A Rational Animal

I won’t pretend that I’m conflicted about the hanging of Saddam Hussein - I’m not.  I’m very, very clear about how I feel:

1.  He deserved to die, and hanging was far too merciful; what he really deserved was to be tortured and then killed using methods that he and his spawn inflicted upon innocents.

2.  This hanging was evil and should not have happened.

No, not because I necessarily oppose capital punishment.  (Generally speaking, I do, but not for the reasons most people cite.)

This act was pure evil, and perhaps the final nail in the coffin of "America." 

An illegal war, waged in violation of international law, human rights, and basic common sense.  Illegal, indefinite detentions.  Suspension of habeas corpus.  Torture.  Illegal wiretaps and spying.  And now, a show trial in a kangaroo court, with the defendant, whose conviction and sentence were foregone conclusions, denied any actual appeal, and handed over to his political enemies to be executed as fast as logistically possible.

This is not America. 

UPDATE:  When I posted this, I had intended to include a comment on a particular headline, which spawned the title of this post.  By the time I finished the intro, I was so outraged that I forgot it.  But my original intent was to highlight the fact that, now that Bush has gotten his Oedipal execution, the MSM are still enabling the administration line.

The original flashpoint for my rage was this headline on the front page of the Web site of The New York Times: 

"The Defiant Despot Oppressed Iraq for More Than 30 Years"

A little perspective, please, all you court stenographers.  [And note:  The headline has changed since yesterday.  I haven’t seen the print edition; wonder what that says?  Anyone out there with a copy, scan and post to the comments, please.]

Yes, he was a despot.  Yes, he oppressed Iraq.  So are and do scores of other dictators around the globe.  But a few facts remain, however much the MSM try to help the administration bury them:

1.  Of all the countries in that region, Saddam Hussein’s Iraq alone among them was a secular society.  Note the past tense:  Our "liberation" of a significantly westernized nation has resulted in the tyranny of radical religious extremists.

2.  In Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, women participated fully in society - unencumbered by burqas, and unthreatened with rape and so-called "honor" killings.  I remember a pre-invasion photo of the Baghdad stock exchange:  The brokers were a mix of women and men, working together as professional equals, and the women wore trouser suits that would have looked right at home in any office in the U.S.

3.  In Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, Osama bin Laden and Al-Qaeda were persona non grata.  I don’t give a rat’s ass what this maladministration and the 101st FK Brigade would have us believe - bin Laden and Hussein hated each other, and there were no Al-Qaeda in Iraq until we opened the fucking door.

4.  Whatever Saddam Hussein was - and it was obscene, criminal, evil - we helped create him.  And not just "we":  Oedipal Rage Target Daddy Bush; Other Priorities Chickenhawk Cheney; Secretary of War Crimes Rummy; the whole lot of ‘em.  We were perfectly happy to use him, and to enable him, until Daddy’s approval ratings dropped to 35% - does anyone really think his invasion of Kuwait would have generated the response it did if Daddy hadn’t needed a nice tidy war to boost his re-election numbers?

And now, our national holiday gift is . . . execution porn.

This is not America. 

Okay, so I’m back from my [useless] excursion to points north and west (more on that later), and too tired and crabby to do the work involved in serious posting right now.  So in lieu of real work, here’s a quick and dirty summary of some of today’s highlights from the blogroll:

Mustang Bobby channels Krugman and sets the MSM straight:  The so-called "Republican Revolution" (which was never a "revolution" in the first place) is dead, dead, dead.  (He also recounts his shopping woes:  Bobby, more on that in an upcoming post.)

Christy identifies Joe Lieberman’s species. 

Nicole gives us a heads-up on the hours and hours of work the fuckWit is putting into his new strategery for Operation Circular Firing Squad. 

TBogg posts pictures of sexy lingerie and informs us that he’s taking time off.  Some freakin’ nerve.  Although the cookie-dough-from-the-tube plan sounds like a good one.  (Hey . . . maybe fuckWit should factor that into his plan; it has at least as much chance of working.)

Gen. JC threatens Greenwald with "vaporization by [the General’s] robot’s snake-like appendage."  Um, General, sir, would that appendage be related in any way to your "little soldier?"  Better get out the Mason jars.  (Yeah, ewww.  Poor Glenn.)

Why I [heart] Scott Lemieux.

Digby reminds us what the wingnuts consider "bipartisanship" - not "peeing on the furniture and such."  This cognitive dissonance brought to you by the same troll who thinks bipartisanship = date rape.

