You’re not likely to read about this in the paper but a 19 year old woman named Monica Brown was awarded the Silver Star yesterday. The Silver Star is a medal for valor. Monica Brown is the second woman to receive the Silver Star since WWII. She saved a bunch of people’s lives on a battlefield, using her body to shield them from enemy fire.
Sometimes Laura and I like to use Apple’s iChat to keep in touch. It’s a good way to stay connected when we’re traveling apart. However, I have concluded that iChat is not all it’s cracked up to be. Try as I might, I just…can’t…smooch. I think I herniated my smoocher on this attempt…
Before Ashton Kutcher ruined the word, getting “punked” was what happened in prison to guys who talk a lot of s#1t but are revealed to be ineffectual weaklings. The first thing that came to mind when I read about the NIE’s revelations about Iran’s nuclear program was, “dude, they just got punked.”
In fact, the effect of the NIE finding is acutely damaging to Iran’s aspirations to become a regional power. As a matter of fact, the NIE finding essentially recasts the balance of power in the Middle East. Remember that Israel has real nukes - not imaginary ones like Ahmadinejad. Pakistan also has nukes and it shares a border with Iran. Both Pakistan and Israel receive U.S. aid and have a lot to lose if Iran becomes the dominant player in the Middle East.
Iran’s new vulnerability isn’t just theoretical. Israel’s recent stealth bombing of quasi-military installations deep inside Syria clearly demonstrates their ability and desire to kick ass. Since Iran has been de-pantsed in front of the world, what’s to keep Israel from sending bombers to Iran? If Ahmadinejad threatens to wipe Israel off the map now the world will respond, “Yeah? With what?”
A lot of media reports have taken the naive angle that the NIE finding somehow undermines Bush’s foreign policy objective to isolate and subdue Iran. To the contrary, I think the NIE finding essentially hangs a big target on Iran’s back. Geopolitics is chess not checkers beotch! Just ask Alonzo Harris.
The other morning I saw a coyote up close and personal! I was standing outside my apartment talking on my cellphone at around 7 in the morning when all of a sudden this big coyote came jogging up the sidewalk along La Fayette Park Place in Silverlake, not twenty feet from me. At first I thought it was a dog because it was so big. Its head came up to my waist! But it sent off a very feral vibe that immediately made the hairs on my arm go up - no way was this animal domesticated. Upon noticing me, the coyote stopped briefly and looked me over. Its eyes were big and yellow. I could tell it was deciding whether or not to eat me. During this primal encounter, all I could think was, “Oh sh#$, I’m going to miss my 8:00 meeting!” Luckily the coyote left me alone and disappeared over the hill. At my 8:00 meeting I kept thinking, “Dammit, I wish that coyote had eaten me.”
I’ve been re-reading my old copy of W.B. Yeats and I must say I have a much deeper appreciation for it this time around. While I don’t generally care for poetry, I enjoy Yeats for reasons which I feel helpless to verbalize. Here without further ado is my favorite Yeats poem which I think is quite sublime.
Memory
One had a lovely face,
And two or three had charm,
But charm and face were in vain
Because the mountain grass
Cannot but keep the form
Where the mountain hare has lain
BOOOYAAAHHH!!! That poem is bananas!