by all means!

Again: there is no such thing as a "victimless" crime -- or for that matter a "victimless" good.

-- JNagarya

I will agree with this in the sense that I accept the Chaos Theory meme of a butterfly flapping it's wings in South America may cause a storm in Iowa but should we invoke the criminal sanction against the butterfy to prevent Iowans from suffering harm? This is a case of carrying something to ridiculous extremes. It's ideology run amok.

If we make looking at naked pictures of your wife a crime, we have just created another "victimless crime" that you say does not exisr. Give me the power to legislate by decree and I can turn the whole world into criminals.

should we invoke the criminal sanction against the butterfy to prevent Iowans from suffering harm?

I would. Goddamned butterflies.

They really need to learn their place.

If only a winning lotto ticket would befall me.

I would. Goddamned butterflies.

They really need to learn their place.

-- quickstrategy

A little ether and a few pins and they earn their place in that glass covered case!

http://thepoorman.net/2008/05/08/new-comix/

I know there are lots of reasons for not resurrecting the draft, and I agree with many of them. But at this point in my exhaustion with all things military and warlike, it just seems hard to believe that the neocons would still be beating their bloody drums if their own loved ones were included in the mix. That's probably simplistic and vengeful on my part, but there it is.

LWM - I don't disagree with much of what he has written here, but the simple fact that, of all the things I have posted in this particular thread, that's the one he chose to take issue with, and take out of context....well, let's just say it got my pussy in a twist. ;-}

qs - yez, dahlink, zee payload matterz! But eet eez not deefeecult to tell vat zee intended payload eez, don' you ahgree?

The c word is definitely asking for conflict. The b word, not so much. In fact, I consider that one a badge of honor and wear it with pride since I only get it when I'm being strong and assertive, something greatly admired in the opposite sex. ;->

Past my bedtime! 'Night all.

Lorenz just passed on. A moment of silence, please.

Edward Lorenz, father of chaos theory and butterfly effect, dies at 90

April 16, 2008

http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2008/obit-lorenz-0416.html

quickstrategy --

"So I don't aim to praise, rehabilitate, or excuse Powell. What I do, though is admit a) I've never actually met the guy, b) I wasn't there during any of these latest deliberations he took part in, and c) since it's possible that I could let my animosity color my conclusions about what happened, I'd have to give some credence, with reservations, to any other reports that contained information I have no basis for impeaching."

Perhaps it's his public manner, and perhaps his apparent-effort as Sec. of State to modify the extremism of the DOD under Rumsfeld. And of Cheney. I can see the possibility that Woodward suggests -- the he might actually have acted in a principled and moral fashion, however unusual for him.

"Likewise with the accounts of the truly odious and psychotic John Ashcroft, whom I believe really could have resisted signing off on those controversial memos in his hospital bed, and can believe so without having to back off on any of my loathing for the guy."

Agreed. And I believe it when reported that he commented about the Principals meetings on torture: "Why are we discussing this in the White House? History will not look kindly on this."

However odious a religionut Asscrafty is, he isn't perfect, so it is certain there is a modicum, however small, of legitimate Christianity in him. Not his fault, of course

"So, what I said was accurate, I think, that Bob Woodward suggests something about Powell in his books that might be true, though I'm not sure, and it's worth thinking about how other people (more worthy of such contemplation) might have been in a similar situation."

Agreed. His public manner -- up to the UN performance at least -- was persuasive as to him being cautious, moderate, and reasonable. What gets me is how many missed the fact that was obvious throughout the UN presentation -- that it was a fraud: the evidence he presented refuted the claims he made based upon the evidence.

He had made loudly clear, a number of times, that there was in the US's view a clear distinction to be made between, on one hand, Saddam Hussein's gov't, and on the other, the Iraqi people. That the Iraqi people were "not the enemy".

It was also well known, to those who'd been paying attention for a few years, that the only "link" between Hussein and bin Laden was that they were mutual enemies.

And yet Powell sat there and used bin Laden's speech in which he swore solidarity with the Iraqi people to flatly assert that that meant bin Laden had an alliance with the Saddam Hussein gov't.

Now let's find that cursed butterfly that kilt him!

The definitive short Burroughs hommage:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=le12nFfriGQ

Going back to highlighting Hannah Arendt now ... some lines seem a lot more relevant these days than they used to ...

-- quickstrategy Sunday, May 11, 2008 06:01 PM

They aren't just abandoning some lofty role we might want to assign them, or even an ethical consideration they don't seem to understand (see Allard's and Bateman's responses at links in my previous letters on this thread) --- what they have abandoned is their own professional DNA; in pursuit of ego, advantage, access to power, or financial gain, or whatever. And they've betrayed us --- the American people, the people in uniform who are living out (and dying for) what they unleashed in Iraq, and those of us who served alongside them and kept the faith.

-- quickstrategy Sunday, May 11, 2008 06:19 PM