In the Double-Take Department

The Iraqi ambassador to the United Nations, Mohammed Al-Douri, reacted strongly Friday to a new draft resolution at the UN Security Council that would transfer authority for a UN humanitarian program from the Iraqi government to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, accusing the chief of international body of doing the bidding of the U.S. and Britain.

If the international body in question simply did the bidding of the US and Britain, wouldn't the current assault on Iraq be UN-sanctioned?


Biblio:
Iraq slams Annan's proposed reworking of oil-for-food program

This is Wonderful


Books For Soldiers. I'm putting together a package as soon as I get home tonight. If you can't part with any of your books, they can use monetary donations, too. The group tries to fill any requests the volunteers don't meet.

Yes, Stupid

Now it's official: most Americans are idiots. >>

And because they're stupid, they probably won't pay attention to this:

Will Bush be impeached? Will he be called a war criminal? These are not hyperbolic questions. Mr. Bush has permitted a small cadre of neoconservatives to isolate him from world opinion, putting him at odds with the United Nations and America's allies. >>

Not Funny

I'm hoping it's a satire site. With my luck, it's not.

"Send Liberty Back".

All this stupid anger directed at France for not supporting the U.S.'s desire to be a bully is ludicrous. "Freedom Fries" is stupid, as is Freedom Toast, Freedom Ticklers (ribbed for her pleasure!), Freedom kissing, and so forth.

The attitude in general that many have taken over France's "betrayal" is small-minded and cruel, about up there with taking it as a personal affront when someone in your office drinks the last of the coffee and forgets to make more.

You inconvenienced me, therefore I'll hate you forever.

Beg pardon? Disagree (which you have every right to do), and I'll hate you forever.

Doesn't that sound like the tactic more of a three-year-old than a mature nation? What's next, flat-out temper tantrums?

<flailing arms>
Waaaaah! Waaaaaaaah! Waaaaaaaah!
</flailing arms>

And particularly when it's France we're talking about, as if they never did us a single favor. Like back us in our revolutionary ardor, our fight for liberty. French soldiers fought for George Washington during the American Revolution. And you want to send back the Statue of Liberty?

Although, given the assaults of the past couple years on American liberties, maybe the statue shouldn't belong to us anymore anyway.

ANWR

WASHINGTON, March 19 (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate voted 52-to-48 on Wednesday to reject oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR).
The drilling proposal, a key component of the Bush administration's energy plan, was attached to a 2004 budget resolution before the Senate. The measure would have included in the budget more than $2 billion in federal revenue collected from leasing fees that oil companies would pay to drill in ANWR.

I want one

I want one of a lot of things, come to think of it.

One nation, under me.
One hydrogen-fuel-cell car (truck, preferably). click here to learn how NASA's going to give it to you. Which prompted this list, because, well...I want one.
One rigid heddle loom (Kromski, thank yew very much).
One round trip ticket to anywhere in the world, since I'm asking.
One form to fill out for all my taxes.
One pair of argyle socks. (I like argyles. I just do, OK?)
One copy of every major religious text known, and what the heck, the ones we don't know about yet, too.
One pair of prescription sunglasses.
One copy on DVD of the 1997 release of Twelfth Night with Imogen Stubbs, Helena Bonham Carter, and Ben Kingsley.
One pepperoni and olive, to go.

In the midst of insanity...

New Mexico shows some brains and backbone:

HOUSE JOINT MEMORIAL 40
"AFFIRMING CIVIL RIGHTS AND LIBERTIES; DECLARING OPPOSITION TO FEDERAL MEASURES THAT INFRINGE ON CIVIL LIBERTIES."

Plotting Vile Things to Imaginary People

So, I finally got some more work done on the novel, and I think I'm officially over the halfway-done 'hump'.

All because the ex-wife of my main character (who I never expected to see -- the ex-wife, not the main character) just walked into his office the morning after he had the shit beaten out of him by Evil Minions -- though it's unclear whose -- plopped down, and announced "I'm pregnant".

What? Lady, you weren't even supposed to be a Plot Point™. You were supposed to be Depressing Background for Our Alcoholic Hero to Brood Over.

But that's OK, because now C is tied closer to A, and B is tied closer to A, which means more to write, and hopefully more to be interesting, and oh, boy, I really need a whiteboard upon which to draw all this out.