So Jenna and Barbara Are Enlisting When?

Oh boy. El Presidente met with families of those slain on 9/11, in Afghanistan, and Iraq. Am I so cynical to believe this has something to do with disaster in his foreign and domestic policies and his correspondingly plunging ratings (except for the true wackos who could be plunged in boiling oil and claim it refreshing if Dick Cheney told them it was a hot tub)? You bet your sweet ass I am. From way up north in Maine:

One anti-war widow said she used the opportunity to voice her objections to Bush's policies.

"I said it's time to stop the bleeding," said Hildi Halley, whose husband, Army National Guard Capt. Patrick Damon, died June 15 in Afghanistan. "It's time to swallow our pride and find a solution."

She said Bush responding by saying "there was no point in us having a philosophical discussion about the pros and cons of the war."

So if discussion of the war is just reduced to hypotheticals, let's suppose Chimpie's two progeny enlist in the Marine Corps and volunteer for Iraq. He shouldn't object to that since it's all just philosophical jerking off. I'm sure those Marines are countering the premises of IEDs on the roadside with agile rhetorical wizardry.

The progress of Chimpie's philosophy:
--My decision to invade was based on sound evidence of WMD.
--My decision to invade was based on flawed intelligence.
--My decision to invade was the right one, even if there weren't any of those things there
--My decision to invade is not to be challenged except by terrorists and their sympathizers
--Don't blame me for the decision to invade. Who could have forseen this shit?
--The decision to invade was just a philosophical exercise. Next issue? Oh yeah, and I'm really sorry your kid/spouse/parent is dead. They died for a great neocon philosophy.
--Can I go for my bike ride now, Karl?

The Future of Advertising

Love those crazy Berliners! Once again, the city has inspired acts of resistance that could spread like a virus, in fact, ought to spread like a virus. My favorite artistic inspiration:

At 5:37 a.m. on April 2, 2002, the Parisian artist Zevs kidnapped a 10-meter (33-feet) model advertising Lavazza coffee from one of Berlin's main squares, Alexanderplatz. To be sure, the ad slogan "Express yourself!" was asking for trouble. Within a few hours, Zevs had cut the lady from the ad and left a note: "Visual Kidnapping -- Pay now." Zevs then issued a written statement demanding a €500,000 ($638,694) ransom. Just to make it clear he wasn't fooling around, he severed one of the model's fingers and mailed it to the company headquarters in Turin. Before the police could catch him, he escaped to Sweden.

From then on, Zevs toured the art galleries of Europe with a documentary film about his "kidnapping" and the kidnapped model itself, rolled up for convenient transportation. Two years ago, he asked visitors of Berlin's New Society for the Visual Arts (Neue Gesellschaft für Bildende Kunst) to take a vote about whether the model should be "executed." Last year, he finally returned her to the Lavazza company, following a sham ransom payment. Zevs is on a mission.

So if you're getting bored with your summer...