War, huh, yeah, Good God y'all, what is it good for? Absolutely nothing! Say it again, y'all! Listen to me! Stand up and shout it: NOTHING!

Today is Tuesday, Halloween, 31 October 2006.

The following is from a dispatch by Sue Pleming on Reuters on the Internet, “U.S. Says Somalia must not be proxy war for others”, dated 30 October 2006:

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Ethiopia and Eritrea, rivals involved in a border dispute, must take steps not to escalate tensions in Somalia.

"(I) would hope that states not try to use Somalia as a proxy for any of their disputes. It would be rather unfortunate for Somalia, as well as other countries in the region," said McCormack.

"We do have concerns about some other countries, outside countries involved in Somalia; various troop activities," he added, without providing details.

The Islamists have accused Ethiopia of sending in troops to protect the interim government and declared holy war against Ethiopia this month. Addis Ababa denies any incursion and says its only contribution was several hundred armed military trainers.

Oh my stars and garters! HH would laugh himself silly at this massive Bush Junta hypocrisy if it weren’t for the murders of hundreds of thousands for which the land of his birth, the United States Empire, bears half the responsibility: politically, financially, and ethically.

It’s Halloween, girls and boys, so, herewith, courtesy of HH and The Patterns of History, a scary story.

Once upon a time, on the Horn of Africa, that area in North-Eastern Africa on the west shore of the Strait of Hormuz, on the east side of which lies Saudi Arabia, with its richness of Black Gold, were, and still are, the nations of Ethiopia and Somalia. (And also Eritrea, formerly part of Ethiopia.)

During much of the 19th Century, Ethiopia and Somalia were ravaged by savage European military dictatorships.

When the protagonists of those military dictatorships fled after World War Two, was it any surprise that the successors to these depredations, distortions, and degradations to the government of these two lands were … military dictatorships?

Fast forward: the year is 1945. The USE and the USSR initiate The Cold War, a great struggle for global hegemony. Before long, they begin to use small, desperately poor countries all over the globe as proxies for warfare. The USE backs Ethiopia; the USSR backs Somalia.

Much death ensues.

Then, in 1974, a pseudo-Marxist military dictatorship seizes power in Ethiopia, which the USSR backs.

Change partners and dance.

The USE now backs Somalia, and the war and killings and poverty and misery go on.

In 1991, The Cold War ends, and the USE and the USSR, bored like Tom and Daisy in The Great Gatsby, lose interest in funding and commanding their Ethiopian and Somali proxies.

But the war, like The Beat, having been set in motion, Goes On.

And on, and on, and on.

Happy Halloween 2006, and the misery and death still go on.

And, just in time for Halloween, USE Department of State spokesjerk Sean McCormack said: "(I) would hope that states not try to use Somalia as a proxy for any of their disputes. It would be rather unfortunate for Somalia, as well as other countries in the region”.

It is instructive to note that the Bush Junta is currently financing a faction of warlords in Somalia.

And the planet remains overrun with the miseries and deaths of proxy wars.

Perhaps this sentiment, not to use [insert any suffering nation here], might have arisen earlier.

Such a sentiment now is only hopelessly cruel, hypocritical, and callous.

And that’s your scary story.

Happy Eve of All Saints’ Day.
_____________________________________________________

WAR

by Edwin Starr

War, huh, yeah
What is it good for
Absolutely nothing
Uh-huh
War, huh, yeah
What is it good for
Absolutely nothing
Say it again, y'all

War, huh, good God
What is it good for
Absolutely nothing
Listen to me

Ohhh, war, I despise
Because it means destruction
Of innocent lives

War means tears
To thousands of mothers eyes
When their sons go to fight
And lose their lives

I said, war, huh
Good God, y'all
What is it good for
Absolutely nothing
Say it again

War, whoa, Lord
What is it good for
Absolutely nothing
Listen to me

War, it ain't nothing
But a heartbreaker
War, friend only to the undertaker
Ooooh, war
It's an enemy to all mankind
The point of war blows my mind
War has caused unrest
Within the younger generation
Induction then destruction
Who wants to die
Aaaaah, war-huh
Good God y'all
What is it good for
Absolutely nothing
Say it, say it, say it
War, huh
What is it good for
Absolutely nothing
Listen to me

