Well, they ain't blue, and I don't know what it means, but they look pretty cool

Izations & the Death of Irony

From here:

Soon after taking office (Jan, 1969, ed). President Richard Nixon introduced his policy of "vietnamization". The plan was to encourage the South Vietnamese to take more responsibility for fighting the war. It was hoped that this policy would eventually enable the United States to withdraw gradually all their soldiers from Vietnam.

and from here:

Bush administration officials say the key to getting U.S. forces out of Iraq is training Iraqis to provide their own security.

and then we have this:

On 15 January 1973, citing progress in peace negotiations, President Nixon announced the suspension of offensive action in North Vietnam which was later followed by a unilateral withdrawal of US troops from Vietnam. The Paris Peace Accords were later signed on 27 January 1973 which officially ended US involvement in the Vietnam conflict. This won the 1973 Nobel Peace Prize for Kissinger and North Vietnam's Prime Minister Le Duc Tho while fighting continued, leading songwriter Tom Lehrer to declare that irony had died. However, five days before the peace accords were signed, Lyndon Johnson, whose presidency was marred by the war in Vietnam, died. (emphasis added)

As Mark Twain once said, the reports of my demise have been greatly exaggerated. I'm sorry Tom, Irony is alive, and well, and living in Poughkeepsie. And, don't forget, it took another two years to get out and we still "lost the War."

P.S. If you have never heard any of Tom Lehrer songs, well, you have missed out on some of life's little laughs. Here is his first, and you had to sing it fast:

``There's antimony, arsenic, aluminum, selenium,
And hydrogen and oxygen and nitrogen and rhenium
And nickel, neodymium, neptunium, germanium,
And iron, americium, ruthenium, uranium,
Europium, zirconium, lutetium, vanadium
And lanthanum and osmium and astatine and radium
And gold, protactinium and indium and gallium (inhale)
And iodine and thorium and thulium and thallium.

``There's yttrium, ytterbium, actinium, rubidium
And boron, gadolinium, niobium, iridium
And strontium and silicon and silver and samarium,
And bismuth, bromine, lithium, beryllium and barium.

``Isn't that interesting?
I knew you would.
I hope you're all taking notes, because there's gonna be a short quiz next period.

``There's holmium and helium and hafnium and erbium
And phosphorous and francium and fluorine and terbium
And manganese and mercury, molybdinum, magnesium,
Dysprosium and scandium and cerium and cesium
And lead, praseodymium, and platinum, plutonium,
Paladium, promethium, potassium, polonium, and
Tantalum, technetium, titanium, tellurium, (inhale)
And cadmium and calcium and chromium and curium.

``There's sulfur, californium and fermium, berkelium
And also mendelevium, einsteinium and nobelium
And argon, krypton, neon, radon, xenon, zinc and rhodium
And chlorine, carbon, cobalt, copper,
Tungsten, tin and sodium.

``These are the only ones of which the news has come to Harvard,
And there may be many others but they haven't been discovered.''

The B's Movie - Sequel

And so we have the POTUS:

My conversation with the Prime Minister was, how could we do this peacefully, what could we do. And this meeting, evidently, that took place in London happened before we even went to the United Nations -- or I went to the United Nations. And so it's -- look, both us of didn't want to use our military. Nobody wants to commit military into combat. It's the last option. The consequences of committing the military are -- are very difficult.

And we have the memo saying that they were committed to War. A peaceful War, no doubt. But I think War means committing the military, unless I live in an alternative universe.

So, somebody's lying.

The B's-Movie

Bush and Blair gave a press conference yesterday. As reported by the Washington Post:

In a news conference that highlighted their complex alliance, Blair defended Bush over the "Downing Street memo," in which a top British official alleged in 2002 that the United States was manipulating intelligence to justify a military invasion of Iraq. The memo surfaced in the British media last month. "The facts were not being fixed in any shape or form at all," Blair said.

