It looks like this weekend decided to be lazy on my behalf. Yesterday, all I did was go to Kinkos and print out the second draft. I've been admiring it since, but haven't made the slightest effort to begin the third draft. Of course yesterday I also slept for twelve hours, so I think I made the decision to be lazy last week sometime.
In the middle of those twelve hours I was woken up for work-related reasons, so life's an ever-unfolding challenge blah blah blah.
Speaking of which, Qaddaffi isn't going to get out of this one. Like every other dictator, he'd staved off the Islamists and the Americans for decades. His country is just an arbitrary conglomeration of tribes and oil fields, the alternative to him is chaos. We knew it, that's why we didn't bump him off earlier. But he's one of the people that got a message when we took out Saddam, about how easy it was, how Iraq did not unite for their dictator, and how he'd better play nice with WMD inspectors.
In Egypt, the alternative is not chaos (yet) so Mubarek left much more peacefully. Now the Muslim Brotherhood, the democrats and the military power have to figure out what to do next. Qaddaffi's accrued a lot of hardcore killers over the years, and they didn't restrain.
[When he finally addressed the protests and massacres, Obama stressed "the whole world is watching". They already know that and it already doesn't bother them. Would it be better if the world wasn't watching?]
Qadaffi says he'll die as a martyr, because like every other Middle Eastern leader, he aspires to the gold ring of Caliph-in-the-making. This is a civil war within Islam as the leaders play king of the hill. There is no time left, but Qadaffi's decided to go down fighting, rather than escape with his life like Mubarek did (unless Mubarek's dead, rumors have been sketchy, and like everyone else in the despot club, he's quite old.)
The House of Saud just increased the oil money bribes to every citizen. They have Mecca and Medina, as long as they can fend off betrayal on their home turf, they're good. But they're also in a bind, since not a bit of that wealth comes from Saudi Arabia itself, but rather from the money capitalist nations give them. The same nations who pointed to Saddam, told him he was gone, and made it happen.
Of course the west doesn't have any idea what to do or say about it. Although I am no fan of the administration, everything they do will be wrong for reasons far beyond their control. The best they can do is cover their own asses, not the most flattering leadership position to take, but one they're good at. It's not like they can bribe their citizens to stay loyal.
Wheels are spinning off of things that some people didn't even know had wheels. What beliefs, what practices, what cultures have the most staying power, those will be the winners of whatever comes next. Somali pirates have so far gotten away with killing four Americans. And there must be a lot of Muslims who wonder why they can't have nice easy worldwide spiritual leadership that changes peacefully the way Catholics have.
If that isn't depressing enough, while writing this I did the third draft of Page 1. Fifty-five corrections need to be made. Oh my...
Some times you can really identify with Daffy Duck. Just when you think you've got everything under control...
Now that's just an indignity, I'm not able to embed "Pronoun Trouble" or "Wabbit Season, Duck Season" or any other cool Looney Toons.
So here's something I just discovered, a blog that reprints and extensively comments on early Peanuts strips.
http://peanutsroasted.blogspot.com/search?updated-min=2011-01-01T00%3A00%3A00-05%3A00&updated-max=2012-01-01T00%3A00%3A00-05%3A00&max-results=50
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