War, huh, yeah
What is it good for
Absolutely nothing
Uh-huh
War, huh, yeah
What is it good for
Absolutely nothing
Say it again y'all
War, huh, good God
What is it good for
Absolutely nothing
Listen to me

War, it ain't nothing but a heartbreaker
War, it's got one friend
That's the undertaker
Ooooh, war, has shattered
Many a young mans dreams
Made him disabled, bitter and mean
Life is much to short and precious
To spend fighting wars these days
War can't give life
It can only take it away

Ooooh, war, huh
Good God y'all
What is it good for
Absolutely nothing
Say it again

War, whoa, Lord
What is it good for
Absolutely nothing
Listen to me

War, it ain't nothing but a heartbreaker
War, friend only to the undertaker
Peace, love and understanding
Tell me, is there no place for them today
They say we must fight to keep our freedom
But Lord knows there's got to be a better way

Ooooooh, war, huh
Good God y'all
What is it good for
You tell me
Say it, say it, say it, say it

War, huh
Good God y'all
What is it good for
Stand up and shout it
Nothing

Transforming Buried Bodies

Today is Monday, 30 October 2006.

The hallmark of the second reign of Donald Rumsfeld over the War Department has been the mantra of “transformation”. The concept is, of course, far more slogan than concept, let alone an operational plan.

It seems to involve two main amorphous notions. First, use extant, even ancient resources in imaginative ways. (Wonder why no one ever thought of that?) Second, employ fewer infantry and more high-tech weapons and computing power.

We have all witnessed the astonishing success by "transformation" in achieving the mission accomplished in Iraq more than 3 years ago.

Recently, Rep. John Boehner (R-OH), the House Majority Leader, said that the American military needs transformation, and that no leader in the past 25 years is better equipped for the task than Donald Rumsfeld, because “he knows where all the bodies in the Pentagon are buried”.

Given that the failed policies of Rumsfeld are responsible for burying many tens of thousands of corpses, this seems an infelicitous figure of speech.

Happy Birthday, Leon Trotsky!

Today is Thursday, 26 October 2006.

Today is the birthday in 1879 of Lev Davidovich Bronstein, better known to history as Leon Trotsky, a Marxist, and, with Lenin, the two who made the revolution of October 1917.

The idealism of Trotsky and Lenin lost out, in the end, to the vicious ambition of Stalin.

But, at least, Trotsky and Lenin attempted, however flawed and fumbling, to find a just social existence.

“Bring flowers to the rebels failed.”
___________________________________________

BONUS

I Think Continually Of Those Who Were Truly Great
Stephen Spender

I think continually of those who were truly great.
Who, from the womb, remembered the soul's history
Through corridors of light where the hours are suns
Endless and singing. Whose lovely ambition
Was that their lips, still touched with fire,
Should tell of the Spirit clothed from head to foot in song.
And who hoarded from the Spring branches
The desires falling across their bodies like blossoms.

What is precious is never to forget
The essential delight of the blood drawn from ageless springs
Breaking through rocks in worlds before our earth.
Never to deny its pleasure in the morning simple light
Nor its grave evening demand for love.
Never to allow gradually the traffic to smother
With noise and fog the flowering of the spirit.

Near the snow, near the sun, in the highest fields
See how these names are fŠted by the waving grass
And by the streamers of white cloud
And whispers of wind in the listening sky.
The names of those who in their lives fought for life
Who wore at their hearts the fire's center.
Born of the sun they traveled a short while towards the sun,
And left the vivid air signed with their honor.

Stay the Curse!

Today is Wednesday, 25 October 2006.

Before the conquest of Iraq, residents of Baghdad received 16-24 hours of electricity each day.

This month, thanks to the efforts of the Bush Junta of National Security, they’re enjoying a whopping 2.4 hours per day.

Progress as promised!

