“Greeted by cheering residents, opposition fighters captured Afghanistan’s capital, Kabul, in defiance of international pressure to stay out…”

“Israel said its forces would remain in two Palestinian-ruled West Bank areas despite a demand by the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council for a pullout.”

at least the civilians in one city are cheering…

~ happy veteran’s day. the parade in manhattan apparently heads north from 24th street, so there was no reason to be hanging out in washington square park for an hour this morning, unless you wanted to repeatedly insist to the guy with the blue parka and spicy sunflower seeds that you ‘didn’t need anything’.

~ happy birthday to kurt vonnegut, the 4th most popular writer at diaryland [w]!

~ johnny cash has entered the hospital with bronchitis. the angry red planet wishes a quick and full recovery for the man in black!

~ well, of course, the kids outside must be celebrating bastille day. we possibly just heard cheers of ‘libterté! égalité! fraternité!’

~ far be it that the angry red planet chooses to do anything but eschew nationalism, but we do suggest our cousins in the united states celebrate the ‘birthday’ of their nation by keying an suv. or slashing it’s tires. or burning it to the ground.

~ packing our stuff for the upcoming relocation of operations, so not much time has been spent on the magic box(es). in fact, all time not spent weeping over the overwhelming tasks ahead have been spent investigating an archaic means of communication delivered by, of course, gore vidal [w]

~ as hard as we try, reading rasterweb [w] always makes us feel inept…

~ gore vidal always seemed to us to be too much of a tight-ass to be much of a liberal, which is why it is such a delightful surprise to find the wry iconoclasm throughout his american chronicles. however, in his latest novel, the golden age, he surpasses his usual irreverence; he is downright alarmist. i don’t know if he is cutting loose with what he knows is most likely his last novel before death, but he paints a terrifying picture of the post-war (ww2) united states:
a nation that intentionally terrifies its own citizens with the threats of predatory nations seeking to destroy them at any moment – a moment that lasts perpetually – so that the citizens will continue to voluntarily turn over a third of their income to a government-subsidized weapons industry which is, in turn, subsidizing the political class to perpetuate the threat – they appear as communism, terrorism, drugs, or, currently, ‘states of concern’.

from the golden age:
‘those rich boys daydream about vast armies and navies conquering all the seas and lands while we humble folk think of boys that we know – sons even – dying in a process that benefits no one but the international banks and their lawyer-lobbyists…the real political struggle in the united states, since the civil war, has been between the peaceful inhabitants of the nation, with their generally representative congresses, and a small professional elite totally split off from the nation, pursuing wealth through wars that they invent and justify and resonate for others to die in.’

-gore vidal

~ a few images of the final thesis work added to the angry red planet thesis section; find them in the ‘development’ section.

~ we just monopolized the first angry red planet fan.

~ we hope that everyone – even canadians – enjoyed valentine’s day as much as the angry red planet; we spent the first half of the day at the preuss station post office, and second half coughing through another los angeles sunset alone…

~ everyone can stop emailing us about philadelphia now, thanks.

~ ‘i’m sorry i’m not cool enough to make your links page…’ [w]

~ happy valentine’s day!…how to celebrate:

Presidents’ Day is coming up on February 19. In honor of our current
President, please make a donation (however small) to a pro-choice
organization, like Planned Parenthood. Then send a card to Bush saying:
“President Bush, a donation has been made in your name to Planned
Parenthood.”

Here are some pro-choice organizations you can donate to. If there’s a
local chapter, please donate to that chapter. Remember that your
contributions are tax-deductible.

Planned Parenthood [w]
National Abortion Federation [w]
(click “Contributions”)

National Abortion Rights Action League [w]

(click the “Support NARAL” button)

Republicans for Choice [w]
(click the “Join Us” button)

And send your card to President Bush at:

The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500