Back from Vacation; not quite ready for politics

The wandering weasel has returned from his two weeks in the land of the long grey cloud. It was rather splendid to be back in England; madly partisan olympic coverage (more on the phenomenon of Amir Khan later), good old fashioned soccer star sex scandals ("the PVC clad grandmother was known to the other prostitutes as 'Auld Slapper'" and so on), dismal weather, lovely relatives and friends, and far too many cars.

I shall return to politics, diplomacy, and more weighty matters worthy of satire and pillory later, but I'm not quite ready to let go of my vacation mind set and my fond memories of my hols in Blighty. Thankfully, my good chum Al has finally sent me the link to the US supporters club for my beloved Norwich City FC. Al writes an enjoyable column for the site, I urge all with even a passing interest in either soccer or the bizarre antics of ex-pats to check it out. Too bad about the Yankees' logo on the ball though; that has to be sorted out before the site alienates 99% of humanity.

A Brief Hiatus

Hello All

Just a quick note to say that the Wisdom Weasel is off on vacation until September 1: mark you calendars...

History Friday: What A Melange of Blancmange!

The "History Friday®" featurette of this blog was originally intended to be a lighthearted coda to a week's worth of dire and heavy news; akin to the local news anchor's closing story about the neo-nazi who got struck by lightning while attempting a straight arm salute, that kind of thing.

Looking back through the Wisdom Weasel archives however, I see that there has been a subtle shift of emphasis, from drunk Nixon to Gulf War 1. Not much comedy value in heavy trips, man. So in order to make amends, and despite the fact that construction of the Berlin wall began today in 1961, here is a round up of some of today's lighter fare. Enjoy.

For all your wacky papist idolators out there, today is a bumper day of saints, ranging from Concordia (the patron saint of nursing mothers) to Mark of Aviano, inventor of the cappuccino. Which ever saint you choose as your parting gift today folks, warm milk is going to be involved somewhere.

Happy birthdays to the following goofy cats:
Cuban dictator and retro-commie Fidel Castro: 77
Fake Jamaican psychic and phone scam artist Miss Cleo: 42
Portly auteur Alfred Hitchcock: Dead (alright, would have been 105)
and finally:
Former Partridge Family star and Betty Ford Clinic habitue Danny Bonaduce: 45

A smattering of dead birthdays besides Hitchcock:
The true inventor of television, despite what they teach in the USA, John Logie Baird
William Caxton of printing and much later English home brew kit fame.
Engineer and inventor Felix Wankel, if only for his last name.

But as for this day's crowning moment in the march of time, it has to be:
August 13, 1902: England beat Australia by one wicket at The Oval

Oh alright. It has to be the birth of skyjacking

And because we are not being serious, not Goering's declaration of Adler Tag and the subsequent fiercest fighting of the Battle of Britain. Or not.

Shifty Boat Veterans for Handouts?

This well researched and sourced article, albeit from an avowedly liberal blog, sheds interesting light on the "patriotic motivation" of the so-called "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth", an anti-Kerry group who have caused outrage by attacking the horse faced Senator from MA over his war record and decorations:

Quid pro quo: How Bush pays Swift Boat Veterans for Truth and others

Sleaze exists on both sides, to be sure, but hopefully Kerry and his surrogates stay above the fray on this one. Let John McCain and other outraged Republicans do the fighting for you, Senator Kerry.

Why Unchecked Poverty Cripples A Nation

Aside from all the other quibbles I may have with the present administration, I don't want to lose sight of why I opposed President Bush's election from the very begining, pre-9/11, pre-2000, pre- New Hampshire vs. McCain, right back to the day he announced his run:

New research from the Economic Policy Institute shows seven European countries have surpassed U.S. productivity levels with fewer working hours and lower poverty rates.

The desire of the lassiez-faire (and invariably super-wealthy) conservative leadership to return to the supposed Horatio Alger spawning economic climate of the 1880s and 90s shows how out of touch with the real pain and angst poverty causes. Besides, what was so great about endemic TB, tetanus, polio, and rickets? Do we want to return to a time of factory lock-in fires and the fight to unionize? Mind you, at least then there where factories in the US and people cared enough to try and join a union, so perhaps...

Being poor is not invariably a stiumulus that will help you vault to the top of your own fortune 500 company. The avenues of entrepeneurship the conservatives advocate you take have been progressively shut down by the mega-corps they chair or hold stock in. Hunger will as much dull the mind as sharpen the wits. And as our European friends show us, it doesn't have to be this way. Bombed flat 60 years ago; looted by Nazis; menaced by the shadow of Soviet dictatorship; at each others throats for most of their existence; now showing the way to an enlightened economic future, not harkening for a return to the mythical "good old days" of inequity, disease, and fear.

History Friday: August 6th 1961: Russian cosmonaut spends day in space

Today of course marks the 59th anniversary of the dropping of the first atomic bomb and the killing of 140,000 of Hiroshima's 350,000 residents with one weapon. A reminder then that the United States is the only country to ever deploy a weapon of mass destruction against a civillian target; chemical agents and biological weapons, while evil, are not mass-destructive but rather are weapons of mass psychological destruction (few casualtiesas a % of population, widespread panic.)

But I'm not going to talk about the horrors of humanity on this sunny day, but rather the hope that comes from George Mallory's "Because it's there" mentality. Why climb Everest? Why play sport? Why go to space?:
August 6, 1961: Russian cosmonaut spends day in space

As a boy I was the proud owner of a poster showing in pictures the milestones of space exploration from both sides of the Iron Curtain (it came free in a box of Weetabix cereal; those well known pinko fellow traveler wheat rusks), a bar of astronaut ice cream, and a book of schematics for the space shuttle. None of it did any good in regards to my grasp of mathematics or physics, but I miss those glory days of Soyuz and Spacelab, of Viking and Mir, of tethered space walks and the Saturn V.

Iyad Allawi: Prime Minister of Iraq, or just de facto Mayor of Baghdad?

Iraqi Interim Government - An Interim Progress Assessment
By: Dr. Nimrod Raphaeli

This is an interesting (if long and academic) examination of the first thirty days of Iraq's return to limited sovereignty from MEMRI, an information clearing house that provides translations of Arab and Hebrew news articles and speeches (although it does tend towards the more inflamatory and sensational pieces).

US terror plot intelligence 'old'

The risks in this world are manyfold and not to be understated or underestimated. However, the damage that arises from panic and over-reaction is just as corrosive as terrorist violence. So be vigilant but don't go down the steps in the bunker just yet:

BBC NEWS | Americas | US terror plot intelligence 'old'

US terror plot intelligence 'old'

Security has been stepped up in New York and other cities
The US administration admits that new warnings of attacks on American cities were based on information gathered by al-Qaeda up to four years ago.

Security was tightened around US financial institutions earlier this week after raids in Pakistan recovered documents reportedly naming them.

Homeland security adviser Frances Townsend said some of the information recovered was collected in 2000/2001.

But she added: "It appears that some of it may have been updated as recently as January of this year."

And she denied that the alert was prompted by political considerations in the run-up to November's presidential poll.