Bad Company

I read this headline and it was a reality moment for me: "U.S. and China criticize climate report." Yup. I guess that's where we are. It's America and Red China, together at last.

We're peas in a pod now. We both torture. We both hold people indefinitely without charge. Who? Well, pretty much anybody who looks crossways at us. We're both in a religious war - us against Islam (exactly what Osama wanted), the Chinese against all religions (I side with them on that one).

Free speech? Only up to a point - agreed. Talk smack on the Leader and see how fast your taxes get audited. Speaking of taxes, both are countries with sharply divided "haves" and "have-nots." Wealthy and politically well-connected elites rule - both countries.

Of course, we're still bush-league at authoritarianism. It's a new toy for us. Cheney has the inclination for it, as does Georgie. They're just terrible fumblers.

What I didn't expect, along with the happy support of the US media, was that they could find so many people to work for their China-like government. Who knew there were so many Americans who were eager to work for a despot?

Take my rights, please!

So here we are again, lining up with China to water down a report on Global Warming. The two great despoilers of the planet look at a report on environmental devastating, and say: "isn't this a bit harsh?"

It was only 2,000 pointy-headed science types who put the report together - how can they expect to know more than all the eminent evangelists advising the Junta? Or the party-approved scientists of China?

Of course, the plan they hash out has to be approved unanimously, so expect all countries to agree that air exists and that the earth is a certain temperature in certain places, and possibly a different temperature in other places.

That's what passes for science in a backward authoritarian tinpot dictatorship.

And in China.

DONE!!!

We got MOSS!!!!! Deal done! RANDY MOSS IS A PATRIOT!!!!!

The league is on notice: the Patriots are the team to beat. Period.

Moss. Donte Stallworth. Wes Welker. Kelly Washington. Jabar Gaffney. Reche Caldwell. Ben Watson. Dave Thomas. Troy Brown?

Good lord. I'm stunned. We have the best QB in the league, and now we have the best WR in the league.

MOSS!!!!!!

The NFL Network's Adam Schefter is reporting that the Raiders have traded WR RANDY MOSS to the Patriots for a 4th round pick, pending Moss passing a physical at the Pats facility this morning. Personally, I'd just be grabbing him, but whatever.

RANDY MOSS playing for the PATRIOTS!!!! The cost: one fourth round slappy.

How do you think the Jet, Bills, and Fins fans are doing right now? BRADY to MOSS guys!

HahahHahahahah!!!!!

V and Football

Before I get to a brief run-down of the NFL draft (first three rounds) yesterday, allow me to comment on something I noticed in re-watching the movie V for Vendetta. I actually read the comic V back when it first came out in a British black-and-white newsprint combo comic called Warrior in 1982. It was written by the great Alan Moore, though Moore chose to take his name off the film credits.

And the comic was much better than the film, though the film was very very good. The comic was pure genius.

In both, the character V is frequently referred to as a "terrorist." And that's gone without comment, other than some remarks in the 'making of' video. But here's the thing: V was not a terrorist.

Oh, sure he killed lots of people. But who did he kill? Government agents. People wearing uniforms. People ion the employ of the fascist government. The research doctor who had committed crimes against humanity - and against V. The "Voice of Fate" - a civilian who had been the military camp commander in the place where thousands were tortured, experimented on, and killed.

I challenge anyone to find an instance in the comic or movie where V killed someone who was not either an active government agent (military, police, ministry employee) or a former agent who had committed illegal acts (by recognizable international standards).

So V was more of a guerrilla - a partisan, a revolutionary. And though he may have induced terror among the bad guys, no person who was innocent had anything to fear from him.

Because a 'terrorist' in our understanding is a person who attacks civilians in order to create public fear. Terrorists try to provoke a response that they believe will help their cause. Terrorists believe that their cause is far more important than the public's right to not be killed by them.

But a uniformed soldier (and V does wear a uniform) who attacks other uniformed combatants is a soldier fighting a war. Does he attack in sneaky ways, often silently? Sure. So do our Special Forces.

The point is that when you put on a uniform and pick up a weapon, you've taken sides against those who oppose people wearing that uniform. You are a declared combatant, and must be prepared to deal with the consequences.


Football

Interesting day in the draft. The Raiders didn't do the outlandishly stupid thing by passing on QB JeMarcus Russell. The Jets traded up, the Browns traded in, and the Patriots traded out.

The Jets, led by Belichick protege Eric Mangini, traded up to get the top CB on their board (second on most others) Darrelle Revis. Revis is reported to be a guy who can fill many roles - play safety, return kicks. And that's a good thing in the Jet (Patriots) system. They also traded up in the second round to grab ILB David Harris. As Mangini installs his 3-4 defense, it's crucial to have good ILB's, so I think it was a good value for them to get these two guys, even though they had to spend most of their picks to get them.

Cleveland, under another Belichick guy Romeo Crennell, pulled off a coup. With the third overall pick, they took OT Joe Thomas, a guy who will solidify their OL for a decade. Great pick - even though they're still shaky at QB.

But when QB Brady Quinn was still there at #22, having tumbled down past Miami at #9, the Browns traded up with Dallas to take him. They overpaid by the standard of the trade chart that most teams use, but I don't fault them for that. They had a once-in-a-lifetime chance to grab a blue-chip QB at #22 to go with their blue-chip OT, and they did what they had to do to get him. He couldn't have slipped much further before some else - even bumbling Miami - would have traded up from the second round.

