a poem by Orwell

When I was young and had no sense
In far-off Mandalay
I lost my heart to a Burmese girl
As lovely as the day.

Her skin was gold, her hair was jet,
Her teeth were ivory;
I said, "for twenty silver pieces,
Maiden, sleep with me".

She looked at me, so pure, so sad,
The loveliest thing alive,
And in her lisping, virgin voice,
Stood out for twenty-five.
--George Orwell

Not Waving but Drowning

Not Waving But Drowning

Nobody heard him, the dead man,
But still he lay moaning:
I was much further out than you thought
And not waving but drowning.

Poor chap, he always loved larking
And now he's dead
It must have been too cold for him his heart gave way,
They said.

Oh, no no no, it was too cold always
(Still the dead one lay moaning)
I was much too far out all my life
And not waving but drowning.

Stevie Smith

lovely

Indeed. Even a rabid lefty like me can see what value there is to be found in a study of the "great religions." Lovely for example how the Christian right of the US never lags in it's support of the Judaic community and it's continuing dialogue with the Muslim popoulations of the middle east. Islam too had it's uniquely aviotic contribution to the grand discussion, and on US soil as well. Profoundly inspiring stuff, all of this, and to recall that it all grew out of the rather common, garden variety really, schizophrenic experience of hearing voices. Awesome. Certainly more study is required. This group can discuss with that group what they think their schizophrenics thought they heard, or what interpretation might have developed over the millenia with regard to the voices they thought their schizophrenics heard and after another thousand years of discussing the essentiallly psychotic concept of "GOD TALKING" we will perhaps agree to nothing but that it was all rather an embarrassing episode really, so many people arguing and fighting and creating artificial divisions between each other in order that arms manufacturers and security companies could profit.

in control now

You cannot impose a democracy on a people who are not ready for it. The right wing wackos will point to the numbers that voted in the election and the left wing wackos will counter that the result of the election doesn't appear to be a very stable democracy does it? The Shiites are in control now and while they might not all not hate all the Sunnis they don't all not hate all of them enough to share power or the revenues from oil sales with any of them. This will not change. Sunnis made a mistake when they were deposed a few years back and did not participate in the new government. The Shiites will milk this mistake for as long as possible. Iraqs Sunni neighbours will continue to support the Sunnis inside Iraq in the hope that they too can get a share of the oil revenues and perhaps 79 heavenly virgins. Who can blame them? People will sell a lot of guns. Buildings, roads and bridges will be blown up and require rebuilding. The US will or will not spend another three billion dollars a week on one last push. It makes no difference. After bush pushes his last the people of the region will continue fighting. This will very likely come to involve Iraqs neighbours in a more serious fashion and the violence will escalate as per "the secret Republican agenda". This is a battle of civilizations and will continue for a long time as the Republicans sometimes tell us with a wry smile. Within a few years all the Sunnis in Iraq will be dead and /or the idea of instituting a democracy will be abandoned and Exxon and BP will install a dictatorial system of government. This will not be the end because in reality there are no beginings and no endings. There is just a really long section in between.