it aint me

get your war on

revolutionary assoc. of the women of afghanistan photo archive. warning - graphic and disturbing.

The San Jose Mercury (aka Murky News) printed three letters to the editor which questioned the Bush administration's bombing of Afghanistan. Wierd. Is this a sign that it's safe to be rational in America?

I'm hitting the road to see the Butthole Surfers tonight. Blue moon, Holloween, the Butthole Surfers, Knitting Factory LA -- seems like some kind of harmonic convergence.

Steve, if you want to reach me, my cell is the best choice. 408 892 0826

For the first time in 46 years, Halloween ghosts and goblins can trick-or-treat by the light of a full moon. They won't get another chance until 2020, astronomers said.

Wednesday's full moon will look like an orange jack-o-lantern rising from the east at dusk, said Jack Horkheimer, executive director of the Miami Space Transit Planetarium.

(from LKB)

So, is this like the "credible threat" against airforce one, or is this the other kind? Why can't they just say what it is? I guess because it's something like "Mossad says so."

Anyway, I'm moving the /treehouse to highest alert. So you know what to do. Or not.

And what's up with this? Mushroom clouds north of Kabul? Not good. I've been saying it privately but I'll go on the record here - we are going to drop some nuclear weapons on someone, real soon. Here's the formula:

"Experts" and various other talking head types - including many politicians - sense a chance to gain some points in the American public's mind by hitting Bush for being too timid. McCain, to take one example, is strongly calling for ground troops to take and hold land in Afghanistan. Thomas Freidman is calling for similar action (what's up with this guy - he's starting to scare me.) In any case, Bush is going to be forced to do something to seem strong, but as soon as we send ground troops into Afghanistan they will immediately and soundly get their asses kicked. We have the technology, but I'm guessing that doesn't mean much in the chaos of battle. Being accustomed to battle conditions is the only thing that matters, and these people are clearly accustomed. The US military would have to take 10 years of strong defeats before we'd be toughened up enough to really duke it out with a nothing-to-lose islamic fundamentalist army with decades of experience fighting on their home soil.

So, after we lose a couple Somalia style battles (with our soldiers being tortured, gutted, beheaded, and otherwised dragged through the streets of Kabul) our people, goaded by the McCain types, will demand blood. They will demand a victory that our conventional forces will be unable to deliver. So Bush will have no choice but to use nuclear weapons. Even if it's clear tactically that they won't do much good. They will appease the psychic need for a big hit.

(And two days later the Russians will drop one on Chechnya.)

Hope I'm wrong.

I just checked my old e.mail address and found the same e.mail (to the original circle of five friends and family he started out with) message from Jim Louis about "seeing you next year", so I think he's pissed off at the world not just us or not pissed off at all. But I'm already missing him and Rachael. Good to see Mark kicking in again and Steve from afar. Who's anonymous ?

Argentina again ...

Argentina has the best store-bought mayo I've ever had. Good oil, good eggs, and lemon juice.

archived web pages at the internet archive wayback machine

WOTD
Gound (Noun)
Pronunciation: ['gawnd]
Definition 1: The extraneous matter that collects in the corners of the eyes during sleep.

Mike, that monkfish you cooked last night was first rate. Any tips for the rest of us less gifted over the fire? Also, do you have a favorite spot to buy fish?

Thanks for dinner!

go yankee's

started out watching Chappaqua last week and it started great and then got a bit boring but was fun to watch for sure, great imagery, people, music...--but then watched Powder (one of my all time favorite movies!!!:>)

peter pan finds tinkerbell

had some extremely tasty and clean chinese on the upper east side last night Henry's Evergreen 1288 First (69 st)

sautewednesday.com is a food weblog that might be interesting.

Forced by the Freedom of Information Act, the EPA now admits that toxic releases at the WTC site are worse than had been reported. I'm not happy about working down there, and can only hope that things are not too bad where I am, about seven blocks away (they claim concentrations are only troublesome at "ground zero"). I certainly don't have much trust in the authorities, but I'm not inclined to wear a respirator. Long term effects are left to the imagination, while the lingering stench of war and death causes depression in the here and now.

Anyone going to a Butthole Surfers show on the west coast? I'm looking around for tickets. SF seems to be sold out, but Portland still looks available.

In the first-century A.D., the Roman poet Martial sent his friends the following invitation:

containment policy

America the Graphical! Click here to view a three page "curated collection" of media banners related to 9/11. Fair warning: pop-ups await you.

Will the real stooge please stand up?
Our pal Steve DiBenedetto is constantly mistaken for actor Evan Handler, who played Larry in the Three Stooges movie.

The New Yorker has a short article on trucking into Manhattan, a long-standing problem that's been brought to a head by recent events. I'm having trouble getting shipments into the Bookstore. As usual, blame it on Robert Moses.
Also a useful piece (not online) by Nicholas Lemann on What Terrorists Want, contrasting military and academic views of terrorism with understandings derived from the study of civil wars. Wide-spread civil war makes sense as USAma's realistic goal, and these wars don't necessarily proceed in the way you might think.

Not sure if David Lynch's latest is worth a lot of comment. Some images stick with you, though. Below is a character called The Cowboy, a soft-spoken, melanin-deficient creep who might or might not be an assassin-for-hire. In his first appearance, he says to a film director (whose shady backers are trying to influence the casting of a film): "If you do good, you'll see me one more time. If you do bad, you'll see me two more times." Even though the guy looks like a refugee from a dude ranch (by way of the Village People), he makes you shudder: the infantile, Rumpelstiltskin quality of his threat is sheer brilliance.

An article in yesterday's (or was it Sunday's?) Buenos Aires Herald addressed the Latin American ambivalence about Bush's call to arms. This jist of it is this: "We're all behind you on this counter-terrorism thing, but to a point. We remember your counter-communism thing and all the havoc your policies wreaked on Latin American nations."

These shades of gray seem to be lost in US media output.