Posted 2:36 PM by Blah blah

Honda Accord Commercial

Prepare yourself. You are about to see the most amazing TV car ad in history. According to this fascinating article, London ad agency Wieden & Kennedy shot this ad, for the new Honda Accord, in one smooth take.

It took SIX HUNDRED and SIX TAKES for them to get it right. The film crew nearly went mad.

"Filming was done over four near-sleepless days in a Paris studio, after one month of script approval, two months of concept drawings and a further four months of development and testing. One of the more surprising things about the ad is that it was not a cheat. Although it would have been much easier to fiddle the chain of events by using computer graphics, the seesaw and shunt of events really did happen, and in one, clean take."

Bravo. Perfection. WOW!

Watch the two-minute ad, called Cog.

Posted 11:07 AM by Blah blah

U.S. Angers Yet ANOTHER Ally. North Korea in a Nutshell.

I'm angry today. Sorry for this rant.

I've been closely following this soap opera about North Korea and its drive to develop nuclear weapons. In a major piece of good news this week, N. Korea said it agreed to have nuclear talks with the U.S. and China next week. This is after the U.S. and N. Korea have not been talking for a while, and it followed major pressure on N. Korea from China. Just before they have this critical talk,

"Rumsfeld also said the U.S. has no plans to reward Pyongyang even if it completely abandons its nuclear weapons program.

Fukuda appeared to be irritated by this remark. 'Usually, you don't talk about conditions before talks even begin,' he said."

You sure as hell don't! He has no understanding of diplomacy. Doesn't Rumsfeld understand you keep your mouth shut before any negotiations, especially one as delicate as this? We are talking about potential nuclear war here. He's already stirred up panic and anger in Syria with more stupid, arrogant accusations of them having chemical weapons.

Not only that, but Rumsfeld had ordered plans made for a possible ATTACK on Syria, which Bush actually had to block.

For the history of the major events in this nuclear dispute, please read this timeline (Frontline).

If you are new to this whole story, please start by watching Kim's Nuclear Gamble, the Frontline PBS program I mentioned. You can see the whole thing on the web.

It ends with Bush interrupting the progress that Clinton had made with Kim, by pulling out of the agreements Clinton had already signed with Kim. Kim then angrily stopped dismantling his nuclear material. Bush ended by saying he'd only talk to N. Korea if other countries like China and S. Korea got involved. Kim said no, and he only wished to talk one-on-one with the U.S.

We were stuck. Then this happened:

Good news!
- China Appears to Be Trying to Rein in North Korea. China, afraid of how dangerous this stalemate was getting, started applying pressure on N. Korea. China shut off a major oil pipeline to N. Korea for three days.

N. Korea started to change its mind:
- U.S., North Korea to Begin Talks China Will Serve as Host of Effort to End Stalemate.
- U.S. Makes Concessions for N. Korea Negotiations Washington Shows Signs of Compromise to Get Talks Going.

And now today,
Bad news!

- N. Korea Says It's Extracting Plutonium:

"North Korea said Friday it was reprocessing more than 8,000 spent nuclear fuel rods, which U.S. experts have said will give the communist state enough plutonium to make several atomic bombs....The North Korean spokesman emphasized the importance that the North sees in a military deterrent to stave off a possible U.S. attack in the wake of the war against Iraq. 'The Iraqi war teaches a lesson that in order to prevent a war and defend the security of a country and the sovereignty of a nation it is necessary to have a powerful physical deterrent force only,' the unnamed spokesman told North Korea's KCNA news agency."

In other words, the U.S. pre-emptive war on Iraq has scared N. Korea (and China too) to perhaps start continuing weapons development again, to defend itself! :( Just great. The U.S. says it sees no physical evidence of this and that N. Korea is bluffing. The U.S. claims it won't attack N. Korea. Uh huh...right.