And all it to took to achieve this ground-breaking accomplishment was the death of at least 500,000 Iraqi civilians, a few thousand Americans dead and a few tens of thousands permanently wounded, and what will eventually be the expenditure of at least $1 trillion in taxpayer incomes.

Mission accomplished!!

The Bush Junta assures us they are on track to achieve their goal of Zero Tolerance for electricity in Baghdad by the 4th of July. After all, the Founding Fathers built democracy without electricity.

Stay the course!!!
__________________________________________

On this date in History:

1983 - Reagan Junta begins conquest of Granada

Baghdad Diary 1

Today is Tuesday, 24 October 2006.

"humans seem infinitely adaptable.

alas.

when i lived along the river in tulsa, oklahoma, it was the stench of the refineries on the opposite side of the river ... that ... gasoline smell.

now, in Baghdad, it's the stench of the decaying bodies, beheaded or shot in the head.

when we go out in the street, when we dare to go out in the street, to try to buy groceries, we hold rags soaked in gasoline to our noses, in an attempt to blot out the smell of the dead.

enjoy."
______________________________________

1648 - Treaty of Westphalia is signed, ending [sic] the Thirty Years War

A Kind of Solution

Today is Wednesday, 18 October 2006.

Waiting for the Barbarians

By Constantine Cavafy (1864-1933), translated by Edmund Keeley

What are we waiting for, assembled in the forum?

The barbarians are due here today.

Why isn't anything happening in the senate?
Why do the senators sit there without legislating?

Because the barbarians are coming today.

What laws can the senators make now?

Once the barbarians are here, they'll do the legislating.

Why did our emperor get up so early,
and why is he sitting at the city's main gate
on his throne, in state, wearing the crown?

Because the barbarians are coming today
and the emperor is waiting to receive their leader.

He has even prepared a scroll to give him,
replete with titles, with imposing names.

Why have our two consuls and praetors come out today
wearing their embroidered, their scarlet togas?

Why have they put on bracelets with so many amethysts,
and rings sparkling with magnificent emeralds?

Why are they carrying elegant canes
beautifully worked in silver and gold?

Because the barbarians are coming today
and things like that dazzle the barbarians.

Why don't our distinguished orators come forward as usual
to make their speeches, say what they have to say?

Because the barbarians are coming today
and they're bored by rhetoric and public speaking.

Why this sudden restlessness, this confusion?
(How serious people's faces have become.)

Why are the streets and squares emptying so rapidly,
everyone going home so lost in thought?

Because night has fallen and the barbarians have not come.

And some who have just returned from the border say
there are no barbarians any longer.

And now, what's going to happen to us without barbarians?
They were, those people, a kind of solution.

Ashes, Ashes, All Fall Down

Today is Monday, 16 October 2006.

How accidentally apropos yesterday’s column was.

On this date in 1962, President JFK was shown “intelligence” data indicating the USSR had placed nuclear missiles in Cuba.

Result: The Cuban Missile Crisis (USA/USE), The Caribbean Crisis (USSR), The October Crisis (Cuba), etc.

Sanctions, Sanctions, All Fall Down

Today is Sunday, 15 October 2006.

Given: that nuclear weapons are a Hitler-style weapon of mass destruction.

I say this because nuclear weapons are essentially flying extermination camps, Auschwitz on wings.

Should we expect “sanctions” to force the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to relinquish them?

Given: that the USA/USE, Russia, China, United Kingdom, France, Israel, India, and Pakistan have refused to renounce their Hitler-style weapons of mass destruction …

What do you think?
_______________________________________

On this date in history:

1964 - Cole Porter dies, aged 71

Nobel for Literature!

Today is Thursday, 12 October 2006.

Orhan Pamuk has won the Nobel for Literature!

Happy Birthday, Mr. Ward !!!!!!!!!!

Today remains Tuesday, 10 October 2006.

Here's the main course.

(No offense to Princess and Orson.)

On this day, 70 years ago, my high school chemistry teacher, Mr. Pat Ward, was born.

"Gads, W...., what have ya done?"

Just talked with him, and he's well.

"How in the world are ya?"

"You can go ahead on."

He taught the subject, and being a good person.

