dickens

"It is required of every man," the Ghost returned, "that
the spirit within him should walk abroad among his fellow men, and
travel far and wide; and if that spirit goes not forth in life, it is
condemned to do so after death. It is doomed to wander through the
world -- oh, woe is me! -- and witness what it cannot share, but might
have shared on earth, and turned to happiness!"
[...]
"You are fettered," said Scrooge, trembling. "Tell me why?"

"I
wear the chain I forged in life," replied the Ghost. "I made it link by
link, and yard by yard; I girded it on of my own free will, and of my
own free will I wore it. Is its pattern strange to you?"

Scrooge trembled more and more.

"Or
would you know," pursued the Ghost, "the weight and length of the
strong coil you bear yourself? It was full as heavy and as long as
this, seven Christmas Eves ago. You have laboured on it, since. It is a
ponderous chain!"

[...]
"But you were always a good man of business, Jacob," faltered Scrooge, who now began to apply this to himself.

"Business!"
cried the Ghost, wringing its hands again. "Mankind was my business.
The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and
benevolence, were, all, my business. The dealings of my trade were but
a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!"

'Addressing the Legion' by digby

Addressing The Legion

by digby

"Watching these mini Nuremberg rallies with the president, and now the vice-president, using the troops to make political points I'm uncomfortably reminded that going back to Rome (and probably earlier) the point of having the troops assembled before the leadership was to make it clear that the military backed the leadership against all comers. Today this is slightly more subtly accomplished, but the motivation is the same. It is shamelessly done not just to convey the point that the military will follow the orders of the administration (which it is constitutionally required to do) but that it also politically backs the administration against its critics. These are political speeches done for the purpose of answering political critics.

If I didn't know better and were to watch the majority of speeches from afar for the last six months, I would assume that the United States is a military dictatorship, so many uniforms have been present. Even the speech that Bush gave the other day on the economy featured a bunch of people dressed in the same clothes in the standard tableau behind him.

This is becoming a bit disturbing. The administration is giving the appearance of having control of the military in an inappropriate political way and they are doing it more and more. "

Longfellow

Longfellow
Originally uploaded by chrissam42.

Boston electrical sky

Boston electrical sky
Originally uploaded by Chosetec.

scribbles on the war

What's going to happen? American forces will eventually pull out. Will it deteriorate into civil war? (deteriorate? how about, continue) Will nationalism and compromising in the effort to get rid of the occupation forces bring everyone together into a political solution instead? I can't see the Ba'athists working with the Shiite fundamentalists (Sistani's crew). Their sustained campaign ('insurgency' as the media say) against the American forces has been even moreso aimed at Iraqis who might oppose them--political assassinations, bombings of what seems like every single police station in the country, coordinated assaults on police stations, etc. Iran would be behind the Shi'a, though. Do the Ba'athists have any allies? (I know Syria is ruled by a Ba'ath party but they're no longer related I believe...look this up, seano) They may not be able to regain control of their former country. Next consider: American involvement (how long will they stay/be able to stay? how long will their tenuous grip on 'security' last? how will thir continued presence affect other things?); other players in the region (Israel, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the Kurds--BIG issue, Egypt); Iraqi public opinion (even though voting is a sham); more things I'm forgetting.

north st.

a beginning

start your engines. president bush gave his '05 state of the union speech last night. over the next week i'll try to go over key portions of it, and illuminate what bullshit i can find.