(no subject)

So this was kind of the lost weekend for me. Got lots done Friday night while watching SG-1 and BSG, hey if you have to do homework there are worse ways to get it done. Went to bed much too late and got precious little sleep thanks to Pye. So, I was already running on empty last week thanks to too much stuff and too little downtime, and my body was right on the edge by the time we got to rehearsals. Two hours of hard dancing later and I was so done. I made it home after a little grocery shopping and then took a shower and fell over.

I ended up missing out on the troupe party that evening because I simply could not function. Passed out around 5 pm, woke up long enough to feed the cats and change into pajamas, then tumbled back into bed. I got up around 8:30 the next morning. The moral of the story is, sleep dep can only be maintained for just so long, eventually you've got to pay it back, with interest.

Sunday's gaming was good and Wu Ya got to bust open a can of kickass on at least one mook, which was delightful. Also got a lot of sewing done. Then ran around doing errands, zoomed home and did laundry, then futzed around online for a bit. Watched the wretched made for SciFi movie "Shark Attack 3: Megalodon" because my beloved John Barrowman was the star, and I cannot resist the man's wiles. Still, the less said about it the better.

Busy week ahead, yeah I know, what else is new?

Digby does it again

via Hullabaloo:

He knows very well that the admnistration can't adopt a winning strategy. They have burned their bridges with the international community, they don't believe in diplomacy, they are willing to shitcan the fundamental democratic principles of an Iraqi constitution to get a temporary bump in the public opinion polls. If they truly wanted to change course they would not have installed a madman at the UN whose first order of business is to start tearing up international treaties. They are continuing to fight their war for US hegemony on the world stage, Republican hegemony in American politics and Executive hegemony within the government. The "war on terrorism" and Iraq are merely staging areas.

[...]

On what planet did liberals think that the modern Republican party gave a flying fuck about what they thought about anything? It certainly wasn't planet earth circa 2003. Bush had just recaptured the Senate and was striding around the country, codpiece bursting, proclaiming to the entire world that he didn't care what they thought. Did liberal intellectuals actually believe some fantasy that Bush could blow off Europe and ultimately the entire security council but listen to them? My God.

Why are people so unwilling to admit what they are seeing before their eyes, even today? The Republican party is corrupt, incompetent and drunk with power. And no matter what their intentions, they are incapable of setting things right. We have seen this over and over again.

Yet still I see a flurry of earnest discussion about how we should deal with Iraq and what plans should be implemented --- as if they have real world implications. They do not. As I wrote earlier, I think there is political value in doing this as it pertains to positioning for the next election. But I have no illusions, and never have, that anyone in the Bush administration gives a damn what we think or will follow any policy advice from liberals, hawks or otherwise. They do not operate that way.

I don't believe in purges or demands for disavowels; they have a faint whiff of Stalinism that rubs me the wrong way. Nobody has to apologise to me for what they believed about the war. But, considering that their credibility is more than a little bit tattered, it would probably be a good idea if the liberal intellectuals who backed the war finally recognized that everything they say and do is being used for political fodder and adjust their thinking and writing accordingly. They are not going to affect Bush administration policy. There is still a chance they could affect politics, however, if they will just stop pretending that the Republicans are operating on a logical basis in which they can find some common ground.

I think this is where we separate the men from the boys and the women from the girls. If, after all you've seen these last five years you still believe that the Bush administration can be given the benefit of the doubt, that they will do the right thing, change course, follow sage advice, reevaluate their strategy, bow to the facts on the ground --- then you have the same disease the Bush administration has. As Ben Franklin said, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.