Can't ask for more.

A Way of Happening

Today is Tuesday, 10 October 2006.

Hard to believe: Orson Welles died on this day in 1985.

1985.

The cursor blinks as if saying, We’ve been without Orson for 21 years.

As an actor since the second grade, gracious, 1960, HH feels the loss keenly.

So, today at the MoB, HH will try not to go all doom and gloom. Sort of a tribute to Orson and the Princess of the Farm Realms, who does her best to keep HH not goin’ too far down the path to misanthropy.

Sunday mornin’ last, Mrs. And Mr. HH worked out in the garden, and HH declaimed, for the pleasure of Mrs., W.H. Auden’s great poem, “In Memory of W. B. Yeats (d. 1939)”.

If you don’t know the work, pardners, seek it out, oh hell …

Have I put this poem in the column recently? I’m getting senile. I’m known for being particularly vicious literarily: Sitting people down and saying, ‘Read this right now; it will change your life.”

Herewith, Auden on Yeats:

I

He disappeared in the dead of winter:
The brooks were frozen, the airports almost deserted,
And snow disfigured the public statues;
The mercury sank in the mouth of the dying day.
What instruments we have agree
The day of his death was a dark cold day.

Far from his illness
The wolves ran on through the evergreen forests,
The peasant river was untempted by the fashionable quays;
By mourning tongues
The death of the poet was kept from his poems.

But for him it was his last afternoon as himself,
An afternoon of nurses and rumours;
The provinces of his body revolted,
The squares of his mind were empty,
Silence invaded the suburbs,
The current of his feeling failed; he became his admirers.

Now he is scattered among a hundred cities
And wholly given over to unfamiliar affections,
To find his happiness in another kind of wood
And be punished under a foreign code of conscience.
The words of a dead man
Are modified in the guts of the living.

But in the importance and noise of to-morrow
When the brokers are roaring like beasts on the floor of the Bourse,
And the poor have the sufferings to which they are fairly accustomed,
And each in the cell of himself is almost convinced of his freedom,
A few thousand will think of this day
As one thinks of a day when one did something slightly unusual.

What instruments we have agree
The day of his death was a dark cold day.

II

You were silly like us; your gift survived it all:
The parish of rich women, physical decay,
Yourself. Mad Ireland hurt you into poetry.
Now Ireland has her madness and her weather still,
For poetry makes nothing happen: it survives
In the valley of its making where executives
Would never want to tamper, flows on south
From ranches of isolation and the busy griefs,
Raw towns that we believe and die in; it survives,
A way of happening, a mouth.

III

Earth, receive an honoured guest:
William Yeats is laid to rest.
Let the Irish vessel lie
Emptied of its poetry.

In the nightmare of the dark
All the dogs of Europe bark,
And the living nations wait,
Each sequestered in its hate;

Intellectual disgrace
Stares from every human face,
And the seas of pity lie
Locked and frozen in each eye.

Follow, poet, follow right
To the bottom of the night,
With your unconstraining voice
Still persuade us to rejoice;

With the farming of a verse
Make a vineyard of the curse,
Sing of human unsuccess
In a rapture of distress;

In the deserts of the heart
Let the healing fountain start,
In the prison of his days
Teach the free man how to praise.

Welles, Auden, Yeats, and every moment, a thousand anonymous perished forever, dying in the corners of the world, forever unknown, and, but for this moment, unmourned.

Everybody, just wants to rule the world

Today remains Monday, 9 October 2006.

Some body just said on the TV, “How could we stop North Korea from testing a nuclear bomb?”

Well, duh, we just take a whole posse of American gunman and occupy it all.

But War George, he wants to rule the world.

Some body check my math, but I think, rulin’ the world, it would mean every child, female, and male in America, carryin’ a gun, on duty 24/7/365, spread out over the surface of the planet at a density of .66 per square mile.

Further deponent saith not.

God bless Che.

Che Lives!

Today is Monday, 9 October 2006.

On this day in 1967, Ernesto Guevara de la Serna, “Che”, “The Great Rebel”, was murdered in Bolivia by that country’s military dictatorship, acting on CIA orders.

