure if you listen to Air America, but the Morning Sedition program today spoke about A. Scalia, Republican mouthpiece / Supreme Court Lifetime Member. Scalia was giving a speech at a high school (probably about how he likes to pimp his ride with Cheney while duck hunting in a Humvee) and when he realized that his speech was being taped, he declared that there was no taping allowed. While that's fine and dandy, the marshals that were securing the event went from person to person confiscating the tapes of the speech up to that point.

Really makes you wonder what he was saying that he didn't want repeated. Maybe how he has already come to a decision on the Cheney Energy Task Force case and he's siding with Cheney because he's a good guy and likes to kill things with shotguns. Or that he still giggles in the middle of the night thinking about how he voted to end the recounting of the ballots in Florida, thereby handing the election to an unqualified nincompoop whose father was a close friend to Scalia, and only a marginally smaller nincompoop. Obviously you can't have that recorded.

Well, reality trumps everything in this case, even my joking, sarcastic, ill-humored, pontifications. The speech was about the constitution. Of the United States - just in case it didn't seem to make sense for a moment. I completely understand that feeling of total dislocation, like fantasy and reality have switched places. It it really totalitarian dictatorship in which people in high government office can do whatever they please unbound by decency, common sense, laws, ethics, or morality? Or is it just the same old partisan bickering and Republican hornswaggling of old.

What would have happened had a reporter or one of the high school reporters for the school paper decided not to hand over the tape for the speech? Or decided, God forbid, to keep taping? To Camp X-Ray with you, you little whippersnapper! Maybe hanging out with some innocent caught in the net Afghanis will teach you a lesson!

I've not seen any corroboration of this, but if it's true, then I'm flabbergasted. What the hell is going on over there? If Sky.com is reporting this stuff, what exactly is being filtered out by our pro-war, coddling media outlets here in the states?

Oh, I know. We've decided that indiscriminately killing Iraqis who are protesting the US occupation is not high visibility enough. The crewcut knuckleheads decided that bombing the single thing that would enrage the entire Iraqi populace, whether Sunni of Shiite, pro or con for Saddam, supportive or not of the US, would be the better route to take. Know that saying about an ass, a flashlight and both hands? Well these guys are all asshole and have these massive knucle-dragged gorilla hands. And the best part? -- they really like the tasty peanuts they find while grubbing around down there.

Sometimes it really feels like we're breaking loose from the moorings.

Absolute chaos is bleeding through the badly stitched up wound of Iraq. That roaring sound? It's the flood gates, they've burst. Head for higher ground! Call the sheriff, Pa!

Lunacy in the White House
Jedi mind tricks it would seem are being deployed in defense of an embattled White House.

Statement: We're pulling out by June 30. Iraq becomes sovereign on that day.

Facts:
We've found a way to provoke the Shiite, our largest support base initially. Those stories of people throwing flowers at the tanks (well that didn't really happen, but if it had it would have been Shiite) weren't the Saddam loyal Sunnis. And yet, with out big oaf feet, we kicked the hell out of a wasp nest. Just kept kicking it until Sistanii pulled his head in and Al-Sadr flew out with his Mahdi army.

We're truly at a loss for control. We kill more people, Shiite protestors, and Mahdi militants, the buzzing gets louder. Riots longer. Children as grist. Our "I just wanted a college education but cannot afford one because I am poor minority and there is no Federal or State or Municipal help for me to get my education" soldiers dead, maimed, and so heavily affected by PTSD and depression and alcohol and drugs post USAF, that normal societal functioning is a long shot.

Jedi Mind Trick:
Iraq descends into civil war. Goes Mogadishu on our ass - worse than last weeks attempt to do so. GeeDub speaks out to his critics. You said you wanted out, now we're out. Look at the problem you created by having us pull out.

Chances are, in my opinion, and my opinion means everything to me and so I am blinded by it, we'll send in more troops, move the date into the future, closer to never than sooner, and really start the killing. House to house vs. suicide bombings and car bombs. Special forces forcing their way into barricaded mosques oblivious to the repercussions that it will have on the peaceful Shiite majority. Flash points on the borders with Turkey, Iran, Syria and Kurdistan, which I know doesn't officially exist, but it will absolutely attempt to exert authority.

