Sure as Kilimanjaro rises like Olympus above the Serengeti

Rep. Tom Marino (R-PA) has some reservations about the administration's intervention in Libya. Fair enough; so do I.

"Where does it stop?" he asks. "Do we go into Africa next?"

It should be noted that Marino is on the House Foreign Affairs Committee and the House subcommittee on issues related to U.S. policy in Africa.

So in light of his position, let's ponder those words again, shall we?

"Where does it stop??

Do we go into Africa next?"

Bless the rains, Congressman. Bless the rains.

Rob

Ulp.

This could be beyond bad.

Rob

Uncle Sam's Little Helper

The CIA is using Viagra as a reward for informants in Afghanistan.

Make love, not war.

Rob

National Disgrace

Hey look! We were stripped of our rights! Again!

Here's the lede of an AP story about a memo that said the Fourth Amendment couldn't protect us from the government.

For at least 16 months after the Sept. 11 terror attacks in 2001, the Bush administration believed that the Constitution's protection against unreasonable searches and seizures on U.S. soil didn't apply to its efforts to protect against terrorism.

I swear, considering the frequency and vigor with which Bush has wiped his ass with the Constitution, it's a wonder Nicolas Cage ever found that treasure.

Rob

Uh-oh.

Benazir Bhutto has been reported killed in a suicide attack in Pakistan this morning (evening there). Considering she represented the main opposition to Pakistan president Pervez Musharraf's leadership, and there'd been a general election scheduled for two weeks from now, things have been completely upended. I'm worried that we're about to see what happens when a country armed with nuclear weapons plunges into chaos.

I don't know what the right moves to make on the foreign policy front are here, but I can only hope President Bush makes them, and manages to ease the tensions there rather than inflaming them. He tends to operate with a sledgehammer. Let's hope this is one of those times when a sledgehammer is the right tool for the job -- or better yet, he looks a little deeper into his toolbox and finds just the right gauge wrench.

Rob

Dropkick Me, Jesus

We got to see a complete episode of The Amazing Race last night, and I enjoyed it as much as ever. And one team—the married Episcopal ministers—said something I really appreciated: “We’re very religious, of course, but we have no illusions that God cares whether or not we win this.”

Man, that’s a breath of fresh air.

One of the many reasons I don’t watch sports is that I can’t stand—literally have no stomach at all for—anyone who praises Jesus for getting a ball into a net or over a wall or past a chalk line. Because for every guy Jesus “helped” win, there’s a dozen others he did jack-all for. No one ever blames Jesus for letting him get sacked again and again. He’s either on the team or he’s not—and if he is, then the team you’re playing against are obviously infidels. If not by definition, by deduction.

Football becomes a holy war. The winners are right and just and in God’s favor, and the losers are banished from Eden. If Jesus loved them—really loved them—wouldn’t they have made that field goal?

Nah. Keep God out of games. If we can do that, maybe we’ll eventually be mature enough to keep him out of wars, too.

Rob

What you have seen, you must believe—if you can. If you can!

Another post I’ve been meaning to get to…

A couple of weeks ago, inspired by Johanna’s review, Kathy & I rented The Monkees’ Head from Netflix and gave it a spin in the DVD player.

Man, is that a kooky movie.

There are some movies I think of as “plotless wonders.” It’s tempting to include Head in their number, but it’s not quite the case. My thinking is, to be a plotless wonder you need not only the very thinnest of plots, but also to be entertaining enough that it not only doesn’t matter that the movie has no plot to speak of, but also that you completely fail to notice it’s missing. Bottle Rocket is usually the first movie I think of in this category, although Clerks and Garden State are some other pretty good examples. Yeah, there’s a little bit of plot there, but it’s completely masked by the charm of the filmmakers.

Head is totally different. Not that the Monkees aren’t charming – of course they are. But they use that charm not to mask the movie’s plotnessness, but to flaunt it. The scene transitions are almost dadaist, and in other places, Pythonesque. For instance, Micky and Mike walk off a sketch that’s not working to go look for Davy and Peter. As soon as you acclimate to a setting, the movie swerves to something entirely different. And by entirely different, I mean The Band Is Suddenly Dandruff In Victor Mature’s Brylcreemed Hair. THAT kind of entirely different. To say nothing of the cameo appearances by Teri Garr, Toni Basil, Sonny Liston, Jack Nicholson and Frank. Freakin’. Zappa.

For the most part, the music isn't as catchy as the best Monkees tunes, but there are a couple of standouts. Mike Nesmith’s “Circle Sky” is the best, but there’s another song (“Ditty Diego – War Chant”) that’s an apology to authenticity-loving music fans of the day for their studio-manufactured origins. Some sample lyrics:

Hey hey we are the Monkees
You know we love to please
A manufactured image
With no philosophies!

And

You say we’re manufactured,
To that we all agree,
So make you choice and we’ll rejoice
In never being free!

Hey hey we are the Monkees,
We’ve said it all before
The money’s in were made of tin
We’re here to give you more!

The song ends abruptly with a gunshot and a scream, followed by an ironic three cheers for the Vietnam War.