Yes, Miami bumbled, thankfully. The Billed took a predictable RB to replace Willis McGahee - a classic misuse of a draft pick (replacing a guy you should have held on to in the first place), and are little improved. The Jets got better. And Miami blew their chance, taking Ted Ginn, a tiny little guy who will help their return game (as long as he stays healthy) but has about zero receiving skills. Then in the second round, they reached for 26-year-old BYU QB John Beck.

So it's still going to be a two-team division in the future.

So how did the Pats do?

They took a safety, as predicted. But with their other first round pick (#28), they traded out. They got a 2008 first rounder (from SF - that will be a good pick) and a fourth this year. Their next pick was in the third round (#91) they traded with the Raiders and hot a third next year and a sixth this year. Of course, the Raiders third next year will be closer to 65 than 91, so it's a significant upgrade.

My take is that Belichick and Pioli didn't see the value in the top rounds this year and opted out. Also, I think they see a lot of depth in the second day picks and loaded up to get lots - they have two 4ths, one 5th, four 6ths, and two 7ths. That's nine second day picks to the one guy they took day one - S Brandon Meriweather.

Look for them to slide up and down the picks today, trading up and own to stockpile picks and target guys they really want. anything goes - the value of these late round picks is perceived to be far less, so there is no media scrutiny or fan backlash to worry about. With that many picks, they can take some chances on guys they feel good about.

Look for at least one OL and one RB. Other than that, who knows?

I buy draft magazines less for the big name guys than for the 'who dats.' When the Pats take those sixth rounders, I'll be ready to get a perspective on them.

And thank goodness for NFL Network - gavel to gavel today.

Draft Day

It's draft day again in the NFL. I haven't really kept up with it this year, which is a shame because it looks to be an interesting show today. The Raiders are up first, having cashed in on Art Shell's ability to lost to virtually any other coach at the professional, and I daresay, college levels. One thing you can depend on with Oakland: they will blow the pick.

Really, their best bet is to trade down and cash in on multiple first-day picks. They have virtually no chance to compete, so why not load up on kids? But of course, what remains of Al Davis is on a forty-year Ahab-like quest to prove that he's better and smarter than the NFL. He's no where near as charming as as Don Quixote, and his mission has a significantly lower chance of succeeding.

The mistake I think he'll make will be in taking Brady Quinn from Notre Dame over either Jamarcus Russell from LSU or that WR Calvin Johnson fror Georgia Tech. Quinn flamed out in the pressure games at ND. Plus, ND coach Carlie Weis would be all over the media if he really thought this kid was special. I think this will be another Mirer/Bledsoe or Manning/Leaf - Quinn will flop and Russell will be a star.

The can't miss guy is supposed to be Johnson. Apparently he's a really special. We'll see.

Looking at the Patriots, they have some obvious holes on the roster, but far fewer holes than this time last year. They've addressed all their potential problem areas, though the solution in some is less than complete.

They have a problem at LB, but have partially addressed it with the signing of phenom multi-role Adalius Thomas. Thomas can run with RB's, cover, and hit with OG's. He's 270 lbs and plays like 170. But the rest of the LB corps are getting old.

Playing Thomas with Rosy Colvin bookended at the other OLB spot leaves Bruschi and Vrable inside. But ideally you want Thomas to be able to play multi-roles, and for that you need depth at LB, which this team does noty have. It would help if Junior Seau could come back for another final year. He was extremely effective as a run-stuffing ILB last year before breaking his arm (with Seau, we win the Super Bowl).

That said, the Pats absolutely despise rookie LB's. The few that Belichick has drafted in the pats few years have flopped. The only exception was Tully Banta-Can, who had one decent year as a starter and fled to SD in free agency. Thanks for the memories.

So I don't think we'll see a LB taken on day one - the Pats have two firsts and a third (their second went to Miami for WR/PR Wes Welker). And Belichick believes in developing OL from late rounds into starters - except for OLT, the key spot on the line. If the team believes (as others have said) that OLT Matt Light has lost it, there could be a pick there. But I don't see it - there's some quality depth on the bench right now, and other guys can play (and have played) the OLT spot effectively if Light is no longer the answer.

So no OL pick.

The other trouble spot is WR. If they'd re-signed Deion Branch last season, they would have won the Super Bowl. They were so close and virtually any break or improvement would have won it for them. Anyway, they've added Donte Stallworth, Welker, and Kelly Washington,. all quality guys to add to Reche Caldwell, Jabar Gaffney, second year second round pick Chad Jackson, Kelvin Kight (recently re-signed), Bam Childress, and possibly a return by the great Troy Brown.

I think they're set. So no WR.

QB - sure. Tom Brady needs the competition.

TE - we lost Daniel Graham in free agency, but picked up Kyle Brady to replace him. Not a bad trade - Brady can block, but is not as athletic as Graham. No prob. Ben Watson came into his own last season. Because of the lack of a WR threat, Brady tried to squeeze the ball to Watson too often and defenses keyed on him. With the decent WR's we have now, Watson could go all-pro this year. He's an amazingly athletic TE. Garrett Mills and Dave Thomas were both effective as H-backs/TE's in their rookie season last year, so there is quality depth.

So no TE.

Our DL is young deep and talented. If we get any depth there, it won't be Day one. No DL.