We have so little understanding of the exotic "desert people." Said's Orientalism is dead on the mark. Anyone see Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Mummy, The English Patient? Ooo, the magical desert kingdoms. That blinding romanticized understanding. the image of Bush in the White House media room, masturbating, brow furrowed in concentration, with Lawrence of Arabia blaring on the surround sound DVD - screaming "I am the Scorpion King!" just before he daintily cleans up with Kleenex, feeling terribly shamed.

The ham handed handling of the Shiite in Iraq is just the proof in the pudding. We are not conquering heroes who become one of the desert warriors. We are the sunburned masses, confused and sunstroked, staring awed at the former center of the Muslim empire. That one that gave us medicine and mathematics and culture beyond the shit-stacking Middle Ages peasants of Europe.

Oh, and by the way, the New York Times online today had advertising for the US Army, "If you speak Arabic, you can be one of us. US Army" Help kill your fellow Muslims! Maybe even your own countrymen! Come one, come all. Maybe we'll stop the FBI from investigating you and your family if you do!

Halliburton - hearts - Cheney
I can just see Cheney making eyes at a demure Halliburton over the table at a dark and secluded DC den of iniquity. One of those places where all the punch-drunk with power politicos go for a cheap dinner and an easy measly lay. I can see Dick, rubbing elbows with Frist - there with his date, who's gussied up in tight fitting scrubs - and Lott, ball gag firmly winched in, with his African-American valet. Oh! It's a place of such right-wing fun, that you list when you leave, a rolling drunken sailor like gait. Everyone's invited, if you're white, rich and male. Otherwise, take off your pants, and lay down on the buffet table, cause the Senate lets out at 8 and they'll be needing some satiation. All the better if you're Democrat, or like to scream loudly about injustices, it just gets those GOPs all a-jiggle with righteous joy.

It's good that we have this whole Iraq thing as a distraction, or someone might set up an independent counsel to investigate.

#1 Chinese!
Not number one in my heart, but pretty ok none the less.

I needed a washroom. Walking into the bathroom, hidden in the back of the underground lounge, staring directly into the face of the woman who had just finished using the toilet, I backed out sheepishly. I wandered a bit more, stared at the spotted eel in the huge aquarium, looked at a strange guy sitting alone in the corner drinking beer, he was rubbing his hands on his thighs back and forth, which made me think he was high on ecstasy, which then made me wonder why exactly he would come to the basement of a newly opened "uber" trendy Alphabet City place and drop an E only to drink beer in the corner alone. But I guess there was an eel, and it was, as expected, slithery. So that must have made it all worth it. it certainly makes you think twice about what imbecilic things that you did when you were high.

I caught another man out of the corner of my eye, searching as I was for the bathroom. So I began to tail him around the basement lounge. He went into the "women's restroom" that I had already entered and been shooed away from, so I snuck in behind him. He turned quickly and looked at me and said, "So! You were following me!" I said, "Yeah," and ran into the nearest stall. I'm glad I didn't have to pee next to him at the urinals. But as the entire bathroom was stalls - it was the women's bathroom. We were just lucky to enter when there were no women. But there were fifty year old photos of naked Chinese women on the inside wall of the stall. I can't imagine that most women would enjoy that, plus they wouldn't be facing it even if they wanted to. I guess you could sit astride the toilet looking up at the picture. That's just uncomfortable and awkward though.

I did find out from the waiter later that evening, that the bathroom I used IS the women's bathroom. The men's was a closet hidden off of the bar.

We ordered a bottle of sake, were told that they didn't have bottles of sake, we said, "It's on the menu", so they then brought us a bottle of sake. It was good, though like with wine, I never remember the name. The food was spotty. The roast pork was great. But I don't think that 4 slices is really considered an appetizer. The Szechwan Green beans were also good. Problem is though that the restaurant is dark. Not in a romantic way, in an I don't want to see your face because you thoroughly disgust me and I don't want anyone to know I'm here with you kind of way. So half drunk on sake, it turns out that wolfing down Szechwan style anything is a really bad idea. You can normally see those little black peppers that are liberally sown through the dish, but with liquor and pitch blackness overwhelming me I ate about five fiery little suckers. I knew upon chewing them that I was in some trouble. It should have occurred to me to spit them out into my napkin. But as I mentioned, sake. Long story short, burning mouth, tongue, throat, stomach, chasing it with sake, water, white rice, brown rice, only to end up with violent hiccups and chili burping. I did my best to hide it, and other than the sweat on my brow, which it was far to dark to see, I retained my dignity and poise.

