Tuesday, March 02, 2004

Take the Low Road According to MSNBC's "Hardball," Bush called Kerry this evening to congratulate him on his Super Tuesday primary triumph and tell him that he's looking forward to a spirited fight. With both candidates refusing Federal matching funds so that they can be free to amass huge war chests, we can now look forward to eight months of duelling photo-ops and attack ads.  May the best copywriter win.  9:34:53 PM

Swords & Plowshares According to Ivan Watson, reporting for NPR's All Things Considered after a massive suicide bombing on the holiest day of the year in the holy Iraqi Shiite city of Karbala: In honor of the Imam Hussein, who was beheaded over 1300 years ago, Shiite men performed ritual self-flagellation, slashing their heads with knives and swords. Short of running yourself through with a samurai sword, this must be the ultimate in mortifying the flesh.  CNN showed brief footage of Shiite pilgrims in Karbala, their heads bleeding profusely from their self-inflicted wounds.  What's missing is some Shiite Mel Gibson to depict their suffering at cinematic length, as well as a latter-day Philip Larkin to capture it poetically: They fuck you up your Imam and dad They may not mean to, but they do; They give you all the faults they had, And add some new ones just for you. They were fucked up in their time By fools in old style beards and cloaks, Who half the time were sloppy stern, And half at one another's throats. Man hands on misery to man, It deepens like a coastal shelf, Get out as quickly as you can, And don't have any kids yourself. 4:38:41 PM