Positively Puzzled

Last Thursday on Democracy Now! , Amy Goodman was talking with Michael Ratner from the Center for Constitutional Rights , an organization that is suing Blackwater for the September 16 killings in Baghdad . They also represent Guantanamo prisoners, and Maher Arar, the Canadian citizen that our government, if you hadn't heard, abducted, interrogated, tortured, and imprisoned for nearly a year…by mistake…perhaps because they thought they had Bill Maher? About 31 minutes into the podcast, Goodman presented a clip of George W. Bush from April 2006 that particularly caught my attention (bracket comments are mine): AMY GOODMAN: In April of last year, President Bush spoke at the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopk ins University . After his talk, he took questions from students at the school. STUDENT: My question is in regards to private military contractors. The Uniform Code of Military Justice does not apply to these contractors in Iraq . I asked your Sec...

A while ago I promised someone I would post some of my limericks. I'm occasionally true to my word, so here's a few: A martini, ice cold, held aloft Is a sight that I've never scoffed, But the shape of the glass Makes it easy to splash So I've spilled much more than I've quaffed. A young lass from Kansas named Dorothy, Said she wanted a mate who was swarthy; Yet the burlap‑faced strawman, The tin‑colored woodsman, And the auburn‑maned lion weren't worthy. Al Gore stands for me as a mentor; Unflustered by any dissenter, He may not have won, But, son of a gun, He'll always succeed as inventor. An Indian Sikh named Arjuna Had trouble flensing a tuna, Its viscera burst, Beheading a tour’st, And the flesh sank in the laguna. There's a term on a ship when you're sailing For the part that is sort of a railing The word used is "gunwale"; And that rhymes with funnel, Which leaves this son-of-a-gun wailing...

There has been so much going on in the news lately to utterly exasperate me. Politics. The past several weeks I've been paying more than the usual attention to the news. I feel it is my citizen duty. I worry about the detrimental effects of complacency, but I have to admit, it has taken a serious toll on my peace of mine. The price of vigilance is high anxiety. I am so grateful to alternative news sources like Democracy Now! , a program I wasn't able to listen to in the past because it seemed so dour and radical and mean-spirited and downright impolite and Amy Goodman seemed like the modern Cassandra. But what she was talking about months ago is now mainstream news. The big networks have caught up with her. So have I. And, lest we forget, Cassandra was right. Unfortunately, by the time it becomes mainstream news, we are comfortable sipping our tea and discussing the nuances of U.S.-sanctioned torture without it causing any too much personal distress. There are so man...

From an antediluvian playlist: Lua Nha Testemunha─Cesaria Evora─ The Very Best of Césaria Évora Papa pique, Mama coud─Charles Trenet─ Trenet: Boum! Quilombo, O El Dorado Negro─Gilberto Gil─ Beleza Tropical: Brazil Classics 1 Raga Lali─Brij Narayan, sarod; Zakir Hussain, tabla Sylvius Leopold Weiss: Suite No. 17 in F Minor: Gigue─Konrad Junghänel, lute J. S. Bach: Praeludium No. 11 in F Major (BWV 880)─The Swingle Singers─ Jazz Sebastian Bach, Volume 1 J.S. Bach: Concerto for Oboe and Strings in F Major, BWV 1053─ Neil Black, oboe; The Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields; Neville Marriner, conductor─ J.S. Bach: Four Concerti Transcribed Schumann: Die Rose, Die Lilie, Die Taube─Theo Adam, bass─ Schubert-Wolf-Schumann: Lieder Chopin: Etudes Op.25, No.1 in A-Flat Major: Allegro Sostenuto─Maurizio Pollini, piano The Blues Are Still Blue─Belle & Sebastian