That leaves two areas of the field where I believe the picks will fall. First, DB. Asante Samual tied the NFL lead for picks with 10 last year, and now wants to get paid. We could easily lose him, so we signed Tory James to back up or start in that slot. We have Randall Gay (injury-plagued as he is), Ellis Hobbs, and Chad Scott for corners. With injuries decimating the secondary in the past few years, it's smart to go here early and often.

The same is true for the two safety spots. The great Rodney Harrison can't seem to stay on the field anymore, which is tragic. This is a different defense with Harrison's intelligence, swagger, coverage, and freight-train hitting on the field. Eugene Wilson is not even listed on the NFL.com roster for the team - go check it out. Wilson was switched to FS from CB in his rookie year, and can be effective in that spot. He wasn't the same guy without Harrison back there, and then got hurt.

I'd say safety is the #1 priority on the defense. They seeem to get hurt more often, and we have less depth there. At the end of the searingly painful AFC Championship game lats year, we were playing Rashad Baker and Med Mitchell - third or worse on the depth chart - against Peyton Manning and Marvin Harrison. Not a pretty sight.

The other spot (have you guessed?) is RB. Corey Dillon's wheels came off completely last year. He got old and tired virtually overnight. He's been released (after some BS about wanting to go play somewhere else) and is expected to retire. He gets the departure salute from me - he was key in our last SB win, and you can't say that about a lot of guys on the planet.

But Laurance Maroney had his own troubles last year. He was dazzling at times, showing big play speed and a lot of toughness. But he hurt his shoulder badly and we don't know if he can be an every-down back in the NFL. He was great in a thunder-and-lightening scheme along with Dillon, but the jury's out on him being a featured back.

So I think the Pats go RB with one of their first round picks.

What I expect is some sort of surprise move by Belichick. The Pats are the only team in the draft with more than one first round pick (at 24 & 28), and that gives him some leverage. There's been some talk about a shoulder injury to RB Adrian Peterson which may cause him to fall. If Peterson - or anybody else Belichick likes - falls to the 15-20 area, look for the Pats to make a move up the board.

Belichick is great at taking players based on talent and value over need. And his draft last year was brilliant. The Colts were stunned when we took Maroney - who would have gone for 2000 yards in that Colt offense.

If there is anybody at any position that Belichick and GM Scott Pioli think is special, they'll get him. That's one thing that Jimmy Johnson said he discussed with Belichick: if you identify a guy you want, go get him.

It should be interesting watching the Raiders and Lions take the exactly wrong guy again this year, and the Patriots take exactly the right guy 25 picks later.

Condo

Condo Rice doesn't want to testify under oath about what she said and did in the run-up to the Iraq fiasco. And it's quite understandable that she wouldn't want to - but can she refuse a Congressional subpoena?

Hopefully, we're still enough of a democracy to compel our political servants to answer the people's questions - right. Just kidding there. This would probably devolve into another Gonzo "I don't recall" session anyway, but it's worth doing.

Condo Rice was the central player in the lead-up (lie-up) to the war, even more so that Rummey or Darth Cheney. Sure, the uber-NeoConvicts were slavering for blood - oil tankers full of the stuff. And they churned out their own bad intel when the CIA wouldn't do their dirty work well enough.

But there was also Colin Powell, who seems to have had a glimmer of a notion that this whole thing was badly mangled from the get-go. There was bad intel, there was sloppy haphazard and non-existent planning, and the whole operation was as faith-based as a Creation Science seminar.

Which brings us to Condo. It's the role of the National Security Advisor to balance the powers in the White House, and ensure that the president receive only good and valid intelligence material. Condo, no NeoChickenHawk herself by all reports, failed to stand up and do her job.

Cheney and Rummy got their way - their "stovepiped" intel was all that little Georgie saw. Their raspy malevolent voices were all that he heard. It was Condo's job to prevent that, and she failed utterly.

The Niger uranium story is illustrative - and the one that Congressman Waxman wants to ask her about. They know from the get-go that the story was false. And by the way there never been an investigation into the forged documents that were passed to the Italians.

There was no uranium deal, ever. They knew that before Joe Wilson went there - and knew it for sure afterward. And yet they still pushed the story - Condo herself pushed it years after it was publicly discredited.

Was she simply intimidated by the Faustian presence of Cheney? She did actively participate in the lies - did she buy into the project and want to help Rummy sell his war to the little boss?

Stay tuned - this is just the opening salvo of what will be a long war to take down the Junta.

One other thing - this is why the miniscule amout of oversight in the do-nothing Congress was done - to give people like Condo cover. Her line is: 'hey - I already answered everything.'

Sure, in the don't-ask-don't-tell world of the Repub Congress, she got hit with a few questions that she danced around. But real investigation was never done on the most important question qabout this gang of crooks: who told what lie to who and when did they tell it? Sure, it'll be a long list, but worth compiling.

Watch for that theme in Junta responses: "hey, we covered that already." Yes, in the same sense that a Piper Cub is the same as a B-52, the questions were answered. They were questions, and answers were put forward. But never in a way intended to get to the truth. Always in a way to justify Junta actions and give cover to their operatives like Condo and Gonzo.

Well, gas up the bombers. It's time.

Let's Go There

Finally, evidence that there is a planet outside our solar system that might be able to sustain life. My question is this: how soon can we go there?