Good Roger Ailes notes that - unlike the squatter currently occuping the Oval Office - Gerald Ford at least "wasn’t suffering from any mental disabilities as of July 2004."

Thanks to DA and Gavin, I had to bleach my eyeballs after viewing this.  I’m still trying to scrub it from my brain.  Gav, I love your Mad Wicked Photoshop Skillz and all, but Jeebus!  Did you hafta go that far?

Steve Gilliard gives us the Year in Winners.   Howard!!!

Susie’s got a great new gig - congrats, woman!  Nobody deserves this more than you.

Billmon’s not only retiring - he’s boarded up the windows.  Bah.  He’ll be back.  I’m not de-listing him yet.

Snark Goddess Maru gets letters - from a troll with, as they say, "issues."  <Shudder> Have you sterilized your in-box thoroughly, dear?

Steve Bates points out that the massive three hours’ worth of labor at Crawford might actually be cover for - oh, go read it.  I can’t be any more succinct than he is.  And it’s truly sad when I have to say, "No, Steve, your tinfoil hat probably does not need adjusting."

Courtesy of Elayne, meet Cocteau and Seurat.  No, these two are more attractive than the originals.

Duncan explains who qualifies as a Very, Very Silly Person.  And why.

Despite battling a wicked case of the flu, Upyernoz and Mrs. Noz have performed a daring and heroic feat of rescue. 

And a twofer:   Rook reports, in my comments, that NTodd wears a dress!  (Of course, he also says that NTodd is a Republican, which I refuse to believe . . . .)  I still want to see pictures!

Going from the southeast quadrant of the state to the northwest - roughly five hours on the road this morning.  Where I’m headed, I’m told that not only is there no wireless access, but no cell access.  If true, I’ll be a gibbering idiot by nightfall.

Posting will be light to nonexistent for today.  Play amongst yourselves; you can tattle on each other in the comments.

 
2006 tree, chez A Rational Animal 

Another Christmas, and I have to admit that this year, I’m probably more relieved than anything else that it’s nearly over.  Expectations no longer matter, and we can get on with the business of winter.

Nonetheless, this year’s tree is a beautiful one - small, but a fresh, plush, positively blue Fraser fir.  And I dispensed with the ribbon streamers and tinsel this year, preferring merely lights and ornaments instead, with lots of green showing through.

The dogz helped decorate, of course - they’re amazingly good.  When the tree goes up and the decorations come out, they crowd around, sniffing everything, then lie down on the floor to keep my company as I work.  And they don’t try to play with the ornaments or pull them down (didn’t even when they were puppies).  But they clearly love Christmas; maybe they remember from year to year that it’s new-squeaky-toy-and-rawhide season.  This year was no exception.  Santa brought each of them the Ultimate Doggy Toy:  a Booda squeaky hedgehog in a Santa hat.  Talk about doggy ecstasy . . . .

Of course, Major, Mom’s big guy, hasn’t gotten his hedgehog yet; poor guy spent today at the vet’s, too.  But the vet called us early this morning (yes, at 9:30 on Christmas morning!) to tell us that he’s responsive and healing well, and that we can pick him up anytime after 9AM tomorrow.  So he’ll be in hedgehog heaven in a few hours, too.

Today has, however, given me some opportunities to reflect on my own good fortune - on how blessed I am in so many ways.  I hope your holiday was equally blessed, and that it augurs a glorious new year.  Happy Holidays from A Rational Animal’s household!

Last year’s Christmas tree

Well, I’m off to perform my Christmas [commercial] duties!  I’m taking Mom Christmas shopping before the post-church crowd hits the mall - with a little luck, I can be all done in an hour and a half or so.  Then it’s back home to fnish decorating this year’s tree, with one more foray to the grocery store later; then cooking, wrapping, and imbibing eggnog with Bailey’s, which is an inviolable holiday tradition chez A Rational Animal.

Oh, yeah - and a break for substantive blogging somewhere in there.  I’ve found lots to snark about today already, and by the time I leave the mall, I’ll need my fix (and a double scotch, probably).  Meantime, amuse yourselves by hitting the blogroll. 

Sorry, folks:  After a day of trying to catch up on all the Christmas stuff I didnt think I was going to be able to do this year, an emergency developed with one of the four-legged members of the family.  Mom’s dog got past her and out the door, shot over the six-foot stockade fence, and eventually made for Main Street three blocks away, in 5:30-PM-night-before-Christmas-Eve-and-a-Saturday-to-boot shopping traffic hell.

