Time's Arrow 

        Time flies like an arrow.

        Fruit flies like a banana.

        --- (wrongly) attributed to Groucho Marx 

An elaboration…

Time Flies Like an Arrow

An Ode to Oettinger

Now, thin fruit flies like thunderstorms,
And thin farm boys like farm girls narrow;
And tax firm men like fat tax forms –
But time flies like an arrow.

When tax forms tax all firm men's souls,
While farm girls slim their boyfriends' flanks;
That's when the murd'rous thunder rolls –
And thins the fruit flies ranks.

Like tossed bananas in the skies,
The thin fruit flies like common yarrow;
Then's the time to time the time flies –
Like the time flies like an arrow.

— Edison B. Schroeder (1966)

 Observation…

        In The Realm of Meaning, Context is Everything.

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Republican Paradoxes

• The Press is Left-Leaning and Anti-Republican
• Free Markets are Optimal
• Democracy Equals Unfettered Capitalism
• The Poor are Lazy
• Greed Motivates
• Worth Increases with Wealth
• Anyone Can Become Rich
• Wealth Enjoys Privilege, Poverty Needs Responsibility
• Abortions are Bad, but Contraceptives are Too

The Call to War

War with Iraq seems almost a certainty at this point. Yet, practically everybody I know wonders: Why?

Here's my take on it.

By the summer of 2002 the popularlity of the President and his party were beginning to sag under the weight of the Enron and similar debacles, the loss of jobs, the failure of the giant tax cut to stimulate the economy, etc. Clearly, the GOP needed something to improve their lot going into the mid-term elections.

The demonetization of Iraq seemed a perfect answer. By pounding away on Iraq, it became, and remains, a hot issue.

A few voices in the press decried the fact that 'Iraq', as an issue, was obscuring domestic issues, warping, to some degree the election. The emphasis can hardly be by accident, as practically all domestic issues pointed to the voters' need to lessen the power of the GOP, as an act of prudence if not self-preservation.

Impending war trumps domestic issues, so the GOP walked away with the mid-terms, while claiming a solid mandate to proceed as they wished.

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What's Really Going On...

Rumors: Founded and/or Unfounded

• The 21st century will be dominated by resource wars
• Resources are being depleted at a growing rate
• Techno-optimists are either liars or fools
• The US War in Iraq will result in a takeover of Saudi Arabia.
  • Most 11 Sep 01 hijackers were Saudis, as is Osama Bin Laden
  • Holding Mecca Hostage will control Islam
  • It's all about oil
• The War on Terror
• The US is--by a large margin--the world's leading exporter of weapons
• The US has huge stockpiles of chemical weapons that are 'waiting to be destroyed'