- Rumsfeld barb on Pyongyang aid earns angry rebuke from Fukuda. This only hurts everyone at this critical time.
- U.S. considers canceling Beijing North Korea talks. What the hell??

Posted 4:00 PM by Blah blah

Brad Pitt's Butt

A question for you ladies: How squeezable should the ideal male butt be? Get me Angelina Jolie's, quickly!

Brad Pitt waxwork gets squeezable bottom (Ananova. Click link for pics):

Madame Tussaud's has unveiled a new waxwork model of Brad Pitt - with a lifelike, squidgy bottom.

The model is the first squeezable waxwork on show at the London attraction.

Staff regularly had to wipe lipstick off his original model - made four years ago - and remove pairs of knickers from its pockets.

A spokeswoman for the museum said: "Brad Pitt is one of our sexiest exhibits anyway, so he is an ideal candidate for the first ever squeezable waxwork.

"He is a huge hit with the ladies and, after Kylie's bottom got so much attention, we thought we'd have a bit of fun with this new figure."

Brad was happy to provide sculptors with a mould of his rear, which was cast in a foam and silicone mixture to achieve a squeezable feel.

The spokeswoman added: 'I think he is quite amused by the idea. We have been in touch with Brad's agent but he seems to be waiting to see how many squeezes he gets before he says anything.'

The Pitt dummy is one of a series of innovative waxworks at Tussaud's. A replica of Graham Norton has the comic's camp drawl, while the David Beckham model has a heartbeat.

Other models which have attracted unwanted attention include Kylie Minogue, supermodel Elle MacPherson and Braveheart actor Mel Gibson.

Posted 1:37 PM by Blah blah

Aliveness

"Never marry a person who is not a friend of your excitement."

-Nathaniel Branden

"I have found, at times of heightened perception...that it is not hard to fall in love several times a day; that is, to keep finding myself deeply moved not only by the people [around me], but also by the landscape, the sounds of the forest, the moon at night, or the changing patterns of wind, light, clouds, and rain. Although this vividness of perception may seem special, it is also quite ordinary. If it be magic, it is ordinary magic, because it is only a keener awareness of what is already there. Though we cannot hold on to such moments, they leave us with a sense of what life could be like if we could live more often at this threshold of vivid presence."

- John Welwood

Posted 9:04 AM by Blah blah

Horror Date Conversations

Given the people I tend to meet here in Nerd/Yuppie/Materialist Heaven, it's more fun laughing about the date later than actually going on it. Plus a great fraction of people don't seem to speak English well, so our talk goes like:

"Well I saw this great movie the other day, Chicken Run, with Mel Gibson..."
"Oh chicken feet? Mmm, I love chicken feet! Especially dipped in monkey toenail hot sauce. And those pigs' ears! Yummm..."

Or, and this was a REAL conversation I had:

"Where are you from?"
"Well I'm from China but came here as child."
"Oh cool, I have a lot of friends from China. What part were you from? Near Beijing?"
"Umm, where's Beijing?"
"Or maybe you were closer to Nanjing, in the south?"
*Blank stare*
"How about Earth?"

Or this:

"Gosh, I'm starving! Let's eat. Wow, this is sooo good!"
*Silence, picks at food.*
"What's wrong?"
"Umm, actually, I don't like to talk when I eat."
"Oh. Well please, go ahead! This food is scrumptious..."
*Silence, barely eats*
"So....hmm...you don't talk much huh?"
"No."
"What interests you? What do you wanna talk about?"
"I don't know."
[I start talking to my fork. I ask my fork if she wants to go out for a nightcap later, but she's busy. She has a date with this hot spoon.]

Posted 11:44 PM by Blah blah

Adam Felber: Funniest Political Blog

Once more, check out Fanatical Apathy, the funniest blog about current events I've ever seen. It makes me laugh like crazy! Its sharp, timely humor rivals that of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart on Comedy Central. (The Daily Show is also damned funny and the best political TV humor we have now. This show is funnier and smarter than Letterman. See their video clips on the web.)

