Dear, Sweet Irony

Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld criticized the media in a speech, claiming that news is “reported and spread around the world, often with little context and little scrutiny, let alone correction or accountability after the fact.” from Harper's

And the Meek Shall Inherit?

For a good overview of the Religious Right and the Right to Die, click the link and read the Harper's article. It's several month's old but still pertinent especially with the recent execution.

Also, I will re-recommend this article, also from Harper's, about the Left-Behind series.

At the core of both of these articles (as well as this article by Jeffrey Sharlet about Ivanwald and the secret Christian society) show the destructive influence of religion when it is taken as a point of pride dressed up as humility.

I Shot a Kid in Reno

Though I don't agree with all of the commentary for this on Pandagon, I still got a slight chill up my spine at the nostalgic, 'back in the good old days' tone of the post mentioned.
Also, I too pictured a large bazooka-type potato gun - with the writer's little angel laying prone on the floor after mommy whacked her sniper-style with a high-speed spud.
One has to wonder, on reading this, if mommy would be so happy about kids bringing potato guns (or water guns) to school if her daughter was the victim of bullying. Or would she simply send her daughter 'packing', so to speak: "Take this, honey - for protection."

The Wall: Prank Art

This is another piece by Banksy, who spent several days creating a total of nine murals on the barrier.

Banksy said he condemned the wall, adding that Israel was "the ultimate activity holiday destination for graffiti writers". [BBC]

The Wall

In Bethlehem, international artists have painted political murals laden with anti-Israeli, anti-American and anti-capitalist symbolism.

Many Palestinians resent the graffiti and artwork being painted on the wall, which is seen as an acceptance of its presence. [BBC]

Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien

The recent fire in a Paris apartment complex has inspired a storm of protest from Africans in Paris. The fire killed 17 people, including 13 children. This incident highlights the plight of many immigrants from Africa who enter France illegally. France does have the paperwork and the regulations to deal with this influx, but many Africans say they are marginalised due to racism.

"From the outside, France is the country of human rights, but the inside is less pretty," said Korotoum, 31, who did not want her full name published for fear her work colleagues would learn where she lives. "The rights are not for everyone."
[. . .]
Unemployment among Algerians and Moroccans, the largest immigrant groups, hovered at more than 30 percent, about three times the national average, a study by the Paris-based Montaigne Institute showed two years ago. About a third of them live in suburban ghettos filled with rows of crime-ridden housing complexes and have little hope of employment, let alone proper job training.

The most vulnerable are those who are caught in the administrative limbo that is provisional housing, as Friday's fire illustrated. Many of the 130 people living in the burned-out building had housing applications pending for 14 years. Meanwhile, they were crammed in a rundown building with aging plumbing and electrical wiring.

When they moved in, city authorities had assured them that they would not be staying longer than three years. That was in 1991. (from the International Herald Tribune.)

The story of immigration from African countries into Europe is fascinating to me, not only because it parallels the border situation in the US. When I was in Fes I had the experience of being taken for a ride in the back of a police van. I was reporting a stolen camera and this was the way they chose to transport me to the main police station. Also riding in the back were two illegal immigrants from the Ivory Coast. They were both around my age and seemed in good spirits. One of them spoke clear English and he talked to me about his experience crossing the border. He said that, back in his country, the choice was between a life of crime or crossing the border illegally. He had an education and knew of relatives living in Europe, people that could take him in.
A police translator was also there and listened good-naturedly to the discussion. He did not want to talk much about it, but it was clear he felt some sympathy, and perhaps some admiration, for the immigrants. He said that the two border crossers would be dumped in a no-man's land between Morocco and Algeria. The young immigrant shrugged and said that he would just come back into Morocco and keep trying until he could get across to Spain. Everyone smiled.

Too Bad, So Sad

Can I point out that just because the talking points from the President do not seem to give justification for staying in Iraq does not mean that justification does not exist. I agree that using lives lost as reason to go on is ridiculous illogic, but amidst all of the moaning and groaning from the left I have not heard any concrete arguments against staying.
Even though mistakes were made in and after going to war does not mean that good reason does not now need to be given for leaving. If we do leave I hope the rest of the world puts us to shame and gives the US a good flogging, whether the next President is Republican or Democrat. I also hope that strict attention is paid to what does happen after we leave (a vain hope, I am certain).

I do not accept "there is no plan" and "things are getting worse" as reasons. I am as angry as anyone about the lies that were told, and I'm angry that so many in this country believed those lies. But to see respected liberal journalists so eager to wash their hands of the whole dirty business turns my stomach. - "Oh well those poor Iraqis, not our war, just Bush's business. Good thing he'll be disgraced." And those same people accuse the Right-wing of taking war lightly!
Both sides are becoming anathema to me now. How about this? How about those liberal leaders and pundits who want so badly to withdraw come up with a good plan (since it is what they accuse the administration of not having) to withdraw and leave in place some semblance of a country.

This rant comes courtesy of Wolcott and his quote from Tom Watson:

"And folks, it's time to fold 'em. When the argument for continuing war is to merely to honor the dead that have gone before with more dead, with more wounded, with more destruction, you know the jig is up, that the military maneuver is merely in the form of a forlorn hope, destined to die for nothing. The Iraqi civil war will rage until there is no Iraq. There never was an Iraq, except as the construct of an empire and a dictator; we had no business in the squabbles of religious tribes. And we have no business in helping to write a consitution that places the lives of women at the mercy of a medieval code of sexist, moralist, symbolist system of humiliation and punishment. Conspiring with the mullahs against women may be George W. Bush's greatest act of treason against the world's people - and it will live in infamy.

"There is nothing to this but to admit failure, and save American lives. Perhaps that is not honorable. Perhaps it leaves a vaccuum in the east, into which the hard-core religionists can step. Too bad: it is done. And we need to be done."

Don't mistake me - I will be glad for many reasons if we pull out of Iraq. I am a military brat and have strong feelings about the military and how much soldiers and their families sacrifice. But I want some decorum, I want some more recognition that it will be a tragic decision - something more than "Perhaps that is not honorable... Too bad."