Chishang, Taiwan: Taiwanese pianist Chen Kuan-yu performs a concert in the middle of a rice paddy field
Photograph: Reuters

A plot of crosses to mark the losses of those men and women who have died in Afghanistan [Guardian]

…a posy, a poem over the horror.  Well… at least the poppy is timely.

As for the rest, the wretched week past.. tossing the dots in the air, wondering if they fall in a pattern… I’d say we are dotless. Our dots are soap bubbles.

One thing I do hear rising – bubble like! – from the after-event of all the events, amid the CYA-ing, the bitching, the moaning, is Democratic calls for a draft.

The posturing to come is horrific.

*****

Honorable mention…

SMBIVA has up two posts on the ditch we are in.  Very smart too.

It’s a no-win situation for meliorists. If they align with them, they’re going to be suckered into a corporate “worse the better” strategy every time. It’s amoral collegiality, and it works. The only electoral beneficiary is the Republican Party. The rest of the victory, needless to say, stays with their sponsors.

And one most deliciously lambasts Orange Boy.. and his “shooting up” posts.

Vote! For your drug of choice!

Along the way, in comments at SMBIVA, someone posts in full Ishmael Reed’s June 2008 post on The Big Let Down.  A nice re-read.  Especially as we are wallowing in the so-very-predictable ”BLD”.

Architectural renderings of recent upgrades to Ft Hood.

So… 11 dead plus the shooter dead, makes 12.  More than 30 wounded.  Some reports say the main shooter (2 “suspects” in custody) used two handguns.

Major Malik Nadal Hasan. Some reports say he is a recent convert to Islam.  Kay Bailey H tells us that he was soon to deploy to Iraq.

Gonna be a long story.

Buckle up.

****

Soon we will be treated to a speech.  No doubt.

One thing, Ob won’t be running suddenly to the right in a panic, he headed that way from the git go. 

The Dartz Prombron Monaco Red Diamond Edition armoured car sells for one million euros. It has gold plated bulletproof windows, pure tungsten exhausts, speed gauges encrusted with diamonds – and seats made from whale penis leather
Picture: BARCROFT MEDIA

hmm It occurred to me though that Maria and Arnold might want one so I thought I’d google up a fast article on the item… made by a Russian firm, Russo-Baltique..  (proceed to fret, we are being outdone in the gargantuan division – I say, thanks be to someone’s god!)

If four-wheel-drives weren’t politically incorrect enough, a Russian car maker is offering one with whale penis leather trim. By RICHARD BLACKBURN.

A Russian armoured-car builder is boasting that its latest vehicle has seats covered with “whale-penis leather”.

The €1 million ($1.6 million) Dartz Prombron Monaco Red Diamond Edition armoured car has been developed by the same company, RussoBaltique, that built armoured vehicles for Tsar Nicholas, Vladimir Lenin and Leon Trotsky.

On its official website, the company says the whale-penis leather is the same as that used by Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis on the yacht Christina O.

Onassis is rumoured to have had some of the barstools on the yacht, the world’s most expensive at the time, covered in the controversial leather.  . . . . .

…it all seems so long ago, but we should be relieved there is continuum! Lest the firmament tear!

For those wondering just how may whales may need to be harvested to outfit the special edition, the answer is not many. The penis of the Blue Whale, for example, can grow up to 2.4 metres.

Maybe they should just ship a whole one, along with the … car.  Tank.  Whatever it is.

A San Francisco Day of the Dead installation from November 2, 2008. [link to site]

****

I also found this charming guide to making your own altar to the departed:

Following are some objects to consider when creating a Day of the Dead Altar. Those marked with an asterisk (*) are central to a traditional Mexican Day of the Dead altar.

* Portrait of the Virgin Guadalupe, Patron Saint of Mexico

* Flowers:

o the cempasuchil flower or orange marigold, which is considered the traditional Aztec flower of the Toltec goddess, Xochiquetazl, the guardian of the graves.*
o Trail of Cempasuchil flowers to lead the dead to the home and altar
o baby’s breath
o wild purple orchids
o coxcombs
o white amaryllis

* Traditionally orange has been the color of the dead along with purple, white, gold, black, and pink, as seen in the other important flowers
* Copal in an incense burner. Copal is a tree resin, sweetened by mixing it with sage and grass. If copal is not available, use any incense.*
* Water, in case the spirits are thirsty from their long journey.*
* Photographs of loved ones.*
* Food. Some Mexican food such as tamales, mole, beans, tacos, tortillas, and salsa as well as special U.S. foods preferred by the departed. Fruits and squashes, pumpkins, etc. can be added as well.* You can also use our recipes for the pan de muerto [see below!], which is very traditional.
* Soft drinks such as Coca-Cola, Orange Crush, etc.; you can also purchase Jarritos, a Mexican soda, at your local Latino store.
* Toys and candy for children.
* Money to remind us that even if we need money we must also be generous with it.
* Other religious symbols such as crosses and icons of saints.
* Candles of all sizes.

* The votive candles found in many Mexican stores which have Catholic saints on them may be appropriate and lend an authentic touch.

Other altar traditions from pre-Columbian times are:

* A frog, which generally represents fertility and also represents the twilight of each day.
* A feather of a rooster to remind us of dawn.
* A mirror to remember the duality of life and death.
* Calaveras, or skulls.* In pre-Columbian times the skulls were symbols of death and sacrifice. They are now satirical and comic.