Because this planet is nearly as screwed up as it's ever been.

Aside from the Hitler/Stalin/Hirohito period, which may well be the most evil passage in world history, our time is right up there is pure awful nastiness. There are a lot of theories about that. Glenn Greenwald was quoting the late lamented David Halberstam on that. His take was that since WWII we've become increasingly arrogant and over-confidant in our strength.

Nuclear weapons have a lot to do with it. There is virtually no threat of anybody invading and occupying the US (Red Dawn be damned), so we're cocky and looking to cause trouble.

But I think its more than that. The US has been cursed with a malleable and malicious extreme right wing. This cabal has grown adept at hiding its true nature, and also in using the tools of media to create illusions among the voting populace.

If you go back through the history of Rightists in America, you will see that they only believe in two core principals: racism and the power of money. Everything else is negotiable.

As an example, both before and after WWII, Repub's called for isolationism and economic protectionism (tariffs). They wanted nothing to do with a devastated Europe and Asia. They wanted to hide behind the bomb and stay within our shores.

Harry Truman saw how blind and defenseless this would make us. He saw that in the new bi-polar world, we would have to build and maintain a system of alliances, and make commitments to our friends and allies.

Long story short, it worked and we won the Cold War. The Repubs offered the statue-like Ike, the malevolent Nixon, the bumbling Ford, the truly lost Reagan, and the confused Poppie during that span. We won the Cold War despite them.

What did they have in common? What were the defining characteristics of these presidents that shows them to be Repubs to the core?

Well, they all used racism to win office. Ike was 1952-60; Jim Crow was his campaign director in the South. Nixon was Nixon - he cheated and screwed everybody. Reagan was the first real NeoConvict president - he gutted the Civil Rights division and would have done more if he could have stayed awake a few more hours in the day. Poppie had Willie Horton.

Now Georgie has Rove, and "voter fraud."

They all gave tax breaks to those who needed it least by claiming it increased the economy - a claim that is supported by nothing. They grew the government while claiming to believe in small government. They played to the "social conservatives" but never actually did anything for them.

But Geiorgie is the worst of all. He has entirely gutted the US government of all pride and capability. He came in believing that government couldn't do anything right, then screwed everything up himself to prove it.

The point is (there is a point) that the absolute rock-bottom lowest impulses of the American culture have been its over-riding unquestioned authority for six years, and have created the kind of dystopia that only true sociopaths could make. It's what they do.

Here's your example for today (there is, literally, an example of their deadly horror in the papers every day of the week going back six years. Amazing.):

OSHA, the agency charged with protecting workers, is being run by a former industry deregulation advocate and has not issued new workplace regulations since 2000. Really.

Meanwhile, people are being killed, maimed, and sickened needlessly.

Across Washington, political appointees — often former officials of the industries they now oversee — have eased regulations or weakened enforcement of rules on issues like driving hours for truckers, logging in forests and corporate mergers.

Since George W. Bush became president, OSHA has issued the fewest significant standards in its history, public health experts say. It has imposed only one major safety rule. The only significant health standard it issued was ordered by a federal court.

The agency has killed dozens of existing and proposed regulations and delayed adopting others. For example, OSHA has repeatedly identified silica dust, which can cause lung cancer, and construction site noise as health hazards that warrant new safeguards for nearly three million workers, but it has yet to require them.

“The people at OSHA have no interest in running a regulatory agency,” said Dr. David Michaels, an occupational health expert at George Washington University who has written extensively about workplace safety. “If they ever knew how to issue regulations, they’ve forgotten. The concern about protecting workers has gone out the window.”

They see working men and women as industrial cannon fodder. Who's the sociopath in charge of protecting workers?

Mr. Foulke, the OSHA chief, has a history of opposing regulations produced by the agency he now leads. He has described himself as a “true Ronald Reagan Republican” who “firmly believes in limited government.” Before coming to Washington last year, Mr. Foulke, a former Republican Party state chairman in South Carolina and top political fund-raiser, worked in Greenville, S.C., for a law firm that advises companies on how to avoid union organizing. Representing the United States Chamber of Commerce, he had testified before Congress several times to promote voluntary OSHA compliance programs. He also opposed the ergonomics standards.

And as a member in the 1990s of an independent agency that reviews OSHA citations, he led a successful effort to weaken the agency’s enforcement authority.

Early in his tenure at OSHA, Mr. Foulke delivered a speech called “Adults Do the Darndest Things,” which attributed many injuries to worker carelessness. Large posters of workers’ making dangerous errors, like erecting a tall ladder close to an overhead wire, were displayed around him.

“Kids don’t always know what their parents do all day at work, but they instinctively understand the importance of them working safely,” he told the audience, which included children who had won a safety-poster contest. “In contrast, adults could stand to learn a thing or two. Looking at the posters, I was reminded of a couple examples of safety and health bloopers that are both humorous and horrible.”

That's who. Horrible, but not humorous. While workers are losing their lives and their lungs to preventable chemical damage that his agency is sworn to prevent, Foulke is out giving speeches about how funny workers are.

Hannibal Lecter can't touch these guys for body count. Rummy's war, Gonzo's Justice, Brownie's hurricane, the FDA, the EPA, and now OSHA - all the people and agencies we pay to protect us have joined the enemy. The American government is out to get us - and they've been allowed to.

