soapbox

Seriously, if this thing is so cool lets hear some details!

While waiting for quotes to arrive and lasers to warm up, I’m catching up on my reading.

(1) A tongue-in-cheek comment on Rex W: “you show me yours and I’ll show you mine.”

(2) A shallow but still disturbing reminder of how horrible “Bushcare” is.

(3) However common, the press isn’t always rolling over and sucking Dick’s dick.

(4) Oregon’s right-to-death legislation survives another attack, though for the wrong reasons, says James Kilpatrick in a rambly and unclear opinion piece. Which is too bad, because too often “states’ rights” is only use euphemistically…

(5) a nice little piece of commentary on President Jonah – well actually it’s rambly and kinda stretched as a metaphor, but finished strong.

for all that it’s fun to make fun of Joel and Canadia, the recent elections there make sense and are even encouraging: the Conservatives win but don’t get a majority and as such have to build a coalition in order to get anything done. That’s my take on it, anyway, coming from a land of extremism and closed-mindedness.

the Palestinian election results, however, are definitely surprising and also both frightening and exciting – Hamas won in a landslide. If Hamas leadership considers this to be a mandate on violence, then we’re screwed. [We're the only country allowed to engage in state terrorism and unreasoned aggression.] If increased political legitimacy leads to decreased violence (a la the IRA) then there’s an exciting possibility for real improvement. If nothing else, maybe Isreal will be scared shitless/enough to behave itself?