It is the DOOM of men that they forget...

The above title is a quote from the 1981 movie ‘Excalibur’ as delivered by Nicol Williamson in his off-beat but effective portrayal of Merlin the Magician. Ironically it stuck with me and I have never forgotten it, nor have I failed to use it when I wish to sound both wise and ominous. Memory is one of those universal subjects of fascination among humans which explains why it not only figures heavily in psychology and studies of the brain but in our art and entertainment as well. Gaining, losing, or viewing memory is a plot device used with such common frequency in storytelling that we barely recognize when we’re exposed to it. Our minds have been trained to transition through time and space seamlessly when following the thread of a particular story.

Memory is of course instrumental when conceiving the passage of time and taken to a further extent, reality itself. If we have forgotten something then how real was the experience in the first place? How many moments have we lived through that wind up having a minimal or negligible effect on us because we lack the ability to store everything we may or may not have done? Do we actually forget more than we remember? If that is the case and if you believe that our subconscious somehow accounts for our unremembered events then might we not be a species formed more from our forgetfulness than our remembrance? What then of a made-up memory? Can remembering a lie have a deeper effect on our development than forgetting the truth?

Hmm… Marijuana…

Myanmar has probably slipped from memory though its mere mention might reactivate and recall what has recently gone on there. It hasn’t stopped, though it being out of front page news might cause one to think that there is stasis or inactivity in that beautiful but benighted part of the world. I’ll admit to feeling that way at least. Sadly it isn’t so.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/worldnews.html?in_article_id=484903

This report claims that around 200 people have been killed and 6,000 detained. Let’s be clear however, those 6,000 detained are basically at death’s door what with horrid prison conditions, forced labour camps, and the tender mercies of an enforcement establishment with a penchant for firing into crowds in broad daylight. Monk corpses are being found in the surrounding jungles.

http://www.reuters.com/article/asiaCrisis/idUSN28447581

A science organization with access to satellite imagery has tracked not only the eradication of several Burmese villages but what seems to be the forced relocation of even more people. Bush clearing on a mass scale indicates that camps may be being created to accommodate a large migration of people.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,511710,00.html

There is no question that the ruling junta is unpopular, so how can they carry on? It stands to reason that so long as they are swimming in cash they may act with impunity. And so we learn that 90% of the world’s rubies hail from Myanmar. “Fiery Gems from a Fairytale World!” so the advertisements go. Lovely.

http://www.salon.com/opinion/kamiya/2007/10/16/armenian_genocide/index2.html

Here’s a few more stories for the memory books. I for one am really, really tired of the “Inconvenient Truth” slogan being used to describe everything from Hillary Clinton potentially winning the Democratic nomination to my eventual dependence on bladder control undergarments but that aside this is a very good article on that whole Armenian genocide thing. The motive as to why the Ottomans would have wiped out up to 1.5 million Christians is explained. What's not is the motive of congress to vote on this.

Pure speculation but this might be a way for the Democratic congress to undermine the war in Iraq rather than take the more politically dangerous route of cutting funding. If Turkey wouldn't allow the U.S. to move supplies through their ports then the war effort would have a serious logistical challenge on their hands. Furthermore if Turkey is emboldened by a shaky alliance to move into Kurdish Iraq as they want to then there would be another outbreak of violence. I wouldn't be surprised if the Democratic party desired and even pursued an agenda that would ensure bad news to continue pouring out of Iraq up until the 2008 election. Cynical? Yes. Tinfoil hat crazy even? Yes. I'm just throwing it out there.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/15/AR2007101501494.html?wpisrc=newsletter

Steve Rogers; the original Captain America died not too long ago in a very politically-charged story, gunned down on the steps of a courthouse where he was prepared to submit his secret identity. His death was as much of a statement regarding the modern American identity as it was a money grab to sell ultra-collectible comics. He will be replaced – by whom in the Marvel universe is a closely guarded secret – but the new/old costume has been revealed. The re-addition of a handgun has lowered the jaws of some but again I think this to be another spot of social commentary couched in a bit of “Malibu Stacy with a New Hat” style of marketing. Let’s hope it’s a super gun that gives bullets the ability to change course mid-shot. Then maybe the Captain can go back in time and unwittingly fire on John F. Kennedy, thus confirming the Magic Bullet theory. Ooh! Good thing I have Stan Lee on speed-dial!

