Georgie Anne Geyer writes this about 43 while musing on the Palestinian refugee camp at Nahr el-Bared:
The White House sees terrorists as born, not created by history, bearing the mark of Cain, not the mark of circumstance. There is a scarlet “T” written on their foreheads at birth and the only answer is to destroy them. This kind of thinking, of course, relieves the thinker of any responsibility for the presence of the insurgent-terrorist-whatever in our innocent midst.
What’s more, there is not much real give in the administration’s policies. True, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and other American diplomats met Memorial Day weekend with the Iranians in Baghdad (a good first move but limited, since the Iranians have most of the power because of our incredible stupidity in Iraq). But by all reports, President Bush is more convinced than ever of his righteousness.
Friends of his from Texas were shocked recently to find him nearly wild-eyed, thumping himself on the chest three times while he repeated “I am the president!” He also made it clear he was setting Iraq up so his successor could not get out of “our country’s destiny.” [“A Spreading Terror”Dallas News]
“Our country’s destiny” in Iraq. We are so screwed.
Steve Kirsch opines… “This is a really long web page. But this page is about your future and the future of your children and their children. Trust me…it’s worth the 20 minutes it will take you to read it so you fully understand what is at stake.”
A round table of experts answer all our pressing questions about the sudden death of the nation’s bees. What they have to say has a bigger sting than we ever expected.
Memorial Day was originally known as Decoration Day because it was a time set aside to honor the nation’s Civil War dead by decorating their graves. It was first widely observed on May 30, 1868, to commemorate the sacrifices of Civil War soldiers, by proclamation of General John A. Logan of the Grand Army of the Republic, an organization of former sailors and soldiers. On May 5, 1868, Logan declared in General Order No. 11 that:
The 30th of May, 1868, is designated for the purpose of strewing with flowers, or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion, and whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village, and hamlet churchyard in the land. In this observance no form of ceremony is prescribed, but posts and comrades will in their own way arrange such fitting services and testimonials of respect as circumstances may permit.
We put the flag out this morning and told Ian again why we are doing it, that today was a special day.
Quite by accident I met DonRickles at a signing for his book, Rickles’ Book, on yesterday (Saturday). He is downtown playing at The Golden Nugget over Memorial Day. The Nugget is very old school, but then, Don Rickles is old school.
He is a pleasant man, surprisingly humble and concerned about this fans.
[later:] I should mention that I did not go to a signing for Don Rickles’ book and was surprised that he was there. I went to this (large chain) bookstore and was surprised by the book signing. (Yes, it snuck on me and said, boo!)