Reads

A few items for your consideration . . .

*Do you ever get the raw sick feeling that Africa is just fucked? Wars, disease, starvation, massacres, corruption, sexual slavery, genocide -- the quivering meat wheel smashes everything in its path, and no let up can be seen. Today, northern Uganda is suffering horribly from religious insanity, mass murder and internal displacement. Can anything be done? The World Bank has called for a 60% increase in aid for '05. We'll see.

*Turning from the dying to a diva deluxe, here's a little memoir by Terry Castle about her years as Susan Sontag's acolyte/hanger-on. It's a highly entertaining, if sometimes excruciating, read. I've been in scenes that Castle describes, and it all rings true. Arrogance and egomania are required traits. If you aren't up to behaving monstrously and boorishly, then you don't belong.

*Looking for another argument to support the US invasion of Iraq? This might help. See, if we hadn't invaded, chances are good that Hitler would've gotten the bomb, won the war, then supplied Arab nationalists with nuclear technology.

"But Red boy, wouldn't that require a complete twisting of the space/time continuum?"

Yes. Welcome to the world of neocon logic.