At Long Last

Whew. A combination of the holidays and tehcnical difficulties led to the long delay, but I'm back at last. Not that anyone actually reads this blog, but oh well. Here are some of the top stories I’ve missed:

1. WMD Search Team Goes Home

So it’s official now – there is absolutely no chance of us finding any kind of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq - neither nuclear, nor chemical, nor biological.

Apologies from the Administration, and from the conservative press? None.

2. Armstrong Williams the Whore

I wish Bush would pay me a quarter-million dollars to support one of his programs; but I suppose I didn’t have the one-in-a-million opportunity to be a black Republican.

3. The Inaugural Committee

So far they’ve managed to raise $40 million for champagne and balloons. Meanwhile, my impoverished hometown of Washington DC must shoulder all the security costs.

I suppose this counts as one of their more public ‘let-them-eat-cake’ moments, but it’s certainly not the first or the last.

4. Prince Harry the Nazi.

Personally I always felt a little sorry for Harry. He’s ‘the ugly one’ and he’ll never be king.

Worst come to worst, he’ll end up Scar to Prince William’s Mufasa.

5. Pinochet to Stand Trial

A bit of a person reference here: Peter Kornbluh, father of my good friend Gabe, has for a long time been the chief American authority on the Pinochet atrocities in Chile and the covert American support for his regime.

It was recently announced that the former dictator was fit to stand trial. Finally.

Now we only need to arrange warrants for Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, et al.

6. the Inauguration itself.

Lots of protests which weren't covered in the media, lots of non-existent Bush supporters who were, lots of women in fur coats and cowboy hats, and alot of cheap politicking in Bush's speech (freedom: 27, libery: 15).

Ayn Rand is a bitch

Watching The O'reilly Factor, as I sometimes do, and he had as a guest a certain Yaron Brook from the Ayn Rand Institute, who informed us that, in order to win the war in Iraq and defeat the insurgency, "What we need to do is kill more civilians. We should reduce their cities to dust. They think we're soft because we only go after the insurgents. We need to go after everyone, and kill the wounded too."

This was a little too much for even O'Reilly. "Wouldn't that make us Nazis?" he said, and still managed to be an ass while being reasonable.

But Mr. Brook was too quick for doddering old falafel-loving O'Reilly. "Oh no; we're the good guys."

That's comforting.

Zell on Earth

It's official; red-faced, duel-happy Georgia 'Democrat' Zell Miller is going to join FOX News as a commentator.

And do his commentary with what, SPIT-BALLS?!?!??

So... we'll have a right-wing nutjob Democrat to balance out all the right-wing nutjob Republicans and the right-wing nutjob Independents.

That's FOX in a goddamn nutshell right there.

Mounties: They Always Get Their Man

Somebody's going to blame Canada.

CANADA is set to begin moves to legalise gay marriage next year.

The move follows a ruling by the country’s supreme court allowing the redefinition of marriage as "the lawful union of two persons".

Prime Minister Paul Martin said his Liberal government would bring in gay marriage legislation in the new year.

Lower court decisions have legalised gay marriage in six of the ten provinces and in one of the three territories, and Mr Martin said this patchwork could not be allowed to continue.

"The government believes that uniformity is absolutely essential, since we don’t want the Balkanisation of marriage in this country," he said.

"I do not believe you can have two classes of citizens."

So... they also allow medical marijuana, have national health care, have almost no crime, and run a budget surplus every year.

Remind me again why we make fun of them.

Welfare vs. Warfare States

We have no butter, but I ask you - would you rather have guns or butter? Readiness will make us powerful; butter will only make us fat.
- Hermann Georing

After World War II, the choice was clear: fight anti-democratic Communism by building up your military, or fight Communism by providing for your people, and so making radical Communism unnecessary. Advocates of the second plan are generally known as Social Democrats or Socialists, depending on which country you go to.

The US chose the former, Europe chose the latter. And the results are plain to see. America is the only industrialized country with no national health care; guaranteed leave for families and pregnant women, the right to general strike, and a million other things besides. We do have the highest poverty rate, however, and run up the biggest deficits. In part this is due to

In France, or Germany, or Sweden, if you lose your job, you'll be OK for quite some time. It won't be great, of course, but you'll manage. That’s how they can sustain unemployment rates of 10% without massive unrest and violence.

In America, people who lose their $100,000-a-year jobs are living in cardboard boxes a week later. That’s an exaggeration, of course, but there are plenty of people in this country for whom it is not so far-fetched.

The EU is gearing up to oppose us as a counterbalance to influence in the world, and they've gotten so large and powerful that they just might be able to do that. With the US economy heading towards a major crisis, the Third Way might become the only one.