The writer, Adam Felber, is in New York City. He's a panelist on that funny, intelligent show on National Public Radio, "Wait Wait---Don't Tell Me!" It's a quiz show about the weekly news. Adam "writes and performs for screens of all sizes and resolutions, and spends almost every night on some stage or another. He comprises exactly one half of the Irwin Smalls Trio, a sketch comedy duo. His writing credits include PBS' Wishbone, and his first screenplay, Women Are From, is currently in development at Paramount/MTV Films. Felber has been improvising comedy all over the world for the past 15 years."

Please Watch Avoiding Armageddon! Tamil Tigers

Tonight I saw Part 3 of Avoiding Armageddon. They covered some of the people, ideas, politics, history, and environments that lead people to turn to terrorism. Again, I keep promoting this TV program (9 pm EST, PBS, April 14-17) because I think it profoundly affects all of us, whether we like it or not.

We all must be informed of what is out there and why perfectly reasonable, educated, well-off people STILL decide it makes sense to bomb and kill innocent people.

Please make an effort to watch Part 4, the last episode, tomorrow night.

Tonight's show interviewed children who had been persuaded to join the Tamil Tigers. I didn't know much about them and it shocked me.

The Tamil Tigers are a rebel group in Sri Lanka, the tiny land off the southeast coast of India. Sri Lanka holds a Tamil minority population. They have been fighting the Sri Lankan government, with terrorist tactics, for 20 YEARS. They want a separate Tamil nation. In the process, more than 64,000 people have died.

What's more shocking is they actively recruit and train a huge proportion of CHILDREN to fight. See some of the child soldiers' pictures.

Avoiding Armageddon interviewed a young person who had done well in the Tigers. He joined because his parents had been killed by Sri Lankan soldiers some years back, and he wanted revenge. He talked of their training. He didn't really know the pros and cons for doing what he did. His leaders didn't teach much politics. They mainly taught how to kill. Tigers are not allowed to leave or quit the organization. People dispersed in the group keep a close eye on possible dissent. People who leave are considered traitors.

We are talking about 12-16 year old kids, carrying Kalashnikov assault rifles. This boy did well in his initial assignments, so they "promoted" him to a special group within the Tigers. They didn't tell him what it was for, and he just obeyed orders. This group, which got special glory and honor from the Tigers' head commander, was trained to do suicide bombing against Sri Lankan officers.

Yup, all that work was for these kids to go kill themselves. They wear pouches that hold plastic explosives. Each group member gets a vial of cyanide to wear around his neck. If caught, he's supposed to kill himself with it and preserve all the Tiger secrets.

This boy, who kept his identity secret, ultimately chickened out of suicide bombing and left the Tamil Tigers. But the thousands of other child soldiers, in Sri Lanka, the Gaza Strip, and elsewhere, keep growing.

Posted 5:49 PM by Blah blah

Horror Dates

I was over at Horror Date on eCrush, and boy are these the funniest and most horrifying date stories you'll ever hear! After one girl wrote about how a guy tried to bite her boobs during dinner time, I couldn't stop cracking up! eCrush wrote back: "Where do these guys learn about mating rituals from, the WWF?"

This is the funniest, most awful date I've found so far on Horror Date: The Horror Date Iliad.

This is the 2nd funniest: Send the Holiday Farms Gift Pack To Tony.

Both are long but totally worth it. Also, check out Heaven and Hell (Salon.com). Readers sent in tons of their best and worst online dating stories.

I've had some awful dates myself, including one where a girl, whom I'd just met, wanted to take my car and ditch me! And later she asked if I could lend her a digital camera. There was the girl who was afraid of everything, including dogs. I wrote about those last year on RBJ. Don't think the stories are still online.

But I still have never written about the absolute worst time I ever took out a girl. It was NOT a date. It was a favor for her brother. Actually it was the absolute worst THREE DAYS I've ever spent with a girl, since she was in town staying at my apartment. When I have time, I'll tell you the tale in full glory.