"Circle Sky" is even sharper, with Monkees concert footage mixed with shots of screaming fans and black and white newsreel (I assume) footage from Vietnam, including a man being casually shot down in the street. The images mix until it’s deliberately blurred whether a teenager is screaming because she’s seeing the Monkees play or as a reaction to the murder. The song ends with fans rushing the stage and attacking the band, who transform into mannequins to be stripped and dismembered. It’s genuinely creepy.

As for the whole movie, it’s an hour and a half of non sequiturs and groovieness, and of stars bristling at their image and trying to craft a new one. Once Micky Dolenz smiles into the camera and offers you a hookah pipe, you’ll never be quite the same.

Rob

Operation: Fabulous!

You won't want to miss this recently-uncovered U.S. military proposal from 1994. I'd call it batshit insane, but "nutty as a fruitcake" seems more appropriate.

"Next up on Hardball: The outrageous Pentagon price tag to develop gaydar."

Rob

Congratulations!

It was four years ago today that we won the war in Iraq.

Mission Accomplished! So glad that's over.

UPDATE: Aaaand... he's going for five. Or six. And after that, what does he care?

Rob

Since 2003

Thank God we were greeted as liberators. Otherwise we'd still be Iraq.

Rob

Secret of the "Surge"

This is awful, if true. Salon reports that we’re sending injured soldiers back to Iraq.

Rob

The Evolution of Bumper Stickers

In the train station parking lot this morning, I saw a bumper sticker that read, "Marine Aunt." Which is a nice show of support for the driver's nephew, and a reminder that those with immdiate family members aren't the only ones affected by this (or any) war.

But the sticker got me thinking -- something about it seemed a little odd, like there might have been a clever idea at the heart of it, and then it went through a variety of permutations for different situations. Giving it some thought, I concluded that it's probably a variation on another bumper sticker: "Army Aunt." Which is pretty funny, actually.

Rob

Take Your Smiles Where You Find Them

Pies in the face are good. Egg is better. Ha.

Rob

Relief

I just got word. Apparently National Guard members who have been recalled through IRR have been give the option to resign their commissions. They're sending the paperwork to my brother-in-law now. He's not going.

Whoever is responsible for this decision, thank you. Thank you so much.

Rob

Absence

I haven’t written anything for a little while. Some of it’s been the standard too-busy-to-blog excuse, but most is that I learned something this weekend that I really wanted to process before writing about, and I didn’t want to write about anything else until I did.

My brother-in-law, Brian, has been recalled to the National Guard. He’s been promoted to captain and is leaving for training in a few weeks, and then plans call from him to go out to California for more training for about six months. After that, he’ll be sent overseas.

The news knocked me flat. I can only imagine what he’s going through. What my sister Sally will be going through, and what their sons will be going through once they find out.

Brian left the National Guard eight or nine years ago. He'd never formally resigned his commission because he enjoyed his service, and planned to return to it when he was in his fifties, once the kids were grown. I had heard that a lot of Guard units were going to Iraq, and knew that some people who had left were being recalled. I asked him about this a while ago, and he said something like, “I’ve been out for like eight years. They’d have to be really desperate to call me.”

Aside from the fact that he’s my sister’s husband and my nephews’ father, the Guard couldn’t have made a better choice. Brian’s a sharp guy who can understand and solve problems quickly. He’s a natural leader, and I know he’ll have the people in his unit performing at their absolute best. But I’m having a hard time getting over the fact that he’s my sister’s husband and my nephews’ father and should be home with them.

I have to reevaluate my thinking about the war, and about the soldiers’ job in it. I know in my bones that we were deceived into this war, and that if the President had been honest with us about the expected costs up front, we wouldn’t be there. I have a lot of issues with the President, but the war encapsulates all of them. I think it was a wrongheaded decision, handled incompetently at the top levels. (Like Katrina, like the plan to destroy Social Security, like so many other things.)

That’s not what I’m thinking of now. I’m thinking of the soldiers on the ground, doing their level best to keep everyone safe. Of maintaining security while schools are built and votes are counted. And of presenting, one-on-one, the decent face of America. I know Brian will excel, and I hope the presence of him and others like him will foster goodwill there. We need more than we have now.

I can’t help worrying. I’ve seen the headlines, and I know the chilling landmark we passed yesterday. And I know that the future is uncertain for us all, no matter where we are when we think we’re safe, or healthy, or secure. Anything can happen anywhere. In that light, Iraq is no different from where I grew up, or where I work now. There are no guarantees.

But if I had only one guarantee to give out, I’d give it to him. To keep him safe, and return him home the same man that I’ve always been so glad to have as my brother.

Rob

Freedom's Just Another Word...

...for doing things our way or else.

As Yakov Smirnoff used to say, "What a country!"

Rob

A three hour tour...

One more thing about this huge spending bill. Reuters says there's a presidential yacht in it. (See second paragraph.)

Some people might think of this as a bad thing. Some might question spending taxpayer money on a presidential yacht while our troops are underequipped, our chemical plants and ports are unguarded and our public schools are in trouble. Me, I'm all for it. Anthing that keeps President Dimbulb on vacation can't be anything but good for the country.

Rob