Wild night life.  Having a Fiddler´s Elbow, listening to Sonosync´s  "Lake Shore", music in time with your resting heartbeat (60-90bpm), sending a comment to WaPo and reading ET.  That´s really multi-tasking at my age...

Our knowledge has surpassed our wisdom. -Charu Saxena.

This was interesting

http://www.trecers.net/

anyone know anything about it?

Modern conservatives engage in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy: the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness.Galbraith

Juan Cole's basic reading list on the middle east.

In case anyone needs an innoculation for future conservative revisionist history:

From Geopolitics and the U.S. Spoiling Attack

If we consider the examples cited above and apply the twin concepts of the spoiling attack and economy of force, then the conversion of American defeats into increased U.S. global power no longer appears quite as paradoxical. In Korea, spoiling Communist goals created breathing space elsewhere for the United States, and increased tension levels between China and Russia. A stalemate achieved outcomes as satisfactory to Washington as taking North Korea would have been. In Cuba, containing Fidel Castro was, relative to cost, as useful as destroying him. What he did in Cuba itself was less important to Washington than that he should not be an effective player in Latin America. In Vietnam, frustrating the North's strategic goals for a decade allowed the Sino-Soviet dispute to ripen, thus opening the door for Sino-U.S. entente even before the war ended. The U.S. interest in Iran, of course, rested with its utility as a buffer to the Soviets. Being ousted from Iran mattered only if the Iranians capitulated to the Soviets. Absent that, Iran's internal politics were of little interest to the
United States.

If we apply the twin concepts to Iraq, it is possible to understand the reasons behind the size of the force deployed (which, while significant, still is limited relative to the full range of options brought to bear in World War II) and the obvious willingness of the Bush administration to court military disaster. The invasion four years ago has led to the Sunnis and Shia turning against each other in direct conflict. Therefore, it could be argued that just as the United States won the Cold War by exploiting the Sino-Soviet split and allying with Mao Zedong, so too the path to defeating the jihadists is not a main attack, but a spoiling attack that turns Sunnis and Shia against each other. This was certainly not the intent of the Bush administration in planning the 2003 invasion; it has become, nevertheless, an unintended and significant outcome.

Never underestimate their intelligence, always underestimate their knowledge.

Frank Delaney ~ Ireland

Petite Anglaise wins in first instance against her employer:

http://maitre.eolas.free.fr/journal/index.php?2007/03/29/587-affaire-petite-anglaise-la-victoire-de- la-blogueuse

Judgement says employer must pay about 44 000 euros.

http://mahalanobis.twoday.net/stories/3481746/

"In a surprisingly growing number of regions in Germany private "regional currencies" are issued as a cash substitute for the euro. Currently, these regional currencies are conceived almost exclusively as Schwundgeld (depreciative currency), which loses value on a predetermined timescale. This loss of value is intended to encourage the money owners to spend their money quickly in order to boost local demand. This paper shows that the issuance of unofficial parallel currencies is not a fundamentally new phenomenon neither in Germany nor in other European countries. The theoretical assumptions of the Schwundgeld concept (Silvio Gesell (1862 - 1930)) are highly flawed and suboptimal from a welfare-theoretical perspective. However, the current economic welfare losses resulting from the issuance of Schwundgeld are negligibly small." [...]

Bush ratings via PollingReport.com, FOX, 27-28/03/2007: 33 (equalling previous low a year ago) : 61 (previous high + 3)!

*Traitor*, n.
A benighted individual who perceives an illusory distinction between serving his nation and abetting the criminals who govern it.