Posted 8:56 PM by Blah blah

SO Cute!!!

I'm chuckling now and can't stop. Look at what Alaysia did for me!

Check out her April 16th entry! Aww, this is so sweet! I've never had someone "walk on me" in that way.

Make sure to also read Alaysia's April 14th entry and see her Art Gallery. She has such a vivid eye and sharp talent for drawing! Her pastel drawings are so rich, evocative, and top notch. They remind me of the drawings of Robert McCloskey, this children's book artist I loved as a kid. He drew books like Make Way for Ducklings and Blueberries for Sal. I used to play violin, and my jaw just dropped when I saw her closeup of a violin's bridge.

Thank you, silly! A big smile for you.

Posted 8:22 AM by Blah blah

Ok, this blog has been getting too serious. I need to talk more about peanut butter, jelly, and "bendy ears," Alaysia! Let me shift gears for a moment...

Posted 7:13 AM by Blah blah

Conservative Christians Eager to Convert Iraq to Christianity

Onward Christian soldiers (Salon.com):
________________
[O]ne group seems certain to gain an avenue into the country: Southern Baptist Convention ministers prominent in the galaxy of the religious right. Among them is Charles Stanley, the former two-time president of the Southern Baptist Convention, a close ally of former President George Bush and a fervent supporter of the current president's war on Iraq....

His most recent example of activism came in February when he delivered a sermon titled "A Nation At War," placing him among a minority of mostly Evangelical Christian leaders to endorse Bush's plans for an attack on Iraq.

"The government is ordained by God with the right to promote good and restrain evil," Stanley said in his sermon. "This includes wickedness that exists within the nation, as well as any wicked persons or countries that threaten foreign nations ... Therefore, a government has biblical grounds to go to war in the nation's defense or to liberate others in the world who are enslaved." And sampling from a scattershot of biblical passages to inform his argument, Stanley warned that those who oppose or disobey the U.S. government in its drive to war "will receive condemnation upon themselves."...

Even before victory has been formally declared, In Touch is just one phalanx in an army of Christian soldiers who see Muslim Iraq as an extraordinary new marketplace for their theology. Already, churches and ministries on the religious right are poised to send in missionaries and to amp up broadcasts to the region. Like advance troops before the invasion, some U.S. military officials in Iraq have already staked out the country as a natural place to spread the Christian Gospel.
________________
I was raised Baptist in New England. I went to a Southern Baptist church when I first moved to California, too. This blatant disregard for Arab and Muslim culture, as well as ignorance about Arab Christians, is shocking.

I'm so glad the founders of America emphasized the separation of church and state. The corrupt and suppressive Muslim nations we see now are evidence of how combining religion and national politics always ends up hurting people.

Reminds me of a story. When I worked one summer in S. California, I wanted to do some volunteer work with a group that was helping the hungry. This youth group at a nearby church was going out to this park where homeless people slept, to give out food. I introduced myself and joined the group, but only for the purpose of feeding the homeless. I emphasized that I was not a Christian anymore.

We got to the park and got the food out of the van. It wasn't anything like normal food from soup kitchens---mainly peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and meager stuff like that. The homeless people gathered around us with eager looks.

Just when I was ready to start doling out food, the church leader said "Wait! We need to speak the message first." He proceeded to spend at least HALF AN HOUR giving us a sermon and asking people to give up evil and come to Christianity. I could see the homeless people, fidgeting and starving, waiting for him to finish his infomercial for God. Only after this ritual would the youth group give out those measly peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

I never went back to that group again.

