War, Politics, and Life by Bruce Maulden
“When it comes to backs, nobody knows anything.” — Peter Paul ‘Paulie Walnuts’ Gualtieri, The Sopranos One of the most-frightful aspects of this extremely-current financial meltdown is its seemingly incoherent complexities, made worse by dumbfounded, clueless financial people: “I don’t, in all candor, understand a lot of it,” conceded Paul Kasriel, chief economist at Northern…
Dying in Iraq is down: In January, 138 civilians were killed in violence across the country, compared with 238 in December, according to the figures, based on data collected by Iraq’s Health, Defense and Interior ministries. Who’s keeping tab? And those doing so, can they be trusted? (Illustration found here). Despite all the ha-ha-ha-ha about…
This morning a note on words misplaced by right-wing, wingnuts suffering intently from schizophasia in a most non-oblique fashion. An ex-Detroit Lions coach had to apologize for being nasty and petulent last month after saying “Good-bye, ladies,” to three male Detroit sports writers. Reminds one of California’s Governator proclaiming members of the state legislature as…
daymare Pronunciation: \ˈdÄ-ËŒma(É™)r, -ËŒme(É™)r\ Function: noun : a nightmarish fantasy experienced while awake (Illustration of the Darul Aman palace in Kabul, Afghanistan, found here). Afghanistan is one lonely country, and apparently so, becoming more lonely with each passing day. Down through history, the Afghan motif has been the graveyard of empires, and right now it’s…
“Suicide is painless,” and yes indeed it does bring on many changes, but with the game of life hard to play, since it’s gonna be lost anyway, to win is to cheat, lay it down before gettin’ beat… Paraphrasing a description of a definite blowback from two ugly wars grinding this country into dust. (Illustration…
One thing is certain in history: Weapons of war have become more advanced as a civilization seemingly progresses, always and continually getting more bang for the buck, and in turn, becoming less humane, more indiscriminate in the killing. Modern war machines attempt to eliminate the human element altogether. (Illustration of a two-man Gaelic battle chariot…
Lists of top good and bad appear near or at the end of each year, and usually bear witness to how crappy things are, or how how even-more crappy things are. This week, The Buffalo Beast presented a list of the 50 most-loathsome people in America for 2008 — and it doesn’t leave out President…
Another nail in the coffin of the earth. Climate change offered by human-induced CO2 discharges are literally sucking the life out of our oceans. (Illustration found here). In a report issued today, the horror of man-made CO2 will quickly make the world’s oceans more acidic and therefore unable to bear life. From the New York…
If suddenly a world-wide hate for the arts: A lot of wealthy assholes would be out of work. The greed of spotlight and treasure extends to just about everyone. From the UK’s Telegraph on profits from the acclaimed “Slumdog Millionaire“: (h/t Think Progress) But the reality of life for Rubina Ali and Azharuddin Ismail is…
This is bad. From ABC tonight: The CIA’s station chief at its sensitive post in Algeria is under investigation by the U.S. Justice Department for allegedly raping at least two Muslim women who claim he laced their drinks with a knock-out drug, U.S. law enforcement sources tell ABC News. Just as President Obama told the…