They exist and are commonly known as the police.

-- Proximity Warning

So now you are trying to make a comparison between police officers, aka peace officers, in Anytown USA to Combat Soldiers in Baghdad, Iraq or Mogadishu or Somalia or where the hell ever?

Glenn:Self-evidently, every problem that Hiatt argues is created by "mere" air strikes against other countries is magnified by many magnitudes by the types of invasions and long-term occupations which Hiatt cheers on for Iraq.

Perhaps my ironimeter is not working today, but this statement appears to be merely well constructed and true. Since Hiatt knows what he is doing, he deserves so much worse.

Stay classy. What next?

Got a great story, it happened Thursday. I met two younger motorcyclists on the ferry, coming to the KittySap penninsula to ride on our uncrowded, twisty roads. One had a new "old" (retro-looking) triumph. A replica "Thruxton", for those who remember. The other had a genuine old-time Moto-Guzzi, a V-750. It was so old it had a "collector plate" (8480?).

So I asked them could I tag along, show them through town, which is all chopped up construction, and get them started on the good roads, which I knew where they were. I would peel off, I told them, after a few miles, I had things to do and couldn't ride all day.

Oh they let me come, but one could tell, from their glances and whispers, they were very suspicious of my motives. I mean, c'mon, old guy just begs to ride along with two young guys, deep into the woods? God alone knows what I wanted, eh?

So we get going. After I slowed down enough they could keep up, we were going along, and the Guzzi stops, and is dead!

So we are stuck at the side of the road. After waiting a decent interval (gave me a chance to get a smoke) I stepped in, got my glasses and a little halogen light, and traced circuits. The points were completely dead, pitted to death! neither of them had never so much as seen a set of points, let alone knew how to set them. I had to file these, they were dead, but I got the Guzzi going! Told them it would run, but not for very long, and got them back to the boat. Oh- I was the only one who had tools, too.

And the two guys thought maybe I wasn't quite so useless. (I had tripleA, too, if it came to that)

On that point, however, each of us must make up his or her own mind.

Moose Garage Fixes on the Fly. A greener approach to motorcycle maintenance. A think they could you on Tuesdays.

My Tank Scooter is all electronic ignition though.

Whatever is cookin' smells like stale cigars. The Moose Hall seems to have tables filled with bloody hides. Is this the night when rotten Turkey Pot Pie are dished out? My palate ain't in the mood. Saturday night jams are down in the town.

They rave alll day about asparagus and morel soup

D.B., be cook-in-charge, and the Derbig Bouncer.

Whatever is going on sure stinks. I check DCLaw1.

Then I'm elsewhere. O Early to bed after a hot milk.

`

Proverbs 17:22. A cheerful heart is good medicine.

A crushed or angry spirit crushes the [baby] bones.

`

I'll ditch out for a other friendlier joint that's real.

Some little prick

is deleting my posts. Shame on his trampling of my free speech.

Please, tell us how he is doing it Proximity? I don't want it to happen to anybody else? Who is doing it, and how?

Say, Celery, did you read that "Dear John" story? Jesus, what a way to treat a guy. And what a guy he was. From Iowa.

I did what I could, but man, what can you do? He kept on asking me if he was doing the right thing by getting divorced!

I'm the wrong guy to ask that, I'm very pro-marriage.

A Tank Scooter? Is that made by Caterpillar?

Funny how those post appear, disappear, and re-appear! What could possibly be causing that.

Look, I just got a phone call. You will have to figure it out on your own- I gotta go. Everyone have a nice evening and drive safely. Leave No Turn Unstoned!

I was told if attached to 'things' like wine, money, cool clothes, wheels, and long to become a prestigious scribe-for-killing, and war-endorsement of The Bush's Policy... Well, one suffers real bad time. I am pondering that etc.,

If attachment to 'things' or fixed notions is the 'root of all suffering' ... gads.

My gads! That means no attachment to a lame leg? A jug of wine? A baby?

I can be hooked on a desire for more morels? Yes. Blogs? O Yes.

Can one escape from a plague/epidemic of war lies?

Well.

No comment.

My leg is attached.

If it's not attached?

No suffering? Shad up.

Why can't the real news and tragedy of the Iraq war actually be broadcast to the people of this country. So our mostly brain-dead people can learn what's really going on, and the human cost of rapacious Western capitalism in foreign lands.

I'm sickened by that photo of the two-year-old, knowing his death (and likely millions of others) are for nothing more than a small group of Western capitalists looking to get wealthier.

Truly sickening.

The sole remaining way for the US to be of any help to the Iraqi people is to withdraw completely and absolutely (i.e., all military, all US civilians attached to USG entities, all mercenaries/'contractors') and to do so in weeks, not months.

Weeks, huh?

Heh.

The only future role for the US in regard to Iraq is payment of reparations, and to surrender the principals of this criminal aggression to an appropriate war crimes tribunal.

Yeah, well. We are more likely to get universal single payer healthcare sometime in the next 20 years. I'm not saying I wouldn't enjoy it but it is not likely to happen and it is a physically and logistically impossible to withdraw from Iraq in the manner you propose in weeks, even under ideal, non-hostile conditions. It's a quagmire, remember?