Posted 12:56 AM by Blah blah

A Terrorist's Testimony

Read this testimony of a terrorist! From the Frontline show, Trail of a Terrorist, about a millenium terrorist plot to bomb the Los Angeles International Airport that was luckily prevented. "[I]n the weeks before the New Year law enforcement had disrupted terrorist cells 'in eight countries, and attacks were almost certainly prevented.' "

Again, chilling and scary. "After being convicted for his conspiracy to blow up the Los Angeles International Airport in December 1999, Ahmed Ressam agreed to cooperate with U.S. prosecutors in hopes of a lighter sentence. In July 2001, he appeared as a witness for the prosecution at the New York trial of co-conspirator Mokhtar Haouari. Ressam's testimony offers chilling details of exactly how a terrorist cell operates, what went on in Osama bin Laden's terrorist training camps in Afghanistan, and how Ressam was a key member of a worldwide terror network stretching from North Africa to Canada, from small towns in France to the mountains of Afghanistan."

Posted 11:21 PM by Blah blah

Please Watch These Weapons Documentaries

I just watched Part 1 of the PBS documentary, Avoiding Armageddon. See where most of the weapons of mass destruction are, on this Flash world map.

As I said before, this is a four-part (eight hour) series that runs every night at 9 pm EST from today through Thursday, April 17, on PBS.

It covers the state and history of biological, chemical, and nuclear weapons today, talks about their ties to terrorism, and tells many scary stories of what has happened. From the Flash world map of who has what weapons: "Russia says it has foiled dozens of nuclear smuggling deals since the breakup of the U.S.S.R., but intelligence officials believe enough nuclear material has left Russia to make a bomb. It's also known that groups like al-Qaeda have been seeking lose nukes since the mid-1990s. Terrorists are also showing interest in acquiring chemical and biological weapons. Bottom line: nobody really knows what's out there."

Read about some of the highlights of this series. They include:

Essam al-Ridi, an Egyptian-American who fought alongside Osama bin Laden during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, but who subsequently denounced terrorism.

Ehab Yusef, a 17-year-old Palestinian who struggles between his desire to embrace life and the attraction of a martyr's death.

Leonid Smirnov, a mid-level Russian nuclear plant worker who stole radioactive material in an attempt to augment his income.

Leroy Richmond, a survivor of a biological attack, who contracted inhalation anthrax from contaminated letters at a Washington, DC, post office.

Omeed, a 12-year-old who spends his days on the rubble-strewn streets of Kabul, helping support his family, but longing for the better life that schooling would bring.

Completing the inside view of the issues are interviews by world leaders and policy-makers, including Secretary of State Colin Powell, CIA Director George Tenet, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, former President Jimmy Carter, former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev and Senator Richard Lugar, chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Tonight they talked about biological and chemical weapons. They interviewed a former U.N. weapons inspector who said that, with biological weapons, it is virtually impossible to enforce compliance through inspections alone. They also interviewed Dr. Ken Alibek. He had been the deputy chief of the Biopreparat, the bioweapons program for the former Soviet Union. He later defected to the U.S. Back in Russia, part of his job had been to FOOL weapons inspectors and make it look like nothing lethal was being made.

Nova produced an excellent program in 2001, Bioterror, which introduced me to Alibek.

Anyhow, you may go to Avoiding Armageddon's website for more info. Everyone should watch this program and be informed! Make sure to tune in tomorrow night.

Also, PBS's Frontline has posted the entire hour of its documentary, Kim's Nuclear Gamble, on its site. You may watch this in streaming video, over the web. As I said before, it covers the history of diplomatic efforts by the U.S. to prevent Kim Jong-il from creating nuclear weapons. He's the leader of North Korea. The program told the sad story of how President Clinton's gradual diplomatic progress with Kim just died when Bush came to power, and why.

Also, check out Frontline's The Roots of Terrorism, a collection of all of its documentaries related to this subject on one page.

If you can't watch the programs on TV, at least please read their websites. These threats are serious and scary, and everyone needs to be educated.

