Juan Cole

"By taking his eye off the ball and failing to finish the fight against al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan, Bush perpetuated dangerous instability in South Asia. By giving in to the Likud Party's aggressive settlement of the West Bank and encroachment on Palestinians there, which end any chance of a Palestinian state ever being established--and by failing to pursue a just peace that would bestow security on both Israelis and Palestinians-- Bush perpetuated dangerous instability and virulent anti-Americanism in the Mideast. By creating a failed state in Iraq, and mismanaging the aftermath of the war so as to allow the rise of an audacious guerrilla war there, Bush perpetuated dangerous instability in the oil-rich Persian Gulf. All three bombings on Thursday spoke eloquently of the Bush administration's failure to create a safer world with less terrorism."

(from "Basement Series" 1996)

Roy Arden

The World as Will and Representation--Archive 2004

QuickTime Movie 38 minutes 51 seconds

10,000 images 

Mother Fights off Hawk to Save Dog

"As the bird lifted Alfie from the ground Mrs Patterson grabbed hold of him and took part in a tug-of-war with the bird.

Mrs Patterson managed to fight off the hawk and rescue Alfie from its clutches.

"It was really scary. We were all terrified and the girls were screaming.

"The bird swooped down and picked Alfie up from the ground. I was holding on to his body and so the bird was only a couple of inches away from my face.

"The bird was pecking at the dog's head. It definitely could have killed him," she said.

Mrs Patterson said luckily Alfie escaped with only a couple of minor cuts and a small hole in the top of his head."

Jim Behrle's comics have really been busting through lately. That Led Zep song always chokes me up anyway.

LA Through Postcards

"MacArthur Park is melting in the dark,
all the sweet green icing flowing down,
someone left a cake out in the rain..." 

Alan Bramhall's Brockton Poems--

Natural History Museum of Brockton 4/30/00


the elaboration constitutes a township. let all exult now in the music, and the greening trees. today is a goose heading to that wet patch. slack sunlight washes any city like Brockton, Massachusetts, gladdened enhancement. the communal urge fires up a truculent vacuity familiar to all jaded eyes. hearken to that or the tea kettle a-boil. the favoured enclose their destitutions in glossy rites. they magnify their delirium with queenly justice and a dollop of sweet cream in their tea. this hums with Brockton's tone. a flicker of honey sweetens the tea and the day pauses in its grandiose stretch across the imaginable heavens to let the tea's airy fragrance trim some clutter from the doorway. take hold of the idea that a gust will be yours. take that picture now. you can walk the streets of Brockton, collapse in sidewalk reverie. the beamish sun resists interpretation but look how the ransacked factories take on new life. the country has a heavenly possibility. that's not so bad as it sounds. the framework renders activity into boundless energy, you see. that Blakean truth works its magic on Brockton's own. the language dips its beak into the mild rostrum of invigourated politics. the people speak, or move above the town. and the town, too, moves about. and the country moves, and the continent does, and the planet finds extremity as just one more dance. and all this adds up to a talked-about grace. discussion fills the boat with longing and excitement. island astonishment lives on. Brockton is home. 

Finnish speeding tickets based on income
"Finland's largest traffic fine to date was paid in February by 'sausage king' Jussi Salonoja, heir to a food processing empire, who had to pay 170,000 euros after driving at 80 kilometers per hour in a zone limited to half that speed. "

nice review of new Dylan Memoir

"...he talked about the sound he'd always been searching for: It was "that thin, that wild mercury sound" he told me, and it was a New York sound: "It was the sound of the streets, that ethereal twilight light on a particular type of building. A particular type of people--arguments in apartments and the clinking of silverware and knives and forks--usually it's the crack of dawn."

"The jingle-jangle morning?" I ventured, quoting the phrase from "Mr. Tambourine Man."

"Right," he said." 

the new Rain Taxi is up

Pie vs. Parliament in Scotland

"Mr McAveety rushed to the chamber but then managed to compound his original error by telling MSPs he had been 'unavoidably detained' because of a literary event, failing to mention that he had actually been late because of his desire for a pie and beans. " 

Political Theory Daily Review

"The Anomie of My Anomie is My Friend", a Scooby-Doo Treatment by Alice Munro

"Daphne adjusts her scarf and thinks of Velma, so coy with her glasses off, teasing them all over chamomile tea back at the sun-baked diner in Edmonton, teasing them for their stupidity in not realizing that the culprit was the ghost, always the ghost, every time the ghost. Why, Daphne thought, why must it always be the ghost? Why were they trapped in this fool's game of charade and parody? Why had she given up her job teaching comparative literature at McGill and her Gitane-smoking Russian with his sarcasm and garlic. Why had she given up the Raleigh three-speed, with the battered basket, just the right size for the loaf of warm bread they would split every morning, why would she give up all that for this, for this clownish van? For an endless parade of ghosts. For Fred." 

any time is a good time for pie "In a scene straight from the cartoons, the cub hoisted himself on to the deck, walked through the open door and made a beeline for the freshly baked pie cooling on the kitchen counter." 

QuickTime video of Dani Siciliano and the MATTHEW HERBERT BIG BAND in Paris 2003 

Ladies and Gentlemen--The Wizard of Oz, The Akond of Swat, The Great Cham, Mr. October, The Mighty Camembert, The Big Kahuna, The Master of Disaster, The Ayatollah of Rock and Rolla, Happy Birthday

Mr. Wallace Stevens--



Fabliau of Florida


Barque of phosphor
On the palmy beach,
Move outward into heaven,
Into the alabasters
And night blues.
Foam and cloud are one.

Sultry moon-monsters
Are dissolving.
Fill your black hull
With white moonlight.
There will never be an end
To this droning of the surf.
 

Fast-learning fish

"In experiments, Dr Burt de Perera found that the fish did more than merely avoid bumping into objects in their tank. They built a detailed map of their surroundings, memorising the obstacles in them within a few hours. Once stored in their brains, the fish used their 'mental map' to spot changes in the obstacles around them - a feat that defeats hamsters."