posted May 16, 2003 at 8:26 PM MDTThis blog has drifted a long way from its initial intent ... but the situation requires it.
How is it that the "coalition of the willing" have funds to destroy, but not to protect? If a water plant were selected as a target, millions would be spent in its destruction (Remember: a single plain vanilla cruise missile is US$1M ... a fancy one can be half again as much), but resources aren't allocated to safeguard it as significant humanitarian infrastructure, precisely the reason it wasn't bombed. Very astute accounting, it seems to me ... someone profits from re-fitting the facilities, and nobody pays to destroy them!
Somebody's going to pay for this! ... yes, the victims.
Latest Reports on "The Iraq Crisis" - UN Integrated Regional Information Network
* IRAQ: Iranians in the south become IDPs
* IRAQ: WHO confirms cholera outbreak
* IRAQ: Struggle to restore basic services
* IRAQ: Reviving the food distribution system
* IRAQ: Diarrhoea still a huge problem for capital's children
* IRAQ: UN and NGOs voice security concerns
* IRAQ: Looted medicines hampering health care
* IRAQ: Focus on internal displacment in the north
* IRAQ: Raw sewage threatening health and livelihoods
posted May 12, 2003 at 7:46 PM MDT"Mr. Holmes has a problem with women. He doesn't see them as equals. ''The wife is to subordinate herself to her husband,'' he has written. The woman, in Mr. Holmes's view, ''is to place herself under the authority of the man.''One man's opinion, right? Wrong! The opinion of a man Dubya thinks should be a federal court judge ... and you can imagine where things trend from there: Judges Beyond the Pale [nytimes.com opinion]
Those who adopt the ''feminist principle'' of the equality of the sexes, he has said, ''are contributing to the culture of death.''
Mr. Holmes, a lawyer, is an absolute opponent of abortion, even in cases of rape. He once said that ''conception from rape occurs with approximately the same frequency as snowfall in Miami.''"
SOS_USA
And, in case there are some folks out there who realize just how dangerous the war-mongers are (Oh hey, I think right-thinking Republicans are a totally appropriate component in the unfolding of history ... why do they have to be bloody-minded bastards?!): Shallow Throat: How to Take Bush Downnnnnnnn, at Scoop, originally from The Crisis Papers
posted May 11, 2003 at 11:06 PM MDTWhat a piece of crud Blogger.com has become! If this is what happens when google buys a company ... or maybe they're just trying to drive free users away?
US recalls Baghdad governor after three weeks [dailytelegraph.co.uk] - " ...Lt Gen Garner is being replaced by L Paul Bremer III, a well-connected former diplomat and counter-terrorism expert, after the White House decided that efforts to rebuild Iraq - and win the trust of the Iraqi people and the international community - needed a civilian face at the helm.
Ms Bodine, a career diplomat and one of the few senior Americans in Iraq who speaks Arabic, denied that the personnel changes amounted to an admission of failure."
Yaa ya ya ... so Gen Jay is swapped with L Paul Breme III, the counter-terrorism expert (just the sort to arrange water, sewage, electricity, food distribution, and that sort of thing, right? Right?!) ... but who replaces the Arabic-speaking diplomat? ferr krisake ... buncha barbarians!!
Also at the Telegraph (more happy news?):
Aid officials overwhelmed by chaos and Search goes on for banned weapons
Whom the gods would destroy they first make proud.
A: To one who has resigned from self-determination.
* The folks who pillaged the antiquities in Baghdad's museums (our history ... one sky, one future!) ignored or trashed the replicas while stealing away with the very best items.
* The responsible authorities (read: Rumsfeld and company) protected the ministry of oil while making no efforts to secure other facilities, such as the museum ... not even hospitals.
So ... who are truly the real barbarians?
Here's as setting for a historical fantasy RPG: you're a right thinking rationalist realist liberal in a culture of "might makes right" and xenophobial (by which I mean "You're with us or you're agin' us.") ... what do you do? Let's say the next week will see the outbreak of a war that will result in a) the burning of the library of Alexandria, and b) the salting of the earth to such an extent that the resulting desertification creates the Sahara.
"Not knowing what is truly of value" ... that's pret' near sufficient definition of "barbarian", isn't it?
(I spent the day reading and pondering effective discourse ... is my point just to change someone's opinion? *That sux ... it leads to ideological hegemony* or, rather, to increase the independence and autonomy that leads to enlightened self-interest?
Panchen Lama is a title, like Vice-President or Prime Minister. (pan.chen means "great scholar" and lama is a word Tibetans use for a religious teacher.) In Tibet the Pachen Lama is second only to HH the Dalai Lama.
The Panchen Lama was 6 years old when he and his parents were kidnapped from their home in Tibet by the Chinese government. He is the world's youngest political prisoner and he has been missing for over 6 years.