I honestly don't know if this will ever get fixed. Maybe this sort of evil is the persist ant kind, the kind that doesn't go away.

Bottom?

The congressional Democrats are considering a vote of no confidence in AG Gonzo. They seem to think that it will force his to resign, or force the Chimp Prince to fire him. Sure.

Here's my new simple question: is there a bottom to their behaviour? Is there a place where they draw the line and say "we won't do any more harm?"

I ask that because there is no way in hell Georgie will fire his guy. And there is no further way in any sort of punishing afterlife plane that Gonzo will resign. It just will not happen.

I do like the idea of a no confidence vote - it gets everybody on record unequivocally. No spinning or squirming will get a Repub candidate out from under a vote of confidence for the Orwellian head of Justice.

But the idea that the boy who would fire no loyalists would turf the ultimate loyalist is absurd.

It puts one to mind of St. Thomas a Becket. Thomas was appointed by Henry II to run the Anglican Church as Henry saw fit, using Thomas as his house man. But, upon gaining the seat, Thomas started acting like an Archbishop.

He literally seems to have gotten religion. As the leader of a religion, he saw that his responsibilities were greater than the greed of a king. And that led, inadvertently, to Thomas's murder at the hands of the king's men.

Gonzo's life is in no imminent danger from his king. Immune to such simplistic urges as 'real justice' and hardened against any concepts as 'country above king' or 'justice for its own sake,' Gonzo has presided over the most politicized Justice Department in history. He has done the bidding of his political masters at every turn.

And that's been his greatest downfall. He had the chance of a lifetime to do good, and he threw it away. As a Hispanic, he could have refused orders to gut the Civil Rights Division and fill the few remaining jobs with loyal Junta guards - but he would not.

Rather than question political orders, he barely read them. Clearly, when the order came from Rove to ditch the eight US Attorneys, he just said: 'yup.' In his embarrassing testimony, he said he couldn't recall who put the list together or why those names were on it.

Sure.

So he's either such a house man that he just jumps without question, or he was part of a conspiracy to enforce rightist political dogma on the USA's. These are the federal prosecutors who are supposed to be our side - the side of the people and the side of justice. Not any more.

So don't expect to see Gonzo go any time soon. Georgie isn't up for any more elections, and he could not possibly care less what you think about his Attorney General.

As always, the central message of this administration and all Repub politics is simply this: "go fuck yourself."

Limbo

Well, the waiting is over. The Catholic Church has done away with Limbo. No, not the game where drunk people struggle to walk under a stick - nobody would be so cruel as to banish that practice.

I'm talking about the place where the unbaptized dead can go to wait a decent interval until the Big Guy decides they're fit for heaven. Or the place where Plato and Socrates (and Moses for that matter) await judgement day. And no, not the WWE Judgement Day featuring Ray Mysterio and Booker T. The for-real Judgement Day where spiritual luminaries (literally) of the Catholic Church will get together and render their decision on the ultimate disposition of the souls under their care (which is all of them, including yours).

Apparently, Limbo was not part of the bedrock rules of the Church. It was the Medieval Church's best guess at what to do with all the un-Baptized babies and all the pre-Christ people who never had a chance at salvation.

I kid the Church, sure. As a (non-practicing) Jew, it's not my place to make fun of other religious. Hell, I still keep a modicum of respect for Zeus and Odin (just in case). If people believe in a religion with true faith, and that religion does not call for harming oneself or others, than it deserves respect.

On the other hand, since my people did suffer a millennia of death and destruction at the hands of the Church and its vassals, I do feel as though Jews have some standing in the matter. Plus, the Limbo of Fathers is supposed to contain the spirits of many, many Jews. So I'd like to have some say as to their ultimate destiny, even in the context of a belief system I don't adhere to.

I'm of the mind that any human guessing at the details of a divine system is a waste of parchment, paper, or pixels. Any guesswork of this kind is not only bound to be deeply flawed, but is equally valid with any other guess.

For example, if I hold a deeply-felt belief that the universe is run by an omnipotent Cat and the earth was created as a celestial litterbox, it's just a valid as anything St. Thomas Aquinas ever said.

That's why, in most religions you need a central authority to decide this stuff. If there was no Pope, there might still be a Limbo. And the fish on Friday thing would still be with us (as George Carlin said: "I bet there's still some dudes doing time in Limbo for eating a hot dog on Friday).

Elaborate constructions about the spiritual world are worse than a waste of time - they can cause real trouble in the real world. Look at what the promise of 72 virgins can do in the Muslim world. The entire context of radical Islam is the rejection of material things and the primacy of the spiritual. Which somehow results in suicide bombings.

Part of the reason for the murderous acts of extreme Islam is their lack of a unified leader. Sure, there's the official Saudi state religion - Wahhabi - which is as full of hate for non-believers as anything Osama believes. But there's no Sunni or Shiia top dog to lay down the law.

Plus, in the Muslim world, religion is politics. We can see that in the Iraq mess - political positioning tracks 100% with religious affiliation.

Fortunately, most Christian religions have given this up. There are no longer Catholic or Protestant political parties in most countries outside of Ireland. And the Church itself is no longer a 'conversion by sword/crusader' group. They've settled down to simply provide theological guidance to their flocks. Since they do have a central authority, they can be sure that no extremist groups over-ride the decision and crusade on their own.

Good for them.

