Found this on Adam’s A violently executed blog. What’s sad is it’s exactly what is happening in America, not just with Bush but so many of his partymates. You know, when a barfight at my favorite bar broke out last week I stood at the door hollering, “Get out of here, you fucking animals. You uncivilized animals! Out! Out! Get the fuck out!” I did it until they stopped fighting and someone hauled one of the drunken assholes out into the street. I wish I could stand at the door of America and yell it at the Republican party, in …

I am writing the last little bit of my novel left to be written before I set it aside for now. Well, while looking online for background information on the famous Korean folk hero/gangster/freedom-fighter Kim Du-Han, I found a very interesting article at TIMEAsia titled The Way of the Fists. It’s all about Korean gangsters and their folk-heroism, their connections with politicians, and their public shows of nationalism which often involve a very specific form of self-mutilation. Very interesting piece, in my opinion.

By the way… before I forget. I just finished reading a book of Noam Chomsky’s on the so-called New Military Humanism and the American intervention in Kosovo, and I’m not entirely convinced that his arguments aren’t mistaken in one way: he speaks a lot about censorship and suppression of knowledge, and seems to think that the general populace actually does care about things like world events and the hypocrisy which he so forcefully lays out on the table for us to look at. He again and again points out that America is not playing fair, is lying to its citizens, …

The Bubble of American Supremacy is a somewhat interesting essay link I found over on the very cool Worldchanging blog. Worth a read, I think… I’ll give it a shot in the morning.

By the way, you can tell I am busy because I haven’t said a damn thing about them capturing Hussein. All I am gonna say now is that I’m curious as hell (and more than a little nervous) about what the hell they’re gonna do with the guy now. I recall discussions from a year ago rather vividly, and nervously. Man…..

…. if Iraq is full of people who hate America with a seething passion, don’t be surprised. After all, the only thing they’ll have to go on is what their parents said, and their own vague memories of scenes like this. In this photo by Ashley Gilbertson (from the New York Times), this boy is standing in what used to be his kitchen. Have you ever stood in what used to be your kitchen? I never have. I’ve been fortunate never even to have experienced this via something as pedestrian as a housefire. And the take home message is that …

I just read a very interesting article over at reason.com titled Reason: Stand and Deliver Revisited: The untold story behind the famous rise — and shameful fall — of Jaime Escalante, America’s master math teacher. This courtesy of Brenda, a post at isomorphisms: representations of the identity. A blog which, by the way, absolutely rocks. Anyone who starts the bio on her about page with the following is gonna be interesting as hell: My name is Brenda, and I study mathematics. An unusual introduction, I know; there is other information, answers to more conventional questions, that could have served as …

Tell you what. Let’s make a deal. You believe what you want. I’ll believe what I want. If you agree to this deal, I’ll go into battle side by side with you to safeguard it. I’ll write books about it. I’ll wade through swamps under-munitioned to make sure it isn’t ripped from us, and I’ll cradle you in my arms when you’re shot to pieces, as I hope you will me. I’ll spend my life building machines that will safeguard our freedom, I’ll pay taxes to fund a governmental organization that will protect this sacred right of ours. If you …

… at the field of economics altogether. Why? Here’s a little taste of what was written in an internal memo about “Dirty Industries”. The memo was dated December 12, 1991, and penned by the head economist of the World Bank at that time, Lawrence H. Summers. Just between you and me, shouldn’t the World Bank be encouraging MORE migration of the dirty industries to the LDCs [Less Developed Countries]?… I think the economic logic behind dumping a load of toxic waste in the lowest wage country is impeccable and we should face up to that… I’ve always though that under-populated …

I just ran across a story online about a Korean farmer who killed himself in Cancun during the protests, a kind of public martyrdom in protest. I didn’t heard about it it at the time, because I was so busy moving in to Jeonju and adjusting, but now that I’m reading it, I am shocked. I didn’t even know that a group of Korean farmers had gone over to Cancun for the protests, much less one of them committing a protest suicide! I can admire the strength of his will to protest, and what he gave up for his cause, …