“BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) — The U.S. military added on Sunday more U.S. soldiers to the list of those who died in attacks on Saturday, bringing the number of American soldiers killed since Friday to 15.”
Author Archives: Kyle Kimberlin
neocons no more?
Decline and fall of the neocons — TimesOnline:
The writer Christopher Hitchens … says: “The main noise in Washington right now is that of collapsing scenery. The Republican party is in total disarray. They’ve been dropping their most intelligent people over the side while the presidential candidates are all outbidding each other to be nice about the revolting carcass of Falwell.”
Wolfowitz, the cerebral neocon, and Falwell, the braying theocon, had nothing in common personally. Indeed, Falwell blamed “the pagans and the abortionists and the feminists and the gays and the lesbians” for provoking the 9/11 attacks, an explanation uncomfortably close to the views of the Taliban. But the unlikely alliance between their two movements provided the brains and the brawn behind Bush. Now the neocons have been ousted, one by one, from their positions of influence and trust while the Republican party base is desperately thrashing around for a successor to Bush that it can back in 2008.
the thudding of the guns
Light many lamps and gather round his bed.
Lend him your eyes, warm blood, and will to live.
Speak to him; rouse him; you may save him yet.
He’s young; he hated War; how should he die
When cruel old campaigners win safe through?But death replied: ‘I choose him.’ So he went,
And there was silence in the summer night;
Silence and safety; and the veils of sleep.
Then, far away, the thudding of the guns.–Siegfried Sassoon
The Death Bed
fighting for the future
An eloquent young girl addresses the UN Conference on Environment and Development.
to bean or not to bean
Can someone please explain the use of the verb “to bean” in this context? I spotted it on google news, and I’m confused.
look right
Please take a moment to peruse the blogroll in the right column of the page. Especially the Hometown Baghdad blog. It’s a video blog done by college students in Baghdad.
browse this
Just curious, what’s your preference, Mozilla Firefox or Internet Explorer?
I’m a Mozilla Firefox guy myself. I guess Netscape is still out there too. I used to use it a lot, but not in the last few years. Does anybody know if it’s still any good?
I don’t like IE, because it’s constantly stopping me in the middle of stuff, with silly security alerts. I’ve tried turning all that off, but it doesn’t work.
the grand illusion
Hey wanna see a neat party trick?
Next time somebody sidles up to you at a party and challenges you to prove your consciousness isn't an illusion, you can tell them this:
Consciousness is not subject to eliminative reduction; i.e., you can't call it an illusion less than consciousness, because the illusion of consciousness is consciousness.
If you consciously believe you are conscious, then you are. See?
Now we're hanging out with Descartes, mon ami. Cogito ergo sum. I think therefore I am.
Ta da … Whip it out at your next fete or fiesta, and think of me.
For further fun reading, check out the neural correlate of consciousness. Good old NCC, it's a hoot.
crying wolf
Don’t I concoct some cool titles for my posts? I’m surprised I don’t get more comments just for my great titles. That Pulitzer for clever blogging is just beyond my grasp!
Anyway, Wolfowitz has finally resigned — or announced he’s going to — and I say he has it coming. I never got my toaster oven, or my checks with 4 different pictures of dolphins. That’s no way to run a bank, dammit.
Oh, and I just thought of a cool name for a punk band:
John Ashcroft’s Inflamed Pancreas.
Daughter of Martin Luther King Jr. dies
Yolanda King has died.. She was 51.
She was an actress, author, producer, advocate for peace and nonviolence, who was known and loved for her motivational and inspirational contributions to society,’ the King family said in a statement.
charitable
Lots of people think they’re charitable if they give away their old clothes and things they don’t want. It isn’t charity to give away things you want to get rid of and it isn’t a sacrifice to do things you don’t mind doing.
-Myrtle Reed, author (1874-1911)
we’re all mad here
We have previously established here that The Shrub suffers from Narcissistic Personality Disorder. He’s deluded, quite mad. Maybe we’re all mad here, but setting that aside, he needs to be heeled to the curb before he craps in our national mess kit again. He ought to be stopped before he starts another immoral, unfounded, illicit war … this time in Iran.
As this article at Mother Jones explains, the Congress need to start doing their homework, close the loopholes in the authorizations for war they gave Shrub after 9/11, and – rhetorically speaking – learn to treat the House on the other end of the avenue as enemy combatants in the fight for peace.
You can hang me in a bottle like a cat
Let the crows pick me clean but for my hat
Where the wailing of a baby
Meets the footsteps of the dead
We’re all mad here
Metaphor 
