Hot Pants

PAUL KRUGMAN, NYT, DEC 30“A year ago, we didn't know that Mr. Bush was lying, or [OFCS, must the Times wishy-wash everything ] at least being deceptive, when he said ‘ ... a wiretap requires a court order ... When we're talking about chasing down terrorists, we're talking about getting a court order before we do so.’

It's important for our fellow citizens to understand, [added the lying pondscum,] when you think Patriot Act, constitutional guarantees are in place … because we value the Constitution.’

Whereupon Paul fainted (I kid you, Krugy) for having so nearly named the thing itself.

Is there anyone left at the Times, besides our dear Ms. Dowd, who doesn't do the liberal two-step? Or is it three, or four: Thou shalt be perfect. Thou shall give no offense, for thou art Liberal above all things. As in, Nice. Fair. Just.

Aboveth all, thou wouldst avoid thy paper being cast into Hell by displeasing President Bush, causing Scotty McClellan never to call on your correspondent again. Ever.

But I digress. What I meant to say was, “Georgie Georgie, liar liar ...”

it rains

Whatchu Gonna Do When They Come For You

Nobody understands the concept of war. Of course, when the lives of many Americans and civilians abroad are at stake, we only hear the public outcry against ‘human rights violations’ and the like; however, inasmuch as we are currently waging war against a ruthless enemy, we as a people must accept the fact that we can not afford to maintain all of their dignity. It is a cold and simple fact that in war one must abandon certain compassionate sentiments in order to complete the mission, which remains primary throughout the endeavor.

But instead of a mutual understanding of the implications of warfare and the necessary acts thereof, we get liberalsense; we get this: ‘ ... while in a position condemned by human rights groups as torture ... ’

You're just awful damn confident, aren't you sweetie, that somehow you are forever special and protected.

That's okay. “Liberalsense” protects your sorry ass anyway.

Condi Hatches One

Rice said, “We must bring terrorists to justice wherever possible.”

Great idea. When do we begin?

Sick To My Orwellian Stomach

Detainee flights have saved European lives, says Rice

“Renditions take terrorists out of action, and save lives,” she said. “Such renditions are permissible under international law.”

However, she insisted that the US did not transport al-Qaida suspects “for the purpose of interrogation using torture.”

I think I'm going to puke this time. No, really. This is beyond snark, it is sick-making. Who are these people? Some alien race? They don't feel like America at all. Condi's frightening ability to lie. Where did the word Rendition come from? This slippery glide over dark and hideous matters. The lie that this is really wartime; the lie that it is necessary, in wartime, to pluck private citizens off the street—fuck due process—and whisk them away, one at a time, in a private Gulf Stream jet?

The truth is, it's taken this long for me to be able to face the word Rendition, never mind scratch out a few sentences. Some things leave you speechless, or remain at least so subdued in the soul . . . for we must live here as these outrageous acts are carried out—I mean—I'm not sure what I mean. I'm not sure I want to call myself American anymore.

I wasn't sure I believed in fundamental sin, either, perhaps no one who has had a baby ever really can, or does. But my children are grown now, and I have suffered at the hands of an individual and we as a nation have suffered at the hands of a group of people who have surely taught us this: minus the clinical function of Empathy in the brain, we are, as a species, absolutely intent on carrying out harm. There is no neutral sweet place, no core of goodness within every onion.

But there is the Will. The will to power, the will to action. The Will remains. Apparently.

Ms Rice's itinerary includes a stop in Romania, a country identified as a likely site of a secret, US-run detention site. Romania denies it.

Do We Care?

The female orgasm, she argues in the book, The Case of the Female Orgasm: Bias in the Science of Evolution, has no evolutionary function at all.

Jesus christ, people. Could we just do away with the whole publish-or-perish thing. Its pressure seeps, like wastewater, downhill, out of the university and into the already cluttered mainstream of ideas, already massively polluted, old tires and toilet paper floating everywhere . . .

Could we just have one little area of the human experience not probed (yes I am watching my choice of words here, and it's very difficult—I was going to say, Very hard, but you see the problem) left undissected by that curse of the new century: The Expert. The Expert with a book.

Woof Woof. Woof Woof Woof.

Barbara Kingsolver, in High Tide In Tucson, writes: It's starting to look as if the most shameful tradition of Western civilisation is our need to deny we are animals. In just a few centuries of setting ourselves apart as landlords of the Garden of Eden, exempt from the natural order and entitled to hold dominion, we have managed to behave like so-called animals anyway, and on top of it to wreck most of what took three billion years to assemble.