Posted 1:19 PM by Blah blah

Sex Tips from Donald Rumsfeld (Esquire):

"Dear Secretary Rumsfeld: My wife and I are happily married, but the spark seems to have gone out of our sex life. How can we spice it up? —Harry Blumenthal, Bakersfield, California

Secretary Rumsfeld: There's no great mystery here, Harry. It can't be that hard to understand. You get in there, you do your job, you develop an exit strategy, and you get the heck out of there. That's the way sex works. Why does everything have to be so difficult?

Dear Secretary Rumsfeld: I'm thinking about trying a threesome, but I don't know how to approach my girlfriend about it. Have you ever tried a threesome? —Dave Barcott, Boulder, Colorado

Secretary Rumsfeld: Nice try, Dave. I can see what you're trying to do, but you're going to have to do better than that. Donald Rumsfeld is not going to be tricked into revealing something stupid about Donald Rumsfeld and Mrs. Donald Rumsfeld by such a question. If I answer, then someone will say, "Oh, goodness, the Rumsfelds are into threesomes," and then it gets repeated and picked up, and then suddenly everybody's talking about Donald Rumsfeld and Mrs. Donald Rumsfeld and threesomes, and that's not what this is about. That said, bring it up in a very loving way and let her choose the third party. Also, alcohol never hurts.

Dear Secretary Rumsfeld: My boyfriend sometimes likes to put on makeup and dress in women's underpants when we make love. Should I be worried? —Amanda Stein, St. Albans, Vermont

Secretary Rumsfeld: I am not an expert in this area, but I will refer this question to General Tommy Franks and have him get back to you. "

Hahaha! As some of you know, I was seriously thinking of starting another blog, called "Dr. Saddam." It would be a combo of Saddam with Dr. Phil. Hell, they even look alike, if Saddam shaved his head!

The Poetry of D.H. Rumsfeld. Recent works by the secretary of defense. (Slate):

The Unknown
As we know,
There are known knowns.
There are things we know we know.
We also know
There are known unknowns.
That is to say
We know there are some things
We do not know.
But there are also unknown unknowns,
The ones we don't know
We don't know.

—Feb. 12, 2002, Department of Defense news briefing

Posted 9:15 AM by Blah blah

Americans Annoyed By "All This International Shit" on the Internet. Web's Increasingly Worldly Flavor Threatens Americans' Worldview. (SatireWire.com):

The profusion of international news available on the Internet has made it increasingly difficult for the average American to ignore the rest of the world, a trend researchers say threatens Americans' long, proud history of disregarding anything not about them.

"With all the foreign newspapers and multi-cultural sites, the Internet is making it almost impossible for the average American to remain uninformed and apathetic," said Samantha Lessborn of Washington State University, which conducted the survey. "Americans can still do it. But it now takes effort, whereas before it was as easy as turning off Tom Brokaw whenever he said 'In South Korea today...'"

According to survey participant Danny Grisham, a 22-year-old from Cheyenne, Wyoming, it's not just the plethora of international news on the Web that is irritating. "Look, I can get around the news. I just turn off Reuters headlines in MyYahoo," he said. "But even some of the search sites like Yahoo and Alta Vista are available in different languages. Like everybody in the world doesn't speak English. Yeah, right."

"I can see where it's important if we're, like, beating some country in the Olympics or bombing them or, ideally, both," Grisham added. "But if some Colombian drug lord sinks a ferry full of Israeli soldiers in North Latvoania or Serbo-Malaysia, or wherever, and Americans aren't involved, what has that got to do with me?"

Other respondents said they were appalled, not just by the availability of non-U.S. news, but by the way important U.S. news is reported by some of these foreign sites. "Yesterday, for instance, the St. Louis Rams beat the Atlanta Falcons, OK, and I go to the London Times site and it's not even there," said Chip Pernadge of Kansas City, Mo. "Jesus, no wonder those guys lost the war and had to give Hong Kong back to Canada."

