Whimsy Speaks Again

By some weird coinky-dinky, I mentioned the famous Black Dahlia case and it turns out they're making it into a movie.

I am occasionally struck now-a-days by the degree of outrageous partisan shit-slinging I see in mainstream conservative cartoons.

If, as the current administration says "The security of the civilized world depends on victory in the war on terror, and that depends on victory in Iraq", and if our foes are "successors to Fascists, to Nazis, to Communists", then Fred Kaplan asks reasonably "why [the President] hasn't reactivated the draft, printed war bonds, doubled the military budget, and strenuously rallied allies to the cause?".  Or for that matter, carpet-bombed Tehran like the Brits did Dresden?

I missed this obvious answer to Newt Gingrich's inane statement, which I quoted yesterday:  If all it takes is for Iran (or pick your favorite Islamofascist state) to be a threat is to have a nuke shipped from North Korea, why bother to bomb their sites . . . they'd just order another one when we were done.

The one thing that Rove and Company didn't think of is the game-theoretic results of their success in creating a monolithic beast of the Republican party.  There was a time when I, and lots of other independents and even slightly left-of-center types, would occasionally vote for a Republican candidate on the merits.  I wouldn't vote for Mother Theresa now if she were a Republican, and I don't think I'm alone.  There's too much chance that she will drink the Kool-Aid and vote with the rest of the GOP robots to sell off all the National Parks, invade Venezuela, or eliminate all sales taxes on Bentleys.  I was listening to Colorado gubernatorial candidates Bob Beauprez and Bill Ritter, and came away thinking that Republican Beauprez seemed to have a lot more on the ball.  Don't matter, though, I wouldn't vote for a Republican this year if they paid me.  Come to think of it, Rove may have that in his plans, too.

Reb says her "name is in lights" in the current APR.  I'm still looking.

If could be born again as only one writer, it would not be Hemingway, Proust, Dostoevsky, or Pynchon.  It would John le Carré.

Not having a blogroll, I forget to go google and look up people whom I love reading.  Case in point:  Kasey in his usual masterful piece on SoQ vs. post avant ("The oxymoronic collocation of post and avant tends to support the second of these options, though to my knowledge this aspect hasn't been developed at any great length") and his recent interview in which most of his responses were "I don't like this question".

I also visited Eduardo.  The absolutely most hilarious line is dubbing GC Waldrep as the new Virgil Suarez.

One of the countless things that Junie and I share is an admiration for Oni Buchanan, whom we heard read at the Chicago AWP between Timothy Liu and Mary Jo Bang.

I remember picking up BC's The Art of Drowning almost 10 years ago and thinking "this is deceptively good work".  Now, of course, Collins is the anti-Christ and co-editor of the next BAP.  Seth has a take and by some anachronistic magic, Jim has a preview.

OK, looks like my take on APR happens tomorrow.  You all have a GREAT extended weekend.