Wolfowitz: “Not a reason to put lives at risk”

I like Dennis Miller’s new show (which, weirdly, seems to not exist over at MSNBC’s website). Miller has turned into a cranky old bastard who almost makes Andy Rooney look like Al Roker, but he did have Scott Ritter on last week, and Scott mentioned this passage, so I dug it up. Very enlightening stuff to anyone whosays the reasons for this war were based on human rights:

“There have always been three fundamental concerns. One is weapons of mass destruction, the second is support for terrorism, the third is the criminal treatment of the Iraqi people…The third one by itself is a reason to help the Iraqis but it’s not a reason to put American kids’ lives at risk, certainly not on the scale we did it.”

Paul Wolfowitz, Deputy Secretary of Defense
Vanity Fair, 5-15-2003

Naturally he said that before the first two reasons were all but shot down for lack of evidence. Now they openly admit there was no terrorist connection. Now that WMD and terrorist links have been disproven, the administration are betting everything on the human rights angle. With all the bad intelligence that went on in the first two angles, I have to wonder — is this administration horribly corrupt, or just horribly inept? And which is worse?

And if the argument for war is still human rights violations, then I have to ask what makes Hussein any different than these guys – because it sure isn’t WMD:

  1. Kim Jong Il — North Korea (in power since 1994)
  2. King Fahd & Crown Prince Abdullah — Saudi Arabia (in power since 1982 & 1995, respectively)
  3. Than Shwe — Burma (in power since 1992)
  4. Teodoro Obiang Nguema — Equatorial Guinea (in power since 1979).
  5. Saparmurad Niyazov — Turkmenistan (in power since 1990)
  6. Muammar al-Qaddafi — Libya (in power since 1969)
  7. Fidel Castro — Cuba (in power since 1959)
  8. Alexander Lukashenko — Belarus (in power since 1994)

That list was pulled from Parade magazine’s list of the top worst dictators, as compiled by human rights organizations. Of course there are others: Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, Omar Bongo El Haj of Gabon, Hugo Chavez of Venezuela…

Reflections on Frank Zappa

Sometimes there are signs that life is improving, even in the face of long-lost tragedy. I’m speaking of course of the fact that, on the 10th anniversary of his death, Frank Zappa is on the cover of two major magazines. Mojo (UK, natch) and Downbeat both recently featured Frank on the cover of their magazines. God bless them. People need to be reminded of who Frank was.

Frank Zappa could have had no other name. “Frank” is a synonym for “honest,” and there is no other more honest musician in the history of popular music to my mind. Everything Frank did was unique, creative, and honest to who he was. He was incapable of inauthenticity. Of the many stories Steve Vai likes to tell of Frank, I have two favorites. The first was about a time when Steve was working as Frank’s transcriptionist and was working on a piece that could’ve been written in either 2/4 or 4/4 time. Publishing rates being dependent upon the number of bar lines, Steve asked Frank if he wanted to call it at 2/4 to make some extra bank. Frank said “do it the way it needs to be done. I don’t need to make money like that.” The second story was in the early 80’s when Frank was working in his studio and his secretary told him Rolling Stone magazine was on the phone and they wanted to put him on the cover. Frank said, “why should I help them sell magazines? Tell them no.”

What’s cooler than being on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine? Turning it down.

Here’s one of my favorite quotes from Frank, printed in the January issue of Mojo:

“Artistic and cultural taste in the US is dictated by a 13-year old named Debbie from a God-fearing, government-trusting family of white folk from the suburbs. As a result, any artist serious about their work might well pass around a jug of cyanide-spiked Kool-Aid, like they did at Jonestown, and kiss their art goodbye.”

We still miss you, Frank.

