Say Thank You

I only saw a little bit of Bush’s speech the other day, and it happened to be the part where he wants the military to run this country when it gets too tough for him to do it. I was going to write some commentary on the military industrial complex, but these two pieces pretty much cover what I wanted to say: TPM, Gadflyer (related). Technorati Tags: Katrina, military industrial complex

A friend is travelling through Afghanistan as part of a circus (yes, a circus). One of his more recent emails: Salaam from Karte Seh, Kabul, I hope this finds you safe and in good spirits. I have a new telephone number and mailing address in the U.S., noted at the bottom of this email. Nearly one month ago, what little I knew of Afghanistan I knew by pictures and words, maybe a couple good books, like “Kite Runner” or “An Unexpected Light,” and sound bites from the Boston Globe or Washington Post. Even if I knew better, I still had…

I think this op-ed in the NYT hits the question of Hirsi Ali’s deportation right on the head. She wasn’t ejected because she professed her hatred for Islam (not the Muslims who brought her to her state), she’d been doing that for several years. She was ejected because she hates herself, therefore she was unable to look at the situation of refugees and asylum seekers with compassion and understanding. By creating the wall of legal misanthropy, so well-crafted against her own situation, she had to know she had to go. Update: If you are not already in love with the…