And part of that is doing away with the overly harsh construction of Limbo. I haven't seen anything that says whether Limbo has ceased to exist, or whether it officially never existed.

Either way, I don't think anyone will miss it. Is Purgatory next?

Rules & Georgie

Real simple question this morning about a widely reported fact: the guns used by the VTech mass murderer were purchased legally. Are you ready for the simple question? It's pretty simple so don't try to make it more complex than it is. So here:

Doesn't that mean the laws should be changed so that psychotic killers can't get them?

That's not so very complex, is it? The idea that instruments that can easily inflict massive lethal force should be beyond the reach of deadly lunatics?

You couldn't just go out and run over 30 people, so it's not like having a drivers licence. It's guns - semi-auto pistols with huge 15-round clips - that we're talking about.

Look: Cho couldn't have joined the police force, right? They have psychological standards, such as they are, for authorizing people to use deadly force. Same with the military. Which branch would have recruited, trained, and armed a Cho? None.

Is there any sane person who would now want Cho to have his guns? Outside of the crazy gun nuts, the answer is "NO!"

And yet Americans are still hostage to the Junta of extreme rightists who include the utterly irrational gun lobby. Somehow, the right of an organized militia to keep and bear arms has tuned into a religious movement to allow crazy murderers to easily obtain semi-auto pistols with huge clips and unlimited ammo.

Yesterday, as Georgie was having an non-negotiation session with Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi, almost 200 Iraqis were killed by bombings, despite the best efforts of the "surge." That's more than six VTechs in a day. No wonder the Iraqis are so happy to have us occupy them - the safety.

This passage was interesting:

Several officials said the session was polite. But they said it turned pointed when Reid recounted a conversation with generals who likened Iraq to Vietnam and described it as a war in which the president refused to change course despite knowing victory was impossible. Bush bristled at the comparison, according to several officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the meeting was private. One quoted him as saying, "I reject" the comparison.

Reid and the generals are right on - that's exactly what's happening. Nixon and Kissinger kept Vietnam going at its deadly pace, constantly "surging" more troops in and increasing the inhuman bombing campaigns (dropping many times the tonnage of bombs that were dropped in WWII) well past the time that they knew it did no good.

And Georgie's riposte: "I reject" it.

Umm, okay. On what grounds? Why is it wrong? Why are the generals, who you used to lie about making military decisions - now wrong about military history? Obviously, Georgie has studied as much military history as any general - how else could he make every mistake ever made in any war by any commander? You think that just happens by accident?

Typically, there's no reason or rationale for what Georgie says. It's just what he thinks, so it becomes reality - that's what Rove keeps telling him.

"It's not Vietnam, Georgie."
"Yeah, Karl, I Decider it's not."
"See, you been to Iraq. You ever go to Vietnam?"
"Hell no."

See?

Tragedy

There are two observations I want to make about the terrible tragedy at Virginia Tech.

First, those gun nuts who came out of the woodwork to say that there are no gun laws that would have stopped the shootings, and furthermore there should be more guns need to go find an island somewhere and live on it, because we don't need them in America.

Semi-automatic pistols with 15-round clips have no place in a civilized culture outside of the police department or the army. The second amendment to the Constitution clearly references an organized militia, not a right to wild-West shootouts. Civilized countries with real gun laws don't have a fraction of America's gun violence. Get real.

It comes back to the question we should all ask NeoConvicts and other modern conservatives: what kind of country do you want to live in? Do you really want to live in a place where we're all 'strapped?' Is the solution to gun violence really having most people carrying? Should every shoving match or road rage incident end in bullets and death?

Really?

The second point is this: as great a tragedy as yesterday's massacre was, it's every day of the week in Iraq. Every day that many or more Iraqis are butchered. And every ten days that many Americans lose their lives.

Think about it.

And Georgie wants it to go on forever.

600

Okay, one more word about the movie 300 (making an even 600). I did finally see it and stand by my earlier remarks. Not surprisingly, I find no fault with my own work. Neat trick.

What I found particularly offensive was the depiction of the Athenians. There is a scene where the Athenian commander says to the Spartans "I thought you were going to bring more soldiers." Leonidas asks the Athenian soldiers "what is your trade?" They answer "potter" etc. The Spartans do the same thing and they all answer "soldier," so Leonidas says "see - I did bring more soldiers than you did."

And that's fine, if the point of the exercise was a study in ironic quasi-humour in non-historical depictions of famous battles. Actually, the Pythons did a more accurate history of the Battle of Pearl Harbor in one of their early episodes.

But Americans have always been the citizen soldiers. From the inception of this great nation, our farmers and fishermen were the volunteer force tat defeated King George's mercenary Hessians. We were the people like the fictional officer Tom Hanks portrays in Saving Private Ryan - what did he do before the war? Does it matter? And the non-fictional men like Dick Winters we see in Band of Brothers. A real American hero, Winters wasn't a full-time soldier before or after the war.

It's the way democracies fight - and win - wars. When our mechanics and schoolteachers fight, they commit completely. And they win.

It's only the fascistically anti-democratic NeoConvicts who desire a permanent warrior class to keep invading other countries indefinitely.

But this is not just about bad history. It's also a bad lesson in current events. We're supposed to understand that the 300 gave up their lives to sound the alarm, bringing the rest of Sparta and Greece together to oppose Xerxes. Which is supposed to also tell us the the grand and glorious NeoConvicts are right to sound the alarm about Islamofascists. Someday, like all those Johnny-come-lately Greeks, we will see that our own Georgie Leonidas tried to help us see how much we needed to fight like, the whole Middle East but we were all pussified and didn't.