Yep, you guessed it:  Canine head, meet SUV bumper.  (I didn’t see it, thank God, but I heard the howls from three blocks away.  Jesus.)  He actually managed to make it back home before I could get to him in the car.  After an hour of calling, we finally found a vet willing to take him.  Looks like concussion (with some immediate vision problems, but we hope they’re temporary), mouth injuries, foot injuries, and some fluid in the lungs, which may be simply a result of bruised ribs.  The good news is that we think he’s ultimately going to be okay; we’ll know more tomorrow.

So please think good thoughts for the poor boy.  And for my back, too, come to think of it:  Do you know what it’s like lifting a 100-pound dog from lying on his side to a standing position, when he’s a complete dead weight and can’t help?  Doing this by yourself, I mean.  That’s right; you don’t want to know.

Doggy condition update tomorrow, when regular blogging resumes. 

A shot I snagged a couple of years ago; it reminded me of an arch, and I call this place "The Cathedral." 

I should have led with this post.

Some of you know that this has been a truly awful year for me in so many ways.  One of the reasons I relaunched ARA yesterday is that I was at the lowest point I’ve seen in a very long time, and I literally didn’t know what I was going to do.  I thought maybe the cathartic distractions of blogging would help, because I honestly felt like I was going to lose my mind with worry.  On the longest night of the year, it felt as though I’d never see daylight again.

And today . . . that’s all gone.  The resources I needed (have been owed for three months, as a matter of fact) finally came through - in a bigger way than I expected, too.  And I owe the universe a debt of gratitude.

And so I need to say a very public, profoundly grateful "chi mi’igwech" to Gichi Manitou** and life generally.

* Anishinaabemowin for "thank you."

** Anishinaabemowin for, literally, "Great Spirit"; translates roughly to "Essential Mystery," "Creator," or simply "God."

Is there a draft in here?

Everyone’s talking about how VetSec Jim Nicholson floated the latest lead balloon about reinstituting the draft, only to backpedal completely after the White Whores House hung him out to dry.  What nobody’s been reporting until now is what I find vastly more telling:

The Selective Service System is making plans to test its draft machinery in case Congress and President Bush need it, even though the White House says it doesn’t want to bring back the draft.

The agency is planning a comprehensive test — not run since 1998 — of its military draft systems, a Selective Service official said. The test itself would not likely occur until 2009. 

Um, did you get that?  Not until 2009.  I can just hear Bush now:  "BWAHAHAHAHA!!! Suckers!!!"

Because, of course, in 2009, who gets blamed?  Why, yes, you’re absolutely right - go to the head of the class. 

. . . on a freakin’ pogo stick.

Actually, it’s Dawn Eden who needs to be jumping on the freakin’ pogo stick (yes, that way), but I digress - sort of . . . . 

You can’t snark something that’s such deadly serious [unintentional] self-parody.  I don’t even know where to begin.  [Maybe a task for the guys at Sadly, No!?]

I don’t know whether to laugh or weep for poor Rebecca Traister, who had to interview this nitwit.  Three freaking pages’ worth of interview, yet.  Go read, and be grateful that you’re not Dawn Eden.  Well, read until your eyeballs start to bleed, anyway.  I’m going to go drown mine in a gallon or two of saline now. 

And then maybe e-mail a certain someone to tell him how glad I am he never "got serious about chastity and got over the hump."  That hump, anyway.  [Oh, go freakin’ read it; it’s near the end of page one, fer chrissakes.]

Hey, I just had a thought:  Maybe we can do the whole world a favor - hook Dawn up with The Virgin Ben!  That ought to be good for preventing at least two or three new wars . . . .

I see some asshole’s been listening to Newt Grinch Gingrich again, and taking his objections to the First Amendment way, way too seriously.  The New York Times is reporting that, in Lafayette, California, someone vandalized a memorial to the troops lost in W’s ongoing Oedipal tantrum.  The idiot slopped black paint over the accompanying sign, which says, innocuously enough, "In Memory of 2,867 U.S. Troops Killed in Iraq." 

Of course, The Times couldn’t resist referring to the memorial as "controversial." 

Does it never occur to the MSM that perhaps the only thing "controversial" about crosses memorializing lost soldiers is the incoherent rage that drives someone to vandalize it?

(I know, I know . . . one of Atrios’s "simple answers to simple questions."  But Jeebus.)