If you take a frog, a large croaking, struggling bullfrog, and lower it gently into a pot of water, it will, in most cases feel very comfortable, and will ribbit contentedly. Put that pot on the stove and turn on the heat. Slowly increase the flame. The frog will not leap from his impending death. He’ll become sleepy, warm, and comfortable. After many minutes, the water will boil, and there’ll be nothing but a flaccid green corpse floating on the roiling, boiling bubbles.

That frog – that’s you and me, and your parents and your spouse, your family and friends, your pets, your house, car, and nest egg. I said it was a big frog.

Now, you’re in the pot. It’s nice, a bit echo-y, but nice. Confinement sometimes is mistaken for cozy. It depends on how nice the cell is. If your fairy frogmother popped into existence there in front of your face, a little blurry edged magical thought bubble floating right there before you with a green frog face smack in the middle of it, beatific and comforting smile on her mug, and she told you, “You better jump the fuck out of the pot! They’re going to boil you to death,” you’d (if you believed in fairy frogmothers, or if you see them all the time and believed this one’s warning) most likely jump out of the pot.

Now, you’ve decided to jump out. But your moves are telegraphed, either you say out loud to yourself, “I’m gonna jump the fuck out,” or you tremble all over with the effort of getting ready to jump out of that pot, whatever it is, you give away your intentions completely.

A looming white face crescent-moons the top of the pot, frowns at your about to jump the fuck out efforts, and slams a lid down on the pot. That body, connected to that man-in-the-moon face, doesn’t bother gently turning up the heat anymore, he just turns the dial all the way to the top, snaps it off, gets a bellows and a quart of kerosene and does all that he can to make the fire hotter faster. You jump and jump and jump, your little smooth green head thumping valiantly against the lid.

But it’s hot, getting really steamy too, and it’s pitch black. Your head hurts and things, if it weren’t dark as deep space, would look off-kilter, blurry and doubled to you. You’ve got a severe concussion. You can barely think straight. But you keep throwing yourself, with weakening, dying force against the lid. You’re panicking. You’re being killed. Your desire to live flares ever brighter as you begin to fade. “I should have jumped the fuck out faster than I did,” you lament.

That’s still you, still dead. Floating on the roiling, boiling waters.

The moral of the story is: jump the fuck out of the pot. Vote Bush out of office. Take control of your destiny and that little chad poker that is your voice.

Your freedoms are slowly being taken away from you. Those really are flames on your ass; it’s not just flashbacks from those forgotten college weekends. It really is scarier to be alive in America today than it was 5 years ago. Remember that fear (those of you who were kids during the Regan years might remember a fear but cannot pin it to anything specific (remember the dreams you had of dying in a nuclear explosion when you were nine? (Remember The Day After? Red Storm Rising?) All that stems from the same nugget of fear) of knowing that the people in charge were putting your ass on the line, regardless of what you thought about it.

Right now, your ass is on the line again, but you’re no longer a kid.

The pot is boiling; you’re going to be dropped straight in without the courtesy of a kiss on the head or a slow comfortable hot-tub like simmer.

Complacency is the mother of repression.

Fallujah Footage - Watch and Decide for yourself.

So, 4 American civilians, in an eerie echo of 1993 Mogadishu (trivialized mercilessly by Ridley Scott two years ago), were killed, burned, torn to pieces and strung up in Fallujah. Iraqis going crazy in blood lust (not that surprising granted their situation, but I won't digress on that point) celebrating a small, yet resounding victory for themselves and their cause.

The "American News Media", some outlets just kind of pro-war, like a soft pat on the presidential back. Others (the obvious, Fox News) among the I like to wear the ears of my fallen enemies as a necklace, oh and by the way Mr. President, I am finished licking your ass clean (Roger Ailes), kind of war supporters.

