Monthly Archives: July 2007

Start Your iPods

OK, iPod, let's see whatcha got...

  1. Led Zeppelin - I Can't Quit You Baby (Coda version)
  2. The Beatles - I Want You
  3. U2 - Refugee
  4. The Rolling Stones - Torn And Frayed
  5. The Beatles - I'll Be Back
  6. Muleskinner - Footprints In The Snow
  7. Robyn Hitchcock & Venus 3 - Underground Sun
  8. Dino Jr. - Crumble
  9. Beck - Pressure Zone
  10. The Smiths - Panic

... hmm. I give that a Meh-minus. Hang the iPod. Hang the iPod.

Very Very Harry!

No spoilers... I promise.

Just wanted to say that I greatly enjoyed this last Harry Potter book. I thought it was much better than the last couple in the series; there was a lot less of the stuff I didn't like in the others, and a lot more of the stuff I did like. The whole series works out to be a pretty impressive work of storytelling, too; she managed to-tie up all kinds of things in this book, including things I had completely forgotten about. Also, good timing on the release of movie 5 - there's a lot of back-references in this book to stuff that happens in that book. Seeing the movie last week ended up being a useful refresher.

Unhappily, I had the basic gist of the ultimate ending spoiled by someone who failed to put a warning on a message board post the day the book came out. Nonetheless, it was still good.

By comparison: this one (750 pages) took me about ten hours to finish. I've been working on Pynchon's Against The Day (1070 pages) for eight months.

We're Idiots. They Know It.

And Tony Snow proves it:

    Politics sometimes manages to muddle the obvious. The war in Iraq, authorized by three-quarters of the Senate, was launched in response to Saddam Hussein's refusal to abide by 17 United Nations resolutions — and by the fact that Saddam clearly supported terror movements around the world. We never argued that he played a role 9/11; political opponents manufactured the claim to question the president's integrity.

Here's part of the authorization for the Iraq war:

    Whereas the President and Congress are determined to continue to take all appropriate actions against international terrorists and terrorist organizations, including those nations, organizations, or persons who planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001, or harbored such persons or organizations;

Colin Powell said:

    "We know members of both organisations [Iraq and Al-Q] have met at least eight times at very senior levels since the early 1990s. In 1996 . . . bin Laden met with a senior Iraqi intelligence official in Khartoum, and later met with the director of the Iraqi intelligence service."
    In September, after Cheney asserted that Iraq had been "the geographic base of the terrorists who have had us under assault now for many years, but most especially on 9/11," Bush acknowledged there was no evidence that Saddam's government was connected to those attacks.

oops

Even now, Bush reinforces the connection. Here he is last week, July 13, 2007:

    In rebuffing calls to bring troops home from Iraq, President George W. Bush employed a stark and ominous defense. "The same folks that are bombing innocent people in Iraq," he said, "were the ones who attacked us in America on September the 11th, and that's why what happens in Iraq matters to the security here at home."

Or, if you like it with moving pictures, take a look at this (via Ugh, way over yonder on another site).

Our leaders think we're stupid, and we give them no reason to think otherwise. An country of intelligent people would've impeached Bush years ago.