"I don't hate people, I just don't like being around them." Mickey Rourke as Charles Bukowski in the film Barfly

Too nice of a day to stay inside and blog. But I have one comment. Already the news coverage (AP wire) is claiming that Iraqi troops are giving up and going home. Yesterday the news claimed that many of the troops that were seen by reporters (which reporters were not indicated and I believe I was watching NBC) looked starved and not like the "regular Republican Guard." I am beginning to think that Gulf War II is going to be about as serious as Gulf War I. We do have some fatalities, but still three days into a war and the opposition is already going home? Not that I'm complaining. If the war ends tomorrow, I will be out on my front step with champagne and kisses for the soldiers who want them. Ok maybe not ALL the soldiers that want them, but then again I was proposed to three times this week and I don't want to rush into anything. I'm just saying at the beginning of the week this looked like it had the potential to be the next WW III and be the very thing to finally take the US off its throne reigning "superpower." ( I have long considered that the US is now at the same place the Roman Empire was in before the Vandals began to attack.)-I am reminded of a line from the film Catch-22 . An Italian old man and Yossarian are talking about which is the best country. Yossarian, being an American soldier, obviously supports the US as the most powerful country. The old man points out that Rome was an Empire once, but it is now gone. Italy maybe seen as the "weaker" country, but it survives. Other countries come in and dominate, but eventually the other regimes fall and italy remains. It is an interesting point. Very much like the point one of my theater history teachers made about machiavellian villians. The only way to survive in a Jacobean tragedy, as she pointed out, is simply not to be noticed. Once you are of note, you are not safe. I mean when was the last time luxembourg was threatened? (who would even bother?)

maybe I should hide under the bed