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/16/science/16dig.html?th&emc=th

Finally in something more archaeological than political there is a massive dig going on right now in Hanoi to fully uncover the thousand year old palaces of the Great Viet; Bronze Age founders of North Viet Nam! Their symbols were both the dragon AND the phoenix which in ancient times stood for Twice the Awesome!

We are all making the new Middle East...

The Middle East is on fire these days or at least it seems to be from the perspective of a westerner living in the cool waters of perpetual peace. It has of course been that way for all of my lifetime but it seems as if many strategies are finally coming to fruition or collapse. In this sandy region the proxies of the world plot and scheme their way into superior position while at the same time placing themselves above the indigenous races by virtue of the painful reality of attrition. Generations of children have now been raised in a reality of broken down neighbourhoods, dead and injured relations, uncertainty, bitterness, and the religious extremism that is sure to follow.

World War I created a whole Lost Generation in just four short years of mechanized barbarity. We see short glimpses of what the multiple lost generations in the Middle East are capable of; lives devoted to guerrilla warfare, suicide bombers, brutal ceremonies such as stoning the unclean and even government sanctioned beheading, to say nothing of common-place torture with various power tools. The shape of the Middle East in our future is uncertain but what seems clear enough is that no matter who wins, these everyday people have lost. They’ve been through too much, they’ve suffered for too long, and I doubt they will properly heal enough to help facilitate lasting peace. Is that part of the master plan? Is bombing, and policing, and sanctioning, and isolating in the name of peace really a ruse to grind a people down so they can never rise up to fight you fairly and openly should they bristle against your injustice?

One never knows…

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/14/washington/14weapons.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1&th&emc=th

It seems that what Israel bombed in Syria was a nuclear facility under construction. Apparently it was being built with North Korean know-how and the strike echoes the Osirak bombing of 1991. Look back over just this past year and count the little skirmishes between the regional would-be power of Iran and western trident of the U.S. the U.K. and Israel. The Shahab missile tests, British troops seized in open water, Iranian officials detained in Iraq, carrier battle groups in the Gulf of Hormuz – all of it pushing and prodding and the presentation of resolve.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/14/world/middleeast/14mideast.html?th&emc=th

This is just another upping of the ante, Israel wants Iran to take notice and come to understand the threat. Instead Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei has declared that all Middle Eastern countries should boycott an upcoming American sponsored peace process for Palestine.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/13/AR2007101301277.html?wpisrc=newsletter

What’s funny is that despite government rhetoric and position the Industrial Military Complex is uncaring of the politics of these lesser civilian forces. Iran requires F-14 parts for their air force and one way or another Americans are sending them the hardware they need!

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/13/AR2007101301427.html?wpisrc=newsletter

Elsewhere it seems Turkey is prepared to toss aside their relationship with America by invading Kurdish Iraq in search of separatists who have killed some 30 soldiers in recent times. They cite that the U.S. should have made more efforts to pacify the Kurdish attackers so that they wouldn’t have to. We could be seeing a new war front boil over.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/15/opinion/15mon1.html?th&emc=th

This whole situation is made more complicated by the fact that the Kurdish Authority, heedless of Iraq’s oil sharing stalls, has gone ahead and made regional agreements that may or may not be legally binding. Conceivably Turkish soldiers could be invading a place where American oil concerns are operating. It’s a potential Bush nightmare.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/14/AR2007101401245.html?wpisrc=newsletter

Al-Qaeda in Iraq is however reported to be crippled, down to only 30% to 40% capacity. I report this in fairness of seeing a problem from all sides but I think there is much salt to be taken with this. First of all, Al-Qaeda is constantly being reported as a minor player in Iraq. Second, the Sunnis tolerated the extremists when there were Shiites to intimidate and now that the country is mostly segregated they have started putting down the rabid dogs lest they get bitten. Third, have we ever heard of Al-Qaeda getting spanked but then coming back better than ever? Oh yeah! Afghanistan. Al-Qaeda isn’t a military force to be vanquished but the result of a discontented population, in this case the whole of the aforementioned Middle East.

When I get that feeling... I want... Sexual Salami...

It’s been like ten days since I put up a post! Where does the time go? Well, since this is my blog why don’t I tell you! For six days I was off work in a kind of stay-at-home vacation except home is not a holiday; it’s an over-emotional child-tending boot-camp where you literally have to steal free time in the dark of night. I cooked a Thanksgiving turkey with stuffing and gravy for the very first time and I have to say that it was mother-fucking delicious. I get to say that see. So long as my mother or my aunt was making the turkey they would ask “how’s the turkey” and I would have to say “oh my but it is very, very tasty” even if it was dry like an Al-Qaeda hand-job. Since I made the turkey this year I was able to sit at my own dinner table and proclaim “this buttery bird with its triple sausage stuffing is mother-fucking delicious, bitches” and the dinner guests could do nothing but look down at the table. When dinner was over I made a taco out of nothing but turkey skin and stuffing. When you cook the bird you control the bird and the possibilities are endless my friends!


