Exactly
The Bottom-Up Partition
"All of this is good news for Sen. Joseph Biden and other Democrats who have been proposing a "soft partition" of Iraq for some time. But the problem with Biden's strategy is that it calls for the United States to join with an international coalition in essentially forcing the scheme on Iraqis. The events of the past year have demonstrated, again, that Iraqis won't respond to guidelines and timetables drawn up in Washington or at the United Nations. Slowly and very painfully, they are moving toward a new political order. But they will do it -- they have to do it -- on their own time."
And so will be the emerging political order in Iraq, in the United States, and in the international community. The foolish agents of forced order be damned.
Love,
Ben
2 comments:
*****COMMENTS*****
APOLOGIA
I really wanted to get involved in your earlier discussions here, but the summer and life got hectic and blogospheric ventures suddenly dove into the backseat.
Nonetheless, I feel like I missed out on some good stuff. And a good opportunity to opine. My regrets and apologies. You're doing some neat-o keen-o stuff here.
FLAWED
I think that isolating one's flaws and working on them is superterrific and everything, but it's not very helpful if you don't bring a healthy acceptance of the inevitability of being a fuck-up on some level. That's not to say one shouldn't strive to correct flaws, it's just also okay to sort of half-embrace them, too, in some cases.
THOMPSON
There are people out there who are genuinely excited that Fred Thompson is running. Because they like him. No, I'm not making that up, either. The existence of these people is proof of something dark, menacing, evil and simultaneously hilarious. It needs a name.
TONY SNOW AND THE GANG OF ASSHATS
I watched Tony Snow's last press conference today. He's a worthless POS, which is basically his job description (so he gets some slack). The press corps, however, is the joke of all jokes. That these freakish little dumbasses who laugh at bad jokes, ask weak questions, and accept weak answers are allowed to serve as an information filter for most people is a travesty.
CLINTONIA
Hillary Clinton leads in Iowa. I lived in Iowa. The people seemed a little less stupid when I was there. Maybe I should move back for the good of the state.
9/11 ON A TIMER
I was just thinking about 9/11 because yesterday was 9/11. I was marveling at the fact that year 6 got about 1/6th the media attention of year 5. I'm sure we'll have a 9/11 memory jamboree at the 10-year mark, but overall it looks like "REMEMBER 9-11!!!!" is slowly becoming "remember 9-11".
Anyway, I imagine that most kids who were under the age of 8-10 were probably half-shielded from the horrible events of '01. Those kids are now 14-16. All of them will be of voting age in five years.
I was born in '70. That means I was a kid during Watergate and was under the 8-10 range during the end of Viet Nam. By the time I hit 18, no one was using Viet Nam as an argument by example for avoiding military conflict. That apparently only had about a 15 year shelf-life.
My point? I think that I'm only gonna have to put up with the bullshit where people trot out nightmarish 9/11 imagery to score political points for about another decade or so. Then we can move onto something else.
CATCHING UP
Well, I can patch together a lot of shit from your daily postings, but there are gaps and stories and adventures and other such shit that warrant conversation. As such, I propose that we eventually figure out some time to eat, drink and be merry, etc.
I BELIEVE
I believe that "Hey Ya" by Outkast may be the best song ever written in all of history. Maybe second to "A Change is Gonna Come", but it's up there.
I believe that Britney Spears didn't look bad at the VMA's. I don't know if her career is toileted permanently or not, but I thought she looked better than ever. Nothing wrong with a gal who likes to pour a little gravy on her chicken fried steak now and then.
I believe that smoking really does make one more cool. No, really. It does. So, that makes it harder to quit. All that shit about how it's not really cool is just nonsense and it really undercuts the credibility of the cessation crowd. They'd be more persuasive if they conceded the coolness part of things and concentrated on other reasons to quit.
I believe that the kind of people who call Pat Buchanan, Jason Whitlock, forgettable 30-ish hottie female party operatives, and similar folks when they need guests for their TV shows should lose their jobs.
I believe that Glenn Beck and Keith Olberman should be given straight razors and forced to fight to the death for my amusement. Beck has always been an ass. Olberman has proven that popularity and attention can turn an otherwise decent and/or cool person into an ass. Two asses enter. One ass leaves. That's my kind of Thunderdome, bee-otch.
I believe that I have the coolest and smartest daughter on the planet and I can only hope that we hold shit together for another 15-20 years so she has a chance to step in and save all of us from ourselves.
I believe that this comment is WAY long.
---Carson
Hey dude,
It's awesome to hear from you. I was afraid I had overwhelmed you with tasty tidbits of analysis, videos and such.
We should definitely get together, eat, drink, and be merry.
"I think that isolating one's flaws and working on them is superterrific and everything, but it's not very helpful if you don't bring a healthy acceptance of the inevitability of being a fuck-up on some level. That's not to say one shouldn't strive to correct flaws, it's just also okay to sort of half-embrace them, too, in some cases."
I think that may be one of the most important things I believe in life, Carson. The failure to accept it is exactly why I am so disappointed with this political period. And I think you're right that our kids will have shorter memories than ours. And hopefully they can help us correct our failings.
At some level, Carson, I think we have to accept and embrace our flaws no matter what they are. Some of our flaws make us dangerous and in need of more corrective action than others. But accepting them and taking responsibility for them is what makes us better people. And I think our propensity to confuse all behavior with genuinely dangerous behavior is what fucks up the lives of decent people the most. It's kind of sad to watch it happen, really. To watch decent people make their own lives and one another's lives miserable because they can't get straight that imperfection is not a sign of danger or evil. It's just stupid getting the better of us all. And noone is immune. Not even the folks among us who are convinced that they can somehow make all that go away and make the world safer and better with enough power.
Good people have thought that since the dawn of humanity. They have been wrong every time. And most people get better at it a little bit more each generation.
Tell the wife and kid hi for me, Carson. I've got tons of great stories of my adventures at Capital City. Definitely improved my belief in humanity, that's for sure. Ironic for that to happen at a school populated with too many thugs. But thugs is people, too, as it turns out.
Talk with you soon.
Ben
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