Sensing a market opportunity, Net Nanny, makers of Net Nanny filtering software, announced this week it will introduce NetNarrow, an English-only product that automatically filters out content that appears to be international. Specifically, the software looks for world datelines and keywords indicative of irrelevant foreign stories, including "Shiite," "post-Apartheid," and "Bob Geldof."

Survey-taker Craig Barker of Brooklyn, New York, said he will be among the first to get NetNarrow. "On the Web, there are so many ways to get news from so many different places, I could really get some fresh insights into what's going on in other countries if I wanted to," he said.. "But I don't want to."

"You'd think these Internet people would know that," Barker added. "I mean, that's why the Internet is called America Online, right? It's supposed to be about America."

Editor's Note: It seems that after reading this entirely fictional story, some investors/customers of Net Nanny believed the company actually was going to produce NetNarrow software. As a result, Net Nanny asked SatireWire to please assure people that this is not the case. No, really.

Posted 4:14 PM by Blah blah

Role of U.S. Special Forces in the War

The Secret War (Newsweek): "It’s been the best-covered war in history. But the key to success was what we didn’t see: Special Forces, psyop, the air war—and the utterly inept Iraqi Army."

Posted 11:06 AM by Blah blah

Articles I posted on Parisoula Lampsos, Saddam's favorite mistress for 30 years. I've read she's in hiding now. Pictures: Her picture 1. Picture 2.

Saddam's Love Shack (AP): " 'Shagadelic,' another soldier shouted. Indeed, the carpet was navy blue shag."

A Shag-dad love pad (NY Daily News): "Saddam, you sexy beast! U.S. soldiers searching door-to-door in an upscale central Baghdad neighborhood for cowering Iraqi government officials stumbled upon what they believe is one of the tawdry tyrant's secret love lairs. Replete with statues of topless women, a whirlpool tub, beanbag chairs and a king-size bed surrounded with mirrors, the townhouse evoked a groovy, '60s-era playboy pad that would make another international man of mystery - Austin Powers - feel right at home."

Inside Uday Hussein's House.
Mark Bowden: Saddam's True Self.

Inside the Secret World (Time): "Snapshots and papers found in a lavish, looted safe house paint a vivid picture of Saddam's unhappy eldest son Uday." He even had a Yahoo email address. This is chilling: "In a 1990 letter, Uday reveals that his father plans to create a greater Iraq that includes Kuwait, Palestine and Arabstan, a region of Iran historically controlled by Baghdad. The note says Saddam is beginning with the easiest—Kuwait."

You should also read this amazingly well-written, detailed, and intimate article about Saddam and his daily life, Tales of the Tyrant (The Atlantic). Also tells how Saddam rose to power.

This is the best article I've ever read about Saddam. Period. Please read this piece, especially you anti-war people! It will convince you once and for all of the following. I personally believe this now:

1. Military strikes were the only realistic solution to the threat of Saddam and his growing weapons program.
2. Saddam, for decades, has had no interest in diplomacy except for helping himself rise to power and stay there. Read about how he misled Iran and started the Iran-Iraq war. See how he lied to and killed his own previous supporters to remain at the top.
3. He lives in a culture of exaggerated vanity and unreality that he created by force. Normal, reasonable methods like sanctions, and even the threat of overwhelming force, do not faze him. His own top people fear to tell him the truth about weakness and failure. Read about how, before the 1991 Gulf War, he still thought he'd win and declared victory after a humiliating retreat.
4. One way or the other, his ambitions and methods would lead to a confrontation with the U.S., either in secret terrorist activities, a buildup of nuclear weapons, or another attack on a neighboring country. I feel the problem of Saddam ultimately had to be solved. I am unhappy with how Bush did it, but I'm happy he did it.

"[Saddam, talking to Salah Omar al-Ali, his Iraqi ambassador to the United Nations:] 'How should we solve our problems with Iran? Iran took our lands. They are controlling the Shatt-al-Arab, our big river. How can meetings and discussions solve a problem like this? Do you know why they decided to meet with us here, Salah? They are weak is why they are talking with us. If they were strong there would be no need to talk. So this gives us an opportunity, an opportunity that only comes along once in a century. We have an opportunity here to recapture our territories and regain control of our river.'