I played a lot of Halo 3 at night with my time off and I must say I’m handling myself not too badly. For a while I was getting fragged on the steady but then I started to pick it up. My Skill Level kept rising as I came in third or second in matches and I even won a couple. I recorded one match in its entirety and the game allows you to view it from any angle with a flying camera. I am quick to force my friends to sit down and review the epic battle complete with freeze frame and detailed explanations of everything that’s happening… Sometimes looking back on my life I wonder how I have any friends at all?

We finished watching the first season of Heroes and it really stands nicely on its own as a complete story. So far the latest three episodes of the second season are not on par. It’s moving slowly, they’re concentrating on love stories, and they have even introduced people with duplicate powers, which I think is a bit cheap. This may have something to do with one of the writers leaving only to be replaced by some douche who use to write for the O.C. On the other hand there is this Latina chick that runs around in a sweaty tank top and bleeds deadly black shit from her eyes. Even better she’s always remorseful and afraid, sobbing and mumbling religious nonsense. So nice that would be. No wonder I had this dream where I come home from work carrying this huge, spicy salami over my shoulder and the little lady pictured above was helpless and frantic, trapped with her head stuck in the sewer grate found in my living room. The rest of the fantasy kind of writes itself.

Anyway before this blog gets flagged and my chances with the lovely Dania Ramirez get completely shot to hell let’s look at the news…

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/12/world/europe/12turkey.html?th&emc=th

Normally I would applaud anyone taking unreasonable and pointless pot-shots at the Turkish if only for my amusement but I cannot figure out what congress hopes to gain by condemning the genocide of Armenians way back in 1915. Is there not a perfectly awesome and far more relevant genocide going on in Darfur right now? The digitally perfect pictures of hacked up African bodies are far more interesting then any surviving sepia-toned tragedy shots the Armenian nonagenarians can cough up. The sperm that would become House Speaker Nancy Pelosi still resided in a hairless ball sac back then so why should she bother weighing in on it now?

http://www.juancole.com/2007/10/who-lost-turkey.html

Juan Cole from the Global Americana Institute knows more about this issue than anybody and even he doesn’t have all the answers. Still this is a great read too. Thanks to Nima at Report on Positivity for passing it on. http://positivity.wordpress.com/

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21163806/site/newsweek

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071008/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_blackwater_report

Blackwater is still in the news. All these crazy stories are coming out adding fuel to the fire. Apparently when their SUV had a fender bender with an Army Humvee the mercenaries pulled their gun and held up the soldiers! If I was an officer I would have lit them up right then and there. Nobody should punk the army. The Iraqi Government wants them completely out of country in six months. Yeah, good luck with that. They’ll be gone just like you suspended their license… Pussies.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/07/AR2007100701448.html

Reconciliation amongst Iraq’s various factions is off the table. Now they just want to focus on securing voter confidence and ensconcing themselves in their positions. The Iraqi power structure, laughable as it is, is all set to play the waiting game now. They’re digging in until the U.S. finally leaves and then they’re going to wipe out their rivals.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/12/world/middleeast/12mahdi.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin

The poor performance of the Green Zone is being reflected in the streets. Now that most of Iraq is pretty well segregated the militias who once made a living off the corpses of their enemies are running low on cash. They seem to have started turning on their own kind for pocket change and practice. Typical.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/06/AR2007100601521.html?wpisrc=newsletter

If you want to read about more Bush rats abandoning the sinking ship then here you go. I love that these people ‘never look back’ and are ‘always looking forward.’ I would love to grab them by the neck and force them to look back. They would involuntarily close their eyes but I would threaten them to look at what they’ve done or I would cut their eyelids off, just as my new hero Dexter taught me to. Then they would scream and I would sniff up their pungent, nourishing despair.

http://dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2007/09/18/story_18-9-2007_pg9_15

Finally thanks to Dave for sending me this. These Chinese, so funny. Why do they taunt the River Dragon with their succulent four year olds? Don't they know this kind of mockery will bring about flood and inauspicious harvest?