Right.

First, the NeoConvicts are about the last people you'll ever see on an actual battlefield. They've taken the art of chickenhawkery to a whole new level. It's Epic Legendary Chickenhawkery. Fron Chicanery who "had priorities" while his generation was spilling blood in Vietnam, to the current crop of College Republicans who think nations are served and saved from places like their mom's basement, the rightists of this Junta aren't about to show the world their waxed six-packs in any battle - hopeless or otherwise.

And second, where does Frank Miller et.al. get off suggesting that the world's most powerful military is the 300 Spartans? How outrageous is that? If they'd wanted to properly distort history to show contemporary events, they'd have shown Rummynidas and Cheneynidas scheming with Georgienidas to lie Sparta into a war of aggression.

Then, Rummynidas would have thrown out allt he Spartan general's plans and only sent 300 to do the work of 30,000. Then, when the 300 were hopelessly embroiled in a fight without end, Georgienidas would have called the rest of Sparta a bunch of Defeatinidases and just kept the 300 in the pass forever.

Look: Spartan history, while instructive, could not have less bearing on current events. The 800 pound gorilla sitting in the middle of this room is Vietnam. The junta spin machine has succeeded in pushing the "this is not Vietnam" meme into the tiny minds of the national media, and that alone should tell us how instructive it really is.

We could use the 'Soviet Union in Afghanistan' but, well, we really are the Soviet Union in Afghanistan, and frankly it's more than a little embarrassing.

Baseball

I've been making my annual attempt to get into baseball. It's a bit easier this year, as I've joined my brother's ESPN league, and therefore need to understand enough to get out of the cellar (which, so far is not working). So I watched the Jays-Tigers game last night. Jays lost.

But what struck me was the strike zone. As in, the computerized strike zone that showed all the pitches, just like in a computer game. Apparently, this kind of thing has been around since 03, but I've never seen it used in a broadcast before. It was somewhat shocking.

The first thing that surprised me was that the pitches and calls were so accurate. Pitches hit the corners of the zone with precision, and were usually called strikes when they did.

Bu there were a could of glitches. DH Frank "The Big Hurt" Thomas got K'd on a called strike on a full count with two out and two on. When the pitch arrived, he did a quick belly-in-arms-out as though avoiding a pitch that might have hit his midsection. The ump called him out, and I thought: "what an actor - jumping away to get the walk."

Then they showed the computer image.

The pitch was well inside. It was a fastball and missed substantially - enough to make Thomas jump. Side retired - that was that. There was another that a Detroit batter discussed with the ump - and was shown to be well outside.

My question it this - why are umps still calling balls and strikes? Why not let them run the rest of the game without having to do that? Okay, the technology wasn't there in 2001 or 2003 when they started, but it's there now. Why not have every pitch evaluated electronically?

There are some who say that the human element - error - needs to stay in the game, but I think that's real crap. Watch your team go down in an important game due to bad calls, and then tell me how important it is that human error remain a factor.

The Refs eliminated the Patriots from the Super Bowl last year by their bad calls and non-calls. It was so quaint and warm-hearted to see people embrace their natural flaws in that way.

Right.

I read back in the 80's that they tried putting a chalk line on the pitcher's mound so you could see when a pitcher baulked. They got rid of it - it was too revealing. It took all the guesswork out of making the call.

That was obviously another day and age. I don't see any use in keeping a flawed system because there is some sort of blue-sky antiquarianism associated with making mistakes.

Umpires, on their side, have been messing up baseball for decades. In 2001, they were called on to re-learn the strike zone and start calling it by the book. Players were accustomed to have to watch a couple of innings to find out where the strike zone was that day. Ridiculous.

In another baseball aside, I saw the indefinably annoying Gegg Zaun get a single on a blooper that went over the heads of the infield but dropped down before an outfielder could get it. Isn't that called a "Texas Leaguer?" The announcers were calling it bloopy or limp or something (that was obviously on their mind), but they didn't use the term.

Which makes you wonder if the old baseball dinosaurs are already out of the game.

Padilla

New news on the Jose Padilla trial - the judge dismissed his motion to, umm, dismiss. The trial can go forward, which is probably a good thing.

It's a good thing because what the Junta would most likely prefer is a Hamdi-like end to Padilla. That is, they illegally mistreat, confine, and torture him for a few years, and then just let him go when the authorities show up. Really, they're no different than kidnappers.

The judge ruled that while Padilla may or may not have been abused by the government, the law isn't there to let him walk on that basis. Otherwise, lots of defendants could walk based on allegations of government bad acts.

Which would be fine with me. I think that if the government tortures someone or illegally hold them, they should get to walk. Still, if that's all this ruling means, it's high time we get this trial started.

Look: if the government tries to use any of the information they got from Padilla in the 3.5 years they illegally held him as an 'enemy combatant,' it's going to open up the whole subject.

Which the government doesn't want. See, the government of the United States knows it did wrong, and wants to cover up its behaviour. That's the government - the people you pay to serve you and act in your interests.

Is it in your interest for your nation to torture and illegally confine many innocent people? Do you want them to 'disappear' people into secret CIA prisons and hold them forever? Would you like to deny them a lawyer and any vestige of due process?

