Why hasn't he been allowed to quietly escape yet? Can't they let him out on his own recognizance or something? Hey, how about a work-release program - crush the shiite insurgency during the week and return to his cell on weekends?

Sigh.

Didn't those f'ing neocons realize that someone like Saddam is pretty much necessary to hold a Frankenstate like Iraq together?

"There is nothing wrong with your television set. Do not attempt to adjust the picture. We are controlling transmission. If we wish to make it louder, we will bring up the volume. If we wish to make it softer, we will tune it to a whisper. We can reduce the focus to a soft blur, or sharpen it to crystal clarity. We will control the horizontal. We will control the vertical. For the next hour 2 years, sit quietly and we will control all that you see and hear. You are about to experience the awe and mystery which reaches from the inner mind to... The Outer Limits."

In my opinion, one of if not THE most important painter(s) of the 20th century. He volunteered for the Graman army, served in the trenches for most of WWI and made art constantly throughout the entire war. The process of his becoming a soldier, fighting, becoming disillusioned, apparently developing PTSD and apparently recovering from it in the years following the war are very evident in his body of work.

Any discussion of how veterans are treated in this or any other country immediately makes me think of his postwar painting "The Match Seller" (see: http://upper.usm.k12.wi.us/academics/History/History%20WEb/OttoDixPaintings.htm) Also on that page are "Skat Players", "Prague Street", and "Trench Suicide" each of which are enormously illustrative of various traumas faced by veterans of futile (or, ANY) war.

Not surprisingly, he was criticized for the "defeatist" tone of his work; his status as a repeatedly decorated war hero afforded him some protection from such criticism. He was later drafted by the NAZI regime for its war, and then not surprisingly jailed for his pacifist tendencies.

I find the development of his work over the years to be a very reassuring and hopeful thing; for many years after the war his work was filled with anger and insanity but in his later years his work became utterly peaceful and placid.

Have a look at: (http://www.nga.gov.au/Dix/index.cfm) or just Google.

German, not graman army.....

Am I the only one out here who is amused to see this article every christmas season? Without taking it seriously, if I may add the obvious?

Sheesh. What's Christmas without a little Humbug?

Fuck 'em bloody.

Guantanamo rights are good enough for the GOP.

I hope Cary made that line up, otherwise it's hopeless. Finish out a year there, then leave... the locals are right - you ARE rich gringos ripe to be taken advantage of. You need some SERIOUS introspection, lady. Meditate, get a therapist, etc., whatever; otherwise you'll always be dissatisfied. You'll have to bring yourself with you anywhere you go, yes indeed. sheesh. Quit driving your friends, husband, kids and colleagues crazy and pay a professional for that privilege like any other self-important save-the-world liberal.

In my book, a republican who isn't in the top tier of rich americans is simply not intelligent. Overpriced, oversized car and house, especially without the income to match...not intelligent. Married a loser who sponges off his in-laws? Doesn't sound like the sharpest knife in the drawer to me. Deluded, blinded by love, living the american dream; call it what you will, I call it dumb.

It might be better to say they're lacking wisdom rather than intelligence, something that's generally thought to come with age; but there's no shortage of 20-somethings who can see that any one of these equations just don't work and more than a few people of modest education who have plenty of common sense.

Your nieces are fools, plain and simple. Some fools actually wake up, others just dig in deeper. Hopefully they're just young fools, a condition many of us outgrow.

Aren't you supposed to be working on their spiritual development, godmother? Can't you say "Look, sweetie, that seems like a bad idea and here's why..." Are family elders for some reason supposed to withhold guidance nowdays? When did that rule take effect? They may not listen right away, or ever, but does that mean you should remain silent? Wouldn't it be nice if, when they've had a humbling moment of failure, someone has given them a clue to fall back on? You don't need to tell them like it's been carved in stone, just that in your experience certain kinds of things don't tend to work out in the long run. Somebody has to give them the tools to learn from their mistakes and I'd guess your sister and the Ivy league left a few things out of the kit.

Marrying the guy who perhaps should have just been the bad-boy boyfriend in the one case and living far beyond her means in the other would seem to point to a problem like an immature need for gratification, which is probably beyond you to easily affect at this point, but maybe you could still say "Have you thought this all the way through?"

But what do I know, I like hearing good advice someone cared enough to give me in the back of my head after I do something dumb.