The struggle continues, comrade.

Johnny, We Hardly Knew Ye

Today is Thursday, 5 October 2006.

It is with profound sorrow your author and the Museum of the Bourgeois awoke this morning to news of the death of R.W. Apple, Jr., whom anyone with any sense always knew as "Johnny".

WSJ, NBC, NYT.

More on Johnny later.

---30---

EDIT

You spend your life reading these people, and then the bastards go and die on you.

EDIT

This just in: Just now, on live TV, George W*&%^%*^& just said, "Failure and mediocrity in America's classrooms is unacceptable."

Failure and mediocrity, in America's presidents, pretend as this one is or otherwise, is unacceptable.

---30---

Beep Beep

Today is Wednesday, 4 October 2006.

On this date in 1957, the first artificial satellite of Earth, Sputnik I, was launched by the USSR.

Later on this date in 2006, the HH family cocker spaniel, Emma Goldman, comes home from the vet, after arduous ear surgery.

This column will be updated throughout the day.
________________________________________

This whole Foley thing.

Pedophilia has nothing to do with gender choices, sexuality whatevers, etc.

The more science learns about the brain, the more we understand that such things are a result of physically-organic mental illness. Some people are cursed by brain chemistry, not demonic possession or any such other superstitions.

HH should probably shut up about this now, before he gets too emotional, but he's known too many people and their loved ones who've been damaged by such things ... our empire spends so many useless billions on imperialism, what if we spent a fraction on trying to heal?

Late Breaking Hasbeens

Today remains Tuesday, 3 October 2006.

Guess which statement is real.

"If you listen closely to some of the leaders of the Democratic Party, it sounds like - it sounds like - they think the best way to protect the American people is, wait until we're attacked again," Bush said Monday.

In a later statement, a claretification, at George W. Bush Elementary School in California, Bush said, “I didn’t mean until more pages - other children – it sounds like children – or, very small, cheeping animals - I had one of those as a child, in Midland, Texas, a hamster, until I was a very, very bad boy, and my Mom Barbara served me a very strange stew for lunch, and I never saw it again - but I'm talking about children, are attacked, molestizied, plagiarized, ouevre-sized, by Republicongressmore, whatever – I mean, wait until they’re attacked, after the election, and then they think the best way to - that’s what I mean the best way to protect the American children are – wait til they’re attacked again, if we can bring the bacon home for the my Repuglican Party, in these mid-swarm elections, it’ll all be worth the sacrifice for them, and that’s what it’s all about: Sacrifice for Democracee. Stay the Course! Mission Accomplished!”

So that's why yr. Prez supports Denny Hasbeen.

Late Breaking Hasbeens

Today remains Tuesday, 3 October 2006.

Guess which statement is real.

"If you listen closely to some of the leaders of the Democratic Party, it sounds like - it sounds like - they think the best way to protect the American people is, wait until we're attacked again," Bush said Monday.

In a later statement, a claretification, at George W. Bush Elementary School in California, Bush said, “I didn’t mean until more pages - other children – it sounds like children – or, very small, cheeping animals - I had one of those as a child, in Midland, Texas, a hamster, until I was a very, very bad boy, and my Mom Barbara served me a very strange stew for lunch, and I never saw it again - but I'm talking about children, are attacked, molestizied, plagiarized, ouevre-sized, by Republicongressmore, whatever – I mean, wait until they’re attacked, after the election, and then they think the best way to - that’s what I mean the best way to protect the American children are – wait til they’re attacked again, if we can bring the bacon home for the my Repuglican Party, in these mid-swarm elections, it’ll all be worth the sacrifice for them, and that’s what it’s all about: Sacrifice for Democracee. Stay the Course! Mission Accomplished!”

So that's why yr. Prez supports Denny Hasbeen.

Trail of Tears

Now remains Tuesday, 3 October 2006.

RtR posted this as a comment. Good catch, comrade: I forgot to include it. Sometimes I don't search my records fully. It merits the full attention of this column.

