I just wanted to post a link to this again: A Citizen’s Response to the National Security Strategy of the United States of America by Wendel Berry.

Quotes attempting to justify the Iraq invasion, such as:

“We know where they are. They’re in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, south and north somewhat.”

Donald Rumsfeld
ABC Interview
March 30, 2003


“For bureaucratic reasons, we settled on one issue, weapons of mass destruction (as justification for invading Iraq) because it was the one reason everyone could agree on.”

Paul Wolfowitz
Vanity Fair interview
May 28, 2003


“It was a surprise to me then ? it remains a surprise to me now ? that we have not uncovered weapons, as you say, in some of the forward dispersal sites. Believe me, it’s not for lack of trying. We’ve been to virtually every ammunition supply point between the Kuwaiti border and Baghdad, but they’re simply not there.”

Lt. Gen. James Conway, 1st Marine Expeditionary Force
Press Interview
May 30, 2003

..archived, with cites, here: http://billmon.org.v.sabren.com/archives/000172.html

Anybody read ‘Snow Crash?’

Want to pool together and buy an aircraft carrier?

And just when you thought you couldn’t have any MORE fun, it just keeps on coming!

The military is planning to install a death row and execution chamber at Guantanamo bay. That way we can try and execute those pesky Afghanis we’ve been keeping there, under the legally-nebulous category ‘enemy combatant.’

The word you’re looking for is ‘kangaroo court.’

The fun just never stops.

Some people say I’m cynical, and then they disbelieve a story like the one linked above.

“Follow Your Weird With Purity Of Heart“

(I’m linking to this because I like seeing ‘follow your weird with purity of heart’ in glowing phosphors on my computer screen.)

Sometimes the simplest things are the most enjoyable.

Much of today was spent weeding the flower beds and pruning the cedar tree.

Any excuse to climb the big cedar, sez me.

‘Climb the big cedar’ sounds vaguely euphemistic.

Anyway, the flower bed in the front has been taken over by lupins. I was out there pulling up the unbloomed ones, leaving the bloomin’ lupins for the bees to snack on. I sang the Dennis Moore song while I worked, and I’m sure the neighbors were wondering what other plants I had recently been exposed to.

Then off to climb the big cedar, and cut off some of its limbs. Joy was experienced by all, especially the tree, which seemed to sigh contentedly when I cut off its vertical limb. There’s some more euphemistic talk for you.

Seriously, they’ll grow these limbs straight up, parallel to the trunk. The one I cut today was weaving in and out of the higher branches, so that I had to spend a bunch of time twisting it around, like a picking a lock. Not that I pick locks, mind you.

Spent a bunch of time laying on a low branch, watching people go by in the alleyway. They were unaware. I watched people and thought strange thoughts, like: A tree is like a Turing machine, in that it self-modifies via a relatively simple instinctual drive toward sunlight. It shoots out new branches continually, and will eventually tangle itself into unhealth. Further, if I clip off a tiny shoot of a new branch, I’m making it so that, 10 years from now, no one will have to cut an 8-inch-thick branch from that spot.

I think about this kind of stuff. All the time. Though I did manage to create some brain-off time while I was draped out on that limb.

I started the day, while drinking my coffee, by deciding to cut the yard. Dammit, I was going to go and get a fukkin weed whacker and cut those fukkin blades of grass! Can you hear the resolve in my exclamation points? Fuk!

So I started reading my email, because that’s what I do after (and during) coffee. And someone knocked on my door… My neighbor’s yard guy. He’s this round, sweaty guy, and he asked me, “Did you call for yard service?” I told him I hadn’t called, and I was planning to cut my own yard this very day.

He quoted me an introductory price of $75 for the front yard. If I had been standing there with my coffee, I would have taken a sip of it just to do a spit take.

I declined, and as he walked away, he made a point of going through the middle of the yard, which was waist-high. I watched him make a mental note of how high the grass was, and he gave me a smug look… There was still time for him to make the sale.

Ten minutes later, I was in my car, going to get a weed whacker and some other yard-related stuff. When I came back, I discovered something. If you want to meet your neighbors, you can:

1) Neglect your lawn.

2) Finally cut it.

All I had to do was carry the weed whacker, still in its box, from the car to the garage, and suddenly everyone wanted to know the story of why I hadn’t cut my grass in so long.

I told my neighbor to the side that the mower was broken, and she lent me hers. So I cut the front yard, since it was the neighborly thing to do.

I kind of like this neighbor thing, but I also think it’s annoying that our yards are the way we measure each other. Especially since I suck at yard care.

hairlessmunkee ‘blogs about singing scat to get over the blues.

So, naturally, today’s music is Cliff Edwards’ ‘Singin’ in the Rain.’ Click to listen. It should also be noted that one of the things that makes me a white person is that I have a bunch of Cliff Edwards mp3s.

This recording predates the more famous movie version. Yes, that’s the same guy singing and doing the scat. And Cliff Edwards was the voice of Jiminy Cricket in numerous Disney productions.