Sovereign

Hopefully you've noticed that some battles between countries are not merely figurative (as in Beijing right now). As war breaks out between the small republic of Georgia and its enormous neighbor, one cannot help to recall parallels with previous conflicts between a superpower and a thorn in the side. And if you've any confusion about what I'm referring to, consider this snippet (made in Beijing, where the speaker had just eaten lunch with Russia's president):

“Georgia is a sovereign nation, and its territorial integrity must be respected,” Mr. Bush said in a hastily arranged appearance at his hotel. “We have urged an immediate halt to the violence and a stand down by all troops. We call for the end of the Russian bombings.”

It seems to me (in my simple mind) that Russia's just taking a lesson from the good ole U S of A. I would like to see the above quotation replace 'Russia' with 'America' and 'Georgia' with 'Iraq.' but that's just me.

An Instance When John McCain Rightly Decides To Distance Himself From George Bush And His Wars

McCain may not be a Warmonger, and he is right to make this statement, but he has miles to go before I would agree with his position on the wars we're fighting. Check out other David Horsey cartoons. (Click on the image above to see a larger version.)

Book Review: Saturday

Today I read an excellent novel and feel like transcribing a response before I retire for the night. This is a mini-review that includes two quotations and a few comments. My intent is to reveal only whether this would appeal to you: a prospective reader. Attention to the diverse tags at the footer of this piece should clue you to this story's complexity.

The review and summary of Ian McEwan's Saturday you'll find at your favorite online bookseller calls this book "post-911 fiction." While I am uneasy about this label, I suppose it is appropriate. The story wraps itself around the events undertaken by one man in a single day in London. The man happens to be a neurosurgeon and the day happens to be Saturday, February 15, 2003 - the day 2 million Brits marched in Hyde Park against the impending Iraq war.

The protagonist - Henry Perowne - continually analyzes his own emotions and his own perspectives. Reflective and introspective are not common descriptors of neurosurgeons. They have a reputation (an unfair caricature, to be sure) as cocky brutes who see the entire hospital as an enterprise to support their masterful handiwork. I suspended belief for this element of plot, but needed not forgive other shortcomings. McEwan accurately (by this med student's appraisal) incorporated both the complexities of numerous neurosurgeries and the uncertainties of neurodegenerative disease.

The contemplative neurosurgeon is hardly unbelievable. His two children are artists: his son a blues musician; his daughter a poet. His pensive musings frequent upon his inability to understand them. By the time I reached this passage on page 54, I had committed to finishing the novel today.

Once, on a walk by a river - Eskdale in low reddish sunlight, with a dusting of snow - his daughter quoted to him an opening verse by her favourite poet. Apparently not many young women loved Philip Larkin the way she did. "If I were called in / To construct a religion / I should make use of water." She said she liked that laconic "called in" - as if he would be, as if anyone ever is. They stopped to drink coffee from a flask, and Perowne, tracing a line of lichen with a finger, said that if he ever got the call, he'd make use of evolution. What better creation myth? An unimaginable sweep of time, numberless generati0ns spawning by infintesimal steps complex living beauty out of inert matter, driven on by the blind furies of random mutation, natural selection and environmental change, with the tragedy of forms continually dying, and lately the wonder of minds emerging with them morality, love, art, cities - and the unprecedented bonus of this story happening to be demonstrably true.

This prose is just my style, the modernist presentation suits my taste in literature and the subject matter is not too far from my everyday life to disorient me on this simple restful vacation I find myself on. A lot of other people said good things about this book, so now I've put my hat into the mix.

I leave you now with verse selected from the climax of the story:

Ah, love, let us be true
To one another! for the world, which seems
To lie before us like a land of dreams,
So various, so beautiful, so new,
Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light,
Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain;
And we are here as on a darkling plain
Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,
Where ignorant armies clash by night.

Bonus points will be awarded to my readers who recall the author of these words.

Canada Declares War on Pittsburgh

Following the revelation that federal and county officials rounded up and exterminated 272 Canada geese in Allegheny County's North Park, Canadian Parliament moved to honor a long-standing treaty with GeesePeace by declaring war on Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The Canucks are in for a tough battle, however. County parks director Andy Baechle reports that

they had two people out on the lake in canoes and a guy on land with a laser

rounding up the geese. The geese were collected in cages and shipped to a meat processing plant in Latrobe, PA. No word yet on whether the plant is in any way connected with Rolling Rock beer. The Pittsburgh populace has little to fear. Unlike some countries, in Canada, 'declaring war' is synonymous with 'pursuing diplomacy.'

The Sad Science of Disabled Vets

This King of the Nerds column was good when I read a draft two months ago; now it's great.

His first column last week got rave reviews, but Jonathan Golob's piece today about the increasing severity of war injuries right on the money. Note that Jonathan's boss is Dan Savage...

These days, I'm a closet patriot. I'm a real live nephew of my Uncle Sam's (born on the 4th of July) so have always appreciated the fireworks and red-white-and-bluedom of stereotypical patriotism. I hung a flag after 9/11, but then had to take it down when we invaded Iraq. As my politics moves further to the left, I've realized that the patriot can manifest in many forms. The guy on the overpass holding the cardboard sign that says, "Impeach Bush," is just as concerned about our country as the moms with their yellow ribbons in front of Fort Lewis. If you want an idea how to be patriot scientist, be sure to read Golob's article.

In highlighting the reasons disabled vets are more prevalent now than ever, Jonathan puts the capital letters in Citizen-Scientist.