John Ross, principal chief of the Cherokee, born this day in 1790 at Stone Mountain, Georgia. Challenged the removal order of the U.S. Government before the Supreme Court, Chief Justice John Marshall presiding.

Chief Justice Marshall, writing for the majority, overturned the removal order holding that the Cherokee were a sovereign nation and that the U.S. government must honor all treaties made with the Cherokee.

President Andrew "Old Hickory" Jackson, ignoring the decision, ordered the removal (later named by the forcibly evicted indiginous residents, "The Trail of Tears")in defiance of the Supreme Court's decision, infamously declaring "Chief Justice Marshall has made his ruling, let's see him enforce it."

Plus ca change, plus ca meme chose.

Note the resemblance of The Trail of Tears (at least 25% of the Cherokee were murdered) to the Bataan Death March, etc.

Perhaps War George should be put on the $20 bill alongside Andy J. Anyone do Photoshop?

Blues for Woody

Today is now Tuesday, 3 October 2006.

Are the anti-Christ(ian) coalition political gangsters getting slow on the draw?

It wasn’t really until yesterday that the homophobic chorus began: Cong. Foley is a product of ‘permissiveness, promiscuity, and homosexuality.’

Never mind that most pedophiles are heterosexual white males, as are most serial killers.

I’m sure the Goose-Steppers for a More Aryan Jesus wish it were still those good old days in Germany in the ‘30s, when they just could blame it all on the Jews.
_________________________________________

Woody Guthrie died this day, 1967.

JESUS CHRIST
(Woody Guthrie)

Jesus Christ was a man who traveled through the land
Hard working man and brave
He said to the rich, "Give your goods to the poor."
So they laid Jesus Christ in his grave.

Jesus was a man, a carpenter by hand
His followers true and brave
One dirty little coward called Judas Iscariot
Has laid Jesus Christ in his grave.

He went to the sick, he went to the poor,
And he went to the hungry and the lame;
Said that the poor would one day win this world,
And so they laid Jesus Christ in his grave.

He went to the preacher, he went to the sheriff,
Told them all the same;
Sell all of your jewelry and give it to the Poor,
But they laid Jesus Christ in his grave.

When Jesus came to town, the working folks around,
Believed what he did say;
The bankers and the preachers they nailed him on a cross,
And they laid Jesus Christ in his grave.

Poor working people, they follered him around,
Sung and shouted gay;
Cops and the soldiers, they nailed him in the air,
And they nailed Jesus Christ in his grave.

Well the people held their breath when they heard about his death,
And everybody wondered why;
It was the landlord and the soldiers that he hired.
That nailed Jesus Christ in the sky.

When the love of the poor shall one day turn to hate.
When the patience of the workers gives away
"Would be better for you rich if you never had been born"
So they laid Jesus Christ in his grave.

This song was written in New York City
Of rich men, preachers and slaves
Yes, if Jesus was to preach like he preached in Galillee,
They would lay Jesus Christ in his grave.

The Leadership Principle

Today is now Monday, 2 October 2006.

1869 – Gandhi born

1950 – debut of Peanuts

1967 tomorrow – Woody Guthrie dies

1985 – Rock Hudson dies

Friday last, I think:

"I have watched very carefully the development of this important country from one that was in the Soviet sphere to one that now is a free nation," Bush said as the two sat side by side. "I appreciate your leadership, Mr. President." This to the dictator (1991- ) of Kazahkstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev.

Appreciation of the brand of leadership, where if one were to try to write the sort of commentary written in this space about the Leadership (Leader – what’s that in German?) of The President, you’re lucky if they find you on the side of the road with your severed private parts shoved down your throat.

Wait --- I get it!!! Leadership, like yesterday, when Baghdad returned to normal.

Genocide --- The New Normality.

"O wonder!
How many goodly creatures are there here!
How beautious mankind is!
O brave new world,
That has such people in't!"

Thank you, war george

Now is Sunday, 1 October 2006.

Today's headline:

"Baghdad returns to normal after day-long curfew" -- Reuters.

Yes, it's all normal here in Baghdad --- only a hundred tortured corpses found on the streets.

Thank you, war george.