Excuse me, the memo said specifically: "The intelligence and facts were being fixed...." Either the English language (sorry Tony, its your baby) means something or it doesn't. Why have a press conference if what you say means nothing?

An Interesting Evolutionary Observation

At least interesting to me. Consider the human skeleton below. Please note that all of the vertebral bodies (the bones of the spine) have transverse processes.

The transverse processes arise from the arch behind the superior articular processes and pedicles; they are thick, strong, and of considerable length, directed obliquely backward and lateralward, and each ends in a clubbed extremity, on the front of which is a small concave surface, for articulation with the tubercle of a rib.(emphasis added)

Human Skeleton

Detail of Human Spine

Lumbar vertebra

Evolution Continued

Then notice that there are no ribs in the lumbar region. That is, humans do not have ribs around their abdomen. Then notice the skeletons of the dinosaurs below. They both have ribs from each vertebral body.

The only conclusion that I can draw is that, as humans evolved, they lost their lumbar ribs. I have seen some patients with extra ribs. These are most commonly in the cervical region (i.e. in the neck where they present with masses on one or both sides that scares the bejesus out of everyone until the X-ray shows the extra ribs.) I guess you can also have an extra abdominal rib though nothing turns up on a Google search (my new gold standard).

Why would anyone make a human being denovo that had transverse processes specifically for ribs if they weren't going to be used? Doesn't make much sense, does it. Seems to suggest that humans evolved from a prior species that DID have abdominal ribs. Maybe it was dinosaurs.

Note the ribs

Note the ribs

Strike Two

The Downing Street Memo was Strike One. Amnesty International is Strike Two, and resulted in this highly interesting statement:

George W. Bush:

"It seemed like [Amnesty] based some of their decisions on the word and allegations by people who were held in detention, people who hate America, people who had been trained in some instances to disassemble - that means not tell the truth. (emphasis added)

And so it was an absurd report. It just is."

In this week of Deep Throat it is the highest of ironies that W has been caught dissembling AND displaying his profound ignorance of the English language. If anything has been disassembled its the U.S. Constitution. (I suspect the Europeans rejected theirs because they saw how useless a document it has become.) And, even spell check wouldn't have saved him on this one.

And Strike Three?

Those Nine Guys and Girls At It Again

I have the distinction of being the first physician to be certified to administer medical marijuana at the NIH in 1980-81. I don't know much about what happened after that except its in use in California. Then, those nine guys and girls at the SC do this:

Court Rules Against Pot for Sick People
AP - 2 minutes ago
WASHINGTON - Federal authorities may prosecute sick people who smoke pot on doctors' orders, the Supreme Court ruled Monday, concluding that state medical marijuana laws don't protect users from a federal ban on the drug.

Apparently California can't make laws regulating this even though it is not interstate commerce. This strikes to the heart of an old Republican urge, States Rights. Of course, that was the old Southern Confederacy urge. Strange how urges get passed around.

Our Dear Gov - 20 CLICK CARTOON TO ENLARGE

Exceptionally beautiful pic of the Rings of Saturn

The Rings of Saturn

I just finished The Rings of Saturn by W.G. Sebald. I had previously read his Austerlitz and find his haunting, unique style of writing provocative. He is one of a kind with Thomas Pynchon and David Mitchell.

Unfortunately, Sebald is no longer with us, cut down as so many good people in an auto accident. So it goes. There are excellent reviews of The Rings of Saturn here and here.

Sebald's topic in the Rings is the inevitable destruction that visits both our society and, interestingly, the natural world. The title comes from the theory that the rings of Saturn are moons that have disintegrated due to tidal forces. We tend to focus so much on what is new and vibrant, neglecting the natural process of death that pervades life, that we are surely asymmetric in a way that Aristotle would not approve. I see the fascination with life by the Religious Right (of course embryonic life, not the life of the average Iraqi) as one manifestation of this obsession. And, of course, Freud might say that obsession with life, riches, power, etc. is a child's way of trying to avoid death. (Actually, while one of the bad books of the 20th century, Freud's an Introduction to Psychoanalysis is quite worth reading. Fortunately, I have one of the few extant copies since it is not available in an online search!) Actually, teenagers are the epitome of this mind set. They think they are not going to die, even when they get in a car and drive 10 million miles an hour into a telephone pole. (It is why I always fear prom and graduation weeks around here.)

