This day is getting off to a weird start. I got up and glanced out the window and didn’t see Eileen’s rent-a-car (her mini is being repaired). I actually went outside and walked around in case I was missing it in a morning stupor. No car.
Eileen had a late rehearsal last night and I was asleep by the time she was done.
I went upstairs and asked her where her car was. She had locked her keys in it at the church where her rehearsal was. Ah. Thank you to Rhonda for driving her home.
I came downstairs and tried to pick up the cat for his stupid morning hug. He scrambled out of my arms. Very unusual. Then I noticed urine all over the bathroom floor. Nice.
Good morning.
_cover.jpg)
I finished Rachal Maddow’s Drift: The Unmooring of American Military Power. It’s impressive. As I was reading it and beginning to understand that Maddow has brains and insights, I tried to watch her TV show. Yikes! I guess she has to act like that if she wants to be a TV personality. I couldn’t make it ten minutes into her shows. Too trivial and polemical.
The book however is not like that. It is chatty in an annoying TV way. But what it is saying is factually based and well researched.
Basically, she notes that we are addicted to war. She outlines the gradual expansion of the executive beginning with Lyndon Johnson. At the same time she shows how people in our government have made legal what should be illegal (committing our country to armed conflict without public discussion much less approval among other things).
She ends with coherent concrete suggestions (that will of course be ignored).
It is a sad story of the “drift” of a good country into one unmoored.
Recommended.
*****
CourseSmart E-Textbooks Track Students’ Progress for Teachers – NYTimes.com
Just like your Kindle and other ebooks can remember where you are in the book, now your profs can see if you actually opened the dang online book.
Easy work arounds: hire someone to flip through your etext and click the expected links.
*****
Chile Exhumes Pablo Neruda in Inquiry – NYTimes.com
Could this poet have been murdered? Stay tuned.
*****
How Raymond Davis Helped Turn Pakistan Against the United States – NYTimes.com
Oh my. People seem to think they live in a bad movie.
Only in reality, people actually get killed. Long sad story about more American incompetence.
*****
American Conservative Union Fighting Spending Cuts – NYTimes.com
That’s right. The ACU thinks we sh9uld NOT cut military and infrastructure.
See the Maddow book above.
*****
Oh dear. I’m sorry Edison is behaving badly. You think he was upset about something? I love you <3 <3 <3
Not sure what’s going on with him. He seems out of sorts but then I don’t really want to pet a grumpy cat that much so maybe it sort of feeds on itself. But life goes on. No biggie.