That was done to Padilla - an American citizen. If they can do it to him, they can do it to you.

George Bush's America holds no resemblance to the America I was raised to revere. That's why I keep going back to George H.W. and Barb, his parents. How lousy were they as people and role models if they could raise stone cold serial killing wannnabe dictator who thinks it's okay to lie and cheat and steal and kill and ruin if his pals suggest it?

Poppy raised Georgie to be Dick Cheney's sock puppet. He was raised to see only the affluent and hear only the rich. He's dedicated his life to afflicting the afflicted and comforting the comfortable.

In short, this guy is a truly bad human being. He is everything an American should be raised not to be. And yet there he is.

What's amusing is watching it unravel. A good early start is the USA purge hearings that will start later in the month. This is where we can get a glimpse at the political machine that has driven all policy for six years, including policy areas that are explicitly meant to be non-partisan.

It's like there's this huge wall up and on the other side, the Junta is pulling an enormous crime on the American people. It's not one crime or another, it's all one big meta-crime. Gonzo writes the torture memo and then oversees the utter corruption of the Justice Department. And the spider in the middle of it all is Rove.

Stay tuned.

Hostage

One more comment to add to the mountain of outrage arising from the Boy King's press conference yesterday. He's spinning as hard as he can to say that the Democrats have not funded the troops. That, of course, is a flat out lie. He's the one who's going to veto the bill - they passed it.

But what struck me was this line:

The bottom line is this: Congress's failure to fund our troops on the front lines will mean that some of our military families could wait longer for their loved ones to return to the front lines. And others could see their loved ones headed back to the war earlier than they need to. That is unacceptable to me, and I believe it is unacceptable to the American people.

Loved ones will 'wait longer to return,' and 'head back earlier' under his veto of the "emergency" spending bill.

But isn't that the same as taking the troops hostage? He's threatening American voters with the safety of their loved ones in the military. He's saying: "give me what I want or else I'll take your kids away."

As he's always quick to point out, the Decider is the one who makes these calls. The Boy King has your son's and daughter's lives in his hands.

"Tell Pelosi to back off, or Jimmy goes straight to Sadr City!"

The lives of our troops are nothing but game pieces to him. Could that be any more clear than he makes it in this statement?

He's going to hold America's uniformed soldiery hostage in his war zone. And many that he has trapped will not come home alive. And many more will come home battered and mutilated.

And there he stands, delivering the ransom note: 'it's my bill or Sgt. Jimmy and Lt. Sally keep patrolling in Anbar Province. I've got your kids - are you ready to vote?"

I sure am.

Land

The "Land for Peace" brigades are out again, in force. This time, it's the Arab world offering the olive branch (or is it the fig leaf? I can never get that straight) if only those terrible Israeli's would back on out of all that land.

Perish forbid Israel have any say in it.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's call for a regional conference with Arab leaders drew a skeptical response on Monday from Saudi and Palestinian officials and diplomats who said it was a diversionary tactic.

Olmert proposed holding the conference as a possible alternative to U.S.-backed plans for talks through an Arab League working group that could try to negotiate details of a land-for-peace accord, diplomats involved in the matter said.

But Saudi officials say the kingdom would only consider talks if Israel clearly accepted the Arab peace initiative without any conditions. A statement issued after Monday's Saudi cabinet session stated the kingdom's position.

Okay. So let's have a chat after you agree to everything we've asked for. And that's a valid offer, not that tripe that you're spewing about meeting before there's an agreement in place.

Look: let's get it straight: there is no land-for-peace deal. There never was, and there never will be. Israel will never give up actual land - much less land it's developed - for promises of friendship from people who've been trying to kill them for more than 50 years.

It's all a public relations stunt by the Saudis (who are proposing it) because Cheney and their neocon friends are putting pressure on them. The Saudis know that neocons are base cowards and liars - they speak the same language - so a proposal like the one the Saudis are offering is calculated to look like they're offering something without actually offering anything.

And when Israel responds: "let's discuss your proposal," the Saudis and the rest of the Arabs say "no!" Hoooo-kay.

Israel won't trade their life (land) for peace (promises by genocidal killers). They won't roll back to the 1967 borders. They won't allow a 'right of return.' Shockingly, they won't negotiate away their own right to exist.

But their position is undercut by the support of the worst government in American history. Since Georgie and his neocon handlers are unwavering supporters of Israel, their opponents are sucked into being sops for the Arab world.

The Bush Junta is back where they started seven years ago. Their original line was 'the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is small and not worth our time.' It was, as with everything, a repudiation of Clinton. And as with everything, they were dead wrong. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is at the heart of Middle East issues. Everybody there knows it.

So, of course, the Junta was oblivious to it. Until recently, when they've swung back to see that it was that important - but now they have no leverage to change anything.

Everybody in the world knows how dumb they are. So the Saudis know that they can shine them on with a counterfeit proposal. Olmert knows the same thing. Proposals go flying around and nothing changes.

Arab state have made Israel the bogey man for so long that they can't afford to compromise. Israel can't compromise on its security. As long as the Arab world is committed to the destruction of Israel and the genocide of its people, there will be no settlement.

Anything short of that is a dead letter. It's posturing.

War

Just go read this. When you think of what those monsters in the White House have done to us - and to the Iraqi's - it tears you apart.