and our Perpetual War fetish (when the Barons ran out of railroads and steel mills to build 'Equity') -- he had the outcome in Vietnam 1 pegged from early-on, having actually read and comprehended History. Surely he'd have our latest Vietnams as readily -- is it 2 or 3? depending upon combining the Iraq quagmire with the Afghan / or treating as separate follies in the catalogue.

(Most readers here will never have heard of the Scottsboro Boys; when one of these sought him out to do a report on the actual story: Izzy instead set him up to author a book, feeling that it was best told by one of the victims. Good book, Scottsboro Boy -- a stirring tale of Land of the Free mythology vs. actuality.

We can ponder the depth of our insouciance as the Public Option to the Giant Perpetual Insurance Cartel joins the War-Medical-Industrial complex, 'insuring' that no challenge to their hegemony shall ever succeed / while Finance's ongoing Ponzi schemes are reinstated as-if Nothing at All happened to the Giant Pool of Money. Just a few months back, wasn't it?

Today the surreal is commonplace. Tomorrow?

As the SF Chronicle has just doubled its rates, perhaps I won't miss reading the daily details of the Great Unwinding into formal Banana Republic status. Will it be Apples $5 -- Brother Can You Spare a C-note?, this time?

'Flat stale and unprofitable' (Lord Peter Wimsey) -- is the effect of running the details on so much of what passes for 'news'; I do begin to see the wisdom of simply ignoring the blab-machines collectively ... for the duration. When you've seen One, Two, thirteen train wrecks -