in which i interrupt my loathing for my complete creep-out

[click picture]

Doesn't it horrify you that incompetence flies around to meet with heads of state on our behalf? I know it isn't on "our" behalf and I know that the basic thrust is not incompetence but evil, but, clearly, those charged with furthering these interests are not competent people. Venal people. Good soldiers. Imperial apparatchiks.

[And will somebody look closely at the flag action on that chopper and let me know how one flips images back to approximate the real world?]

Then, why are Putin and Medvedev making these statements about what we can do in these other countries? Why do we presume to be entitled to do these things, and why are they presuming to be able to enjoin us from such action? I don't need the answers to these questions. I want to know why I keep using the term "we" or "us" even when these people absolutely do not represent me, or at least 90% of the rest of America. These habits of mind can be so deadly.

Do you notice the New York Times needing to find out what * wrote to Putin from Putin? I would have flown up out of my chair and vowed to die trying to become his lover if he had fully disclosed the content of the communication, especially if he'd done it with an arched brow -- I'm at least that avid to see completely open "statecraft" -- but... alas... we are all spared that spectacle. Do you think for part of a split second any world leader could hold back open derision if it were not for the lethality of "our" capabilities and "our" notorious eagerness to use them?

Finally, I can't help but see this picture as patriots depositing Gates and Rice in the heart of the Gobi to hoof it out if they can. It might be that backward flag thing that did it, or the breeze, or just my aching heart.