Tuesday, June 29, 2010

A Poem for Tuesday

Deep calls unto deep in the chasm of great waters.
I watch the fish and remember they are the symbols of the children of God;
I stand in wonder as they surrender to the wave
and are crushed against the rocks where destiny brings pain.

Peace… is all I long for and all that I cannot find.
I rush into the temple where I light a thousand candles and I pray one prayer,
and I sing one song, and I heave one heart to the scales of mercy.

Crucify my vanity on the cross of high judgment.
Flay me to the block and unveil the guts of doubt.
Fix me with chains of regret to the steps of Your Calling,
to hear the lament of the Lady named Wisdom.

For I hear her in the city as she whispers from cold streetlamps
and frost-bitten bricks where the hunger never ends.
I call her from the mountains of the sea
where her song is heard by whales and echoed through the riptide and the reef.
I cry out from the sewers where her children wade and scramble,
where they sip from grey streams that trickle down from the noble houses.

I call her,
I cry to her,
I surrender to her flame.
I summon every shadow of remembrance, and I turn to her, flesh to the blaze.

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Hammes on Afghanistan: Maybe Joe Biden was Right

A key exchange that probably passed most people by on All Things Considered today:

SIEGEL:
Well, Colonel Hammes, if the fixed number here is the timeframe as opposed to the strategy, is there something the U.S. could achieve effectively in Afghanistan with a different strategy, as you see it, that could be consistent with starting to draw down forces a year from July?

HAMMES: Yes, because it is a very long process and a very expensive one.
So if we take the 10 years, let's say we're wildly optimistic and we can make this work in only 10 years, that will cost us about a trillion dollars and about 3,000 lives. And if we're very, very good and we get a superb Afghan government and the economy doubles in those 10 years, the best we can do is a country that is poorer than today's Chad. So from a strategic point of view, investing those kind of resources to create another Chad just doesn't seem to make sense to me.


Few have more expertise on this subject than retired U.S. Marine Col T.X. Hammes, and what he recommends sounds alot like what Vice President Biden was recommending during the policy review last year, namely, a much smaller force with a mission to maintain intelligence links and continue to target Al Qaeda and their affiliates through direct action raids and air strikes. This is not a great strategy, but it sure is better than the alternative: open-ended commitment to pour our blood and treasure down the endless chasm in the graveyard of empires. Isn't that why many of us voted for President Obama, so he would keep us out of quixotic campaigns with no end in sight? >

Monday, June 21, 2010

Open Letter to the National Pork Board - Protectors of The Only Other White Meat!

Recently, ThinkGeek reported that the National Pork Board in the United States brought forward a cease and desist order against a completely false product, Canned Unicorn Meat.

But I have been in contact with confidential sources who have confirmed that this report is not entirely true, and they have also revealed a truly stunning conspiracy. This hideous product, Canned Unicorn Meat - The Other Other White Meat, is not in fact a false product, but is very real, and is shipped all over the world. It is routinely consumed by Asian men seeking increased virility and by those enslaved to the black arts: witches, voodoo priests, tribal shamen, and marine biologists. And my source for this information is, believe it or not, the unicorns themselves. I was approached in a glade in which a rainbow appeared to end, where I was seeking a new species of clover. I was sought by these ethereal creatures in earnest desperation. And I promised to tell their story to the world.

They asked me to publish an open letter to the National Pork Board. I do so here.

Dear National Pork Board,
We want to make sure that you, the pork board, understand that we unicorns are in fact real. And we are also sentient! We do not appreciate being turned into canned meat.

Do not pay attention to the "sisters" at Radiant Farms. They are not "sisters" in the convent sense, but sisters in the coven sense. They do not ease and comfort us into our final stages of life as they claim - they poke and prod and measure us for coats. They keep us in chains and cages and then boil us in cauldrons. They are witches!

Please continue your legal efforts to stop their wicked enterprise. We fully and completely support your efforts to end this vile practice! Save us!

Wishfully Yours,
The Real Unicorns