The US, UN & Iraq III

I have come to truly appreciate and value Blatham's persistent talent for the unexpected humorous turn. But the contradictions remain. Is it the continuing struggle between the Cossaks and the hairdresser (who may well have had a bit of Mick in him) ? Alcohol, after all, is a drug, no worse or less effective than others !

Contradictions!? I've come to hold - with a level of certainty which modern Catholics must surely envy - that contradictions are all we can count on. For example, if the world was created by god then you'd expect some archaeological evidence (eg really big footprints, or at least a substantial transaction in Home Depot's accounting records), yet folks believe. Or, the folks who are hep for lotsa war aren't, oddly, going to be personally involved. Or, some women I've known have not gasped after undressing me with the exclamation "My god! You're magnificent!"

It's known as The Home Despot among many of its customers, Blatham. Oh, I wish, as I cling desperately to my little pile of Home Despot shares...

George wrote:-




Speaking as a person who enjoys the fine things in life I happen to think alcohol a mighty fine thing and pretty damn effective-hic

I quite agree. One that has come to mind is the awareness that mutual understanding and sympathy could ruin the keen rhetorical edge of this thread. I even find myself occasionally liking Setanta's lyrical flourishes !

I do believe God's footprints are there - hiding in plain sight as it were - but difficult to see and accept without letting go of one's self. Yet another contradiction !

Oi less stereotyping ok?

My best friend is a stereotype and I find them simply charming.

Its typical of people who don't know stereos to ascribe stereotypical attributes to stereotypes.

This might not be germane (sp? shows how often I use that word... just trying to keep up the intellectual pretence here) to the thread but did you know there is a schism brewing in the Church of England over the appointment of an openly gay cleric to be Bishop of Reading? The Nigerians say its not in the Bible.

Steve, please specify - "its":



Thanks

Bill, Steve, and hiama (of the its,)

I am enjoying your discourse mightily. Now who wooda thunk that the Irish were drinkin people?

Well, now, come on over and prove your major premise. I'll meet you in a pub and drink a sparkling water while we chat.

I have arrived in this happiest of all lands only yesterday. I do live here a few times a year, in a wee cottage in Connemara.

I hooked up my laptop, sleepily -- me not the laptop -- only to foind that Telecom Eireann had allowed the Little People to fool wit me phone line. Static, not talk. My pleas to the help-line assured me that the line would be fixed by tomorry. I yelled. When I got back to my abode, the line was after a workin. Yelling does it, in most countries.

Don't give me stuff about the Irish. You have to be here, to understand the Irish.

Sorry, it was Steve not haima who did the itssy ditzy. Sheesh, haven't we all?

Not me - what time is it over there? Shouldn't you be in bed by now?

Hello, BillW.

I should indeed be asleep. But you know the jet lag thing. I am wide awake and pondering. I have just finished a book of Thomas Berger's: Meeting Evil. It may be among the best books I've ever read. Fiction, but an allegory. I can't call it farce because farce is always comedy, right? Who was the guy -- John Kennedy O'Toole? Who wrote the book about the character in New Orleans? That was farce. What is an extended allegory about real life that is metaphorical? Well, ne' mind.

Has anyone read this? It is my only wake up call, literary wise, since I read that book, decades ago, about the prep school in the NorthEast -- a book that has become a must-read on high school lists. School kid swimming, there was a tree overhanging the river...? Well, it is tough when the memory goes.

I know Berger from way back. I read his book the DiceMan twenty years ago. But this is something different.

Library Journal

Answering his door one morning, solidly middle-class John Felton finds a scruffy-looking man whose car is in need of a push. Responding helpfully despite his misgivings, John sets in motion a nightmarish series of events in which he becomes the unwitting accomplice of Richie Maranville, a psychotic criminal just released from a mental hospital. During their day-long crime spree, the two develop a curiously symbiotic relationship, with John ultimately discovering the dark, irrational side of himself he has long denied. While almost coming to believe Richie's assertion that they are psychic brothers, he makes a decision in the novel's final scene that lifts him forever above the ``moral triviality'' of his alter ego. This is a precisely rendered, excruciatingly suspenseful tale of psychological duality. For most collections.-- Lawrence Rungren, Bedford Free P.L., Mass.

""You've got to remember that if Washington, D.C., were the size of Baghdad, we would be having something like 215 murders a month. There's going to be violence in a big city.'' - Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, playing down recent deadly attacks on U.S. troops in Iraq.


IMO someone should tie a knot in Rumsfeld's neck to keep him from speaking. This I suppose in his mind makes the killings of our troops in Iraq acceptable.

I think it is just one more point where Rumps distain for the common soldier comes through in flying colors. It is only further reflection on the administration!

au, he has made statements like this before. He does not have a good ear, or perhaps his ear is not to the ground.

Why can't their supporters see all this cr*p? c.i.

Or he was born without a soul? That's my impression.

HEY! Here's some potentially very good news. Or has there been a link to this which I missed? A couple of Brits -- young, in their twenties -- have managed to get an independent newspaper off the ground in Baghdad in record time, having hauled in printing presses etc. It's online. Take a look! http://www.baghdadbulletin.com/

Once again Rumsfeld lends us his unique perspective of reality.

First of all, Washington DC isn't being patrolled BY AN OCCUPYING ARMY (even if the Donald thinks it should be).

Secondly (since US troops are the keepers of the peace), what would be the response of this government if Washington DC POLICE OFFICERS were being killed at the rate of one a day? Would they be calling it a 'war zone'? Would they be sending additional soldiers ?

This guy is so nuts even crazy people refuse to have anything to do with him.