Show me the loot....

"Freedom's untidy, and free people are free to make mistakes and commit crimes and do bad things," Rumsfeld said. "They're also free to live their lives and do wonderful things. And that's what's going to happen here."

Looting, he added, was not uncommon for countries that experience significant social upheaval. "Stuff happens," Rumsfeld said.

---

Looting became a problem in both Biloxi and in New Orleans, in some cases in full view of police and National Guardsmen. One police officer was shot in the head by a looter in New Orleans, but was expected to recover, Sgt. Paul Accardo, a police spokesman.

On New Orleans' Canal Street, which actually resembled a canal, dozens of looters ripped open the steel gates on clothing and jewelry stores, some packing plastic garbage cans with loot to float down the street. One man, who had about 10 pairs of jeans draped over his left arm, was asked if he was salvaging things from his store.

"No," the man shouted, "that's EVERYBODY'S store!"

---

Note to Rummy: Do you think a 12.7% poverty rate might help to fester: "significant social upheaval"?

---

Koreyel's Law

Koreyel's Law:

The number of Arab terrorists grows in direct proportion to Bush's effort to stamp them out.

Koreyel's Corollary:

You cannot defeat the hydra-heads of terrorism with a sword.

Koreyel's Prescription:

Feed a tribe. Starve a terrorist.

Koreyel's Principle:

The best way to hate America is to increase the number of her enemies.

Koreyel's Observation:

George W. Bush has one, and only one, genius-level skill:
A preternatual ability to birth terrorists who hate America.

Koreyel's Rhetorical Conclusion:

Who needs enemies like Osama bin Laden when you have friends like George W. Bush?

It's on to IranAnd let's win there...

The last remaining superpower

Tilts like an Italian tower.

Our good will-- once our proud chalice

Overflows now with right wing malice.

Drunk with hate and angry like goons,

We stomp and scold like Kubrick's baboons.

But it's not a bone we rattle with one voice,

Democracy is now our weapon of choice.

Onward to Iran our top chimp says with a grin,

The spittle of war profits dotting his chin.

"We'll teach dem damn Arabs how to vote

And while we're der we'll give 'em a smote!"

Meanwhile heartless Oz behind a black curtain

Chuckles because he still runs Halliburton.

Social security for all, or national health care woes?

Nope-- these simians itch for Arab foes.

So it's on to Iran: more roses and more parades,

Lies are how this great nation degrades...

Unlearning the war

What we see happening in the polls and the press right now is remarkable. Especially for us sentient beings who opposed this war before it began.

The problem of course is the natural reluctance of human minds to change course.

I call this process unlearning and it is extremely difficult thing for people to do.

Anybody can "learn" something, but how in the hell do you "unlearn" something?

Examples:

How do people unlearn racism? That's practically an impossible chore isn't it?

And how do people unlearn their support for a war that obviously can't be won?

Our culture is now in the first throes of unlearning the Iraq war.

But note,-- from the Administration point of view:
All their pride and faith and certainty is now under assault.

Because of the Administration's personal investment in this failure, they will stay the course in Iraq until Armageddon, or until they get booted out of office.

In other words Bush CAN'T change his mind.
Too much of his self is at stake.

The similarites between Vietnam and Iraq?

Just this:

A sluggish, massive culture gradually becomes aware that it is bleeding itself to death in an unwinnable war and tries to change directions.

By the way... bleeding us slowing to death in the desert is precisely Osama's plan. Go read his missives.

If you read and understood all I've written, you now know why for the last 3 years I've had this little joke swirling in my mind:

I've got good news and bad news for you.
The good news is that I've got 40 IQ points on your president.
The bad news?
Osama's got 20 on him.

Quite simply, just as our culture got outfoxed by Bush's lies, so too, Bush was outfoxed by someone who knew Middle Eastern culture far better than he ever did: Osama bin Laden.

I suspect Osama even knows that pride and faith and certainly will keep us bleeding to death in the desert until our sluggish culture finally catches up. No doubt, he is hoping that by then, it will be too late...

Sheehan vs That smallest little nothing of a man

Somehow it figures...

It wasn't a male
That finally rose up,
In the simmmering heat,
Of an:
Unjust,
Illegal,
And
Unnecessary War

And said:

Here I Stand Mr. President.
And...
Here I Will Stand Until Infinity Comes
Or...
Until you come out of your vacationing Crawford shell,
This week,
Next week,
Or five weeks from now...
Because it doesn't matter to me.

You see...
I've given more to this country
Then you have ever imagined
Could be given,
In the wildest dreams
of your wildest aristocratic parties.

SO YOU WILL HEAR ME OUT!

A la,
My First Amendment rights:

the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

A la,
My First Son's plight.

Somehow it figures...

It had to be
A Modern-day Lysistrata
That finally
Had the
Gumption,
Courage,
And Mother Bear rage...
To stare down
The Emptiness,
The Moral Vacuity
The Ethical Null Set
Thats sits in charge of this rude empire
And its crude war.

Somehow it figures...

That it took a real woman
In a nation of
Diminishing maleness
To show what kind of man
Bush isn't,
And
Is:

A coward,
A liar,
A draft-dodging flier...

Too small
Too proud
Too empty
Too much a nothing...
To ask her out of the searing heat
So she can unload her grief.

Somehow it figures...

That it would take a woman
To stand and wait
Forever
For an opportunity
To stare down
Bush's double-barreled smirk
And deliver a chosen scold
To that spoilt child
Who has never had
A daddy,
A mommy,
Or
A nanny
Hold him accountable
For any of his endless messes.

Somehow it figures...

That it would take a woman
To show this Nation
The true nature
Of the fully-grown
Presidential Infant
That has led them
Crying
And
Lying...
Into this:

Unforgivable,
Unpardonable,
Unjust,
WAR.

Somehow it just figures.

Whose your hero?

No doubt you've seen the picture and read the story of the first successful dog cloning.

The science is interesting. But far and away the most stunning story is buried deep in the article's belly.


Here is the quote with some bold added to make a point:

Hwang's previous achievements grabbed worldwide headlines and instantly made the 53-year-old a national hero in education-mad South Korea, which consistently scores in the top tier of world math and science surveys.

The cloning news was reported on the front pages of most major South Korean dailies Thursday.

"It's a matter of great national pride that such a person came from our country," Ro Suk-rae, a merchant in downtown Seoul, said of Hwang. "All Korean people are waiting for the final results of his research ... to be applied to cure humans."

That's a truly phenomenal passage.
And it gave me an idea for a simple pop quiz:

Name one living scientist that is a national hero in America?

I am tapping my fingers...
And waiting...
Waiting...
Waiting...

Yeah, that's right... just one.

I am still tapping my fingers...
Waiting...
Waiting...
Waiting...