You know, at some point between the Iowa and New Hampshire voting I was having a conversation about how there are no headlines with the word "Bush" at this time. Everyone's attention is on the horse race and (if one reads, say, Greenwald's blog) on how the media is screwing it up. Nobody gives a crap about the President and his wargames anymore... oh but look! Just as I was thinking that Iran hasn't been in the news for some time, there they are, Iranian gunboats making dangerous maneuvers. They're threatening us! War is imminent! Eek!

In other words, don't you think this incident has been trumped up just to jerk our attention back to Bush and his Global War on Everyone? The boy needs to feel relevant again. Last time he was slipping in the news coverage, he vetoed a string of popular bills. Now he's issuing warnings to Iran over this boating incident. This has long crossed the border of farce and become just ... depressing. 2009 can't come soon enough.

Wait. No, say it ain't so, Rudy saying a sentence (let alone two or more!) without using "9/11"? Okay, that's a seismic event. Could it possibly be...? No, that's crazy. But maybe...? No, I said that's crazy!

Could it be that the mockery has finally gotten to him and, in conjunction with his dismal showings in Iowa and New Hampshire, illustrated that invoking 9/11 is a bad idea? Maybe?

Nah, most likely he was just overtired from the other two debates and not quite entirely there. And perhaps he was not answering economic policy questions but rather talking on a cellphone to his wife. You know, those fancy-pants BlueTooth gadgets make you appear like you're actually NOT talking on the phone when you are. That must be what happened.

I mean, Rudy not mentioning 9/11. Preposterous!

I read this absolutely marvelous excerpt and couldn't help remembering a Soviet joke from the 1970s. It goes like this:

In the spirit of friendly competition, President of the United States Jimmy Carter and Secretary General of the Communist Party of USSR Leonid Brezhnev decided to compete in a 200-meter dash. The younger and fit Carter decisively outran the older and feeble Brezhnev. This is how the press covered it:

Western Press: "In a 200-meter race between Carter and Brezhnev, Carter finished first, while Brezhnev came in last."

Soviet Press: "In a 200-meter race between American and Soviet athletes, Secretary General Brezhnev took second place, while US President Carter arrived next-to-last."

***

Yes, I've said it. And I'll say it again: right-wing pundits are nothing but a bunch of Commies. Yes, Commies. All of them.

I think the beginning of Huckabee's slippery slope began when a Baptist preacher suddenly thought that theocracy is the solution to this nation's manifold problems. Given the scary influence the religious fundamentalists (of all religions) have had on the beginning of the 21st century, I can sort of see why this would seem like a good idea these days. Refreshingly, most of the American population is composed of normal people who, religious though they may be, have those... what do you call 'em?... brain cells! and therefore don't buy any of Huckabee's simplistic bullshit that goes contrary even to scripture.

The fact that he won Iowa is scary indeed, but I'm thinking perhaps it was because of a) his "folksiness", which does count for something in a nation obsessed with image over substance and b) none of the other candidates were particularly shiny themselves. I can just see a typical Iowan conservative thinking: "Boy, Mitt's scary, McCain is full of it... Mikey seems like a good Christian boy at least, and he talks like my preacher, whom I respect, so okay..."

He might pick up a couple of more states where people can't see past his folksiness into the scary Jesuit-like pursuit of theocracy that lurks beneath. The good-natured facade that hides this beast makes the beast only the more frightening.

"And it looked like a lamb, but spake like the dragon", indeed.

There are certain martial arts, by the way, which are more suited for the female body than for the male, and some (like Wing Chun) that were designed by women in the first place. I think girls should be encouraged to study martial arts simply because, well, it's for everyone. And perhaps to finally bang it into our subconscious that woman is not a wilting flower in need of a strong man to protect her.

(Also, one can find a number of instances in Arabian Nights, where a beautiful and courageous princess charges and single-handedly defeats a large army sent in pursuit of her and her hapless lover. The lover, in the meantime, admits to being as stable in battle as "a stick in a sack of grain". Stories like this should be required reading in, say, Saudi Arabia.)

Absolutely, the study of martial arts will not guarantee safety (especially since the attacker may have a higher rank in a martial art), but it WILL diminish the idea of a woman as weak and defenseless, and hopefully reduce the motivation for rape and assault.