Now assume that reporting is completely objective, like you learn in school before you're hired on as a Jr. Staffer by one of the largest media conglomerates in the world. We tell you, or show you, what happened, or is happening at wherever or from wherever that news is. To crib/paraphrase from Fox, We Report, You Decide. Objectivity is certainly implied, but like watching the network, you start to realize it was left out for a reason.

Now would these not be a questions that might enter someone's mind if they say truly objective footage and reporting, "Why are we there? Why is this happening? Should we not be doing something to prevent this from happening?" Maybe even a, "We should probably pull out of that mess as quickly and cleanly as possible." Or a "Who the hell put us in this situation where we have driven people to such a blood lust." Or "Who voted those two into office. I certainly didn't. I didn't vote." You would think that footage like that would elicit that line of questioning.

So, as that type of reporting and footage would create that type of response, why have you not seen that type of response? Ask your neighbor, the Long Island secretary on the other side of the divider or your shelfball playing, ESPN watching buddy from Accounts. They don't seem that affected by the footage or what happened, I imagine. Barring the fact that like most people they do not read or watch the news - you have to ignore ignorance in these straw man arguments or the thing just falls apart. They don't seem that affected because they didn't see anything that's affecting. They were told, that's affecting. But like you learn in Fiction Writing 101, show don't tell. And yes that simile is apt, I look at it as fiction writing. Since the moment you begin to move away from 1st person actually there, the reality of something happening dulls, and becomes less real. And in that space, manipulation is the only tool available to make it palatable. Otherwise, it's just some drunken ex-reporter crackpot holding a soapbox sermon at the end of the bar.

Now knowing that anger is expected. Anti-War in Iraq sentiment aroused. Oust Bush vitriol spit. A feeling of speeding out of control shivering down one's spine. Where is it? Oh, well, we decided not to show that footage because it's too graphic in nature. It is war granted, and they are Americans being mauled and killed, but we don't feel Americans should see that We feel that just saying it happened, even though we have real footage, is enough. We don't want to upset a suckling at the teat public.

A sin of omission? Let's see:

"Fox News Channel planned to limit its images to the burning vehicles in which the men had been riding - and to shots of joyous crowds in Fallujah.

"We have no plans to show more graphic footage," said Bill Shine, vice-president of production. What CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer called "a day of horror," when five U.S. soldiers also were killed, was largely described rather then seen on the cable news channel."

This is Fox News we're talking about here. They would rather demonize the Iraqis, which we have been killing for the past year. Wouldn't people celebrating the killing of people be just as graphic? It's probably just as sickening if you consider it. People celebrating, covered in blood. Stinking of charred flesh, but happy about it. Showing the bodies doesn't make it any worse. It just gives it context. otherwise, you just have happy people, happy about the killings.

"In Paris, LCI television station showed the footage of the bodies being dragged down the street and hanging from the bridge, without blurring them."

The French got to see it. They're pretty anti-war too if I'm not mistaken. Why is the "axis of weasel" shown something so horrible as to make one explode in anger. While the US is treated to, "It was terrible, believe you me."

As an aside, This is reminiscent of the celebrating Palestinians footage from 9/11. The footage that was proven to be false. Yet never retracted. It's much better to show celebrating Iraqis, cementing the support of the war, rather than showing it all. There are celebrating Iraqis in there.

I think that what we would need to have is American soldiers high fiveing after shooting Iraqi teenagers during the war. Or the fighter pilots pumping their fists as they laser guided bombed the hell out of a "strategic target." Just go to Robert Fisk's website and see what the bombs hit or what the tank rounds incinerated. Just go somewhere and get a good idea of what's happening.

Wolf Blitzer in his ever creative lexicon decided that "a day of horror" suitably covered the issue. Good to know. I'll know that when I'm offered a day of horror what to expect. 1994 Rwanda, is that a really really really big day for horror? We didn't see footage of that either. Not that anyone missed it. It's Africa for Christ's sake. One of the largest countries on earth and the only stories that slip through into TV news coverage are, well, none.

Looking at Mr. Shine's comment, that seems to be the theme here in the States at this time. "We have no plans to show more graphic footage." So says CBS, so says NBC, so says TNT, etc. Obviously we're not talking about news here anymore. So I'll stop.