“Video Hits” No More

I’ve recently noticed that VH-1 has gone the MTV route: no videos, all programming. The VH-1 format now appears to be entirely pop culture/nostalgia shows. Mostly I see “I love the 80’s,” and now I see they even have a show that treats last week like it was nostalgia, “The Best Week Ever.” It has the same format as “I Love the 80’s,” which involves B-list and C-list celebrities reading scripted commentary about stuff. To quote Max from Kicking and Screaming:

“I’m nostalgic for conversations I had yesterday. I’ve begun reminiscing events before they even occur. I’m reminiscing this right now.”

I’ve just discovered that this is called nanonostalgia. So evidently that is what VH-1 is trading in with “The Best Week Ever.”

I think I’m finally coming out my weird illness. Hopefully it will be gone tomorrow. I was worried that I might have to actually see a doctor. Which means I’d have to find a doctor. Which I should probably do anyway because I haven’t had a checkup in a very long time. Which means I probably have a brain tumor or something. I stayed inactive for the entire weekend. Saturday was OK; Natalie and I had a nice lazy day – she brought me food and meds and we watched “Better Off Dead” and listened to music. Sunday I did even less. I did manage to make it to the laundromat, though, if only for a few loads.

Meanwhile the rest of the US was, in their heart of hearts, actually deeply excited by Janet Jackson’s exposed breast. The more hue and cry raised, the more turned on people were and didn’t want to admit it. I’ve found that the more offended people are, the more insecure they are in their own feelings. Personally, I found Mike Ditka’s commercial discussing his erection to be far, far, far more disgraceful and disgusting. I also noticed that there were not one, but two companies hawking erectile dysfunction medication. This speaks volumes about the target market of the Super Bowl to me.

Ill Communication

I get the weirdest illnesses. Mostly symptomless malaises. Since Wednesday I’ve had a fever, my body temperature has been up and down (I feel hot and kinda sweaty), and I’m tired and slightly headachy. Kinda congested, but not more than usual. I figured it would have cleared up by now. I was hoping to go to Harrison tomorrow, but who knows now. Every morning I wake up sweaty and heavy-tired. I feel hot and cold simultaneously. I think I might be even sicker if I weren’t on so many vitamins and immune-booster meds. I just want to be healthy again! Wah!

Paging Mr. Scurrilously

New Plog entry culled mostly from last weekend.

In addition to being one of my favorite musicians, Paul Gilbert is also my low-fi web design hero. Click around the site – it’s hilarious. He’s getting pretty good at Photoshop. His site is a perfect example of how imagination can be far more important than knowledge.

Today I got an email from a Fecal F. Scurrilously. Spammers are now beginning to use random words as names. This is almost entertaining.

Chinese Numerology

Last weekend a half-dozen people came into town from various parts. My dad came down Friday, my mom on Saturday morning (didn’t even get to see her), and my friends Odie, Juan, and Kevin were all here Saturday. Kevin was in town to take a deposition today; so he stayed at my place over the weekend. Saturday was Amanda Hickman‘s surprise birthday party – it was supposed to be at Benihana, and they checked the reservation twice; however the reservation was for 11:30 but they don’t open on Saturday until 5pm. Bunch of weirdos. At the last minute Brian had to call all 20 or so people to redirect them to Dixie Cafe. Sheesh.

I’ll have pictures soon; I thought that hooking my camera up to the PC would be easy. Sadly that has not been the case.

Cream of Satan

Powdered Non-Dairy Creamer is the Devil.

I’ve only recently come to this rather obvious conclusion. After years of wondering why office coffee was always unsatisfying, I decided to invest in some half and half. The difference is ASTOUNDING! The buttery joys of liquid creamer are myriad, and now my morning coffee will improve my day even more.

While I realize that typing this sort of microscopic irrelevancy into an online journal for others to read would ordinarily be categorized as an example of the narcissism that gives blogging a bad name, I really have to say that this does change my life in a small yet significant way. It’s just another example of how many big fat "DUH’s" a man of my age can still encounter in his daily life. Ignorance continues to run rampant through all our lives, and I am by no means any exception.

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