drat fink

fat sells

bloody lentils

is your head on straight pins
why such a rush to severance

divide and concurrence
the star of dated (and nuts)

the thinnest mint/youre squinting
i wish i could pull that off

pnac sack

somehow missed this link in my referrer logjam. ok, maybe not a logjam so much as a paperjam but either way thanks for the nod to pnac.info. long may you rein in.

frankly mr shankly
since you ask

(for the nonsense crude)

chilled to the boner
loves more than
alone again or

traced
on the ceiling
sieging is believing

scrawled
on the floorboards
which way is towards

motorboats sputter
rearranged clutter

a gathering swarm

war,m

j-scholar

"Lee C. Bollinger, president of Columbia University, said yesterday that Nicholas Lemann, the Washington correspondent for The New Yorker, had agreed to become dean of the Graduate School of Journalism, an appointment that comes at a pivotal time for the school.

Mr. Lemann, 48, is a highly respected journalist who has worked as a reporter and editor at The Washington Monthly, Texas Monthly, The Atlantic Monthly and The Washington Post."

via tapped

art officials

"Why did the US fail to protect the museum? To the extent that the ACCP would rather see anquities on the market rather than locked up in "retentionist" state museums, the group's recommendations may have struck a respondant chord among the Pentagon's neoconservative ideologues. Neoconservatives see state-owned libraries, archives, and museums as residues of socialism and are working to transfer public library and museum assets to private concerns.. Were the troops instructed to stand by while the museum looting took place? This seems unlikely; after all, the troops failed to protect hospitals as well as museums, and may have violated the Hague Convention in their failure to do so.* It seems that no plans were developed for protecting the Iraqi people's assets in the conflict's aftermath."

via cursor

conséquences graves

"The fall of France was astonishingly swift. After regime change in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria, it was only a matter of time before Tony Blair and George W. Bush said that they had “no plans” to attack France. The detested Jacques Chirac had long been a thorn in their sides. He was a past friend of Saddam Hussein, welcomed Arab exiles and had a suspiciously large Muslim population. Above all, he refused point-blank to disband his force de frappe weapons of mass destruction. As Donald Rumsfeld had said back in 2003: “Things mean consequences.” France posed a clear and immediate threat. The coalition acted in pre-emptive self-defence. It was a pity about the Louvre."

via booknotes

fire sail

"What happened to the Royal Library of Alexandria? We can be certain it was there once, founded by Ptolomy II Soter, and we can be equally certain it is not there now. It formed part of the Museum which was located in the Bruchion or palace quarter of the city of Alexandria. This great ancient city, occupying a spit of land on the shore of the Mediterranean Sea, had been founded by Alexander the Great in his flying visit to Egypt and became the capital of the last dynasty of Pharaohs descended from Alexander's general Ptolemy. The Great or more properly Royal Library formed a part of the Museum but whether or not it was a separate building is unclear."

via hesiod

self demotion

just noticed that im at 403 on the ecosystem chart due to some clerical error, im sure. and while i was there i noticed a new addition to the "what were they thinking when they linked to me" club, cooped up. i guess he must have intuited that i was a poor shleb of a mets fan. fortunately, ive had the war to distract me from their woeful play. (i knew eventually rummy would do me a solid.) but in reality, the worse they play, the less of an interest i have. and in the end, i regard my disregard as a good thing. so its on to syria, i say, i cant bear to watch the nba playoffs.

le watchdog

global corporate ethics monitor via agence france-presse

well, it looked good. unfortunately, its a subscriber only service.

pants on fire

"Other presidents have had problems with truth-telling. Lyndon Johnson was said, politely, to have suffered a "credibility gap" when it came to Vietnam. Richard Nixon, during Watergate, was reduced to protesting, "I am not a crook." Bill Clinton was relentlessly accused by both adversaries and allies of reversing solemn commitments, not to mention his sexual dissembling. But George W. Bush is in a class by himself when it comes to prevarication. It is no exaggeration to say that lying has become Bush's signature as president."