That was when al-Ali realized that Saddam had just been playing with the Iranians, and that Iraq was going to go to war. Saddam had no interest in diplomacy. To him, statecraft was just a game whose object was to outmaneuver one's enemies. Someone like al-Ali was there to maintain a pretense, to help size up the situation, to look for openings, and to lull foes into a false sense of security. Within a year the Iran-Iraq war began."

Interview with Mark Bowden, the author of this stunning article. He's the man who wrote Black Hawk Down, on which Ridley Scott made his 2001 movie. People say this book is one of the most gripping true stories of war ever written. I must buy Mark Bowden's books. Reading his electric prose is like being thrown into the midst of a firing squad. He's a columnist for the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Posted 10:37 AM by Blah blah

What the Anti-War Movement Should Be Doing

Bravo! I totally agree. From the LA Weekly:

"The responsibilities of the peace movement are far too weighty to be squandered in sputtering and ultimately politically irrelevant feel-good acts of blocking traffic or ripping down fences at military bases. As war breaks out, the peace movement must engage even more deeply, not marginalize itself. It must exert what influence it can muster to limit and constrain the exercise of American military power and to do all possible to prevent this conflict from becoming a prelude to endless war. But even more immediately, it’s the peace movement that must actually hold the Bush administration to its promises of liberating Iraq. The peace movement should take an active role in debating and trying to shape the post-Saddam outcome by fighting, first of all, for a thorough roll-up of the Ba’ath regime, for indictment and prosecution of Hussein and his gang, for the fullest democracy possible, respect for the Shi'a and Kurds, for a postwar government that respects human rights. That formula includes an authentic U.S. and international commitment to fund reconstruction and development. And let’s not forget the Bush-Blair promise to finally get serious about the Palestinians."

Posted 9:49 AM by Blah blah

Canadian Lab Makes Breakthrough in Finding SARS Cure

Speaking of "warmer" research, a Canadian lab in Vancouver has cracked the genetic code of the SARS virus!!! Congratulations Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre for their fantastic, speedy work!

Canadian laboratory first to sequence coronavirus believed to cause SARS (Canadian Press):
_________________
The Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre, part of the BC Cancer Agency, completed the first publicly available draft sequence of the new virus in the early hours Saturday, after several days of round-the-clock efforts. A spokesman for the World Health Organization called the achievement "an extraordinary step."

"I knew that it could happen quickly," Dick Thompson said in an interview from Geneva.

"And frankly, I thought that the CDC," - the U.S. Centers for Disease Control - "would get it done first."

Dr. Marco Marra, director of the laboratory, said the raw sequencing data would be posted on the Internet by the end of the day Saturday and the lab's analysis of the total sequence would be up on the Web by the end of the weekend.

Marra said it's key that other laboratories study the results and confirm the findings, so that science can determine whether this new virus is actually responsible for the disease that is sweeping the globe.

"Our intention is to release the data so that anybody who is wanting to help has the fundamental information that they would need," he said from Vancouver.

"The sequence is fundamental information and should be available for this purpose: for vaccine development, for diagnostics, for whatever."
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To see the raw genetic code, download it here from the lab's SARS page! Yay for the Internet. When I open up the "draft genome sequence assembly, release 1, of the TOR2 isolate," it starts like this:

TOR2_draft_genome_assembly_120403 Release 1
CTACCCAGGAAAAGCCAACCAACCTCGATCTCTTGTAGATCTGTTCTCTA...
(and so on for a few hundred lines)

From Nova, here's how scientists make a genetic vaccine.

(As a Java guy, I'm happy to see they use an open source Java program called Sockeye to see a 3-D view of the genomic information. Here's a way to use Java to help fight disease, Fred!)