Of course the irony of dying in an automobile accident, the ultimate destruction, would not have been lost on Sebald.

But, back to Sebald. He is about as ironic an observer as you could wish for. A German born in 1944 with parents who were locked into the Third Reich, he has faced up to his legacy in a way that is admirable; avoiding the maudlin at all costs. How much of his "novels" are personal history and experience vs. literary license is anyone's guess.

I wonder if we in America are going to have to do the same thing in the not too distant future, that is, face up to the truth. Amnesty International has actually done us a favor by putting out the information for the light of day. This time it won't go away.

Later: Atrios puts us onto this article by the bureau chief in Baghdad. Sobering

Gitmo

So, let me get this straight, the White House accuses Newsweek of inciting riots and causing deaths because of one sentence in a brief report suggesting that the Koran was flushed down a toilet in our favorite Gulag. Now, the report comes out from Southern Command and, indeed, the Koran was desecrated with urine and other activities clearly designed to humiliate the Muslim detainees.

But no, OH NO, it was not flushed.

On March 25, a detainee complained to guards that "urine came through an air vent" and splashed on him and his Quran.

In the March incident, as described in the report, the guard had left his observation post to go outside to urinate. The wind blew his urine through an air vent into the cell block.

Excuse me, urine in the air vents? Well, those frat boys will be boys. But, the important point here, Jack, is that it was not flushed.

And we have some other college pranks:

In another confirmed incident, water balloons thrown by prison guards caused an unspecified number of Qurans to get wet...

Please explain to me what is going on here.

I am willing to lay some money on the silence of the Lambs (Scotty and the boys). We will see.

Star Wars - A Tragedy

Well, I went to see the last(?) Star War flick last PM. Its hard to imagine that it has been 27 years since the first one. After that, the name was co-opted in the 80's for the still extant insanity of a missile shield. It has been a strange experience.

While the first Star Wars was almost plausible, this one was not. That is, the disconnect between the technology and the action was acute. As some wag pointed out, how come they didn't know Padmé was carrying twins? Didn't they have ultrasound in that galaxy far, far away? And the birthing scene? The nurses in my birthing center are going to comment for me.

The hilarity started right away when the half a star ship was coming in for a crash landing. They actually had another "fire ship" come up next to it and spray water on it! I know this gave all those fire fighters in the audience warm feelings.

There is no doubt in my mind that the underscript of the story was a commentary on the Bush Administration. If, and it is a big if, we survive, we will look back on this as pretty hilarious. It isn't now. But, I won't dwell on the ironies. Just the pity (thank you Aristotle).

I couldn't resist this for Friday Crab Blogging

Tell Me I'm Seeing Double

I'm going to see the Last Star Wars Flick tonight. Wish me luck! But I couldn't resist the following. Liberal Avenger put me on to Digital Prayer Wheels. This, in itself, is cool. But even more interesting is:

Tibetan Buddhists believe that saying the mantra (prayer) Om Mani Padme Hum, invites the blessings of Chenrezig, the embodiment of compassion.(emphasis added)

Now where, oh where did I hear that name before. Oops, right here:

Born Padmé Naberrie, Queen Amidala was the formal name of the royal leader of Naboo. As a child, Amidala was prodigiously talented and extremely well educated. She had long been interested in public service, volunteering in the Refugee Relief Movement in her youth. Her efforts helped in the Shadda-Bi-Boran exodus. At the age of eight, she joined the Apprentice Legislature and became an Apprentice Legislator at age 11. By 14, she was elected Queen of Naboo.

How cool can you get. A Star Wars Queen linked to a Buddhist prayer wheel.

I wonder who thought up the Star Wars names? Lucas?