By using four levels for the altar and the objects listed below you can incorporate some important Aztec symbolism:

* 4 seasons
* 4 directions of the earth
* 4 stages of life (corn in its four stages representing birth, childhood, adult life, and death)
* 4 elements (wind-flute, fire-candles, water-shell, and earth-seeds)

… and a recipe for Pan de Muerto, a Mexican sweet bread for the altar. (If only I could boil water,   I’d give it a try…)

…. AND a true, from scratch, fruit and fresh sugar cane punch:

Ingredients

• 12 quarts water
• 10 ounces tejocotes (or peaches)
• 9 ounces prunes
• 5 ounces pecans
• 4 pieces sugarcane
• 6 oranges
• 10 guavas
• 3 sticks cinnamon
• 2 lb. sugar
• 1 quart sugarcane spirit, brandy or rum (traditional, but may be omitted)

Instructions

1. Cut the sugar cane into strips, wash the fruit thoroughly and cut the guavas into pieces. Boil in the water with the sugar cane, tejocotes (apricots or peaches may be substituted), prunes and cinnamon.

When cooked, add the sugar. Remove from heat and add the brandy.

Again, if I could boil water… I’d literally kill for some Mexican sweet bread and a lovely home-cooked liquor – alcoholic or other – made from sugar cane and fresh guava.

Los Angeles Day of the Dead celebrations:

At the Hollywood Forever Cemetary

Dia de los Muertos – November 1, 2008 – Sixth Street – Austin Texas:

Pam Penick photograph

San Diego Zoo Bear [photo from this site]

Obama on Dover fly in.

Asked by a reporter if his visit to Dover Air Force Base would impact his decision on the war in Afghanistan, POTUS replied:

“It was a sobering reminder of the extraordinary sacrifices that our young men and women in uniform are engaging in every single day, not only our troops but their families as well.”

“And obviously,” he said, “the burden that our troops and our families bear in any war time sit is going to bear on how I see these conflicts. And it’s something that I think about each and every day.”

hmm… Better script writers needed.  However, probably plenty good enough for the general population.

Cojimar, Havana: A woman sits under the shade of an umbrella
Photograph: Enrique De La Osa/Reuters

Nothing much today… tho I did read yesterday that the UN is ready to condemn our (Bush’s?  Obama’s?  JFK’s? Too many of “us”?)  blockade, sanctions, whatever the word, against Cuba… We stand quite alone in this.

Everything for us, no matter who is elevated to top dog, is Fail Safe, 7 Days in May, Dr Strangelove, Manchurian Candidate…. on and on it goes.

It never ends.

Rawalpindi, Pakistan: A woman holds a baby and firewood as she walks in a slum Photograph: Nicolas Asfouri/AFP/Getty Images

This certainly sounds like what is happening… via Counterpunch:

Now Pakistan

By LIAQUAT ALI KHAN

A conspiratorial view of the world is frequently inaccurate, exposing more the paranoia of the view rather than the reality of the world. The sequential destruction of Muslim nations — Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, (and Iran is on the list) — may or may not be a conspiracy hatched in Washington D.C., but it is becoming an international reality.  It is no secret that the United States and Europe, with varying degree of mutual cooperation and some make-believe internal discord, superintend the sequential destruction of Muslim nations. This War of Sequential Destruction (WSD), despite Nobel-Laureate Barack Obama’s denials, refuses to go away.

The WSD is multi-frontal. It crosshairs Al-Qaeda, Taliban, Hezbollah, Hamas, Al-Bashir,  Ahmadinejad, Sunni, Shia, Wahabi, Gaza, Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Iran, Afghanistan, and now Pakistan. Many Western policymakers rarely see Muslim nations, including allies, with any inherent respect.  Vice President Dick Cheney described the Muslim world as “brute and nasty.” Obama advisers, though more guarded in their word choices, see Muslim nations no differently. The idea that Islam is inherently violent, openly expressed during the Bush administration, continues to animate foreign policy. The White House holds a new President but Congressional leadership and Washington policymakers are more or less the same. Anti-Islamic policies of warfare and destabilization are intact.  . . . .

A bit more… and I must say these two graphs are a depressing read, not that it is anything new in the long, drawn out colonial war games:

After razing Iraq and Afghanistan, the WSD has now turned to ravage an ally, Muslim Pakistan. Pakistan is a nation that the British, in 1947, carved out of India and that India, in 1971, broke into two, liberating Bangladesh from the murderous clutch of the Pakistani military. Over the past sixty-two years, Pakistan’s military and civilian rulers, one after the other, and without exception, have turned to America for military training, weapons, money, and strategic instructions. Eager to send their sons and daughters to Western cities for education and employment, Pakistani politicians, generals, and bureaucrats all look for ways, and create the ways, to oblige Western capitals, particularly Washington D.C. Partly for personal interests and partly out of faulty readings of geopolitical situations, Pakistani rulers, like most rulers in Muslim nations, frequently compromise national sovereignty and public welfare.

The Pakistani orientation for self-destruction serves American interests. Facing a failing campaign in Afghanistan, Obama advisers decided to expand the war into Waziristan and other parts of Pakistan. The United States desperately solicited the Pakistani military to join the Afghan war. Pakistani rulers, this time a democratically elected government, listened to the American call. They first permitted the CIA to fly drones armed with missiles, which killed a few militants but hundreds of civilians in the tribal areas. The United States later urged Pakistan to invade Swat to kill militants. Pakistan did. Millions of civilians were made homeless. . . . . .

And this:

Under coercion, Pakistan has started a civil war that will consume its economy, national security, and tear apart its social fabric. The civil war will spill into many parts of Pakistan. It already has arrived in some parts of Punjab. Militants are unlikely to confine this war to sparsely-populated Waziristan. They are taking the war to the most populated cities, including Peshawar, Rawalpindi, and Lahore. Karachi, which appears to be quiet, is sitting on a tinderbox. Karachi can erupt any minute as its ethnic rivalries are primed for a civil war. It is sheer foolery and a grave analytical mistake to presume that the Pakistani military offensive will provoke no one but only a few misguided militants in the North. . . . . .